THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS (CRAFTMAKERS)

The Lovely Claire....

This could be the new business card...what do you think?

That was after Wednesday night at the WiRE meeting (Women in Rural Enterprise). So enthousiastic about our ideas! So positive and interested! Made me feel that yes, we could do it! Spent most of Thursday playing with Mr. Vistaprint and came up with the above.

Then I had this email from BayTree Cottage inviting me to have a stand at their open day next Saturday. To sell the teacosies! Imagine, I am so excited, it feels like the bigest gift and may be I'll sell a few and then I'll be so thrilled!

And this week-end was the great Wrest Park Craft Show near where I live and it again, was amazing!

All these artisans I talked to who patiently explained stuff to me, encouraged me, told me to email them if I needed help and generally were the most generous people in the whole world. I have no money so was not buying much. I was spotted as a "Maker" (by the way isn't it a wonderful job to have...what do you do...I am a Maker...sounds just grand doesn't it), anyway that was  a possible rival you would think but no, oh no...the sharing, the offers, the friendship were amazing.

 I want to mention the  lovely Claire Louise who makes amazing felt bags. Here is her website if you are interested www.clairefairall.co.uk. It is not everyday that you can discuss the joys of Bamboo knitting needles with a total stranger and get excited by their excellence! Also, she has an Etsy Shop. In case you don't know, Etsy is the big forum website on which "Makers" sell their stuff. I registered with them months ago but have never managed to get the courage to open my shop. She was so amazingly encouraging and said I must do it, what could she do to help, etc. etc.... so thanks Lovely Claire and I'll take you up on your offer!

This has made me muse (as I am usually doing of a Sunday evening) on what the world would be like if everybody was as generous and friendly as that, how people could share skills and information freely, without feeling threatened, how we could all be "Makers" and make together, weave and spin a better world. I wonder if this happens when you work with your hands.

Working with your hands is so different from other workings. I have learnt over the months not to blame the flour/the yeast for not causing my bread to rise, not to complain to the wool for the shape of a garnment to be all wrong. I have learnt to accept that sometimes...it just does not turn out right. There are no rhymes nor reasons to it, it just does not happen. The bread does not rise, the tomatoes do no ripen or there is too much/not enough water. Whom to blame... there is no one to blame when you are a Maker. You need to be true to yourself and get on.  If something goes wrong you just have to unmake it and start again.

And there will be dragons....

Apple Tree Pruning Musings

TRADING, HECATES AND AUGUST WEATHER with chard, in the wrong place...

his is in the wrong place...I thought I had sorted out this photo thing but I have not...look below. does my head in!

Hecate, Goddess of the crossroads

I met her last night, in a pathworking and learnt about turning the pages of the book of my life and then endlessly looking back at them, just to make sure. Sure of what? Ah the safety of looking behind. Looking behind stops me from going forward. Its garanteed to work. I might be miserable looking backwards, what with all those childhood traumas, endless miseries, etc. but at least I know when and where I am. Imagine me, following the road that She lights, walking ahead with her dogs by my side. Brrr, but what if, what it I just did that. Turned that page in the book of my life and LEFT IT TURNED. No peeking, no lifting a corner of the page just to check. No no no. Walking forward, lit by her torch, there at the crossroad with both my hands on the neck of the beautiful greyhound dogs she gifted me. I am going to have a go at this... it feels so good, peaceful and right.

TALKING ABOUT NEW ROADS....

LOST AS SEA...PRESUMED DROWNED...FORGOT THE BIT ABOUT THE NINE LIVES...

THE BOY!

Its been an interesting and rather embarrassing few days!

I pride myself in being a very realistic sort of person who does like our animals but in moderation and sort of accepts that they are animals and not people and try to not get attached.

Well, Saturday night, Merlin, The Boy Cat, well ok...my boy cat, my very own, beloved (there I've said it and the image of fair but rather detached person is forever shattered) cat did not come home.

Did not come home on Sunday either!

(I should have known I was in danger of emotional meltdown when, the previous week, The Beloved had calmly remarked that it might be a bit too much to tenderly cover the aforementioned cat's ears when there was gun noises on the television)

Anyway, no Merlin and I sobbed, no really, great big fat sobs. In the privacy of the back back garden obviously. I was not going to let myself go in front of The Beloved or anyone else for that matter. But I think the apple and pear trees in the orchard(ette) at the back were quite shocked and the chickens really did not know what to do with me at all.

I however firmly told The Beloved that it was "all for the best", we (ah ah, I) were getting far too attached to the animal and it was the best thing that some fox or other had got him and although (sob, hastily swallowed) we would miss him (she then started crying saying bizarrely that she would miss him licking her toes in the morning), it would be fine and actually set us free (free to do what exactly was not specified, I was too busy going to the back of the garden again to scare the apple trees some more).

We went to Cambridge yesterday for The Beloved Birthday Treat and roundly pretended we had forgotten all about Merlin's absence (although I did have to go to the loo for a bout of sobbing around lunch time but less said about that the better really).

We drove home in tense silence, both ardently praying to the Goddess of the Ways (it later transpired) to bring our boy home and when we opened the door...there he was.

This is were, ladies and gentlemen, I lost my mind all together and , to his great terror and general embarrassment, howled like a banshee and clasped him to my bosom in an unbridled moment of joy. The poor dear was completely horrified and so, probably, was the rest of the neighbourhood (I  could be heard in Biggleswade, 3 miles away).

So there we go...very happy!

LES VACANCES...??? WHAT VACANCES!!!!

Harvest

This is not actually the whole harvest, just one potatoes plant! So great, loads to harvest further.

As to this holiday at home malarkey...well don't try it at home (ah ah ah). Although it was great on Monday, going to London and playing at being tourists (gorgeous Nimrod rooms at the British Museum), since then its all been work work work, what with the harvest having got to go in, the digging in the back, the painting of the summer house (cedar red, gorgeous), the sending of the lavender to Shetlands, I tell you it is not a holiday at all.

Only, of course, we could argue that I am always on holiday. Watch out, I am just about to get all philosophical about this...holidays used to be for holy days and my days are fairly holy. I love my life, its great and I love not having to work, there I have said it. The nasty little voice (probably my dear mother's) that sits on my right shoulder is saying that it is not possible to not work, its not healthy, a woman my age...blah blah blah. Hold on a minute, I've just hit it over the head and its fallen off its perch.

Because, you see, what matters is the harvest and my harvest is so beautiful!

Its Lamas Tide in my calendar and Lamas is the first harvest, the wheat harvest. The other Friday during Gardeners Time, Aliss was saying that in the first year, you need to take all the apples off your new apple tree because you need to let the roots grow before allowing the tree to bear fruits... what a lesson! I was amazed. Think about it a minute... what if I allowed my lovely little dream to grow its roots before I demand to harvest fruits, what about that hey!!

But its so difficult to do whinges the voice which has managed to climb back on my right shoulder, this time I have decided to not biff it over the head but ask it politely to go and get a job herself, a goodly well paid salaried job that involves a lot of time on commuter trains. She loves the idea and has just gone off to peruse the papers... no really, that's what has just happened. You get a job dearie and I'll stay here and do my blog and start my little Etsy shop and enjoy myself, you can tell me all about it when you get back!

Hurrah! So Lamas resolution is to allow the roots to grow and not demand fruits. I will give this one year, Lamas to Lamas and by next year, I may  well have fruits!

Keep you posted! Thanks for listening

Happy Harvest