In The Garden Essays on Nature and Growing
It is a dark grey day here; the wind freezes my extremities as I plant on my carefully loved and tended to “Love- In – A Mist” also known as Nigella Damascena but my five year old loves calling it by its more amusing name. I even have a video of him singing a song he had made up in homage to it. Returning to this morning where the sun was brief and passed rapidly, I walked up and down the swerving stone garden path to the compost, filling my pots and placing a dibber gently in to retrieve
INTERVIEW -EVERYDAY CREATIVITY: FINDING THE RIGHT SPACE TO WRITE
Could you complete the following: I write because… The urge has always been strong. As a child, I would staple pieces of paper together to form a book and fill it with childish scrawls. I couldn’t write yet but I sensed a kind of magic when pen met paper and felt fulfilled in doing so as my mind was always buzzing with stories. Not long after, those pages began to be filled with actual words in the guise of fairy tales. They were usually stories of witches laying curses upon villages; I don’t remember what was being read to
EMBRACING MOLASSES
My mind is buzzing with ideas. It’s not constant but when ideas for writing arrive they bombard my mind, flood me and overwhelm. It’s as though I’ve been buzzing along on a specific frequency and suddenly start feeling a shift, like short wave to long. So I’m going to just go ahead and start writing before the radio/ transmitter I obviously have in my head starts doing strange things and I forget to write at all. There have been posts that I had planned on thumping out on the computer and for whatever reason or the other; my fingers
Reading, Listening, Yearning
Finding energy lately has been pretty hard, a lot of it was spent on worry, looking after children and hoping and dreaming on a new home outside of London. I’ve managed to catch up on some reading, zilch writing but dreaming even if it’s all so fuzzy. I still manage to do it albeit tinted with much frustration and anxiety. It does seem to take me a long time to do anything, it took me over a month to answer a list of questions a fellow writer sent me on motherhood and creativity but I eventually managed it. It
HAPPY BRAVE NEW YEAR
Happy new year! I hope this irregularly mild holiday season was met with family warmth and laughter that has kept your inner fires warm enough to get you through these ice laced mornings and evenings. I don’t write resolutions as mentioned before but I have picked a word to loom over me, it is BRAVE. I endeavour to be braver in everything I pursue, be it hunting for a home and delving deeper into work like a bear nuzzling into a cave but that’s not the right analogy as that doesn’t sound brave but cosy. So maybe what I should
FINDING MY PLACE
I can’t really be called a blogger anymore, I simply don’t blog. Blogging has morphed into an entirely different creature, It can be hard sometimes to differentiate a blog that is trying to sell you something subtly or blatantly. There are many out there , lifestyle blogs are guilty of this the most, that seem to be desperately trying to help you live a different life, somebody else’s life. Even posts about unveiling the rose tint, are tinted by roses. What exactly am I trying to say? Well, quite simply, I suck as a blogger but the writer in me
THE IMPORTANCE OF REWILDING & REVIEW OF 30 DAYS OF REWILDING BY LUCY AITKENREAD’
I’ve returned. Returned from a magical holiday in Sussex where we stayed on a little farm with an orchard, twenty minutes away from two seaside locations and I have to tell you, it has reignited a great wildness in my heart. Every evening after our dinner as the farmers packed up their day’s labour Ayla asked for “orchard” never had red ruby spheres brought such joy to her as she pointed out the cooking apples from the eating ones and crunched on apples she had picked herself. As sheep grazed then scattered from beneath the trees, the sun would slowly
MOTHERHOOD & CREATIVITY SERIES: AN INTERVIEW WITH ARTEMIS RUSSELL
Interview | Artemis Russell Motherhood & Creativity Artemis Russell is the incredible talent behind the popular Junkaholique blog and the other half of Rust jewellery which she runs with her husband. She makes clothes for her daughter; soft toys, house furnishings and more. Here she discusses the fine juggling act of motherhood and work as well as tiredness and creativity. Has your creativity level changed since becoming a mother? Is
AN ORDINARY SUNDAY, AT THE FARM
What a sublime nose dripping, finger numbing, eyes streaming, chilly day. Each sense was opened and each used breath could be traced out of the nostril and mouth in a plume of vapour. The day was filled the mother toddler song, ” please put your bobble hat on, it’s collllllld” and in reply was “no pleaaase” and sometimes she did, sometimes she didn’t. We moved our feet through thick mud with enjoyment, something I never grew out of. In one moment there was rain, the next exhilarating cold then a flash of sunshine. Once our fingers were beyond numb and
LUCY AITKENREAD: MOTHERHOOD, CHILDREN’S RIGHT, YURT LIVING & WRITING
Interview | Lucy AitkenRead She’s an advocator of children’s rights; attachment and gentle parenting, feminist awareness, eco responsibilitscreenall things important in the world. Her blog and message is always full of hope and is unavoidably infectious. Any first time parent with wobbly thoughts should be pointed in the direction of her blog and allow that positivity to seep through. Her blog is one of the most influential, authentic reads I have happened across online and couldn’t go without sharing it with you. Lucy was kind enough to spare me some time to answer a few questions on parenting style, writing