A Brilliant Summer Solstice to You

Summer Solstice and time once more to do a bit of a personal review.... 
... I've achieved a lot this year... and I feel pretty pleased with the way things are going... of course, there is always room for improvement. It seems to me, that the more encouragement I get, the easier it is to shine brightly. Well, after all, that's what Marigolds do, is it not?

But not only Marigolds... everyone can shine, and everyone has something of value to contribute to the world... It seems tragic not to shine for fear of being cut down by criticism...

So, I would like to see people being kind.... actively encouraging each other to shine - to reach further and glow brighter.... It's not only for ourselves that we need to beam out our brightness, but it is for the world, which can't be the same without every single individual.... 

Every single flower makes a beautiful garden.


Wishing you a splendid Solstice, and I'm looking forward to basking in your brilliant illumination!

The importance of working at play

I feel a big shift in my attitude to work this year, & am joyful...

my workspace - a creative play room for an adult

I used to feel guilty, having so much fun when I was meant to be working! Ha!

Engaged in creative work, I relax, & enjoy life... I'm in the child-like frame of mind required to connect with the creative process ... my ideas can take flight, & I am free, feeling light & strong...

                one small room contains my tools for creating happiness

As a child, almost everything I did was a creative act... constructing worlds in the sand pit, creating creatures in plasticine, drawing, painting, making with glue & scissors... even arranging peas on my plate, or soap bubbles in the bath...


You can read my first guest blog post here: 
http://annefallas.blogspot.fr/ - 
   It's about women & transformation, & the invitation to write this piece really encouraged me to take the required playful element of my work very seriously.

It is part of the process of acceptance... of who I am, what I am, & how I fit into the pattern of nature.... just as I am... 
..... part of growing up....

Where is the spirit within art from?

Working with clay lately, has me wondering where ideas really come from. Is it from the collective unconscious, or my own unconscious mind, or am I simply opening the door of my mind, & letting in entities that want to manifest in this material world, and use art as their entry point.

I wonder about the latter, because we so easily form a personal relationship with famous subjects of great art, like Mona Lisa or Michelangelo's David, who are from a different time & place, yet we can still relate to them as individuals. It is the daemon of each art work with which we connect, not just the design. By that, I mean the spirit that inhabits the work - much like the spirit of place of any particular location... we "know" it intuitively.

My own process with sculpture, is a completely intuitive affair. It seems any preconceived idea I may begin with, is quickly thwarted, as the clay morphs & changes, the end result often a complete surprise to me, the maker. Even the end of a piece can come as suddenly as the jolt that wakes a person sleeping on a bus... Without warning, a piece is complete, & the process over.

Completely unpredictable, I wonder just how much of me is actually in my work... and yet, I know that nobody else would produce anything the same as I, & that I can not produce any work the same as that of another artist...

I like to think this is a great mystery, and that it can never be explained, and wonder how many other people find this is their experience too.

Bouquet Garni Vegetable Garden

In my unruly spring vegetable garden, space for new plants is scarce.The current residents are still busy self-seeding, and look beautiful. This happens every year, and every year, I vow to aim for nice neat beds and thinner plantings for higher yields, but it never happens, because I prefer a lovely tangle of spilling flowers and lush greenery....

More importantly, the plants, left to their own devices, companion each other without my interference. Where once was juicy borage, is now a lush mop of silky parsley, growing in borage's improved soil, and around strawberries, sweetly-scented chamomile offers filtered cover, hiding succulent, soft fruit from predatory birds... Nasturtiums romp everywhere there is space, and are a decoy for caterpillars on soft, green lettuce and brocolli... Rabbits haven't discovered the tender seedlings hidden within what must feel like a jungle to the furry gourmets... There are so many examples of nature's intelligence here...

So, for now, I am willing to abdicate responsibility, and harvest less produce... I feel quite satisfied... and I suspect so do the ladybirds and butterflies...

As You Like It South-East Asian Inspired Soup with Chilli

MISS MARIGOLD'S HOT CHILLI SOUP "RECIPE" (feeds 4-6, depending on how hungry!)

Welcome to Miss M's Cookery Class!
I love making soup, & it's really easy if you just follow a few basics... it's slow food, soul food for the whole person, not just the body... when you cook soup, take time... stir in good intentions... it really makes a difference...if you make extra,  you can freeze it for when you're cold & want something quickly... but cook it slowly... cook it lovingly... er... better read this before you begin as well!

There's no official "recipe" for this soup... so, as with almost all my cooking, it's "as you like it" - quantities will be whatever is in the store cupboard or garden, & it's never the same, but always sustaining.

I do need a few basic INGREDIENTS though:

onion, garlic, fresh ginger, chillies, & when I can purchase it, fresh turmeric, limes or lemons (can add a little of the zest as well - especially if supplies are short!) ...
carrots, chopped coriander (fresh, preferably with the roots attached), red capsicum... I like finely chopped fennel for sweetness & aroma...

*fish sauce (vegetarians substitute a little soy), soy sauce, tinned low fat coconut milk (ok, dessicated if you must!), sweet chilli sauce, good quality powdered vegie stock, good quality vegetable oil... sesame oil if you have it...water...salt - as pure & clean as you can get it - cheap supermarket salt leaves a nasty taste on the back of your tongue...

VEGETABLES: It's an "anything you've got" meal, so try to balance the flavours & textures to please your palate : create!
mushrooms, silverbeet (chard), baby spinach, baby bok choi, peas, snow peas (mangetout) green beans, shredded cabbage, mung bean (or any) sprouts, watercress, finely shredded kale
I have been known to add crushed tomatoes, extra fennel, zucchini (courgettes), broccoli, & I can't remember what else.

RICE NOODLES OR COOKED LONG GRAIN RICE can be added for "bulk" in cold weather. In fact, I'd even chuck in some cooked, diced potato, but remember to balance the flavours - starchy things seem to dull the piquancy...


USE : HEAVY BASED POT WITH A LID, (I also need a trivet on the stove, as I sometimes burn the bottom!) & NICE LONG HANDLED SPOON TO STIR (so you don't burn yourself!) and PLEASE make sure your KNIVES are SHARP so you don't cut yourself as easily, & so you actually slice through the vegetables, rather than bruising them... nicely cut vegies actually taste better - it's worth the trouble...

 METHOD:

Collect your ingredients... 

Chop 1 onion, & separately,
finely chop together 2 or 3 cloves garlic, peeled fresh ginger, about the size of your thumb or less, 2 long, sweet de-seeded chillies, or 2 fiery birdseye chillis, - whatever you think (NOTE BELOW)
peeled fresh turmeric 3/4 size of thumb & a few cleaned coriander roots, if you have them - impossible to say how many - taste varies so much, so at least 6, & no more than 10, & powdered tastes different, but is acceptable)... a MORTAR & PESTLE are satisfying, & bash the tough coriander root well, but I prefer a sharp knife...hmmm...

So, as with any soup, slowly sweat your onion in a tablespoon (or so) of oil with lid on pot, 10 mins at least (do NOT burn it - this is crucial to the success of good soup!), to release its delicate sweetness, and then add the above ingredients, along with a dash of sesame oil, & a little citrus zest if liked, then cook very, very gently, until all is soft and the aromas combine... your kitchen will smell divine!

Add hard vegies, like a couple of carrots & a sliced capsicum & some fennel - sweat them gently, until they release some juices, then sweat some mushrooms if you like, for a bit of depth... then water to cover about 3/4 of vegetables, & some of the citrus juice, turn up the heat to simmer, & then begin to add the sauces & stock - PLAY with this part... adding just a dash of each at a time, & tasting in between until you're happy with it - fish sauce stinks, & overpowers the dish very easily - BE CONSERVATIVE!... add vegie stock before any salt - is already salty, & recommended stock/water ratio is on the packet! Add more water to cover well... simmer... taste... add coconut....taste... adjust sauces & seasoning...taste...there should be a balance of sweet & sour flavours... keep topping up the water if it evaporates.. (boiling from kettle is best) 
Maximum 10 minutes before serving, add freshly chopped coriander, keeping some aside for garnish... herbs loose their robust essential oils if overcooked... and if you're using rice noodles or cooked rice, (or potato) this is a good time to add them, to stop them going gluggy (yuk!)... also, slivers of fennel, or bean sprouts or anything very tender should go in at the last minute, to keep them firm & fresh tasting....a final taste... adjust seasoning.

Serve in bowls, garnish with more chopped coriander (or whole leaves if you like) & finely sliced red chilli, with  a bowl of sliced chilli on the side, & slices of lemon or lime, soy sauce, salt & extra sweet chilli. I'm pretty sure you already have your favourites!

... golden & steaming, smelling clean & fresh, tasty & nourishing... worth using fresh ingredients, organic if possible, & preferably from garden to plate!

BUON APPETITO!


*notes on chillies - they vary in heat! If you're unsure as to how hot they are, carefully try nibbling a bit without the seeds... if it's mild, use it whole, but if hot, de-seed - you can always add more as a condiment when your soup is cooked & WASH the juice off your hands, board & knife!!!

Beltane Blessings

.....we're wishing you....

   ....sunshine and flowers.... 
    
    ....and...










Big Beautiful Bright Beltane Blessings!

Erasers, perfectionism, & happy accidents

When I was a kid, my art teacher banned erasers, so I learned to draw without them. I wonder now, if she had a deeper reason for teaching us to make "mistakes" into "happy accidents".
 She was a very good teacher... 

Now I am adult, if I need an eraser, it's a warning sign that I'm compromising my integrity, by not expressing myself freely. I'm pernickety & pedantic and secretly, I feel cheated out of my own creative experience. My effort to resolve the work unappreciated, I feel manipulated into having to produce something "perfect' for the rest of the world's to approval, instead of birthing something new with a life of its own, that I will love, imperfections & all, knowing the secret struggle we shared....

 

 There is a tenderness between the artist and the piece of work which has struggled to be born. Erasers, in a quest for perfection, can wipe away the unintended lines that reveal & respect the intrinsic character of the work....

And metaphorical erasers can disregard the private tenderness between a person creating their life, & the life they are creating that is known only to them,

 " happy accidents" & all.

Yep, she was a very good teacher....

Art Floozie

This week I saw Monet's water lilies in the flesh for the first time...
 it was a breathtakingly, achingly beautiful exhibition at NGV in Melbourne....
.... moved me to tears... and being privy to the work of the master has left me wondering so much about where to go with my own creative work....

With spring growth putting on a spurt, I am drawn outside to the garden, to create & maintain... inside the cluttered studio tells the story of someone who has never specialised in, or perfected any medium...

I confess, I am an art Floozie, with a capital F! I haven't had one life-long passionate love affair with any particular medium, in fact I'll play with any pretty thing that comes along! Some may be horrified at my lack of fidelity, but I simply can't pass up a new creative experience...... yet I don't consider myself "dilettante", which implies being hopeless... I am brilliantly, blissfully happy in all my art relationships...

There is potential for creative expression in almost any activity, whether tidying my personal space, or making something for others...

I like to make my work from many blended elements - knitting with 30 or 40 colours thrills me, and mosaics that employ varying shades of hundreds of carefully cut pieces of glazed tile delight me...

I'd never make a meal from one ingredient, yet those I choose must compliment & balance each other, lest they result in indigestion, and a badly executed painting has a similar effect on the mind.... on it goes, into every area of my life, this ordering, this impossible quest for beauty & perfection....

So, I think life generally, is an opportunity to express myself & connect with my inspiration, whatever I happen to be doing at the time... 
BUT, is this art? Is a life well lived one in which creativity has been priority, as well as pleasure?
 A reason for living could be to create a channel through which the Arwen flows unimpeded... but is it art?

Taking sides

....trees are helpful for finding your point of view....

...some people say it can be hard to see the wood for them....

...a Kookaburra seems to know what to do... just laughs, & finds a better vantage point....

 

..... perhaps your point of view might depend upon which side of the tree you find yourself standing on.....

Blessings of Imbolc and Lughnasadh

Waiting for spring feels akin to waiting for the first breath of a baby... all is anticipation for the new life that is...

The wisdom of the seed (or in this case, bulb!) is to store potential for growth...but it needs the animation of fire, the sun's illumination, to grow....

....this morning, as I reflect upon on the association of this time of year with Goddess Brigit, flame within the icy waters, it occurs to me that as midwife and healer, poet and smith, nothing in this world manifests without the warmth of illumination, and tender care.... that potential locked within a protective casing of ice over the fallow period of winter, now needs to be gently nurtured to fruition...

In my part of the world, we have had no snow over winter this year, but the symbolism still fits... the spring thaw has begun, and I look forward to a new season of growth and hope for a fine harvest.

In the South, I wish you the gentle blessings of Brigit's clear light, and in the North, I wish you the blessings of Lugh - God of golden sunshine - may you enjoy stamina enough to reap a fine golden harvest.

Wild weather and Violets

Windy and wild, this morning I picked the most pungent violets I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing..... 

I found a British hedgerow recipe almost a year ago, which I will share with you here...

RECIPE:

Take 3 or 4 handfuls of clean, fresh violet flowers, 150 ml boiling water,  300gms castor sugar..

Remove stalks and green centers of flowers, and put them in a clean ceramic or stainless steel bowl, then tip over boiling water and cover. Leave for 12-24 hours....

Then put the violets and water into the top of a double boiler, or a pot that fits over the top of another one. Add sugar and stir...

In a lower pot (under the one with the violets in it) bring water to a gentle boil, and; carefully stir the violet mixture until sugar is completely dissolved... now it is a syrup!

Now, strain off the violet syrup,put into a clean, sterilized jar, label and refrigerate up to 12 months...


Use in cakes and baked things like scones, biscuits, and in butter creams, ice-cream and custards.... Oh! how about a sprinkle in slightly sweetened organic whipped cream on a freshly baked, warm scone, with a bit of home- made crab apple jelly....


or add a dash of this syrup to chilled fizzy drinks and lemonade... I rather fancy trying it sprinkled over some delicately flavored, chilled fruit, such as fresh lychees..on a hot summer afternoon... soon...

Hedges and Boundaries

Since the turning of the season, and the recent "super" moon, my thoughts have been directed to creating boundaries....

... a concept of creating a line over which we will not step or tolerate others stepping over....

... lately, popular labels of "hedgewitch", "hedgewizard", "hedgedruid" etc indicate a new fascination with boundaries and containment, or lack thereof....the excitement, perhaps, of going beyond what is known, or socially acceptable, is attractive to some people...

I like boundaries... around a home a hedge delineates private property from public space...

... around a vegetable garden, it protects food plants from marauding wildlife....

....locked doors require people without a key to be invited in....

.... and within a home, doors on the various rooms facilitate privacy and containment...

.... I suppose I could speak to you about these doors being metaphorical symbols for what's within the psyche... but you can draw your own conclusions, and make your own associations, so I don't need to...

Boundaries though, do more than simply mark out a physical space....

Gardens planted within a fence grow better... I don't know why...it's not simply a matter of shelter, or micro-climates.... the plants seem to feel the boundary, and actually enjoy its containment...

Draw a line around an image, for instance, using a border, then notice how it strengthens a design... picture framers know this well - the choice of a mount for framing is crucial ...

Creating a fancy seam or border on a piece of cloth makes it look complete, or "finished"... I don't know why...

.....and on it goes...

Ritualists will often create a boundary around a ceremonial site by casting a circle, or making a sacred sign around the area to separate it from the mundane world ....

 

.....it seams to me that people enjoy boundaries as much as plants do, whether emotional, social, physical, or energetic...
.....because they can choose to stay within them, or leap over .... and like plants, people thrive when empowered to choose the situation that best suits them....

.....sometimes, the prettiest blooms are those that bravely poke through a fence to reach more sunshine...

Solstice greetings

Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice....

Two very different nests grace the table this year, and I decided to decorate with eucalyptus, gathered locally from the forest floor.....

This year, I celebrate the light of home, connection, and belonging...

I couldn't resist turning this little fellow I made years ago into an English Faery sort of Green Man... He lives on the

art room wall, offering wisdom and encouragement... ivy is abundant in the garden, and although it is a weed, is beautiful....

At this solstice time, I wish you the deep peace of perfect balance...



With the returning light in the South of our Planet, may your inspiration flourish....

and in the North, where the daylight will begin to lessen, may your harvest be abundant....

Wherever you are, I wish you exactly the sort of nest you need in which to rest comfortably....

Gardening as art and natural environments

 As we move into the darkest day of the year this week, I am thinking of the wild animals who must make their living in difficult winter conditions...

Creating beautiful gardens is a tradition here, & it is an enchanting place...

People visit from all over the world because it is so unique. However, the art of gardening is not something that sits well with the delicate environment of an ancient temperate rainforest...




I wonder how to have as little impact upon natural habitat as possible....

I wonder how to find the balance between wildness & domesticity...intellect & instinct...

Is this the distinction between gardening as art & gardening as agriculture?

Reflections

A sunny morning this week provided an opportunity to catch some pretty reflections for you between bouts of wild weather....

I was thinking about the ways in which an earnest heart seeking the truth will often find it,

but that it is the way in which a question is asked that influences the way in which an answer manifests...

Sometimes, it's impossible to know exactly what motivates the question, because the reflective waters are stirred up & muddied by emotion.....

But the truth often flies straight as an arrow to pierce heart of the matter, & what the querant thought

they were seeking is revealed as illusion .....

This is sometimes the way of reflection....

Slainte!

Winter announced itself with a flash and a flood this week, as a month's worth of rain fell in a night, and a spectacular show of lightning lit the sky accompanied by crashing thunder that rolled and rolled around the summit of the Mountain for hours...

Last month's glorious copper beech shed its leaves to reveal its supple silver skin, whilst the rough and ancient wattle giant opposite dropped a few brittle old limbs, and struggled to remain upright throughout the violent storm...

Tucking into my lunch today, I thought about light, & heat, and the way the human animal instinctively seeks warmth in the cold weather for comfort and survival. As I considered my steaming bowl of fragrant soup, I was reminded that all of these vegetables had absorbed the sun's warmth in order to grow, & now it was my turn to absorb this stored heat, by consuming them so my body can convert light into energy...
...... And then I remembered warm sun on my skin, & the light of a sunny day... of how I loved the sunshine so much one day that I took a photo of the sun directly with my phone, just to see what it would look like... And here is the result...

....I think it looks like the iris of an eye...

A Druid summer solstice ceremony I love, says:"as I stand in the eye of the sun"... it is about making vows, & being open to scrutiny... the sun burns away dross as well as giving life...

Our ancestors held a great & simple wisdom: without the sun, without its light, without its eye of fire, even now, in 2013, with technological sophistication the ancients may not have believed possible, we would still cease to be. How did they know it looks like an eye?

The wheel of the year turns, & winter solstice will soon be here, on June 21st,.

I shall be giving thanks this year, for the light stored inside food..........

Seems rather magical to me to eat light....

Slainte!

leaf carpets

 This week the deciduous trees here shed their foliage, so I've been raking & composting, enjoying the crisp, clean air & welcome sunshine that defines autumn on this Mountain.
 
The simple beauty of leaf carpets has so impressed me this season... 

I thought you might appreciate my sharing some with you before I rake them all up!

 colours so rich yet subtle....

shapes so diverse yet harmonious....


A camera is a wonderful invention... I can explore these images in paint when the weather is too cold to work outside