Lessons from the garden: sustaining yourself in every way

Coming up to summer solstice, I am back in the garden, looking at what I shall be harvesting this year... There's still time to plant a few more seeds, and give the plants that are struggling some extra help...

I'm doing the same in my personal life... still weeding & planting, sowing and watering, harvesting and planning...

This week, it was pointed out to me that although circumstances may change, life is not lived in stops and starts, but in a long sequence of events... much like the continuous turning of the seasons...
I liked that...

Makes gardening in a sustainable way even more appealing too...

I guess if you want to sustain yourself well, you need to identify your requirements for vitality, physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually.... and put in the work to cultivate, harvest, and process them as best you can...

Gardening as a healing tool

Gardening is an art, that is healing... contemplative... meditative... transformative...

You can grow some food and connect with the land upon which you live...

It grounds the mind, exercises the body, and feeds the soul with wonder ...

Babies arriving, and Dear Ones leaving over the past little while, are reminders of the fragility and transience of life...

Gardening provides a container, a context, in which gardeners can accept these things, whilst not needing to understand such mystery...
 

Art of my heart

Good morning to you!
I'm just about to start drawing, and thinking I find this such a pleasurable activity, that I deny it to myself... This attitude is a bit dark,isn't it? Old fashioned Protestant work ethic, perhaps?

I feel guilty about doing something I love so much with no focus upon selling it... or publicity... no reason to think it will help me make my way in this world... I just love drawing, and always have...
Sometimes, I say I hate the discipline of it, but that's not the same sort of drawing as this, with which I'm about to indulge myself... this is delicious freedom... "play"... exploration, and discovery... this is adventure!

THIS is where REAL art is born... where magic can manifest... where what is needed in the world can make itself known... letting the Arwen flow

I KNOW this! So why do I struggle to make money, when I know I can make art so joyfully?

Perhaps I'll just take a chance for a while, and "play" more... I won't starve... in fact, I might even make art that people want to pay for! Ha! My heart is light...

Beltaine Elderflower Cordial/Syrup

It's Beltaine ritual, gathering these spring blossoms, for refreshing drinks for the coming summer, and to dry for healthful teas throughout the year.. just as the ancestors have, for thousands of years...

So, first, pick a big bowl of about 60 elder flowers, shake off insects, & remove flowers from stalks with a fork, as best you can - the less green the better - I've read it's poisonous...

I mixed this with the zest & juice of 8 lemons... mmm... smells fantastic! At this point, I knew I needed 2 bowls, as I'd picked rather a lot of blossom...

In a pot, bring approximately  2.5 litres water to boil, then turn off. Add 4kgs sugar, & stir to dissolve. Cool about 15 minutes. Then add 75gms  citric acid and 75gms tartaric, & stir out any lumps with a long spoon... Pour liquid over flowers & lemons, cover well, and leave overnight for flavours to infuse...

  

Next day...

strain the flower mixture back into the pot, and bring to the boil again, then cool, and pour into warm (I put mine in the oven 20 minutes 160 degrees from cold) sterilized glass jars with pop top lids, or whatever you prefer whilst it is warm.

This recipe filled 5 passata jars, and assorted juice bottles I had saved & washed. I really can't tell you the exact yeild, but it is quite enough for me to share and enjoy with family and friends. 

You're meant to refrigerate this, but mine is on stone benches in a cellar, as my fridge is tiny. This works well for me, and I wish you much joy if you ever make this cordial at Beltaine.

* In Australia, Elder is a garden shrub, not a wild plant, as in Europe - I planted a hedgerow garden, but that's another story!

Cheers!

Easy vegetarian zucchini pie recipe

It's rather  hot in Melbourne today, and I'm busy, so I made this for later, when I know I'll be needing a rest...

2 medium zucchinis (courgettes) sliced thickly & blanched.
1 onion sliced
2 garlic cloves
roasted capsicum chopped
fresh basil hand torn
fresh Italian parsley chopped
4 free range eggs
good dollop naturally thick cream
good dollop passatta
parmesan cheese grated
freshly ground black pepper
pure sea salt

Gently sweat onions & garlic until soft then place them in bottom of pie dish
put blanched zucchini on top, followed by capsicum, then cover top of pie with torn basil leaves & chopped parsley, season with salt & pepper.
In a bowl, whisk together eggs, cream & passatta - don't worry if it looks runny - it will firm up when baked - pour over pie.
A thick sprinkling of parmesan cheese, and Roberto's your uncle!

I'll serve it cold later, with a green salad...

* you can add any vegetables to this really... eg sliced mushrooms, or roasted eggplant/ pumpkin...

Hope you feel inspired to have a go! If you do, please let me know how you get on without measuring everything!

Easy Rose Petal Jam Recipe

Marigold Fairweather's favorite Rose Petal Jam Recipe




4 cups fresh, fragrant, dark red rose petals (only use home-grown, or roses you KNOW haven't been sprayed!)
 
3 cups sugar
 
2 cups water
 
juice of 1/2 lemon


Snip white base from each petal with scissors, keep the red part, & wash very gently in cold water
 
Layer petals carefully in a glass, ceramic, or enamel bowl, & sprinkle each layer with about 2 tablespoons of the sugar, cover with a clean tea towel, & leave it overnight
 
Next day, dissolve the remaining sugar with the water in a heavy based pan, stirring occasionally until dissolved, then bring to boil, add lemon juice, & boil 5 minutes without stirring.
 
Remove syrup from heat & cool to lukewarm

Gently add rose petals & their liquid, return pan to heat & boil gently 15 minutes, or until syrup is thick when tested in a cold saucer.

Ladle into warm, sterilized jars, & seal when cool

***
The first time I made this, many years ago, I didn't think my jam was thick enough, so added pectin, & ended up with such a firm toffee, I couldn't even get it out of the jars! I ended up heating it, spooning it out of the glass, and incorporating it into rice puddings, rhubarb crumble, and assorted cakes & biscuits.

Later, I bought a jar from an Lebanese supermarket, and found the commercial jam was runny anyway!

Home made tastes best, and is delightful on scones...

Art as spiritual practice

Spring Equinox was a solitary affair for me... I marked it by creating magical papers...

imbued with the changing balance of light energy, as held within plants from my garden, and combined with gleanings from the forest floor...

Carefully selected for their metaphysical properties, as well as good looks, I put them together with love and care, hoping they'd look beautiful...

and so my work became my ritual... I began doing this at Winter Solstice... Now my art has become my spiritual practice...

The result is so much more than the outlines & embossing of leaves and flowers... It is an outpouring of my appreciation for the season, an observance of the balance of celestial harmonies at Spring Equinox... of new beginnings, and hope, and the fragility of of life, in all its forms.

I wish you all the blessings and optimism of a new cycle, wherever you are on Earth.

Spring calls the Marigold

All this documenting of life to share on social media... It's spring! I'm getting out in it today!

Magical Thinking, and getting what you really want

Living "as if" today... as if I were exhibiting work in an particular exhibition far away.. as if Tasmania's wilderness was safe... as if I have already achieved the life I set out to live...

I've been told that visualization, and living "as if" something you want has already manifested, is a way of focusing more sharply upon your desire, and why you desire that thing in the first place... 

.... and why you haven't got there yet... which is pretty important...

... because I've noticed that sometimes the underlying reason I haven't got what I thought I wanted, was because I preferred something else...

SSSSpring...

I've been working with the trees over the past little while... listening to their songs... admiring their clothing... revelling in the wildness of the forest, that surrounds my home...

I'm sculpting a Dryad... and if she's agreeable, I'll post her here once she's made, so you can see how she manifested... but not yet... she wants to be kept under wraps, as today I attempt to show her face...

Wishing you all the magic of the turning of the seasons... may your trees and mine live without fear, may wisdom prevail, and may we All live in peace...

Creative Nests...

My current drawing and writing space, close to the hearth, with a good view of approaching weather...

Thought I'd share some of my creative "nests" with you...


... teachers would tell me at school:"a tidy desk is a tidy mind"...
 I'd now say to them, with the authority of my own experience, if my desk were to reflect my mind by being tidy, I would not be using my mind to its fullest capacity....

One of my favourite things...

This is the exploding magical basket, that contains shiny things I adore, like little scraps of exotic sari silk from India, Venetian glass beads from discarded old necklaces, and pearly buttons from Victorian London, to name a few... I am proud to say this basket feels like a better reflection of my mind, than a tidy desk... it is full of possibility: of tales and dreams, ideas and adventure...

At night, I sit here and stitch, and write and draw.... and dream and invent... the tidy desk forgotten...

Last mandala a day - "The Flowering"

Final design in this series of creative exercises... It feels like the flowering...

The design itself reminds me of a flower, or butterfly: adulthood... completion.

A vesica pisces has become a door, heavily strapped with a golden cross, and a red "eye": a shield as well as a way in...

I am now in the habit of drawing when I wake up, which was my original intention for making a mandala a day, & I've regained my artistic focus...

Quite a few creative friends have joined me in this short journey, by creating mandalas of their own, and I thank them all for their companionship, as well as encouragement.

Where to from here? I shall continue to create & refine mandala designs, in the hope that I may create a body of work with them.

 I hope this work with the magic circle is as ripples in a pool...

.... activating latent creativity everywhere...

mandala a day - Fish Need to Swim

Still going with this process, words are now needed to explain the imagery..

This isn't only about keeping the waterways clean, but also about tolerance... encouraging all life to its potential... taking responsibility for my own part in the puzzle of inter species community...

Reminds me that every living thing has its own destiny, and its own needs for survival...

Day lost count, mandala a day- "Moonbathing"

Here, I'm loving the "Super moon", basking in its soft illumination, comfortable in my dream boat, and moon-bathing...

Enjoying the undercurrent... enjoying the dreaming...

The Moon itself looks a little "unfinished"... perhaps I'll work up this image another time...

In rather a hurry this morning with a busy day ahead... hope this image carries me through calmly

Day 22 or 20 - mandala a day - "Shine"

NOTE TO SELF...!

This was drawn freehand, & I was dismayed, 1/2 way through the sketching out, but the spaces I had created were there for a reason... the hardest part was working out what was meant to go there...

So pleased I found out!

I think the symbolism is self explanatory, but if you need to know, there is a comments box where you're welcome to ask...

Day 21 - mandala a day - "Dreaming the World" - Frithgarth/Eden

Here sleeps an angelic child... Mabon... child world soul.. a childlike facet of a human collective consciousness...

She's also me, dreaming of a better world... an ideal situation... where all is innocence and unblemished...

In process of drawing, the sheet began as a bridge, and wallpaper as pendulous wisteria blossom... Monet's garden in France... where I've never been... but have imagined as a perfect garden for most of my life...
the iris remained... as did floating marigolds...

And the hearts? Once the circle is drawn around the child in 3 dimensional form, they meet, and become whole...

If life is a garden, I hope I can dream up a kinder, sweeter, softer place...

Day 20 mandala a day - "Singing My Own Song"

I am learning that to sing my own song, is a metaphor for remaining visible as the individual I have grown into, no matter what, because it is good for my metaphorical heart, and makes the world a kinder place...

New Year's Eve, I gathered with friends, to make intuitive collage from old magazines, as an ART/ Art Therapy/divinitary practice...

Mine ended up being named:"Singing My Own Song"...
It seemed a pretty, although mysterious collection of images...

Now, into the 8th month of the year, I begin to see what this means to me:
to keep singing my own song, not shutting up or shutting down about what is important to me...
When people try to try to silence me for their own self-gratification, I will not take it personally...
my vulnerability is my own to protect, and not theirs, to take as my sacrifice...

Day 19 mandala a day "Moon in Leo - Battle Crow - Morrigan - Kali Ma - A Rainbow Warrior"

Death & renewal...

Starting out with a diminutive figure, riding a dragon that looked more like a horse/cat, I forced myself to keep working, & the result is a doll-like figure, badly drawn, but with a lot to tell me about the quest of a Spritual Warrior.

Full moon's in Leo, a forceful, warlike phase ... powerful... taking no prisoners...
Will magnify that which people focus upon...

Now false ideas about my world drop away by the sack full... The illumination of shadowy failings & shortcomings is a gift... I fight for victory over my own illusions...

So, Day 19's Goddess is me... I'm wearing Polariods, instead of my usual rose-tinted glasses!

Day 18 - mandala a day "Netted Mermaid"

 

 Here's Her Majesty, queen of the sea...

a pilgrim's shell hangs on the wall, as she casts her net to collect that which she needs....

Last few mandalas are stronger... intuition is sharper.... symbols deep, and resonant... 

I'm beginning to feel rather exposed on the internet... yet, the habit of drawing when I wake up is still not ingrained... posting it here disciplines my wayward ways....

Day 17 a mandala a day - Firebird and the Goddesses

Something returned yesterday that I now see in a different light.... in my own light...

Was feeling a bit flat because of it this morning, and didn't feel like making a new drawing...

So glad I made the effort...

Day 16 - mandala a day- "Clown"

"Clown" - in the great "Circus of Life"...

Just as I carefully added my finishing dots of glitter, to represent joyful giving, the applicator blobbed uncontrollably... in a big messy globule... all over my initials, making a mess... my first art "disaster" in 16 days...
Or was it?
Now I wonder what I could read into that accident... I've never wiped glitter away before... always thought more is better...

Day 15 - a mandala a day "Off Grid"

Was very surprised this came out of my pencils this morning...

I suppose the illusion of safety in numbers, of fitting in to a community... of any kind... it can be toxic in the long run...

Golden swirls of energy and inspiration can flow more freely when not cramped, and growth expands into something that supports life... hmm..

That's big, for the first task of the day...

Day 14 a mandala a day - Tea...

Domesticity...nicety..
It's me.. and stuff I learned from watching the women in my family... I don't think it has served me well... 

Day 13 mandala a day - The 13th Faerie

Could also be called: "Be Where you are, Love what you have, Do what you do".
It's about acceptance... and wanting to be understood... searching for that safe place where you can be authentically the phenomenon you are, without having to explain yourself...

Day12 - mandala a day - Mabon

This is getting rather personal now... here's my Mabon - my child of light - and the tale I tell myself about my life and how things are... Of course, I'm perfectly at liberty to change this story, any time I wish...

Day 11 - mandala a day - Imbolc

This morning I woke before the dawn... rekindled the embers of the fire, and lay down to listen to a lone, warbling magpie, heralding a new day, and the beginning of a new season...
As I lay, the little dog, snuggling against me, reminded me of a snuggling child... and that the new spring is as a tender child... and that my heart is still that of a child...
I thought: "if I allow the last 40 or so years to drop away.... perhaps I can stand as firmly and as confidently as the child I once was"...
So my spring undertaking is to protect my childlike heart... my Mabon... to nurture it... keeping  alight the flame of love.... the flame of creativity... of healing..

Blessings of Brigit to you, in the South, and to your loved ones, this cold morning! And if you're in the North, enjoying the warm harvest, may it sustain you well, until the year has turned full circle.

Day 10 - As Above, so Below

Couldn't resist symmetry today, although free-hand, I can't get it mirror perfect... don't want to anyway... Am enjoying working in my comfy old colouring book style...

Day 9... Fourness... Houses of the Holy..

Four aspects, four houses, encapsulated in a meadow garden... I suspect this might be about stability, although it looks like fantasy ... A magical mandala mirror... or a message?

Day 8-the Moon's Illusion

Moon's an illusion... a glittery glamour... I'm sailing on!

Super Chicken - Monday Morning (day 7 mandala a day magics)

Monday morning, and I can't think of a better way to start the week than this - really, I had no idea Super Chicken would show up today, but I'm glad it did... a cross between a rooster, cockatoo, lyrebird, penguin, & those wings must surely be from a Thunderbird.... mandalas really are magical...

Day 6 "Tottery Towers"

Day 6... = "Tottery Towers"... a mandala a day is transformative... I didn't expect it to start working so fast... towers in the air grounded in earth...

Day 5 Mandfala - red face...

Greetings. Meet Red... who was green... and brown... and taught me no to be so pernickety, lest I ruin everything...
That is all.
X

Mandala Magics Day 4 - getting faster

Day 4already! Who'd have thought I'd be enjoying this so much?


Colouring in with breakfast, I'm getting up earlier, and looking forward to playing with pencils and paint... getting them down a bit faster now, which is good, because I didn't mean this one-a-day mandala thing to take much time...

Mandala Magics day 3

Fast and furious, I like this one - I did it first thing upon waking... yep, my life really IS a garden!

I've spontaneously made something completely different from what I imagined before sleep last night..

My first few scratchings made me want to start again, but I made myself keep going, and I was able to rectify my "mistake", which was a result of over-enthusiasm without consideration for consequences...

Manala Magic Day 2

Day 2 of mandala making, meet my inner mermaid... Make of her what you will... I'm a little perplexed! I wasn't expecting a Siren on the second day!

Mandala Magic

Decided to make a mandala a day, until I'm sick of it, and share them here....
A blog to me, is a strange medium... it can be anything I want it to be... so here I am, and here this is... wonder how long I'll stick at them... I enjoyed drawing this afternoon...
Mandalas are so satisfying to make... just do whatever comes naturally within a circle... I like resting my mind within in a circle so much more than in a rectangle or square....

Summer Sunshine Warms a Winter's day

 Hello again!
It's ages since I blogged, so thought I'd best pop in to let you know I'm still here, tapping with red, stiff fingers today, as I've just been outside, collecting fallen sticks for kindling...

Winter is biting, and I found this pressed sprig of Linden the other day, when I was looking for something else... I remember I pressed it because of its ancient, elegant form... and because it held the summer sunshine within its flowers...

Years later, it reminds me of warmth, and light, and blossoms that are also medicine...

Wondering if other people do this sort of thing too... You know, just put something away because it has some sort of beauty for them... some sort of glamour... or evokes a feeling that's not an everyday thing... then forget about it... until years later, they are reminded of its intrinsic magic...

Marigold comes out....

It's blowing a gale today, and look who has dropped in! I love this little fellow, who can ignite passion and create joy, in a most gentle and honest way...

I opened my old folio, and this Trickster popped out, inspiring me to rant on Facebook, about how people just think I'm a dotty old woman who likes to live in a forest and knit... and I want them to know how I'm so much more than that... and I'm so pleased he gave me a nudge, because I never rant... it's not good form... is it? Well, perhaps it is! Perhaps this is a stage of life I must pass through... this needing professional recognition as well as financial support...

Today, I suspect I have "come out", as an artist, to myself... I don't suppose anyone else will notice, but this little fellow has helped me to see that I can no longer hide behind the Marigold Fairweather persona, whilst wishing to be taken seriously...

With a rush of air, and a gust of wind, I am now embracing my deeper work, and moving on with painting and sculpture.... Of course, I'll still be painting yarns for everyone... It's something I love to do, and I'm good at it, I know... but there is a song in my heart that this can not convey... there is a passion in my soul that needs expression, and the gentle art of knitting is simply not an appropriate vehicle...

So, here I am, still Marigold, but with more revealed, and I feel very liberated! And yes, today, it's all about me... and possibly you....
X

Winter Solstice Eve - Marigold reflects on the Mystical Mirror

Now that humans exchange images and messages instantaneously, it wouldn't surprise me if traditional faces of Gods and Goddesses might soon merge within in collective human consciousness... One living life-force could become the new way of perceiving Nature's intelligence...

Such a change may, in this time of ecological uncertainty, be welcome... if we continue to honour various aspects of deity, however you experience it, at different times of the year appropriately....

The apparent mirror of opposite seasons and times of day via the internet, facilitates a broader view of the Planet... and celebrating daylight hours at solstice time is all about celebrating life, really...  And honouring the elements... The need for the balance of the sun's warmth, clean air, water and food remain...

unchanged...

Wishing you and your loved ones a blessed solstice, on the longest night, or day of the year.
May we, the world community, celebrate together, in peace.