Misty Winter Dreaming

Winter's a good time to dream...... especially when the mist settles in for the day........

It's so quiet, but for the occasional drip, drip, drip on the roof...shhhh...listen.....


What is there?


.....a chilly breeze rattles empty branches & sends droplets of moisture flying in all directions over leathery brown leaves .....





...........underneath this fine carpet, the earth is bone-chillingly cold...... wet.........dense....heavy.......


........shhhh...

.....be still....it's nearly Mid-Winter....




What do you dream of for when the light returns?

What do you hope for?

What do you love?




Come, my friend, make yourself comfortable, join me at the fireside.......

wrap yourself in a well-loved blanket and dream with me.....

Let us dream of approaching sunshine & abundance, love & laughter, comfort & ease......


let us dream of every noble thing.......


.....and every thing that makes hearts sing........



Blessings upon all beautiful dreams, for they create the world.......

.............believe in them .........

...............remember them.......

............always.......

There and Back Again....

 

I thought I was getting another chance at Summer. I thought I'd be spending Summer Solstice in England..I was on a pilgrimage, & once I had visited the lands of my Grandfathers in Scotland, & paid homage to Avalon, it was all over & time to return.....

Above is a secret faery place untouched since the bronze age....it welcomed my bones.....the trees danced in the evening light....the hill is untouched since the bronze age......

....it was the flowering time of Rowans, Hawthorn & Elder....it was still bluebell season...

There were magickal gateways in Avalon.....

Oh, this is me on Glastonbury Tor.....And now I am back on the Misty Mountain, about to celebrate Winter Solstice after all ..... 8 weeks work done in 3, & I continue to wonder what happened....Faery time is not the same as clock time, & after "loosing" a day flying through the air in a plane, I am inclined to think time is a rather silly invention......

Greetings! This sight greeted me as I my made my way up the Mountain path to to the Melbourne Grove's Autumn Equinox ceremony on Saturday. Already the leaves are turning, but the Mountain is green & lush, due to a cool Summer & MUCH rain!
I am hoping you approve of the new picture I have put up so people can see what we look like. It was taken at Beltaine by my friend Lyn, who is a great champion for animal rights. She does Tarot readings at a minimal fee so that people can afford her service, & donates all the money to Animals Australia.


Some of you may be wondering how Mr Treadwell is settling into his role as my P.A.....
I am pleased to say he is beginning to grasp the subtleties of human behaviour, & seems to have been swatting up on Machhiavelli whilst I have been out, because he is now the perfect little Prince!
This is a photo or the veg. garden a couple of weeks ago. It is lush with leafy greens & not much else, although the flowers are lovely & I haven't had to water all summer. Hmmm parsley & walnut pesto made with the garlic I harvested earlier is delish! Sadly the rabbits ate all the green tomatoes, but the bushes remain healthy & robust. My beloved zucchinis were also munched, & some actually rotted on the plants, which have succumbed to powdery mildew due to so much rain this Summer.

This trio were regulars for seed last May. They are superb, but don't be fooled - they are very mercenary, & mostly just visit me when the cafe across the road is closed! Unfortunately, they don't wait until it opens, & prefer to raid my garden until it's coffee time....
But this year, I've had a little win! I discovered that Rosellas & King Parrots, who love eating the seeds of green peas & beans before anyone can pick them, can't see Purple King beans! I was surprised to discover some long pods hiding like dark jewels amongst the leaves yesterday. I had quite resigned myself to just enjoying the heliotrope-coloured flowers this year, but the birds seem to be less able to detect purple....has anyone else found this to be true?

Blessings of the Balance, blessings of Equinox, blessings of change,
with love,
Marigold & Treadwell

By now I guess everyone has flipped the page on the calender & either surrendered to or embraced the arrival of 2012........

Each New Year, I like to make a little mandala in the front of a new visual diary as an act of faith & commitment to my work. This is the first time I have ever shared one of these, so I hope it inspires you.




Do you remember I was wishing The Fae would knit the Mtn Pixie Socks & leave them on the lawn for me to find in the morning?

I had quite a surprise on the morning of New Year's Eve, to find I now have a team of avid gardeners, taking up residence in the veg. garden.....but not of the Fae kind, more of the velvety, soft-eyed, long-eared, big family to feed sort...........



When I heard it was going to be a very hot & dry New Year, I wanted to harvest the garlic, which wasn't ready for harvest a week ago at Summer solstice. I like to put it out to dry in the sun before I bring it in & make plaited garlands for storage, because this improves its keeping ability over the long & damp Winter.



So off I set across the cool green grass to my vegetable garden. Firstly, I paused to admire the healthy lettuces & flowers. I am especially fond of the shape of leek flowers this year ......



Anyway, when I got to the middle of the garden, I paused to locate the purple beans I have just planted (yes, late, I know, but I am seeing if a late planting now the soil has warmed up works better than loosing the crop to rot & rodents....) and, I couldn't quite find them! Instead of there being a neat little path covered in dried weeds, I found freshly dug soil, piled up over the paths & just look what the mystery gardeners made whilst Marigold was getting her beauty sleep!



A tunnel UNDER the plants!

How clever......I think...It seems the fence around the garden gives a sense of safety from hungry cats & foxes......the cool greenery of rampant nasturtiums would offer cover on hot days from the many predatory birds that live & hunt here.




Well, as you can see below, there is herbage & greenery enough for us all at the present time, so I am watching with interest, to see what will happen. I am concerned the garden may cave in, & really want to fill in this new piece of landscape archetecture, but what do you think? If they are not nibbling my perfectly sweet lettuces, or nibbling the tender bean stalks as they did last year, why worry? They haven't even touched the chamomile flowers this year, which are usually their favourite fruit....


Oh! speaking of which, I must show you my first crop of elderberries! Aren't they beautiful?




Blessings of a New Calender Year to All! May 2012 be the year the world finds peace, may it be the year we All have enough of everything we need, including love, and may 2012 give Us All the confidence to take responsibility as individuals for dreaming our world.

Blessed Be
X

Hello Everyone,the Silly Season is in full swing, & one of the silliest things you will hear at Marigold's place this week, is the sound of serious young kookaburras learning how to laugh. Not quite grasping the intricacies of voice production a la kookaburra, they sound like the turning of a rusty wheel, or someone attempting to speak whilst suffering acute laryngitis. Perhaps a throat losange would help..... They seem to be earnestly forcing the sound, rather than expressing themselves....This one spends much of its day on the clothesline, practicing looking imposing, whilst the parents gather food...just like a human teenager....


This is the flowering season, & even the "weeds" in the vegetable garden are pretty.

There are perhaps more of these self-sown beauties than vegetables this year, but the delight to my eye is almost as sustaining as the delight to my cooking pot!
I just love the way my namesake & Nigella flowers grow together!Nigella is very glamorous, & Miss Marigold is...a Miss Marigold!



There is also a good crop of Borage this year. I put the flowers into salads, but I leave a lot of seedlings where they germinate, because I adore the blue star-like flowers, the bees like it, & the soil seems to benefit from it growing there. I hear it is an herb for courage.
It makes Miss Marigold smile......

Hope you are smiling too.

Marigold sends her greetings

Greetings Everyone, Now that the Spring Equinox & associated commerce are behind me, & Summer's blazing heat is at last making itself felt, Your Marigold has had her nose to the grindstone, making the latest batch of Mountain Pixie socks for a rush Xmas order, avoiding sweaty knitting needles, & swotting up on the Faerie People ...... which is most enjoyable, if sedentary....oh Dears, predictably, she's put on rather a lot of weight!



This is my knitting basket, which looked so joyful as I was completing the last sock........so many colours to play with.....How fortunate I am to have such dazzling vibrations of colour to surround me. If I need to make a new colour, I try to create it with dyes.......it's fascinating....colour really enchants my work, which sings to me silently when I create harmonious colour schemes......



But oh, how much easier it would be if the Fae would leave socks out on the lawn for me to find in the morning! I think they might be calling Treadwell & me into the forest for another adventure, now that our work is done for a little while! Below is how it looked last moonth....the wildflowers will have changed by now, & soft, sappy growth is hardening up. The dappled light of the trees will be welcome protection from the Sun's burning rays, whereas last moonth, it was cold in the shadows.


Summer Solstice is almost here, so I am turning my attention to the garden wholeheartedly. It became very unruly whilst my attention was on making colourful things. I must go out & have a good old fashioned blitz on the weeds, & prune, & fertilise before the weather gets any hotter. This year, I haven't put in as many vegetables, although the herbs have done extraordinarily well, & my wool & fabrics will be scented with lavender, rosemary, pennyroyal & other delights, fresh from the garden. I am concentrating on building up the soil for Autumn planting.
I am very pleased to report my first crop of Elder flowers in 5 years from planting out cuttings,
& if I am very clever, & beat the rosellas, I may even get a small sprinkling of the berries, which I have never tasted yet have fantasized about in recipes from old cookery books for years!




Solstice Blessings to You! Wherever in the World you find yourself, may you enjoy balance, harmony and peace.

With much love from Miss Marigold and Mr Treadwell

Hellooo again, Miss Marigold wants to show you what's she's been making in the art room all these moonths. This is the next stage of the manufacture: selling them on a stall she is sharing with a lovely friend, who shares her love of Gaia & of the Fae.



The last fair where Marigold plans to have a stall is tomorrow, & she hopes to recover some of her costs! Any little balls of hand-painted wool left-over will come in handy for 2012's Mountain Pixie Socks etc., & the muslin veils are useful year round anyway.

Some needle felted Faeries have been put onto felted garlands, & a few are left loose for Xmas stocking fillers.... Marigold is having a rest from making them. They are even more labour intensive than knitting! However, she is about to begin some new projects.



As her Fae friend says, the fingers are itching to begin something new! If you look on Etsy, you will find Faedale, which is Marigold's Fair Friend's shop.

This commercial aspect life is very interesting for such an old-fashioned lady as Marigold, who likes to play shops very much, but is still working out how to make a profit! Another dear friend, Miss Lily, who has been studying these things, says it is perfectly possible to make the income exceed the expenditure, so Marigold remains optimistic that she will one day have enough customers, & enough stock!

Blessings of successful fairs in bucketing Melbourne rain, & incomings exceeding outgoings!





Blessings of