Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Oh my ...... its wild today!!!

I may start all new posts now with Oh My.

I am quite sure I have picked it up from 'Ma ' in the laura Ingalls Wilder books which we have been immersed in all winter long. I can feel a yearning too for long calico dresses. Though in this winter weather its flannel and wool for sure. That may not be ' Ma's influence though, more likely all those beautiful dress clad lassies I have met here blogging. Whom you will find all neatly listed to the right!


I went out to meet the wind. I walked to the lake to see its tempest. 


















I returned tousled and tangled but invigorated and ready to draw..........



I almost didn't get up to meet this day, I thought of saying to little M, Lets have a wind day! We have had no snow days this year, perhaps we need a wind day, where we just stay cozy by the fire and read.

The wind howling about the house, shrieking around corners, swaying the lovely trees, I cant help but wish for sunshine now. I have appreciated the monotones.... but its time.

It whistles now through the keyholes and doors being all squally and wild.

I was tempted away from my drawings today, though they are bright for sure. I have just been writing to too Grand Aunts, long overdue. One in Australia, and my namesake, and one here in Ireland, who calls me sunshine: )
Both strong beautiful ladies, that bore the limitations of their generations with rebellious natures but also with both grace and fortitude that saw them through it.
They have shared some of their wilder days with me, in snippets of stories and tales quietly mentioned, in what must have once caused blushing cheeks. Like riding on the handlebars of a boyfriends bicycle through the streets of Paris, when ladies did no such thing. And, skinny dipping in the rain in wild little beaches to the west. I can't say another thing, or I will be in trouble for sure; )

Such satisfaction in a hand written letter, stamp and envelope, all together a tiny parcel of moments shared and given. Ach I love it, I think I shall have to make a letter day.

................. and now............... Back to work !!!!


























 No Monotones here!!!

I can never last without color for long!

Thanks dear reader

xx E





Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Well Oh My Winter Sun

Here

..............I am exceedingly delighted to be here in front of this open fire, with two feet, red sock clad, soaking in the warming glow of flames and embers and all things imaginably warming in winter weather. I am happy, I have a lightness and a sense of arrival tonight. A gentle flicker of gold fills my heart as I recount and recall these last few weeks. I can rest now, I can be here in my new home.

I love it, in fact I may be in Love with it. These walls, so old and stony and sure, are holding me as kindly as any warm blooded fella could. And when that winter sun shines and silvers up the lake, reflecting light through every pane of glass, the fire crackles to let me know we are here together.

Today was the first day I could paint, having finished unpacking and being almost done with all the other bits and bobs associated with moving all and sundry.  

We have adjusted to being here. It was a trying few weeks, to move before Christmas. I would never move in winter again, I can quite see why its not usual. I learned the hard way, and I think it added twice the stress to it all. But we rose to it, and its done.


We had a quiet Christmas, just unpacking enough to get us through. Our old potted Christmas tree from Tristan and Jenny came back to us to bejewel another year and Christmas eve my sister came, and we made a ginger bread house( my first attempt).
We decided it was more like some of the run down cabins we saw in the Appalachians, it had a rustic feel to it rather then the cleaner lined scandinavian style; ) It was delicious all the same, and we made it gluten free too. The eating of it seemed about the most moorish thing in the whole holiday, but we had help.

Little M has found her new places to play outside and in, making a little house under the stairs with a sheepskin and silks and her little pots and pans, I would live there too if I was her size and a new fountain to run around too.
I haven't taken many photos yet of here, but this is one of her watching out at two crows, dating she said, sitting on the wall and kissing beaks.


She has a great space for play here and to keep her toys, and we can have animals too, which we have both pined for a while, as much as we love our Patches and Nutmeg( guinea pigs).
We have sent out our wishes with shiny pennies in ponds on starry nights And turning three times under new moons, for a puppy to come and join us. I am trying to hold off till Spring, till I can have a breather before the next big event, but little M's enthusiasm is bound to bring some little bright thing into our lives before we know it.

.......................Its big here and has a kind of grandeur about it, but at the same time holds this old barn feel to it, it keeps its modesty and has lots of depth. I saw possibilities here for my art and my life to take steps forwards and expand a little, like wings that needed to stretch out. I can live, work and show my art here.
I will open the studio from equinox to equinox, and have 'visitors welcome' written on my gate and we shall see what comes. I have missed online here, this space, and the lovely friends I have met and the tracking of their logs. I wore Milla's medicine pouch almost through the whole month of moving. Her beautiful dreamcatcher hangs over my bed easing my dreams to the lighter side even under the stress of it all............

...........For Now I prepare in these Winter sun days ...

........................and nights where that sun comes through fire on wood, from trees that stretched up and took that sun in. They bless me with their warmth, toasting my toes and helping me remember the way things are.

Winter Sun Moments









We made a trip to Fanore, a tiny village on the west coast a few weeks before we moved. We stayed in a place looking over the sea for two nights. We played on the beach and watched the resident dolphin play with the surfers and visited a bird of prey education centre.
We were also just opposite the grave yard where the poet, philosopher, teacher John O'Donohue was buried. He is a mighty inspiration to me. His writing transports and transforms and holds you and your heart, it breathes you in, and you breathe it too. I met him once when I was about 12 years ago and never forgot him, He had peaceful shiny eyes like none I had ever seen, and I wanted to know more about that. He died just a couple of years ago, he was just 53 and in Paris.
Me and M visited his grave, and sat there a while while the morning sun shone out to the islands bright and clear, and around us too, warming us just enough so that the sea air didn't bite our noses.

Good night and thank you dear reader.

More Art and Heart soon ...... perhaps even some prints to sell, I wont give too much away just yet
xx

E

Saturday, January 14, 2012

"Benedictus"

 For a New Beginning

 In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

John O' Donohue


I could never say it as beautifully as John did!






                                   
                                                                                  














xx E