Heuldro'r Hâf

 What a beautiful Summer Solstice.

We were up at 5am as normal on these long Summer days, and saw the Sun rising over the Frenni Fawr. I took a couple of photos, but they were no good, and really I wanted to just sink into the experience of it. 

We went for tea and cake...

My Man took some PST Hydrogen Alpha photos of Sol as he dipped towards the North West, having leisurely  wheeled his way across the blue from the North East about 14 hours earlier. 

He is at the beginning of his 11 year active cycle again, and the solar flares around his limb have been putting on quite a show already. I loved that it was a sunny day today, and that we got to see, as well as feel his energy on this, his special day.

Despite the heat, we lit a fire in his honour, and drank a small glass of Melissa elixir.

Iechud da.

Cariad MAWR x

A Few Different Revellings to Mend Spirits

 A friend on Instagram talked yesterday about daily revelling about good things. These are mine... 

This morning...a Hummingbird Hawkmoth...they are such a rare sight here. There was much excitement.

We have only seen them once before, when a pair visited our old garden on a late Summer evening in July 12 years ago. Below is the only shot we were happy with back then.

Yesterday, there were two Painted Lady butterflies visiting the same plants...Red and White Valerian. They came with the Dogwood, (which they are hiding), a gift from our dear friend Alpi, who was the founder of the Eco Shop in Cardigan

where we used to volunteer. He had set up the shop to pay for his passion...a community forest garden. He left a huge hole when he died in January 2020, but his legacy lives on, with both shop and garden flourishing, run by dedicated volunteers. 

He would have loved these visitors to his plants in our garden, and to us, it is him saying 'hi'.

On Tuesday, I had a tooth repaired, and was delighted, and so relieved when the amalgam was finally  replaced by a composite filling. It has been a bit of a saga since 2018, and I had nine months of mercury poisoning causing numness in toes and fingertips, muscle weakness and acute pain with every movement. 

I have started drinking Eidral (Ground Ivy) tea again, to help remove the heavy metal from my system...and my mind! It was weighing heavily there, and I feel so much lighter since Tuesday.

Yesterday, My Man and I went on a mini road trip, up the coast to Aberystwyth. We sat gazing out to sea, and he said he felt that every 'shhhh' of the waves was stitching him back together. YES.

We were so very moved, (me to tears), by the Knife Angel sculpture, which is visiting Aberystwyth, and were so glad that it coincided with our visit.

Ceffyl yn y Glâs

 

Pinned and up on the wall, over 'The Tilly Keepers', to look at for a while...

...and then stitched.

I'm not sure if it's enough as it is. My Man says don't do anything else to it; it's perfect.

I'll keep looking for a while at this 'Horse in the Blue'.

~ Playing ~

 Inspired by Jude ...a daily occurrence :) I brought out my box of papers to play with; old teabags waiting to be used creatively, coloured papers I made 15 years ago! Cutouts to be used as patterns, old book pages, tea dyed paper, tiny bits with abstract words....

I've loved paper since forever really. In primary school, I used to make tiny books to give to friends...wish I'd kept one.

The gorgeous old leather book covers were donated to the Eco Shop where we used to volunteer, and I couldn't resist them.

 

Did anyone else open up After Eight Mint wrappers and use them as dress patterns?

I've been playing with placements..horses and wild flowers, the M○○n and feathers were dear friends during my childhood....still are :)

Hoping for a lovely weekend for everyone.

Cariad Mawr,

H x

Kindness

 

There is kindness and generosity in this world yet ❤ Thank you so much Carla 💝 I'd made an offhand comment  on her Instagram feed, about the Dirty threads by Deb, she had just received through the post, and totally unexpectedly she offered to send me, not just threads, but some, (a lot!), of the scrap pieces too. I have wanted these for some years, but due to Deb not selling outside of the US, I'd contented myself to seeing all you #ragmates create wonderful pieces from her art. She expected no payment, offering them as a gift at great postal expense ❤ so we did a trade, and I sent some sunprints in exchange. 

Not only Deb's art, but Carla's art also brought delight, with a Turtle note card, and she had made a beautiful piece to attach to the front of the envelope to put our address on. 

I can't express properly how very touched I am by this lady's kindness, and hope I manage to do justice to the Deb's artwork. I can't wait to try to include it in my own.

Thank you Carla. Your kindness has brought happiness, and a needed boost of faith in human nature. Diolch o'm galon. ❤❤❤❤

New Blog ~ Old Pieces

 

It's been a few years. My old blog decided I wasn't allowed to post anything new, even though I was signed in!

Today I went through my basket of unfinished pieces and created this new blog to keep track of, and share, any progress.

It's been so long since I made the above piece, that I'd forgotten about it. I was rather pleased to find it though, as it's quite relevant for Jude's exploration of Paper to Cloth. To Paper.

I didn't like the glaring white of the square on the left. Whilst wondering what to do about it, I remembered I had a jar of some Walnuts left to do their thing, gathering dust in a corner for years.

The Walnuts, (a handful), were a gift nearly ten years ago I think. As I don't have any more readily available, I've been terribly frugal, and only use the dye for painting onto small pieces. The smell when I opened the jar was of newly turned earth, and I inhaled deeply.

I'm so happy with the result of the dye on this piece.

Also found in the basket was a face.... 

 

...a technique learned from Jude, so many years ago.

I'll try to keep posting regularly, though this short piece has taken me ages...I'm so rusty at this!