A Dull Grey Morning..

The sky is cloudy and grey this morning.
Listen...

Can you hear the sound of the westerly wind


bending the raupo reeds
and
murmuring through the trees
and the quiet lapping of the water..

and through the copse of beech trees
I swear I could hear the soft padding footsteps
behind me
of a four footed creature
whose quiet name is

Fear

There are paths I have never taken
because of that lurking
presence,

primal and ancient.

Oh I'm just getting a little melodramatic here of course.. such fun,
but that little primal fear does lurk within the recesses of the mind,
from childhood or maybe somewhere deeper..


Back home I went straight to my books and hunted and found the one I had in my mind after the dull grey morning walk.  A gift received in 1995  and after a hurried read back then, it has sat waiting until today..

Women Who Run With  The Wolves.
Contacting The Power of the Wild Woman
By Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I remembered a conversation with a then young son about life and he said..
How did people get on before psychology was invented?
I guess they had stories, I answered.

As I ate my breakfast I began to read the book 
and the words and wisdom jumped off the page as never before.

I just know I am going to love this book this time round..

Serendipity Sunday..

After thinking about Alice in Wonderland yesterday
I checked my e-mails
and there was the quote for the day (below)
from www.gratefulness.org

Strange how often in life this happens.

Coincidences?



"One can't believe impossible things" said Alice.

"I daresay you haven't had much practice" said the Queen.
"When I was your age I always did it for a half an hour a day.
Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Lewis Carroll
Through The Looking Glass.
Chapter 5


The art is a doodle-collage on canvas.. a work in progress.
Slow progress.
It has been around for a while.

Happenstances on an ordinary morning at the lake.... or Silly Saturday.

Sometimes there is magic and mystery
down at the lake..


Now my name is not Alice
and he wasn't white with a large pocket watch,
but there he was..


a small wild rabbit
nibbling grass amongst the ducks.

A very odd sight.

Further along the path lay two feathers strategically placed.
I began to wonder

and look around

and behind..

and under the macrocarpa trees
a most strange thing..

one black hair net!

' Curiouser and curiouser, ' said Alice.

Now everything usual is beginning to look strange.

Is that a  lone hobbit communing with the giants.

Everything is looking very curious indeed!

Is this world really as we see it?
I think I need to go home for sit down and a good cup of tea!

Summer Ripening..

Summer is two thirds over
and the harakeke flowers have gone.

No more  birds feeding in the harakeke, for the time of nectar has finished.

Inside the black leathery pods
are the little black flax seeds
spilling in their thousands.

I carried this pod home from the lake, in my pocket, so I could sketch it.  It was tight shut but as it lay in the sun while I ate my breakfast out on the deck, it opened and the little shiny seeds fell out when I picked it up.

As we enjoy the season of summer, eating fresh beans and sweetcorn and luscious tomatoes,
already Mother Nature is preparing for a future season
from her crazy abundance.
Tonight there is a gentle rain falling steadily and I am wondering about the leaves
in the spouting by my top deck
and whether they are blocking the flow and wishing I'd remembered to remove them.

Dead leaves and tiny seeds. What a mystery this universe is.
Every dead leaf has been sun catcher and a factory of energy and oxygen for us to breathe. 
Every tiny seed holds the DNA of promise,
the power of possibility,
and the sound of life giving summer rain will lull me off to sleep tonight.

Memories..

I love the trees around the lake.

The beech trees have such beautiful bark...
and hold all kinds of surprises.


This morning I found a cicada skin
still clinging to the bark where it was abandoned.
The cicada that magically left his skin
was probably one of the many singing in the trees.

I found some initials that could have belonged to Mo,
my loved husband of thirty years;

and I decided this could almost be Ross' name too.
Ross our loved son and brother,

It is lovely to have a special place to remember
those we love and miss so much.


This tree is surely a beautiful goddess!
so I left my memories
in her care..

deep in the heart of Mother Nature.

Very warm days.  My early morning walk around the lake is my favourite time of the day to be outdoors.

Colour and Kaffe..

Kaffe Fassett
was as inspirational as I expected him to be.
His energy and enthusiasm and his artistic flair
is so exciting..

"It's all about colour" says Kaffe

and I picked up a few bits of his fabrics..

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and this morning I hung some bunting I made from small scraps from my own stash
to celebrate colour.

It is very warm here today .
Kaffe commented on the strong light and lush greens of New Zealand.
Maybe they will appear in his quilts one day.

Goosey, Goosey Gander...

Of all the Beatrix Potter characters,
Jemima Puddleduck is my favourite.
She is the one I identify with.
She sits on my scanner watching me blog..
saying
Oh you silly goose!

I'm sure I too would have been totally taken in by that Wily Fox.

This morning down at the lake
the geese were sleeping on the new safety rubber at the playground
until they saw me coming..

and they hurriedly waddled over in a most friendly manner,
as if they recognised me,
a goosey sort of friend.

Of course it's all just cupboard love.

Someone's been feeding them.


Oh yes!!
Today is an exciting day.   I'm off to Auckland to hear and meet Kaffe Fasset!

The Rains are over and gone..

24 hours of lovely rain
and a blue sky day today.

The lake is very full again
and ducks and coots and geese are blissfully happy.
I love to sit on this little jetty.

Waiting for a baby Moses to appear among the
raupo reeds?

This morning a dragonfly darted into view
and touched the surface of the water..tip..tip..tip..
as quick as a flash and gone.

He left three perfect circle ripples that spread and crossed on the water
and that is miracle enough for me today.

A fragment of the day..

a found page from an old visual diary..
just organising downstairs..again

Midsummer Rain

It rained all night
I think

I wasn't awake to know

it has rained all day

water rushing down the gutters


it suddenly stopped at about 4pm

i was upstairs reading
lost in a Sarajevo war

the windows steamed over

condensation
on the inside
i thought

but no
the inside of my windows are dry

my house is cooler inside than outside
at this moment
and
Midsummer Sun
is sucking up all that rain water in steamy glee

it feels like a Moroccan Haman out there

A Surprise in the dark...

It was a rainy night tonight.  A steady summer rain drenching the warm earth.
A good night to go to bed early with a good book.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

I had just fallen asleep.
Bang! Boom! Bang!

Oh my Gosh!
Is it thunder or war???

Then I remember
that flier from the City council.

Midsummer pyrotechnics down at the lake.

The only view I have is from my south facing upstairs bathroom roof window..
so I stand on my bathroom stool on tip-toes
and watch the fabulous display.

My little camera catches some strange light shapes
but I rather like them.
Now .. it's back to bed again.

What a wonderful life around here at the lake.

My very first night spent in this house was on my birthday
the first day of March
four? years ago..
I lay in bed all alone, feeling strange in a room lit by street lamps
instead of country dark..
 when
Boom!  Bang!  Boom!
I leaped out of bed with fright and out onto the deck.. and there I saw the most wonderful display of light..
 fireworks over at the Rugby Stadium.
Thank you Hamilton,  I shouted into the booms and bangs,  for the wonderful welcome!
and hopped back into my new bed feeling very happy.

Midsummer Nonsense!

The midsummer madonna
is getting rather tatty and going to seediness

the heat is going to her head



it's as if she says

to hell with all this housework
and just lets things go

and if she's not controlled
she goes quite wild and crazy

in such ravishing abandonment...
with such beauty in her wildness

that you just want to let loose

and

join her...

it's summer, after all!


This overgrown garden is at the bend in our street. an old house with a rampant garden.
I photographed it as I walked home from the movies.. very hot in the sun.
I went to see THE KING'S SPEECH.   Wonderful movie..