I just found this photo. . .

Sammy when he was a tiny kitten
fast asleep, curled up in a bowl.

Isn't he adorable!

Take Time To Smell The Roses

Wow, it seems so long since I updated. Sometimes that happens! I go through times when I have lots to say and then times like recently where I keep going to start a post then get distracted and never seem to get around to it. Well I am here now and I hope you are well.

Nothing revives the past so completely as a smell
that was once associated with it.
- Nabokov

Everything is blooming wonderfully in the garden, two roses that I bought a couple of years ago are throwing out lots of flowers and the most delicious scents.

When I was a child and my Mother used to collect me from school, we used to walk home past some glorious flower beds planted with all sorts of Roses, I loved the smell and I would stop and gather the fallen petals and fill my pockets and then my t shirt - I would hold it out in front of me and fill it with my multi coloured Rose petals before carefully folding it back to my body to keep them safe until I made it home.

Once I got these fragrant Jewels home, I would make Rose petal perfume or just leave them scattered around drying and filling my bedroom with the most delicious smell.

Even now I love the smell of Roses and can't resist leaning in to smell them, they bring back so many memories of my childhood.

The gardens of my youth were fragrant gardens
and it is their sweetness rather than their patterns of their
furnishings that I now most clearly recall.
- Louise Beebe Wilder

Here is something that I wrote a couple of years ago explaining how I felt about Roses.

"Lately I have been stopping to smell the flowers, the Roses in particular. Everywhere I go just lately seems to be littered with beautiful blooms just begging me to smell them. Wonderful huge flowers that could be displayed in the finest art gallery in the land and all in the most delicious of colours.

I must admit to feeling a little let down though, when after being summoned by some vision of loveliness I brave the stares of passers by and walk over some neatly manicured lawn edge to find that the beauty has no fragrance.

It is like talking to a pretty girl or handsome man and finding that their beauty is only skin deep, it feels you have been misled, cheated, I don't just want surface beauty, I want it to be built into every fragrant molecule. Roses should smell like Roses."

Take time to smell the roses!

Here comes the time when, vibrating on its stem,
every flower fumes like a censer;
noises and perfumes circle in the evening air.
- Charles Baudelaire

About a Cat - Ms Mitz

I had made my mind up during childhood that I wasn't a particular lover of Cats. I didn't appreciate them killing things, or their sharp claws and surprise attacks and their fur irritated my nose.

So, many years passed in which I gloried in canine company, such wonderful creatures! So many lovely dogs shared my life over the years. I even smiled at them in the street. I was most decidedly a 'dog person'.

Then one day through my window I spotted a young scrawny cat eating bits we had thrown out for the birds, we lived in quite an isolated place and I knew it didn't belong to anyone who lived nearby. It looked hungry so I put some dog food on a dish and went outside but as soon as it heard the door it was gone like a streak of lightning!

We started to see it in the garden more frequently and my lovely and very patient man took it upon himself to try and gain the trust of this young feral cat, who obviously hadn't had any contact with humans before. He would put out food for her and sit quietly yards away as she warily walked very slowly to the food and bolted it down before turning tail and disappearing.

She eventually became more confident, as long as he didn't move she was more at ease when she ate. Then we noticed her swelling belly! She was hardly more than a kitten herself.

Weeks later, we found her in a tiny old run down shed, wedged in a corner with a pile of her kittens. . . she was wild eyed and hissing so we retreated. Later we checked back, she had gone, moving her kittens to safety. That was the first of three litters she had. She disappeared between times and evaded our attempts to catch her and get her neutered, we managed to get one batch of kittens and with the help of a local animal charity they were taken and rehomed. Two other lots, we never found out what happened to them.

But she was still visiting for food and we had gained her trust, she would now wind herself around your legs while you were putting the plate down, but if you touched her, she would hiss and swipe at you, as though your hand was some strange creature out to get her!

It was then we noticed she was pregnant again.

We knew she slept in one of our sheds, so we made a bed up in there and hoped that she would stay close this time. She got bigger and bigger and we knew that her time was near. One morning we gingerly peeked into the shed and there she was, laying in the bed we had made for her, with her kittens. . .

This time we were prepared, my lovely Man had made a mesh inner door for the shed that reached almost to the top, so that she could jump over it, but wouldn't be able to move the kittens this time. When we saw her leave to hunt, or to eat food we had put out for her, we would sneak in and look at the kittens, we were determined that they would be used to humans, so they could find homes and not have to live a feral life like their Mother.
She no longer ran when she saw us and welcomed the food we gave her too. We took to sitting on the floor in the shed on old cushions, with the gentle light of a lamp, lighting up the dingy space. She would eat the food we gave her and we watched as the kittens grew and we stroked them at every opportunity. She too started to like being stroked, she watched as we stroked her kittens and seemed to sense that it wasn't harmful! and enjoyed it herself as long as she didn't see your hand! :-)

The kittens were getting bigger and wandering around, climbing and playing.
It began to get really cold at night and I began to worry for the kittens, when we went in there, they huddled close to me for warmth - it was then we decided to bring them indoors!

We set up an area in our spare bedroom with plastic on the floor covered with newspaper and a fenced in area and of course a litter tray! and set about bringing them inside.

We had a cage and we put a little food in that, and in she went. followed by one of her five kittens. My man quickly shut it up and threw a cloth over it, as I (in not one of my most thought out plans) put the other four Kittens in a shopping basket! We opened the shed door and both made a dash through the darkness. It was icy cold and pelting with rain and I hadn't bargained on the kittens trying to climb out of the basket I was carrying them in!
Well we made it! They were inside, and the kittens settled fine, exploring their new surroundings, the Mother cat was a different matter she started up a continous distressed miaowing.

The plan was to rehome the kittens when they were old enough, and then get the Mother cat done so she didn't have any more!

So, flash forward - we found homes together for two little golden girls and off they went to their new home. Three kittens left! I didn't like the idea of one being homed on its own, so was trying to find homes for all three but people only wanted two, it was heartbreaking and I had fallen in love with these beautiful little creatures! So they stayed and so did their mother! (once she had visited the vet and made sure she wouldn't bring home any more kittens!)
So now eight or nine years after we first met that skinny little feral cat, Ms Mitz is now a fat exceedingly friendly cat and a much loved member of our family. She and her kittens totally changed my views on cats and I am forever grateful that she came into our lives. Patience paid off!

A Message from Nature - The Story of a Heart

"Bluebells filled the woods with sweet fragrance, shiny bark and twisted limbs catching sunlight, ground soft underfoot welcomed our feet. Out of the shade and into a clearing, we followed a path to the now fenced meadow and looked back at the place we used to live."

- The passage above was written last year - just after a walk in 'our' woods. The first visit back since we left.
Taken from My Name Is Zing


Seven years ago we were living in a country cottage surrounded by nature. We had deer and foxes visit our garden and rabbits hopping around on the grass, it was open on one side to a three acre wild flower meadow that led to the bluebell filled woods beyond.

It was while living there that I became attuned to nature, I had never lived so far from a town and all it contained. Here nature was almost palpable in its presence and I grew to love the space, the garden, the animals. The wildness of it all.

It was rented from an old lady that lived close by, and we had lived there for seven years when the old lady died, and out of the blue a letter arrived from solicitors acting on behalf of the family. We had one month to move out, as her family wanted to sell up. I was in shock, it should have been expected but it wasn't. So the packing and goodbyes began.

I said goodbye to the big old stone workshop attached to the house that had been my art studio. I emptied the three outbuildings and remembered how our once feral cat, had given birth in the metal shed a year before to the kittens that now lived with us. I walked into the meadow to the spot we had buried our old dog Harvey just a few months before.

I strolled around the garden, that magical place where I had learned so much from trial and error and from just loving it and allowing it to bloom. Then I went to sit on the huge flat rock/stone that had been here long before we came. . . it was then that I saw it.


A perfect heart made out of moss growing there on that big lump of granite and through the burning tears that immediately leapt to my eyes, I smiled because I understood the message from this house, this space, from Nature. It loved me back.

The photo that I took of that special message, sits in the header to this blog, (among other things from my life) its story untold until today when I decided to share my heart, my story, here with you. . .

More of my memories can be read over at The Streaming Now

This post was inspired by a post over at suz's blog begin again I saw her heart shaped puddle - her message, and remembered mine.

The Gifts That Friendship Brings

"To know another is not to know that person’s face, but to know that person’s heart." - Chinese Proverb

Right there on my window sill sits a pretty five sided container, made from glass and brass and with little brass ball feet - it holds treasure.

So close, that I can reach out my hand and touch it with my fingertips, it is always there to remind me. . .

I love the ocean, I have an affinity with that big, swirling, tumultous world of waves and depth, and foaming spray. I live too far away from the coast and have learnt to deal with my longing to walk along quiet shores and towering cliffs, with the sounds of crashing waves echoing and bringing peace to my soul.

Through the vast limitless space of the internet. . . people find one another, whether by chance, design or synchronicity, kindred souls are drawn together. It was in such a way that I met a special lady, who though living on the other side of the world, understood and empathised with my love and longing for the ocean.

"There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound." - Diana Cortes

She knew the ocean well and walked its shore every day, collecting beautiful things and writing beautiful words. . . words that moved me. We became friends, and without the barriers of formality became close, and for a while we spoke deeply - one soul touching another.

Then came my birthday, and I finally opened the slightly squashed package that had arrived with a thud through my door the week before. . . I carefully pulled away the box and gently pulled open the big tightly shut plastic bag inside.

I plunged in my hand and with tingles running up my arm, the tears came to my eyes.

She had sent me her beach! There inside, were exquisite things she had collected day after day as she walked by her ocean, shells, driftwood and pebbles - a crabs claw, a feather and there filling the bottom of the bag, the finest silver sand.

She had shared her beach with me, and it was beautiful . . .

It sits beside me every day, so I am always close to the ocean.

I don't know if she ever realised just how much her gift meant to me.

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born." - Anais Nin

I Just Found This. . .

I just found this adorable photo of Bina (one of my three Cats) taken when she was a kitten!
I had forgotten how tiny she was - Isn't she lovely! She used to curl up on this Pink scarf on the corner of my desk. She is 7 this year and still sleeps on my desk, though she takes up a lot more room these days!

Candyfloss and Triggered Memories

"What we remember from childhood we remember forever

- permanent ghosts, stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen."

- Cynthia Ozick

When I was growing up, I lived a very safe, secure existence but secretly I longed for colour, sparkles and magic. Most of this desire was satisfied by losing myself in books, with tales of The Magic Faraway Tree and the adventures to be had in the ever changing worlds that appeared in the clouds at the top of the branches. Many hours were spent curled up on my bed lost in these enchanted lands.

So imagine my delight when a travelling funfair chose the large playing field in front of my home to set up its annual visit. From my vantage point on my bedroom window sill, I could see the lorries and brightly coloured fairground equipment arrive and quickly begin transforming an empty patch of grass into a colourful kaleidascope of lights, colour, music and smells.

Laying in bed at night I could smell the diesel engines and the fried onions. I could hear the sirens, as the rides slowed down to let off the hoards of screaming girls, mixed with the sounds of the latest pop records played loud. All accompanied by the flashing lights that I could see through my closed curtains, lighting up my safe little bedroom with the excitement I craved. I felt I had pulled this bright, edgy, impermanant world into my experience, and I loved every moment it was there.

As I became a teenager and wandered through this sparkly noise filled mirage that appeared annually yards from my window, I saw a girl not much older than me sitting in the glorious pink candy floss booth edged with flashing lights. She serenely twirled a stick on which quickly built a cloud of pink candyfloss. I remember being seized with longing. I wanted to be that girl, to live amongst the sparkle and noise and every two weeks to pack up my things and to travel to the next stopping place and do it all again.

Seeing this Candy Floss stall (in the picture above) at a recent event triggered these memories and bought them flooding back.

Memories of the girl I once was and of her craving for colour and adventure.

Making Mandala's (A Tale of Glitter and Glue! )

"Back on its golden hinges, the gate of memory swings, and my heart goes into the garden, and walks with the olden things." - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I was just going through some old discs when I found some photos of a forgotten project. It was about ten years ago that I got lost in for a couple of days in the making of these mandala's.

I started with 4 pieces of hardboard cut to 12 inches by 12 inches square, which I then painted with an undercoat and left to dry. While they were drying I raided the kitchen cupboard for some round things in a variety of sizes, I think I ended up with assorted small plates, a can of tomatoes and a small lid borrowed from a bottle of vitamins.

I carefully carried my haul back to my desk and with my various 'circles' a soft pencil and a ruler, I set about making my designs.

I tried pretty much to go with my first attempts, as too many alterations could start to make my nice white squares look grey and confusing.

So after I had completed the first design I was hooked! I still had other ideas that I wanted to try, so moved quickly on to the next. By the end of the afternoon I had all four pencilled out designs.

The next morning I began to fill in the flat colour, I worked on all four at once to save on brush washing between colours.

I had no plan in mind just kept working with a quite basic colour scheme so that all looked right together. Once the base colours were finished, I added some shading and texture with pastels.

Then came the messy bit! I have never quite got over my childhood obsession with glitter and sparkly things.

So with my pots of glitter in a multitude of colours, lined up in front of me and the little round mirrors (three of them have a mirror in their centre) layed out on the newspaper covering my desk - I reached for the glue!

Much later, there before me, were four beautiful sparkly squares, and they and my glue and glitter covered self! were finished.

I eventually turned them all diagonally and hung all four on my bedroom wall as shown in the main picture.

They are now languishing in a box somewhere but it is nice to remember the fun I had on the day - and the clean up operation afterwards. :-)

"Happiness...it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The Making of a Vegetable Patch

A couple of years ago we were reading about small space gardening, and decided that we had room in the area just in front of the fruit bushes for a small scale, raised bed growing area.

So, as we like to reuse and repurpose things, we started to keep our eyes open for materials. It wasn't long before our eagle eyes spotted just the opportunity we were looking for.

A house in the village where we live, had been sold and the new owners were doing extensive work to the house (an old converted chapel).

We drove by one day and saw the huge skip outside, almost full with decking boards that had been removed from the garden. They were still in great condition so rather than them end up in a landfill, we asked if we could have them.

Great, we now had the materials, we also had some paving slabs (also reused) that we collected from someone on our local Freecycle group that could be used as a path around the edge and to lead to our newly aquired compost bin (also from freecycle).

So one sunny day after laying out the paving stones roughly where we wanted the path, Joe got to work digging the vegetable patch.

The raised beds and a middle walkway were skillfully constructed and the beds were dug and filled with more soil.
Planted, and with compost bin in place, we are all set.
Now just to watch it grow!
A successful project! the curly Kale was delicious, the lettuce was good too.

Just shows what can be done with things that other people are going to throw away, some good design skills and hard work! (thanks Joe).

A Reminder of Summer

Today I walked around my garden, marvelling at the new life sprouting forth. Things I had forgotten from last Spring peeping their head out of the thick dark soil. Oh look! I kept exclaiming, delighted with each new find and the remembrance it triggered of previous years.

Our garden is an inherited one, we moved here 5 years ago and took over an overgrown but well planted mature garden, we had to wrestle back control and give it shape and meaning, and were constantly amazed at what we found growing among the brambles.

We didn't plant anything ourselves for a couple of years, just cleared it enough to let it breathe and to see what was growing there.

Every season was a new suprise! In spring came the crocus and the daffodills, tulips too, primroses tucked in places that would be hidden by the abundance of Summer.

This morning, I saw the fresh green leaves on what were to become the biggest gifts of the garden to us.

The first year I had hacked through a thicket of brambles and nettles at the back of the garden to reveal a row of fruit bushes and a young Ash sapling. I gave them space and watched as the redcurrents, blackcurrents and two types of gooseberries grew and ripened.

We shared the harvest with the fat blackbird and its young and the hungry thrushes. Sweet summer goodness, unexpected, but so appreciated, and the cycle is beginning again.


















These photos were taken of a previous years bounty, reminding me of summer on this overcast afternoon at the end of March.

. . I can almost taste them now.

Gifts from the Ocean

Gifts from the Ocean are all made from things found on the ocean shore.

Their creation came about one summer, as my partner J and myself, were living a very simple life close to the beach.
I have a love of the ocean (and all things natural), and while walking on the shoreline, found beautiful pebbles, shells, pieces of driftwood, wonderful rocks containing crystals, and lovely flat slate pebbles in amazing aesthetic shapes. I called these my Gifts from the Ocean

With just a hand operated drill, jute string, small pieces of mirror, a tube of glue and of course, imagination, I took the slate pebbles, shells and tiny bits of driftwood and I created these beautiful little reminders of the ocean, of the beach, of the simple life.

In the years since, lots of these were sold, or given as presents, but recently while sorting out a cupboard, I came across a box and when I opened it up, there carefully wrapped inside, I found the remainders of that creative summer and the memories came flooding back. . . .

















I still have quite a few of these little mirrors for sale (both the hanging ones and a few little standing ones with shelves). If you are interested and want to know more please leave me a message - Susannah :-)