A little more about me then...

Tani took the picture below a couple of weeks ago at one of our family's favourite secret places.
It is a place infused with the memories of our family from it's small beginning roots to it's *now* seven outstretched branches reaching up, up, up to the blue.

My Dad was a horticulturalist. Whenever he introduced himself to people he would say "I paint with a spade".

My earliest memory is with a paint brush in my hand, mixing blue and yellow paint on a canvas to paint a picture of my mother and I together.
To this day my favourite colours are yellow and turquoise blue.
I always wanted to be an artist as a child.

As the years have gone by, five children later, I see that maybe I have been an artist in my own way all along.

.

I create every day.

I create warm spaces in our small (sometimes messy) but happy home.
I create with my children, and I find my own childish wonderment reawakened in a handful of sand or clay or perhaps a brush steeped in deliciously thick paint.
I create at my sewing machine and upon my knitting needles and take much pleasure in making clothes and simple, natural toys for my girls using organic materials.
I create a garden, both literally and figuratively. I pull out the daily weeds, turn soil, plant seeds and somehow with the help of His hand beauty grows from the ground where we stand.
But most of all I hope I'm creating memories that in the years to come my children, my husband and I will treasure.

When the house stills and time is on my side I come to this quiet place and record a few of these.

My hope is that I also create a sunny little spot here for you to sit a while. Please feel free to kick off your shoes and feel the green grass beneath your feet, gaze up at the turquoise blue sky above and soak up a few scraps of gentle evening yellow starlight as you pass along the way by.

A random list of things I love

Latte with my girl on a Saturday morning
Babies dressed in old fashioned layettes and bonnets
Simple Kindness
Compassion
Sincerity
The Stories of King Arthur
Chivalry
Children's Picture Books
Trips to the Seaside
Secret woodlands ankle deep in bluebells and primroses
..Places you can get lost in
Art Nouveau
Impressionism
Expressionism
Mucha's Garden Ladies
Monet's Water Lilies
Van Gogh's swirling stars in pools of deep blue
Poetry...of any kind what so ever.
The words... I love you
Prayers by candle light
Old statues of our Lady dressed in blue, white and gold.
Pictures of Jesus with children all around him
Old lace
Regency dresses
Nuns in full habit
Latin chant
Vespers
An evening at Covent Garden watching the ballet
A glass of champagne on a Summer's day
Fresh cut grass
Apple orchards
Berry picking
Pies baking
Hanging baskets dripping with flowers
Meadows ragged with thigh deep wild grasses
Wooden clothespegs and cotton reels
A basket full of beautiful soft yarn still smelling of the green grass, the bracken and the fleece
Lambs frisking
Daffodils nodding happy in the breeze
The first tender green leaves of Spring
The first golden tinged Autumn ones
The scent of a babies head
Handmade dolls and knitted animals
A full morning to write
A white canvas
A crisp, blank page
An afternoon nap
Homemade quilts and blankets
A sunset, a glass of red wine and the shoulder of one I love to lean on.
A dream that enlivens the spirit
An inspiration that quickens the heart
A conversation that awakens perspective.
A good man who loves me
A home brimming with the laughter and noise of children.



This is me.