Summer Holiday Pics and Giveaway Winners Announced

 

A few pictures from our trip to the sea a couple of weeks ago.

Tucked away in the old part of the town is the most amazing gift shop brimming with antiques and local arts and crafts. It's a little like finding a treasure trove and we always stop off to browse before heading home with bags of fish 'n' chips under our arms.

I'm delighted to announce that the winner of the Mindfulness Colouring book is: 

Momto5 at "A Family's Journey"

And the winner of the tea, soap and box of quotations is:

Denise from "just me being me."

Please contact me at sailingbystarlight@gmail.com with your contact details and I'll have them wrapped, posted and one their way :)

Thank you so much to everyone who took part. I'm looking forward to hosting another giveaway in the Autumn.

Soulfood Friday

Make a stillness around you, a field of peace.
Your best work, the best time of your life will be grown out of this peace."
Peter Heller, "The painter"

Stormy skies and glowing sunsets over the farm buildings down the lane.

The flight of swallows that I will miss.

Messages in bottles from "Gifts from the Sea"

A friendly pile of favourite reads to keep me company.

This raggle taggle girl.

"Leave the city of your comfort and step out into the wilderness of your intuition." 
Alan Alder

Every Friday I'll be pausing to notice something from the week that has nourished my soul.

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A special, sacred-everyday moment captured on camera, or perhaps a snippet from a book, a recipe still warm from the kitchen or something whimsical that simply made me smile. 

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Here are a few simple things that have fed my soul this week.

What has inspired/fed/nourished your soul this week friends?

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Feel free to link up to your own soulful spaces either at the bottom of this post or in the comments.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

{Baby Knits}

Learning that you are going to be an Omie* ...at 36 is quite something.

And you know it is going to be a wonderful, magical, joyful, beautiful something.

I am sure having a baby during her first year of college will be challenging at times but this surprise wee one and it's dear Mama will be loved beyond measure by so many. I know all will be well, as it usually always is. And aren't some of the greatest wonders of life often unplanned?

So Emmy is starting college this September and the baby will be due in March so I've started to get a baby knits hamper made up for her.

I can't believe how much I've knitted for my babies over the years! Clearly this little one won't get chilly.

The satin lined blanket with the rabbit applique was actually knitted by my own grandfather for me.

His Scottish mother made sure he and his three older brothers learnt to knit when they were boys.

I made up this little baby bunting doll pattern on our way to and from the seaside a couple of weeks ago.

I had a rough idea of the shapes I wanted to create and by some magic/luck they kind of worked. 

Bit slap dash I know but I sometimes like the feeling of not knowing exactly what you're going to get.

Muddling along is my speciality it seems. Besides, I had only found out the exciting news a few days earlier and my hands were itchy for baby knits.

Watching this little being unfold from the nest of my own hands, my heart filled with love for the little hands that will hold was very special.
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I knitted this little bunting doll using a mix of natural brown Alpaca Aran and some beautiful, plant dyed worsted by the wonderful Oxford Kitchen Yarns on Etsy.

While the face and hands were knitted with some BFL that I tea dyed some months ago.

*(German for Granny and after my own Omie)

 Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already!

Joining Frontier Dreams and Small Things

Living Arrows - Releasing our Grey Partridge Chicks back into the Wild

 "You are the bows from which you children as living arrows are sent forth..." Khalil Gibran

It's not everyday that you come home from walking the dog with a clutch of Grey Partridge Chicks nestled in your arms.

Grey Partridges nest in dips on the ground along hedgerows and fields. Although their mottled plumage provide a wonderful camouflage ( you can walk right past a nest without having the slightest idea it's there) it can't protect them from the keen noses of foxes and dogs.

Grey Partridges are extremely steadfast and will remain upon their nest to death.

With fewer and fewer safe places available for them to nest their numbers are falling and what used to be the common Grouse is now, sadly,  considered rare.

We found these (probably no more than day old) chicks in a very agitated state beside the scattered feathers of their mother. 

After bringing them home we identified them and made them a home out of a cardboard box, lined with white paper and hay.  We also provided small logs on which the birds could perch. Their nest was a crocheted bowl and they spent most of their time in it.

We made a water trough by filling a jam pot lid with pebbles before adding the water. The pebbles provide dry footing for the birds and prevent them from paddling which would result in cold, wet birds.

We filled another jam pot lit with crushed wild bird seed and pellets and another jam pot lid with crushed turkey starter food.

We crushed the food using a mortar and pestle till it was fine and crumbly.

We also regularly topped up their home with fresh seed filled grasses for them to peck at (thankfully we're lax on the lawn-mowing front :) Their diet was supplemented with finely chopped lettuce once a day.

A kind, local farmer lent us a 75 watt heat lamp which we suspended about approx 3.5 feet over the box (high enough to not overheat the box at any rate!) and turned it on and off at hourly intervals during the night and two hourly intervals during the day (we worked in shifts to accomplish this.)

 Luckily the weather was incredibly mild and they spent most of their time asleep on someone's lap.

Although it was a far from perfect arrangement, we managed to keep it going for 10 days until the local wild animal hospital could take them in.

It was very difficult for Boo to let them go. She had in effect become their surrogate mother during this time. Although they may have looked identical she knew each chick individually. 

It was fascinating to see how different their personalities were.

Rosa was the leader, always first to explore and constantly using her siblings as stepladders in order  to get a better view of her surroundings.

Sweet Pea was always after the food and loved to snuggle in Boo's hand. As soon as Boo would pick her up she would fall on her side in the deepest of sleeps.

Little Hugo was the most timid. He liked to spend most of his time in his nest or anxiously following the others around.

Two months after we dropped them off we received a phone call from the animal hospital. Would we like to collect the chicks and release them back into their original habitat?

Of course Boo was delighted by the prospect.

We found a small woodland near the fields where they would easily be able to find, food, water and shelter.

 Sadly little Hugo didn't make it but a lone Pheasant chick who had been rescued at the same time as the Partridges and had been housed with them, came along too. Boo named her "Pippi" after Pippi Long-stocking.

While Sweet-pea and Pippi quickly found a roost in a nearby tree Rosa, ever the adventurer was first to explore her new home. Rosa the brave ventured, slowly yet steadfastly toward the turnip field beyond, pecking around as she went and occasionally turning around to see if we were still there as if to say "so long, farewell"...

 

Pippi, Sweet-pea and Rosa, we wish you well.

You are the bows from which your children are living arrows are sent forth… - See more at: http://www.gingerlillytea.com/2015/08/living-arrows-3452.html#sthash.7ae3SLzs.dpuf

You are the bows from which your children are living arrows are sent forth… - See more at: http://www.gingerlillytea.com/2015/08/living-arrows-3452.html#sthash.7ae3SLzs.dpuf

Sharing with the  Living Arrows series   & Through my Lens
& Tuesday Afternoons

Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already!

{52 Project} 23/08/15

Boo with her head in a book as usual.

Nola and her friend Foxy.

Matilda watching squirrels in the Walnut Tree. 

Beautiful Emmy who is now expecting her own sweet baby in March of next year. While I'm trying to get used to the idea that I'll be an Omie at 36.

And dear Seraphina with a rather less than impressed Florence.

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Sharing with Practicing Simplicity
& My Sunday Photo

Don't forget to enter  my giveaway if you haven't already.

A Giveaway {Soulful Supplies}

 “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” 

Rumi

I wanted to express my thanks and appreciation for the lovely connections and friendships I've made through this quiet little corner of the interwebs called "a soulful life."
So I've been collecting treasures and trinkets (or Soulful Supplies) and they became somewhat unweildy so the original idea for a giveaway has actually turned into two giveaways in one. Which is surely a happy accident.

The first is for a box of Traditional Earl Grey tea infused with Bergamot and Cornflowers, a little box of quotes and a bar of Virginia's Artisan Soap made by my friend in real life, Caroline. She crafts her handmade soaps using ethical, all natural ingredients and therapeutic essential oils. They make my bathroom smell wonderful!
Please visit her site and support, local, handmade.

The second giveaway is for a mindfulness Mandala Colouring book {Colour Yourself Calm}

It has a section on the practise of mindfulness and an inspiring quote on every page.

Carl Jung used to draw a Mandala every morning to centre himself before the day.

“My mandalas were cryptograms concerning the state of the self which was presented to me anew each day…I guarded them like precious pearls….It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the center. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the path to the center, to individuation. ”

“ The mandala is an archetypal image whose occurrence is attested throughout the ages. It signifies the wholeness of the Self. This circular image represents the wholeness of the psychic ground or, to put it in mythic terms, the divinity incarnate in man.”

 
Mandalas have been present throughout many cultures, traditions and spiritual practices.

In ancient Tibet, as part of a spiritual practice, monks created intricate mandalas with colored sand made of crushed semiprecious stones. 

The creation of a sand mandala requires many hours and days to complete. Each mandala contains many symbols that must be perfectly reproduced each time the mandala is created. When finished, the monks gather chanting in deep tones as they sweep their mandala into a jar and pour it into the down-flow of a sacred river as a blessing to reflect the eternal cycle of life.

Drawing, colouring or meditating on a Mandala can be a therapeutic aid to exploring ourselves, our dreams and our place in the universe that moves around and within us.

To be entered in the giveaways, please leave a comment below and feel free to share, tweet and pin.

{Soulfood Fridays}

Every Friday I'll be pausing to notice something from the week that has nourished my soul.

*

A special, sacred-everyday moment captured on camera, or perhaps a snippet from a book, a recipe still warm from the kitchen or something whimsical that simply made me smile. 

*

Here are a few simple things that have fed my soul this week.

Our first log fire of the year.

 

This poem from this book.

Some thoughts on Summer storms

Opaque clouds sieve golden leaves of light to damp earth.

Summer's last gift.

I watch the rain with my yarn basket close by.

Woolen threads weave through my fingers

And fall to cloth on my knees.

A cuddle just when needed. 

 What has inspired/fed/nourished your soul this week friends?

*

Feel free to link up to your own soulful spaces either at the bottom of this post or in the comments.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up