a little bit of sunshine

It's turning out to be a mixed bag of a season and today for a brief spell, the sun is shining. I have planted out some more peas having reaped all the pods from the last couple of plants. I am amazed at the speed the runner beans are growing - they are true sprinters (or runners!) and when your back is turned, whoosh, there they are!

I cooked some of these up with new potatoes and served with tuna, boiled egg and assorted leaves to make a good healthy supper last night.

Listened to the radio about new ways of learning - now that we are all becoming familiar with bits of information (facebook, twitter etc) and sharing it, it seems the heirarchy of learning is breaking down and it is becoming much more organic and democratic. More signs of the Aquarian influence I think, and a perfect manifestation of Jupiter (global village, cross culture and media) in Aquarius.

Sun spot activity is non existing which coincides with our current economic down turn apparently.

Just found this delicious site at rocket gardens where you can order your very own instant garden kit, all organic and suitable for little growing areas, and big ones too. I am becoming a bit obsessive about growing my own!

seaside

What a journey! Good job we packed sandwiches, chocolate biscuits and a flask of coffee, since the trip down south took many hours. Still it was worth it. It was a flying visit to pick up car parts and have abreath of sea air too. Stayed in a delightful and old fashioned B and B without a sea view but with the sound of seagulls day and night!

Watched the sun set over Brixham harbour in the company of next doors little tabby and more chocolate biscuits. Too a detour over the Dart and had a quick look at Dartmouth, collected a couple of pasties to take home and did the vid for next week's horoscopes.

fun trips

I am off to Devon at the weekend, and it seems everyone else is as there's no room at the inn so settled for B and B instead. We will have to lug around a load of greasy car parts as this is the reason for going, but the added benefit is that it is the most fabulous part of England and I am spoilt for choice where we can visit in a few hours but fancy Dartmouth and a bit of Dartmoor would be good. Video scopes will come from this part of the world, weather permitting.

I have finished my blanket too so that will go up on ebay soon. It's weird, I finish one and can't wait to start others. I used to be the same about painting pictures. Maybe it's because I have such a massive stash of wool.

Poor Dearest Daughter has gone down with swine flu, although this thing appears to be a walk in the park for some and a living hell for others. Who knows how we will all be afflicted.

Astrologically the Jupiter/ Neptune conjunction is the link. Jupiter makes things massive and Neptune symbolises viruses and the strange way they morph and know us out. These two are in Aquarius and the same point was hit by Uranus back in 1918.

saturday mornings

I love Saturdays and there's nothing better than mooching around the market getting bits and bobs, and also collecting new wool. Went to my favourite haunt today and they have stacks of mohair but I'm not into that at the moment. Still, picked up some nice oddments and I am making a blanket for the new baby.

Also I promised myself that I would make some muffins. I haven't done this before so I searched on the internet and found a great recipe for blueberry muffins and they turned out great! I stuck half of them in the freezer for later.


And then I had a mooch around Borders, which is where half the North West went to as well. It's great to see so many little sprogs with their Dads looking at books, and causing mayhem. The handicraft section is now squashed in with the diets and healthy living bit which is handy for me. The astrology bit now fights for space with grimoires and Gothic fantasies. Makes sense, I guess, although I am more of a healthy living type than a dark mythic person, though this has its place too. Doesn't quite feel the same when you get stuck into this stuff and little pink clothed children are running around yelling at the tops of their voices. I wonder if there are spells for turning kids into muffins.

I wanted to get the new Country Living mag and I had seen it Saisnbury's but didn't bother to get it, and now I can't find it. The American one is just not the same!

men on the moon

This week everyone has been reliving the amazing moment when Man Walked on the Moon. People are sharing their memories of what was an incredible and emotional time. The astrology chart shows a beautiful configuration of profound potential and harmony and Saturn, symbolising earth and what restricts us, is clearly unaspected in Taurus. We had freed ourselves from our earth base. The Moon is in the sign of Libra; balance and harmony.

Now 40 years later, Venus returns to the same point in Gemini and the Moon is in Cancer and Saturn is in earth Virgo. This is a very different world.

The Moon symbolises the feminine and it is a masculine act to thrust upwards in rockets and stick flags in her soft surface but intriguing that since then we have not made a later attempt to land. The power of the earth rise picture the year before triggered a world wide ecological movement towards caring for our planet and the Moon's role is to reflect back to us what we cannot see for ourselves. How powerful!

The Moon in astrology also represents what is hidden and our connection with creativity, spontaneity and what we need to feel nurtured and cared for; from seeing the wonderful blogs out there celebrating simple creative processes, beautiful hand made items and fantastic photographs of our world and nature, we are tapping into this element of our being, creating a balance against the world of trouble and strife depicted in the media. Check out the ones I am following below.

This next week there is an eclipse and New Moon in Cancer. This is a time of potential and creativity and a time where we can consciously create a world of our choosing. Focus on what you want to bring into the world.

eating stuff

nice ideas here

Still harvesting the peas and parsley, but not happy with my runner beans, which have masses of flowers but seem to be dropping off before the beans appear. Glad to have a drop of rain to save me watering. The cucumber has finally got going and at the weekend we had our first stuffed courgette.
Recipe: simply cut courgette in half lengthwise, scoop out flesh and fry with chopped onion, mixed herbs, chopped tomato and 1 clove of garlic and stuff into courgette shells. Pop in the oven on baking tray with cubed butternut squash and chopped green pepper on the side. Sprinkle with olive oil and more herbs, and then add a couple of chunks of St Augur cheese on the courgettes at the end of cooking. Serve with fresh green salad. Lovely jubbly.

two days old

And she already seems a wise old soul, switched on and always on the go. Last night I crocheted a tiny beanie hat for her, since her Mum and Dad want to take her out amongst the trees and fresh air as soon as possible.

the colour purple

Loved this vibrancy, how brave, how gorgeous, what a riot! (shame about the seagull poop on the wall... must have been blown away by the colours too...) Love wishy washy as well.

more seaside pics

We went to Anglesey and had lunch in Beaumaris, a mooch around Menai and beachcombed at some beach which I love but cannot name. We watched storm clouds brewing, coming from Ireland, but somehow avoiding us.

away day

Just fitted in the trip out and came home to the happy news of the new baby! Aquarian Moon and Cancer Sun and Gemini rising. This little girl is going to be such a character!

New Baby

The little one has arrived so now I am a granny! Just getting my head around what this actually means. Mum, Dad and daughter are all fine and hopefully will be seeing new family tomorrow.

Here are my first three pea pods just harvested.

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I don't know what it is with me at the moment, but I was up at 4.30 am, but thought it was 5.30, so have just been sitting here doing crochet and fancying a boiled egg and soldiers and marmite for breakfast. The weather looks fine so it's off to the seaside later.

I have been tootling around the internet and came across a gorgeous website selling vintage fabrics Donna Flower. I realise I have an irrational passion for such things, and love art deco, as well as French peasant style, 1950's botanical Paul Klee inspired stuff, and secretly loved chintz when Ikea were telling us to chuck it out. Here is a little picture my Mum did when she was at art college doing fashion drawing back in the 40's.

The Times and these times

I had a phone call this morning from my son (Capricorn) who is just about to head off for a break in Mexico with his wife (see pic). He just wanted to say bye for now, and we discussed the new family baby who still hasn't made an appearance yet! As my son will be away when the baby is born (his niece/nephew) he asked me to get a copy of the newspaper on the day of birth. We agreed that the best paper to get would be The Times, and he, with a long view, thought that once this child grows up, there would probably be no newspapers.

I remarked that my son was born during the winter of discontent in the late '70's, where there were no computers, no mobile phones, and I wouldn't have been able to do this (like,blog or have a website), or indeed talk to him on his iphone from the airport.

It's a fascinating time for new babies to come into the world - we are in an eclipse season (7th July through to 6th August, when there are 3!) which brings revolutionary shifts and changes. this month, the Cancer/Capricorn energies are strong linking where we have come from, our roots, our families, and our tribe, to where we are going to in the bigger world (Capricorn). It's time to have plan, to plot out the intentions and not leave things to chance. Once we have created a map, then it is so much easier to follow it. The hard bit is knowing which is your own map.

People are facing challenges and changes with jobs, and the employment situation. By losing a job you can create the circumstances to be self employed, and start your own business. For some, this is a fantastic opportunity. Today the Sun links with Saturn, and Saturn represents time. The clock is ticking.

holiday snaps

I was trying to sort out all my bits of stuff on the computer - it's such a muddle and like the kitchen drawer, full of odd bits of junk, which are probably not necessary but interesting. Like I have packet of hollyhock seeds which are fabulous flowers but perhaps too big for the space I've got.

Last year we went to Bellagio on Lake Garda, which happened to be the reward for some PR work I had done with a holiday company (nice). The pics are like a tour of eating and drinking stops and I took them on my li'l ole motorola, so not too bad considering. Be nice to go back.

But we are planning a day out in Wales on Thursday. Not quite the same, but if the rain stops then it will be lovely to be by the sea, to watch the seagulls, pick up smooth pebbles and walk on the beach.

high summer

Went for a walk today and dodged the rain. I love the sky when it is battleship grey and the corn fields are lighter and brighter than the sky. Amazing cloud formations too.
A compromise has been reached on the caterpillar control - no more spray but they are simply being relocated elsewhere. This feels better.

I am inspired by jugs - nearly bought a Berylware one at the weekend.

Uranus is strong just now and stationed in Pisces - explosions and violence around religion is ongoing. Small groups fighting for their voice to be heard, but the time is ripe for alternatives and new solutions.

It's good to find the time to watch birds flying and living their lives.

vintage

These sweater girls are fab - tiny people in those days, when a 38 inch bust was large. Love the pose.

70's

I bought a stack of tupperware at thelocal charity shop and my other half was a bit aghast - he is not too impressed with tango, tobacco brown and avocado green plastic containers but I love them! There used to be a wonderful tupperware party lady called Nelly Pledge, and her whole life was tupperware. I am sure she used to drive round Cheshire with a mini full of orders, plastic cake boxes, keepers and whatever else they were! Ah the days of domesticity!

Came across a book from 1979 with some great crochet stuff too

flora and lettuce

It's funny how you see things and get inspired by the colour or word, or idea. I wanted to make a blanket that's a little bit faded and washed out looking, delicate even, but then it just depends what I have available.
Since my foray into knitting for babes (still don't know who it is who is on the way) then I am looking more at pastels.


As for the home grown stuff, well, we are eating what the little garden produces everyday, although, horrors, the caterpillars and aphids are competing like mad. Had to resort to rather drastic methods to get shut...(Scorpio Moon brings death...)

gifts of icons

Dylan and Mucha - how sixties! how divine!
and the ipod - my birthday presents

A life more or less ordinary

Maybe it's me, but the more sensationalist the big world out there is, the more I retreat to the constant, ordinary and everyday. This morning I got up an hour earlier and sat and read a book outside in the early morning sunshine. There is only so much rushing about anyone can do.
Venus is in Taurus and this sign is earth based, connecting us to the natural world, to nature and the little things that are always around but are easy to miss.

I managed to dislodge a tiny spider in its web, suspended from the garden chair to a pot of geraniums. It went into panic mode, scrunched up and then a few minutes later decided to spin its web again. Within three hours everything was back to normal and the web was restored. It's a good lesson!