A Quiet Moment

Many moments deep in thought are spent in this chair in this spot next to my bed. Favourite cushions and a hooked rug seat cover garnered from Opportunity Shops. As it is said, sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits. A fantail has taken to flittering at the window in greeting or perhaps just to warn me away from her nest in the tree nearby. We haven't had any fantails in the house as we did last year. though at the time there visits indoors were frequent and repetitive and left us wondering what news they foretold as they clung to the high old ceilings with their tiny clawed feet whilst we batted at them with an old fishing net on a pole trying to guide them back to the great outdoors. Maori legend says they foretell of a death but these ones brought news of a different kind I feel. The arrival of my daughter pregnant with our grandson who arrived in August last year. Dear wee Lachlan, eight months old now. His tiny hand reaches out to hold mine and his eyes crinkle into a smile of recognition many times a day as I pass to and fro through the house as I bend in greeting.The Down syndrome he suffers from seems to matter little now whereas once it would have been my deepest dread. All that matters is that moment of connection as our eyes meet and we acknowledge our links within the inner circle across the generations and the joy we feel in each others prescence.
Who would have guessed so much pleasure lay in store for me as I fretted over what the visit of the fantails might bring.
So now I sit in my chair,in the afternoons, back to the window basking in the warmth of the winter sun and jiggle wee Lachlan on my knee. Dreams and imaginings cast aside whilst I live in the moment fully. For isn't it said that we will not pass this way again, and I don't wish to miss a trinkling of it.

R.I.P. Aspen Bagley.

A sad and reflective day. My late mothers 94th birthday(she passed 3 years ago) and news of sweet doggy, Aspen Bagleys passing from this world to the next.June 1993_may11th 2009.My poor canine companion Brie is suffering from arthritis in her back legs from the surgery she has had in the past 2 years.I spend much of my time wrapping her in soft blankets and cutdown jerseys making sure she is warm and doesn't lick away any more fur from her painful leg joints. She is only 7 and I do hope she will be here as my best buddy for a long while yet.She is my step grandaughters dearest friend and confidante.She has suffered the trials of having AML leukemia over the past 18 months and she is only 8years old.Through it all she has pined for my dear doglet who understands more than can be expressed in words. Bries joy each time my grandaughter is released from hospital after yet more painful and agonising treatments has to be seen to be believed. More than once we have sneaked Brie into the basement carpark of Ronald McDonald House so they can share a brief cuddle to keep them going until they are reunited once again.Friendships such as theirs and ours do not come along everyday just as Ninas and Aspens did not. R.I.P. Aspen Bagley.

Garden Journal

At the end of winter last year I decided to start a garden Journal.I thought it would be a theraputic way of getting past the demolishing of the beautiful garden I had at my last house by property developers. I had a lovely old book titled "Roof over Heaven" and this seemed a good name to inspire a new garden even though my "new" garden is around 105 years old.
I took photos and added them to the altered pages and picked up bits and bobs of thread and fabric scatterd by the birds or dropped beneath my clothesline by the wind, feathers from my ducks and anything else that could conceivably be added to my book.
Naturally it is an ongoing process and some moments recorded are especially meaningful such as the "planting" of my grandsons placenta under a Taiwanese Cherry tree in the front garden.
One day I will record my previous garden which was a thing of great beauty but for now I feel the need to look forward and linger on thoughts of the delights to come in my new garden.
We have planted Fig, Olive, Apricot and Plum trees this year.More to come and savour in years ahead

Fabric Paper

I have completed my piece (rather large it is this time as I didn't want to break up the old newsprint too much) of fabric paper incorporating the leaves and old newsprint and bits of old lace and twine that I have found on my walks.I do wish it didn't have such a glossy finish but the PVA glue used in adhering everything into 1 unit gives off this finish.I don't think it suits these items I have used and I would have preferred a flat dry looking finish.
However I have had it hanging in my studio in the doorway so as I walk past it or sit at my desk I ponder on further embellishments other than the freestyle sewing I added or a item to use it upon.I am pleased that these fragile items are now locked together in one piece and not floating about in boxes deteriorating further.
As I whirled about sewing freestyle on my machine a bird shape emerged over a piece of lace off centre.One of my favourite aspects of the whole piece I might add!

Time gives up it's Treasures

Browsing through a second hand book store the other day for old dictionaries and the like I came across this 1937 edition of "New Zealand Weeds". The book itself was reward enough as I have a weakness for aged Gardening books but as I turned the pages a treasure of another sort revealed itself. .Beautiful pressed leaves from a long ago autumn carefully placed amidst the pages and perhaps placed back into the bookshelf to relish some later day. How many decades they resided there one can surmise.
As I sat in my armchair on a warm and balmy summer evening and admired my finds, it came to me that I could use them along with some aged and tattered newspaper pieces that I had found in the ceiling space of our century old villa. These had revealed themselves last summer as we prepared to insulate the roofspace and I had pressed them for safekeeping between the pages of an unused scrapbook.
So today I will assemble all my savoured bits and bobs and make a sheet of Fabric Paper from Beryl Taylors instructions. Once it has dryed I will admire it further and try to envisage what I will embellish with the memories of seasons and years past.
At the back of my mind is the humbling thought of how truly fortunate I was to be entrusted with someones savoured memory of autumns brilliant colours revealed in nature!