Woke up to the beginning of a beautiful morning. As the sun rose higher, the morning warmed up and I could see it was going to be a stunning autumn day. I decided on an early morning trip into the local town, as there seems to be so many glittery projects and swaps in the offing that I can see mammoth supplies of glitter will be needed. Thought I would buy it early before all the children get involved in glitter tasks for Christmas, at school.

I caught the country bus into the town and enjoyed watching the autumn countryside as we trundled along. The trees are still green, but there are hints of turning leaves in very small clusters. The rowan trees are packed full of berries, I can't remember if that is supposed to be the sign of a harsh winter, I think it is. As we left the village and crossed over the river, I noticed Mr.Heron was perched on the rock in the middle of the river looking for his breakfast. As I had started out early the town was quiet when I arrived there, as it had not reached its Saturday fever pitch yet.

As I passed one of the charity shops, I thought I would pop in quickly and have a look. I am glad I did because I found a lovely hand thrown pottery casserole in a beautiful pale blue colour, which will blend in with my yellow kitchen perfectly. Next stop the discount stationery store where I bought, glitter pens, glitter in the pot, a big bag of coloured feathers, new felt pens, various colouring pencils and some fine looking gel metallic pens, that were jostling each other and shouting 'buy me Daisy, come on you know you need me' Never one to ignore a wheedling pen I gave in. Then popped into Poundland where you can often find some gems among the dross and stocked up on fat church candles. There is nothing like a room lit by candles on a dark evening, much nicer watching a dvd or TV in the soft glow of candlelight. Found some bits and pieces that might be useful for altered art projects and decided to finish off with a cup of coffee sitting al fresco in the pedestrain square, then hopped on the bus home. A lovely way to spend a sunny autumn morning.


My very faourite jewellery stone is a moonstone. Moonstones are very female stones and work in conjunction with the moon. The power of the moonstone can become too much for some people to wear when there is a full moon. It is a stone that calms you, opens you up to inspiration and to your psychic capabilties and I believe it empowers you. If I ever have to do something difficult where I want a positive result I wear some moonstone jewellery. When I went to seek the grant for the Local History Group, I wore moonstone, earrings, ring and bracelet to fully empower me. I always feed my moonstones with the moon's rays. This means on the night of the full moon I lay them out on my bedroom windowsill so they can soak up the moonshine. When I am wearing them I can always tell how much power is in them by the degree of flashings of blue they emit when they catch the light. If you want inspirational dreams or dreams of the future, or answers to questions try sleeping wearing a moonstone or putting one under your pillow. What are everyone elses favourite crystals and stones?


This picture opposite, is my piece For the Friendship Piece Project. It is going to Robyn, in Australia and I hope she will like it. Sorry about the quality of the picture, I was in a hurry the other day because I wanted to get it posted and just quickly scanned it into the computer. Some of the shiny fabric has not reproduced too well, it looks slightly better if you enlarge it. There are seven people doing it including myself and we each make one 6x6 inch piece for each other, so we all end up with six pieces from people and then we do with them what we will. Such as we can make a mini quilt or a wall hanging. The pieces that I have seen on people's sites so far are really exciting and I think we are all going to be thrilled with the end result.

I have decided after being encouraged by a GPS to put my Daisy Podlings up for sale, I was thinking of sending them out with a notecard that explains their beginnings, and my GPS, well it was Judie actually, had the great idea of sending adoption papers with them. So I can combine their origins and adoption sheet. I will probably put the next batch of Daisy Faes up as well. Not sure yet whether it will be ebay or Etsy. I have my son, sorting it out over the weekend for me, as I am rubbish with these paypal online stores. I will add a bit of altered art and a couple of other things I have been busy with and take it from there. Fingers crossed I can get it all sorted out.

Don’t forget to join in Daisy Lupins’
Halloween Ghost Story Posting
Post a ghost story, something strange that happened
To you or a tale you want to tell
On 31st October, or as near to before
As possible.
Let’s have a Giant Story Circle

I would like to introduce you all to this little creature opposite, it is about three inches tall. This is a Dasiy Fae Podling. I will tell you the tale about Podlings as the faeries told it to me.

We are going back into the past, back so far that time itself has forgotten that this point in time ever existed. We are on planet Earth, but an Earth so different to anything you could ever imagine. In fact our minds could not comprehend the beauty and wonders of this Earth. It is an Earth that has never been recorded by bone diggers, dinosaur hunters or even geologists. An Earth so different that we have neither the words that would describe it or the images or vibrant colours to visualise it by painting. It is peopled by beings that we also have not the ability to describe, beings that bear no resemblence to anything we have ever heard of or would contemplate. It is a time just before the faeries first were here and in shimmering glimmering recesses all over the planet the podlings rest. In the whole history of time there has only ever been one settling of podlings and there will never be any more, although there are enough to last until eternity.

Podlings are baby faeries. Faeries cannot give birth and have no tummy buttons. Faeries come from the podlings. Podlings are in a state of longterm sleep that can last for millenia, then one day there is the most wonderful harmonious sound, such as human ears would not know what words to use for what they had heard. Then a slow dry cracking and a young faery emerges from the pod.



If you are lucky enough to be given or presented with a podling, there are certain things you must do. You must keep it in a bright friendly place, and send it many happy thoughts, because they are what keep them alive. If you treat your podling well your happy thoughts and wishes may penetrate its deep sleep in the form of dreams and the podlings may send many happinesses and gifts your way. I doubt many of us will be lucky enough to see the faery emerge from the podling as we humans do not have a long enough life span. So just remember, if you have the chance to own or come across a podling please treat it well and remember its ancient heritage



This is the second time I have tried to write about podlings, would you believe the first version that I really liked the way I described them disappeared into cyberspace. Ah the cosmic joker must be about. I have to admit the photo doesnot do the little podling any favours, she is much more shiny and glittery than the photo shows.



I have taken this tag from Tinker, I might not tag anyone at the end, because I realise we are all in a tagging frenzy at the moment. All I am going to say is feel free to do it on your site if you wish. it is an interesting tag

1. Are you happy/satisfied with your blogs content and look?
No, not really I have found some interesting paintings that I often use to illustrate my blog, but I would like to personalise it a lot more, but blogger can be awkward and I would hate to lose it all, plus I am not the greatest at the techie side of blogging.

2.Does your family know about your blog?
Yes. they all do, they don't bother with it though, only my daughter reads every posting and continually says 'oh mum that's so you' She knows me better than I know myself sometimes. The rest of my family just think its a typically hippy dippy Daisy thing to do.

3. Do you feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog? Do you consider it a private thing?
My close friends know about it, but I don't go round the village shouting 'Hey everybody I've got a blog' and I probably wouldn't mention it in the village or they would take it over looking for mentions of themselves. If someone sussed it was me I would try to deny it purely for the sake of peace, but I don't go looking for trouble. If it was private I would make it private, because you can on blogger, so only yourself, or yourself and family can see it. No, its public, but not locally public, I like communicating with people.

4.Did blogging cause any positive changes in your thoughts?
Yes I used to scoff at blogs, but after a few weeks of reading a few, thought I would have a go. I have found a lot of like minded women who are very similar to me and I communicate with them a lot, I have also found just basically nice people who I occasionally communicate with. I have also found one or two disagreeable people and narrow minded people, the less said the better.

5. Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or do you love to go discover more by yourself?
Oh I have my regular blogging friends, but I do tootle around in cyberspace and am not adverse to going on commenting on people's blogs whom I don't know if I think we have things in common, after all thats how you make friends. I do believe that if people comment on your blog it is polite under most circumstances to return to theirs and comment. That is part of my blogging etiquette. If I visit I try to comment unless I am in a hurry, but then I will probably return later. I will probably miss out on a posting with over twenty comments and tack onto a posting with less, just because I think I must be too late to comment.

6.What does a visitor counter mean to you? Do you like having one on your blog?
Not really bothered overmuch, when I was new to blogging I was a bit obsessional about it.

7. Do you try to imagine your fellow bloggers or give them real pictures?
Well some are brave enough to put up photos, so I know what they look like. I take a very bad photo and look either a prison inmate or totally dotty, I am terrible about relaxing for the camera. If I ever had a good photo taken I would probably post it or would I? I tend to imagine people younger than they really are, probably because althought I am 54 I still think I am mid thirties, early twenties on a silly day
.
8. Admit it. Do you feel like there is a real benefit to blogging?
Oh yes, blogging has brought me back from 50% creativity upto my early twenties standard of 100%. I have even started drawing again. I am also meeting and communicating from people from all around the world which keeps me broad minded and open minded which is just so important.

9. Do you think that blogger society is isolated from the real world or interaction with events?
Not really we talk about what is happening in the world, we recommend each other books etc and we send each other items. I would happily invite a blogging friend to visit if they were journeying anywhere near to me. [Don't knock each other over in the rush lol!]

10. Does criticism annoy you or do you think it's normal?
I don't really like criticism, put it this way its my blog I will say what I want to state any beliefs I have so don't bother with the criticism honey, the time to criticise me is if I come blundering over to your blog, and make outrageous comments of a rascist, sexist or any other type of disagreeable nature, including suggestions of craziness or ramming of religious beliefs down your throat.

11.Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them?
I do not fear political blogs, I don't really visit them but I am not adverse to making a very political comment on my own blog if I feel upset about something, and I have made such comments in the past.

12. Were you shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?
I can't find out anything about this, did it happen in the USA? Can anyone tell me? There is nothing over here in the news about it that I have seen. I would be shocked because I believe in free speech.

13.What do you think will happen to your blog after you die?
I would like to think if a someone stumbles across it at some point in cyberspace, maybe in the far future, they might think I was typical of people at that time, lol! Imagine what a made history that would make if they thought everyone had my beliefs and ideas. Alternatively, I would like a great grandchild to say something like oh great grandmother must have been hoot, she is so weird.

14. What song do you like to hear? What song would you like to link to your blog?
Very difficult, at the moment I am doing my creative stuff to Van Morrison's early stuff so I would probably choose 'Madam George' or 'Tupelo Honey'

15. The next victims?
See what I said before I started, but Robyn, you might be interested in doing this as your have been blogging for a long time. How about it?

Don’t forget to join in Daisy Lupins’
Halloween Ghost Story Posting

Post a ghost story, something strange that happened

To you or a tale you want to tell
On 31st October, or as near to before as possible.
Let's have a Giant Story Circle

I got the idea for part of this post from Lisa Oceandreamer, who has written a lovely piece about her childhood memories. It got me thinking, especially as she asked about other people's early memories, so I spent the time before going to sleep last night, unpacking memories. This is what came out of my memory chest.

I am sitting against a pillow but my head is resting against something furry and brown, and my hands are banging on something covering me. I can see over a small garden wall. Years ago, when I told my mother this memory she thinks that I must have remembered sitting in my big coachbuilt pram. When she was getting ready to go out my mother, would strap me in the pram in the garden if it was a nice day, so she could change her clothes etc. The brown furry thing was my monkey 'Jacko', he was about sixteen inches tall, I was presented with him for my first birthday and used to really love him. The hand baning bit seems to have been me banging my hands on the stormcover of the pram.

My next memory is of being carried upstairs in the dark and crying because I am scared of two glowing lights I can see. Apparently, my mother says she bought me a pair of blue slippers with clock dials on them that glowed in the dark, when my dad carried my up to bed in the dark so I could see them light up I started crying and hiding my face on my dad's chest. I was terried by them. I was about eightenn months old.



The third memory is of sitting on my mother's knee high up in a van, there is snow falling and starting to cover the ground and I really warmly wrapped up, just a big bundle really. There are lots of houses some built, some half built and no proper paths to them, there are piles of bricks everywhere. This was a February when I was two years old we are moving into our first house on a new development which is being built, only the first phase is finished. I lived the first two years of my life in my grandparents house, as after the Second World War there was a severe housing shortage, and there was building starting everywhere to provide more houses, as materials became available again. It was early 1953 when we moved in.

After that things become slightly blurred, vague memories of my father and grandfather planting potatoes, the first year we were in the house, to nourish the ground for planting a real garden the next. Sitting on a step with a little girl giggling together, I remember she had very long thin fingers. The next clear memory is my first day at school.

First day at school, I was happy to go and ready for new experiences, with my birthday being in November I was in the older part of the class. I loved the classroom with its little tables and chairs, and sandpit outside, and cute little camp beds for a nap after lunch. Imagine my disappointment when, we were all told to stand on chairs and some of us, including me were told to get down and line up in the corner. We were then taken to one end of the dining hall where a circle of small chairs had put out around a big freestanding blackboard. We were told to sit on the chairs, and this would be our classroom now. I wasn't amused,as it was also the dining hall and smelt of stale food in the afternoons. The teacher told me that we were the older and clever ones so we had been sent up to the next class! The truth of the matter, as many years later I found out was that there had been a baby boom in the six years after the war and infant schools were desperately overcrowded. There were far too many children for one classroom, about forty five, so the fifteen oldest, were taken away to form a new class, but alas, there was no classroom so my first year at school was spent in the dining hall and our drawers where our books and paper etc were kept were in the corridor between the dining hall and the reception class I should have been in. I had so wanted to be in that classroom with the lovely equipment. However, all was not lost, as the next year, a temporary reception classroom had been made, with the cute little beds in there, now in my second year we were to inhabit that lovely classroom I discovered on my first day at school.



I have been tagged by Beth so here goes!


1. Which famous person would you most like to learn that you descended from?
I think John Dee, a fascinating man, who was a seer and 'magician' at the court of Elizabeth I. A man who believed there were great unknown mysteries in this world and others, he was also an alchemist.

2. Which famous person would you hate to learn that you were descended from?
The Witchfinder general, Matthew Hopkins, who lived at the time of the English Civil War and was a cruel sadistic man who burnt too many innocent harmless women.

3. If you could be an ancestor to any famous living person who would it be and why?
I think I would like to have been an ancestor of any great musical theatre star who was the toast of Broadway and the WestEnd, and they would say,'.. of course, my talent must have come from Daisy Lupin, a marvellous singer, and was my aunt...'

4. If you could go back in time and meet any known ancestor of yours, who would it be and why?
I think I would like to go back and meet my great grandfather, Alfred, so I could pick his brains about gardening.




FIVE WEIRD THINGS ABOUT ME!!
Only Five ?
1. I am left handed
2. I can communicate with most cats, some tell me interesting things, cats in different areas have slightly different cadences in speech, much like local accents.
3. I had an imaginery friend as a child called John, he only joined me when my own friends were not around.
4. I think I might have once heard a banshee, and yes there was a death at the time.
5. I once saw a UFO



Well, I can't think who to tag, as I have seen this on quite a few people's sites. Let me think .... I will tag Gemma, Pam and Kai, three glitter gals. Don't worry if you have done it or don't want to do it. I don't mind.

One last thought, I really adore the picture above right, I love the idea of the young girl staring into the fire dreamily, with the little kitty on her knee. She is totally lost in a world of her own making. Probably dreaming of princesses, dragons, handsome princes and fairies. It is called 'Firelight Fancies'

Sunday Scribblings - Instructions

As I am short of time this weekend, I thought I would just jot down my thoughts on instructions, or should I say what happens when you ignore instructions. If you think about it, in most myths and fairytales there always instructions about how to achieve your destiny or your task. You might have to knock on something a set number of times or answer a set of questions in a certain way. Usually things come in sets of three, a favourite number in myths and tales. The downside happens, when instructions are disobeyed. I will now open up this can of worms. Have you noticed in these myths and tales how many times it is a woman who disobeys the instuctions and faces the dire consequences? Hmm lets just look at this.

The oldest tale of all, Adam and Eve. They can have anything they want or desire except the fruit of one little old apple tree, so what happens? Yes the serpent keeps up a continuous whispering in Eve's ear until she knows that nothing else will satisfy her except a bite of one of those little apples, I often wonder did they look bright red and juicy or were they small, sour wizened specimens. Whatever, she caved in and crunch, bite, 'you try some too Adam' and bang goes the Garden of Eden. Later on in the bible we have Lot's wife, who has an inclination to disobey instructions. On leaving Sodom and Gomorrah, they are distinctly told not to look back and keep going forward, so what does she find irristible, yes, of course, looking back, and what does she do at the last moment? Yes, thats right. Well there would be no shortage of salt now.



Move onto Greek myth and who do we find tripping happily over Elysian lawns, oh yes, our happy girly, Pandora. 'Whoops' she shouts as she stumbles over a box. 'I wonder who left that there and what could be in it? 'Don't open it.' all her friends call, 'It could contain something bad.' Does ditsy Pandora take heed, no not a chance, up goes the lid and out comes all the troubles and tribulations that now populate the world.


Now, personally, I don't think I would really care to be married to a man with a blue beard, but on the other hand, he was exceedingly rich and had an enormous castle, so that could have swayed his new pretty young wife. Now this husband, Bluebeard, has to go onto a trip, so he says, 'Look, while I'm away invite your relations to stay, eat anything you like, explore any room in the castle you like, but please see this little door here, right at the top, tucked away in a tower, well I would rather you didn't go in there, but here's the key anyway. Back in a couple of months dear, bye.' Well, hey-ho, what does little miss wifey do? A week or so goes by and guess what, she bored and, of course, curious, so she hotfoots it up to the tiny room at the top of tower, without a second thought the key is in the lock and turning, the door opens and there you are the grisly secrets of her husband exposed. Now the outcome of this depends on which version you read, she is either saved at the vital moment, after her husband returns and has the knife at her throat, or I'm, afraid, kaput, its all over for her.



The question is are these tales are written by men who are determined to make women look weak, simple and incapable of controling their curiosity, or is that just how we are contrary creatures, who won't be bossed around? Having started looking at the idea of women who don't follow instructions, I find I want to do some more research on this aspect of fairy tales and see where it takes me. I look at it this way, when I see a sign saying 'Wet Paint', I invariably reach out with the tip of one finger to see if it is. I don't think I could resist doing what was done in any of the above situations, but then I was the child that used to creep downstairs again after bedtime and hide behind the living sofa, until I was found, because I could never believe there was not a fantastic party happening after I had been told it was bedtime.

I'll leave you with this one last thought. There was a girl who did obey instructions, as she was a polite, well brought up little girl, if the bottle said 'Drink Me' she did and if the cake said 'Eat me', naturally she consumed it. Her name was Alice and look at the scrapes she got into.

The difference of two days. Yesterday was a really good day, we had been forecast gales, the tail end of hurricane Gordon, but it was a beautiful sunny day, and the wind only blew up late in the afternoon. I spent the morning clearing all the now defunct annuals out of the longest bed in my garden. It was lovely working in the sun, and I didn't need a cardigan over my sleeveless t-shirt. The bed looked a lot tidier, I just left the perennials that are still blooming and some other foliage plants. I have not cut back any of the perennials yet, I like to leave them tall for as long as possible. I finished by cutting a huge bunch of white, magenta and pink dahlias, plus a variety of gladioili to display in the house. Then I finished my gardening by sitting down at the garden table with my cup of coffee and book in the hot sun. Bliss!

Last night I had to go out to a community meeting for my whole area to beg for a grant for my Local History Group to enable it to put together a booklet and have it published, the subject being village memories. The wind had got up quite blustery by that time, but what a strange wind it was, the air was really warm when the wind blew, in fact, it could be described as balmy. The meeting was at another village about eight miles away, and really out in the sticks. Standing up in front of a room of strangers and describing my project and saying why we deserved a grant is not something I take to easily. I don't mind speaking and leading a group of people I know, but I have to use courage in front of strangers. As the time got nearer to my piece, I could feel my heart starting to pound. I was wearing my moonstone bracelet, ring and earrings to empower me and aid me, which they certainly did. I managed to get the grant for the group of exactly the amount we needed.



Today started off really well, although it is a more cloudy day. I had just finished my breakfast when my post lady knocked with a small package for me. It was from Lisa at Hand of Enchantment, who had sent me two altoid tins to play about with and alter. It was so kind of her to send me them but not only that, her husband had sandblasted them for me so they are ready to start on. Thank you Lisa. I have had to hide the tins from myself otherwise I would have wanted to start on them right away and I am far too busy until the end of next week with projects to finish.

Instead I decided to get on with my projects, but it has turned into one of those days. I split a box of pins on the floor, I jammed my sewing machine and had to take it apart and put it together again. Then I was snipping edges on something I had made before turning it the right way and snipped right through the stitches argh.................. I am now in a blue funk, have a lack of concentration and feel quite tierd. I have given up the project work for today and decided to write a new posting instead. This is calming me down, except for the fact I am making a lot of typos and my spelling has suddenly become atrocious. I think why I am feeling like that today is because, I have just noticed this, on my lunar calendar, today is the dark hours before the moon starts waxing again. That probably accounts for my low ebb.

I know a lot of my friends in blog world have not been feeling themselves in the past few days. I came across this information by chance today, or was it by chance, when I was looking for something totally different. Apparently, from 23rd August when the moon went into Virgo until 22nd September, today, or rather tonight when the new moon starts to wax is an exceptionally powerful period, especially between the dates 20th and 22nd September when there is an additional potency as the moon is also moving into a new sign which has an inharmonious element and there will be disruptions in the energy of the luncar cycle as this path forms. That is a synopsis of what is happening in the heavens, and it seems to me it makes sense as to the way a lot of us are feeling.



I have had an idea, I know that a lot us are interested in strange occurences that have happened to us or like stories of strange occurences. Well I was thinking that in the week that is as near to Halloween as possible, or even on Halloween, if any of us have time, why don't we all post something on our blogs in keeping with the ethos of Halloween. You could either tell of something strange that has happened to you, or one of your family or just retell a local legend or ghost story you know. It would make for fantastic Halloween posts and we could all visit each others sites to read the stories. What do you think, all of you out there? Anyone like the idea? Lets see how many great tales we get to read by candlelight.

I am writing a post today about a place very close to my heart, a place I call my soul's home and that place is Cornwall. We first went to Cornwall fifteen years ago. We wanted a family seaside holiday, with good weather, so we knew we were heading down to the south of England. We decided on Cornwall, somewhere I had always felt I wanted to go. From where we live it is a long journey, we went on the train, a journey of nine hours and getting on for 400miles, from one end of England to the other. The magic started as soon as the train crossed over Brunel's magnificent work of engineering, the bridge over the Tamar river. As soon as the train was on Cornish land, the enchantment fell on to me, I felt as though I was coming home. I had never felt like that before, when visiting a new place. Sitting typing this up now, I can feel tears in my eyes thinking about that feeling of 'coming home'. Every year since then we have tried to visit Cornwall at least once a year, some years we have managed a lucky two times. If we ever have the chance and the wherewithal, that is where we are heading to live. It is both our deepest dream.




That first holiday we went to Penzance, the end of the line for the railways in England, after three years holidaying in Penzance as the house we rented was no longer available, we started going to Falmouth, staying in different apartments and houses. Now in these later years we have returned, without the family to Penzance. We love both places dearly, but there is just something a little extra about Penzance that both my husband and I feel,something that can't be expressed in words, just a felling about the place.

The first two photographs are of St Michael's Mount, the Cornish twin of Mont St Michel in France. When the train turns towards the sea as you approach Penzance, I can't express the feeling that wells up as St Michael's Mount comes into view, it is like an island out of time and from fantasy, and when you do this journey, as we have, when the sun is just rising it is just awe inspiring.


The above photograph it taken from the front of Penzance looking back at the town, the church tower that soars above the buildings is the Abbey, and it dominates the skyline of the town.


This is a photograph of our favourite pub in Penzance, 'The Turks Head'. It is a very old building, some of it dating from the 16th century. It has very low ceilings and to get out into the lovely planted courtyard behind it, you go down this very old narrow low ceilinged corridor. The cellar of the building is a restaurant, although you can eat in the actual pub, which is very dark, wooden and quaint or in the couryard. The food there is supberb. You can just imagine smugglers doing business there. I think part of it was attacked when the Spaniards invaded in tudor times. It is set in one of the crooked narrow streets that lead off the main street of Penzance.


Here is another view of the Abbey. It is situated, also in a maze of little streets. That is one of the things I love about Penzance the narrow streets with very old houses and shops, dating from the 1600's onwards and then the regency part of Penzance near the sea front.


This is one of the squares, where the houses, date from regency times, and a lot of them are painted gay pastel colours. Behind these squares are the impressive Morrab Gardens, and the houses on one side of these are larger versions of these small regency houses.


Whenever we visit Penzance, we always have a couple of trips by train to St Ives, the above photograph is an overhead view of St Ives as you leave the station. I love St Ives, the only thing is that in summer it is very crowded, the streets are very narrow, yet traffic is allowed through these narrow streets, causing congestion, as obviously the streets were not built to take the volume of today's traffic.


This is representative of some of the side streets of St Ives, they are beautiful in summer, lots of people have hanging baskets and pots full of geraniums outside their doors, which makes it very colourful. St Ives is full of craft shops and galleries, not all in the main streets some tucked away in small side streets and alleys. The nearer to the sea you go the more tight, twisted and narrow the streets become. All to the benefit of old time smugglers, sneaking through the night to collect lace for the ladies and brandy for the gentlemen. Our favourite pub is at the harbour, 'The Sloop', it is another old quaint place. Three beautiful beaches surround St Ives and there is no where better when the sun is shining and the sea is sparkling than lying on those beaches. On the other hand it is also impressive watching the storm clouds approach and the sea changing from a sparkling blue to a stormy grey.


To me, there is nowhere like Cornwall, and especially nowhere quite like Penzance. It is a unique place, the quality of light is sensational and there is just something in the air there, its not just the ozone, it's a sort of magical quality, a place where anything could happen and you would not be surprised. In parts there is a quiet shabbiness to it that is endearing, and the ambience is very comfortable, a place where you just don't seem to have to hurry about anything, yet at the same time and inspiring, buzzing place. The main street is called Market Jew Street, and that is the main thoroughfare for traffic, at the top of that is what is called Causeway Head a paved long road of interesting shops, old book shops, craft shops, witchy shops and interesting food shops. Cutting away from here is Bread Street, that is still being rennovated and is the home of art galleries and craft shops. We stayed in a lovely small house just off Bread Street, in a private Square with cobbles, and trees growing in the middle, a square that looked more French than Cornish. Well I leave you with one last photograph of the the sun's rays shining on the Abbey.

Sunday Scribblings - Google Magic

The prompt today for Sunday Scribblings is to google a subject and research it and see what you learn. I have googled my subject and have written two small pieces containing the information I accessed.

Many, many years ago, long before dinosaurs were ever thought of as, going to roam the earth, before violent geological upheaval of volancoes, seas and mountains being formed, back to an earth in its first incarnation, a very different earth, where gods were in the ascendant and ruled the earth. The day began in the West, with the Sun God, Ra getting in his boat, attended by his trusty daughter and pulling the sun across the sky to the East, whereupon he would descend into the underworld and cross the world under the earth to re-emerge victorious the next morning in the West. Unfortunately, Ra had eyes that could not penetrate the darkness, and was, therefore, at risk from his enemies, especially the evil serpent Apep. To the fore came his vigilant daughter, the ever watchful Lady of the East, owner of the the Sacred and All-Seeing Eye. By night she transformed herself into a cat and was known then by the name of Bast. The priests of Ra, in their temples, endeavoured to kill the serpent by burning wax models inscribed with his name and cursing him. Every night Apep tried to kill Ra, every night Bast, with her night vision thwarted him, and plotted to kill him.

One day whilst travelling through the sky the answer came to her of how to achieve her wish. Looking straight into the sun she gathered up the strength of its rays and stored them behind her eyes. As they entered the underworld, she crouched, long black, sleek and ready to pounce. In the darkness Apep, hissed and sinuously slithered towards the boat, Bast lifted her head in his direction and flashed the brightness of the sun's rays, into his eyes, he faltered and in that instant Bast launched herself at him and sank her teeth into him until he was dead.

Bast was then given goddess gifts of her own, her main purpose was to ensure that the warm sun would continue to bless the Nile delta, continuing to keep the soil fertile to bring forth abundant crops, in this aspect she is a Goddess of the Sun and of fertility. With her all seeing sacred eye, her cats eyes that reflected light she was given the dual honour of also becoming a Moon Goddess, her eyes that stored the sun's rays then giving reflective light to the moon.



In the lower Nile delta is the city of Bubastis, wherein is a temple, not the largest temple of the Eygptian's but certainly the most beautiful. It is built of hugh blocks of pink granite and set on what is almost an island formed by two canals fed by the Nile, that circle it, one to the left and one to the right and stop short at the site of the magnificent entrance. Each canal is a hundred feet wide and shaded with beautiful palm trees. The gateway rises over sixty feet in height, and is decorated with incredibly carved statues of women, cats and catheaded women. These statues are over nine feet in height. The path to the temple starts in the city and crosses the marketplace, it is four hundred feet wide and two thousand feet long. Giant trees line the way. Once inside the grounds there are cats everywhere, and none may taunted,teased or ill treated, as this is the temple of Bast. Priestess of Bast tend to the cats, who are all considered holy. Their robes are of a diaphanous red, the sacred colour of Bast, and their rituals comprise of sensual erotic dancing emulating a cat's movements. These dances are coupled with music and great feasts, where the petitioner who need boons granted for healing and protection, must also provide foods for the cats. When a temple cat dies, its particular priestess must shave off her eyebrows as a sign of mourning and the cat is mummified and buried in the temple's vast cat cemetery.



Every year a festival was held at the temple in honour of Bast, and the pilgrims approached the temple by boat from the Nile. Boats travelled many days to this festival, only men and women were allowed to worship, no children were permitted. The journey was spent in singing and playing music, and the women dancing wildly when vast amounts of wine were quoffed. As the journey progressed the worshippers grew more and more bawdy, women calling out lewd comments and flinging their robes open at the fishermen they passed. On arrival at the temple animal sacrifices were made and after entering the temple grounds it was the duty of every man and woman to partake of as much wine as could possibly be stomached, or possibly not be. The whole idea was continuous wine drinking and feasting, with the temple priestess performing their erotic dances, it obviously decended into a bacchanalian orgy. It is no surprise that by this time Bast was, apart from a Goddess of Fertility, a Goddess of Mothers and Childbirth, the possible results from the festival. Many thousands of people attended this festival every year, it was a very popular festival.

In the centre of the temple grounds, totally enclosed by giant trees that are impenetrable, lies a beautiful garden with black cat sculptures, ponds complete with fish and many perfumed plants in overblown flower. Here wander the most beautiful of the temple cats, wearing their red amulets, their one gold earring and purring with satisfaction. Within this garden, that is not open to temple visitors is a beautiful smaller version of the large temple. Deep within, with the aroma of incense heavy in the air, and waited upon by the highest of the temple priestesses on a low couch made of gilded wood and studied with lapis lazuli then strewn in scarlet pillows, lies a long slender female with the head of a cat. She lazily strokes a large black cat with hand ending in long claws, she lethargically awaits the end of time and the beginning of eternity when the Gods will join together again.

I constructed this piece by doing my research on Google, and using the data I found put this piece together. Descriptions of the festival and temple come from the books of Herodotus and the basis of the story of Apep is Eygptian myth. Having said that I embellished the first part of the piece, which is the myth and I totally made up all of the piece about the eternal Bast at the end, although there is a shrine in the middle of the temple. I just wanted to add my own slant so the last part is total fiction, and the first part is how I saw the myth. I just call it artistic license.

Strictly Confidential For Your Eyes Only

After doing over sixty postings I think some of us are becoming old friends now, so I thought its time to tell more about me. Time for me to tackle that 100 things you may not know about me, that a lot of you have done. I don't know if I have the staminia to do all 100 today, but I'll give it a whirl and see how it goes. After the however many '100 things' I stop at, is a meme I pinched from Janet's site, all about food likes and dislikes, just in case any of you ever have to feed me or me feed you lol! Then this amazing brain pattern thing, sorry but I can't remember where I got hold of this from.

The two postcards I have posted amongst all this are two of my new range of collages I am doing, inspiration struck after the Happy Chocolate Swap one I did.

100 things you may not know about me

1. I was born 9th November 1951, no point in lying
2. I am a Scorpio, I certainly am regarding being secretive
3. I am a natural brunette, but spent some of my life as a crazy either hennaed or mahogney redhead, I am now blonde with caramel undertones [it hides the grey best]
4. I am English but a paternal side that is heavily Irish, which comes out in my character at times
5. I now consider myself a Goddess, not a crone and have accumulated the gravitas to be one
6. But I still have a wonderful inner child that escapes on a occasion, but it keeps me young
7. You could say I am a Jack of all Trades and master of none. I have done art college, for my artistic side and made theatrical costumes and I have done university and have an hons degree in History and English for my academic side. I have dabbled with all these facets of me
8. I am 5.4ins in height, my daughter is 5.7ft and my son is 6.0ft- which means they can both pat my head.
9. I am no longer the slim girl I once was, but not many of us are
10. I have been told I have a butterfly mind - but it suits me its how I work
11. My deepest wish is for us both to move to Cornwall because it is my soul place
12. My children are the best things I have achieved in life
13. I am an only child
14. I have a vivid imagination - possibly because of No13
15. I played the piano from the ages of 7 to14, I was thought to be quite good but my music teacher died and I gave up I wish I had a piano now
16. I adore cats and need them in my life, although we are on a short break after Pixie's death at the moment
17. My husband bought me a bodhran two years ago for my birthday and I love it. I can thump away on it on summer night's in the garden. I thump to my own beat
18. I always wanted to be either a backing singer or a rock chick
19. I sing loudly to my favourite music when alone
20. I can work myself up too easily and can have flashes of hot temper if badly provoked
21. People think I am a calm person I am a seething cauldron of emotions inside but can have a calm exterior
22. I cannot swim
23. I love spiders [remember we don't have poisonous ones over here]
24. I am very open minded
25. I believe the old adage 'there are more things in heaven and on earth etc' so you cannot say anything is impossible we just don't know how yet
26. I don't believe man walked on the moon - don't be shocked by that
27. I firmly believe in faeries
28. I have a thing about hares, I adore them
29. I love to sleep with the moonlight shining on my pillow and face, I never close the bedroom curtain
30. I have too many books to count, I am a book addict
31. The old music is the best you late 60's early 70's Joni, Van, Neil, Carole et al
32. I have pierced ears and am an earring freak - always have a pair in
33. I wear a pewter disc with a protection rune on it round my neck 24/7
34. I love Chocolate and do not keep it in the house, I buy it when I really need it
35. I try to live in harmony with the earth and believe in it as an entity
    
36. Vanilla is my favourite smell for bath products and candles
37. You can never have too many candles and insense cones
38. Purple is my favourite colour but not in decor
39. My two main rooms have white walls, the colour is in the adornments, but I have a bright yellow dining room and kitchen and I mean bright. Our bedroom is bluebell blue and very restful
40. I could be called very 'new agey' but I would call it believing in old ways of doing things
41. I know in a past life, I think it was puritan times I was hidden in a house with a vast oak door whilst soldiers were looking for us.
42. My favourite semi-precious jewel is a moonstone and I have a beautiful ring and bracelet of these
43. I hate bigots, warmongers and fat rich cats that cheat the poor
44. I can be bossy when the mood takes me
45. I will listen to any friends problems and be discreet
46. Two places I would like to try living in South of France and Italy
47. I need the sun January and February are bad months for me I need warmth and sun see No 46
48. I use to think I could play the guitar - yes probably strum 3 chords
49. Don't ever cross me or do me wrong - I warn you
50. I always remember 'Revenge is a dish best served cold' and I can be revengeful if my family is ill done by
51. I love goldfinches, crows and owls
52. I love shawls and scarves and always wear them in winter and can't resist buying more
53. Ditto beads and bracelets
54. I love Little Grey Rabbit Books, she is my countrywoman heroine
55. I could live as a Jane Austen character, as long as I was allowed a little giddiness
56. My teenage film hero was Terence Stamp
57. My teenage hot pop star was Brian Jones of the Stones, I cried when he died
58. I remember what I was doing when John Lennon was shot
59. I absolutely believe politics corrupts, you may not be that when you go into it but if you get anywhere you 99 per cent will be that at the end
60. People tell me I don't look my age
61. If I am ill and shivery I need the comfort of a hot water bottle and even my old teddy bear
62. I talk back to the television when the news is on
63. I have to live my life by writing lists of things to do and lists of lists
64. I always have to sleep with the bedroom window open some way, unless it is a blizzard
65. I was a mature student at University and I loved every minute of it
66. You would not believe some of the things I got up to at art college
67. I shook Princess Dianas hand although I was not supposed to be where I was
68. I am not a monachist but I would rather have a Queen as a figurehead than a President, the way things are at the moment
69. I hate sport of all kinds
70. I love musical theatre
71. I love fairytales and folklore
72. My favourite painters are Matisse, Bonnard and O'Keeffe
73. I would love to have the space to keep hens, I have looked after hens before
74. I like to sit out on a warm night and spot the first star to appear in the sky
75. I am going back to loving poetry again
76. I used to make all my own clothes
77. We once lived five years without a television. I didn't miss it
78. I love The Archers on BBC radio
79. If I have money to spend I can't pass a charity shop or a stationery shop
80. I can be mean, I object to the price of books and buy them secondhand or from discount book shops
81. I love wandering round art galleries
82. I love visiting large public gardens - especially Kew in London
83. I love long journeys by train or bus as long as they are not crowded
    
84. I look back in awe at risky situations I have been in in my late teens and early twenties
85. I used to smoke many many years ago gave it up when I wanted to get pregnant
    
86. I believe in charms and spells
87. I love to visit London, I love the buzz of the place
88. But I am happy to return to my village
89. Believe me villages are not always the quiet peaceful places they seem on the surface
90. I hate people who are cruel to animals, I would put them in a cage and severley poke them
    
91. I love to have fresh cut flowers in the house, they don't have to be exotic a bunch of daisies or tulips will do
92. I had long hair most of my adult life, it barely touches my shoulders now but strangely enough that makes me look younger
93. I have a cheesy streak within me that erupts now and again such as I love glitter
94. When I learn a new word I tend to overuse it at first sort of like - word of the week
95. I love crosswords to do on journeys but can't do cryptics
96. I had a goldfish called Cleo as a child it lived for 19 years, also at one point had two white mice
97. When we decided to get married we gave everyone three weeks notice, it was a small wedding, I am not into weddings, I didn't wear white and made my own outfit which was completed by a big natural straw hat
98. I didn't want children right away, so we waited four years that enabled us to do our own thing.
    
99. I believe I am a hedgewitch, which basically means using herbs for healing, planting by the moon and a belief in being fair to all things when they are fair to you and living in tune with mother earth
100. I didn't think I would get here and succeed, Hurrah
     
     Well thats my 100 I doubt anyone will read it through to the end, you can just read a few each time you visit.
     
     1. 
     
     Food Meme
     
     How do you like your eggs? Scrambled, not liquidy, not rubbery, just so
     
     How do you take your coffee/tea? I drink two cups of coffee with breakfast with semi-skimmed milk and one spoon of a product called 'half spoon'
     
     Favorite breakfast foods? I usually eat weetabix with semi-skimmed milk or Jordan's crunchy museil with natural yoghurt and a chopped up apple
     
     Peanut butter smooth or crunchy? - Has to be crunchy - but don't hardly ever buy it because I am addicted to it when it is in my house
     
     What kind of dressing on your salad? Honey and Mustard dressing
     
     Coke or Pepsi? Pepsi, but I don't hardly ever drink it prefer sparkling flavoured water
     
     You're feeling lazy. What do you make? Baked Potatoes with either grated cheese or tuna filling and salad
     
     You're feeling really lazy. What kind of pizza do you order? No where near to order a Pizza from, but theoretically Spicy Chicken
     
     You feel like cooking. What do you make? Hungarian Goulash with garlicked and buttered mashed potatoes
     
     Do any foods bring back good memories? My Grandma's Lemon Meringue Pie, Egg and Bacon Pie and Coconut sponge flan. She was an excellent pastry maker and noone has bettered her LM pie, well actually one place a homemade portion at a lovely little quaint cafe in Falmouth Cornwall
     
     Do any foods bring back bad memories? Just the smell of school dinners
     
     Do any foods remind you of someone? Marshmallows and coke - together that is reminds me of my hippy dippy days and friends of that time
     
     Is there a food you refuse to eat? I'll try just about anything except sheeps eyeballs or live grubs
     
     What was your favorite food as a child? Fried Bread with two rashers of bacon on top and a fried egg.- Disgusting now Christmas Goose
     
     Is there a food that you hated as a child but now love? Loads but especially parsnips, love them roasted with honey
     
     Is there a food that you loved as a child but now hate? Sorry about this fried luncheon meat. yuck!!!!
     
     Favorite fruit & vegetable? Bananas and mangos and carrots and parsnips
     
     Favorite junk food? CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE
     
     Favorite between meal snack? Banana
     
     Do you have any weird food habits? The Irish in my genes comes out when I say you can sit me down to a plate of potatoes and cabbage and bacon fried together with plenty of pepper any time. I love apple and cheese sandwiches
     
     You're on a diet. What food(s) do fill up on? A mound of vegetables with lots of herbs and pepper
     
     You're off your diet. Chocolate
     
     How spicy do you order Indian/Thai? Mediuim
     
     What would you like to drink? Wine or Martini
     
     Red wine or white? Red, white or rose, any pleases me as long as its wine
     
     We only have beer. Cider - no? Hate beer
     
     Favorite dessert? Death by Chocolate Cake, Cheesecake, Lemon Meringue Pie I could go on and on.........
     
     The perfect nightcap? Green & Blacks organic hot chocolate or this one is mad but it works for me freshly perked coffee with a slug of Irish NOT Scots whiskey
     
     I just stumbled across this somewhere or other and thought I would try it. I just could not decide between these two photos so in the end I thought have a look at both, and guess what? If you read them both that really is me, that is pretty amazing.
     
     

     Your Brain's Pattern

     Your brain is always looking for the connections in life. You always amaze your friends by figuring out things first. You're also good at connecting people - and often play match maker. You see the world in fluid, flexible terms. Nothing is black or white.

     
     
     

     Your Brain's Pattern

     You have a dreamy mind, full of fancy and fantasy. You have the ability to stay forever entertained with your thoughts. People may say you're hard to read, but that's because you're so internally focused. But when you do share what you're thinking, people are impressed with your imagination.

     What Pattern Is Your Brain?
     
     
     I hope there are not too many typos in the long list above, the spell checker is playing up and I am too tired to think straight and need to go to bed after all that.It's now Saturday morning!
     
     
     

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This is a postcard I have made for Robyn's Chocolate Swap that I am participating in,I'm not going to show anything else that is going in the parcel I am making but I wanted to show you this. I love the idea of the little girl sitting primly in the hope of being rewarded with chocolate. Having made this card, it is postcard size, I have now had some ideas for a series of them, the images are buzzing about in my head, better get back to my work table. One other thing I have to say about the swap, is that the chocolate bar part of the swap I bought first, when I was doing my shopping. I'm afraid I have had to go out and buy another one, for days I resisted temptation but after my Autumn cleaning spree, guess what? I just had to have chocolate and ate it!

I am back on the Daisy Fae project today, and I can't help but laugh, standing at the back of my work table are a little line of stuffed pairs of legs, they look really surreal, a sort of chorus line without top halves. They make me giggle every time I look up and see them. It is very dark and has been pouring down with rain all day but I am happy and busy. I have nominated this week Van Morrison week, as it's his music I am working to at the moment. I love to be upstairs at my table and happily trying to scat sing behind his vocals. Good job we have thick sandstone walls!



I haven't told a local tale for a while, so this is a tale about something that happened to me when I first moved into the cottage. My memory was jogged by a recent posting of Ms*Robyn's, so I thought I would share it with you. All I will say before I start is this really happened, as far as I am concerned, you must make of it what you will.

When we moved into this cottage it had been empty for a while. We finished taking up residence late on a February evening. We were very tired and the cottage felt very cold so we concentrated on making our main living room really warm and just slept downstairs in there. The next day was spent trying to make some semblance of order and by late afternoon, the cottage was livable and all warm and snug. That evening I was to be by myself at the cottage until the next morning, for various reasons. Having had an exhausting day I had a lovely leisurely bath and retired to bed. I fell deep asleep and awoke to feeling the bedclothes lifting and my husband, at least that is who I thought it was, getting into bed, I just thought he had returned early. I suddenly realised becoming awake properly that it wasn't, the room was pitch black, I couldn't see anything but felt the covers moving. My heart beating rapidly I said out loud 'No, this is not your cottage anymore, please don't bother me, I love this cottage and will take great care of it but please go away.' I put the lamp on and the room was empty. I went back to sleep, the lamp still on.


After living here for a few years I discovered a few things. Our cottage is one of a row of six, cottages of all shapes and sizes, although three are connected then we, being the fourth, have a long narrow gap on one side and are joined to the other side, which is a mirror image of our cottage, then a tiny cottage on the end. One of the cottages seems to have been an inn possibly a coaching inn at some time. This cottage has a night time visitor to the bed in one room and footsteps are constantly heard walking the long corridor upstairs and stopping outside one of the rooms. The owner is not bothered by all this, her partner is, he will not stay in the cottage overnight by himself. Next door but one occupants, have been known to hear a latch being lifted on the door and footsteps tramping up and down the stairs and out again, when nothing is there. There is an old stable building, partly derelict outside these two cottages, where it is said that horses were stabled to change teams on the coaches that went past, we live on what was an old toll road. A neighbour has heard horses neighing in this tumbling down stable.

I am not making any assumptions about what I have told above. I was told them by very reliable people, I have had that experience when a newcomer to my cottage, and they are all old houses. Perhaps, more will eventually turn up when more local history research has been done.

The book, that I am still reading, is The Time Traveller's Wife, I am really enjoying it. I don't know if any one of you have read it yet, but the thought has occurred to me that if when he travels backwards and forwards in time, he meets himself, and he does and is very friendly with himself, surely if there are no bad effects from that then he could possibly meet more than one of himself, in fact he could meet himself ad infinitum? Don't blind me with physics, but do you see what I am getting at? Perhaps, I am thinking too hard.

Here I am back again, I have not posted since Friday and didn't even partake in Sunday Scribllings this week. I forced myself to take a break from my blog of a few days to catch up with many things that I needed to catch up on. Primarily, that was my house, it is now thoroughly cleaned and ready for autumn and winter. The weather has been warm and sunny the past two days, giving me the opportunity of washing lots of throws, curtains, quilts etc and hanging them out in the sun to dry, there is nothing as gorgeous as smelling or sleeping in outdoor sundried bedding. - Mmmm bliss! Also have been busy doing all sorts of small odds and ends, which although nothing by themselves, if left as I have done, become quite a list of things to do to wade through. Well all sorted now, and I have promised myself a couple of days of art and craft and am raring to go, with a few ideas buzzing in my head.


Above I have posted one of the ATC's I have done for a swap I am presently involved, in about favourites movies. This one is for The Wizard of Oz, hence the red glitter shoes, got to get the glitter in somewhere. They weren't difficult to work out the images for the cards, the difficulty was picking which of my favourite movies to represent, that took up the most time. I don't know if anyone will guess what movies they are from the cards, except, well two are pretty obvious. The ATC opposite is to symbolize the film Howards End. It is a film I adore, a Merchant Ivory Production, which are always so beautifully lush and rich, which is why I have gone for a very subdued portrayal of the film. Its a great book as well. The costumes in the film are just exquisite, and some of the scenes are actually framed around paintings, such as the scene in the beginning of the film with a lot of black and white in it and when it is raining.


The third card, opposite is obviously to portray Moulin Rouge. Believe me, when I first saw this film I remember thinking as it started, 'well I am either going to love or hate this'. Of course, I loved it, but I do find people either rave about it or can't stand it, there doesn't seem to be any halfway house. The way he mixed the modern and the true era in ambience and costumes just seemed to work so well.

It is just such an interesting concept to sum up the core ideas of a film on a piece of card 2.5 x 3.5 inches, it really gets your brain into gear. Some films seem to need to be portrayed sparsely, yet others can take everything and 'the kitchen sink'.


The last of my favourite movie ATC's is for Pride and Prejudice. I have tried to keep this card, pastel, with refence to an english rose and two, what I call, 'well mannered' words. I have tried to aim for a delicacy in it. This project has been such fun and these have to go in the post now to West Virginia, and I keep my fingers crossed that they get there before the 31st September, but they should do that.

My list of things to do now is basically, well I am continually stuffing material animals, and sewing parts of four more Daisy Faes, nothing else is finished because to build up stock I do this strange sort of system of taking every piece so far then a little further, so every article is at the same stage of making. It does seem to save time on the first batch, then after the first batch I make as needed. Next item to finish and get in the post before end of week are the parts of the chocolate swap I am crafting, and then do my 6x6 Friendship Piece.


I don't think I have mentioned this on the blog yet. I am hosting my first project. Wow... Fireworks explode, fanfares, bright lights, ... sorry that was my inner child getting over excited, but I am truly excitied to be doing this. It is called the Daisy Lupin Friendship Piece, there are seven of us and each month we are all producin a 6x6 fabric collage square. What it means is that at the end of seven months each one of us has made a piece for everybody else, and it is up to us all as individuals to decide how to use them, be it a miniquilt, a wallhanging or individual cushions or whatever. I will let you know how progress is going, because it is a long term thing and I thought it was a lovely means for seven people to get to know each other well. It's great there are three continents involved, I also like to think because I have called it a Friendship Piece Project that 'peice' could be swapped for 'Peace'. If it is a success I will run another one, maybe fabric collage again or maybe altered art.

There is this mad idea in my head that it would be a wonderful thing if I could get people of different cultures involved, imagine a 'pieced project' or 'peace project' that involved different religions and races in an effort to promote friendship and not war, a series of blocks of people swapping squares or collages. Am I mad? Well if anyone is interested and knows how this might be attempted let me know, its a lot better to communicate than fight and bomb. So please, if you don't think I am crazy, if you have the knowledge in how this could be workable get in touch.

Finally about the beautiful illustration above. I dug out of storage in the barn, a huge box of greetings cards that have been sent to one or another of my family over the past thirty years or more, I thought some bits might be useful for altered art. I did find some great stuff, however, I also found some lovely cards that are worth framing that I had forgotten about. The above is one of them Its about 30 years old and published by a company called Gallery Five in England. It is called a noteboard and is made of cardboard, and you just write on the back of them. There was a fad for these, if I remember correctly. The artist is named as Beshlie Heron, has anyone ever heard of her or her work? I am fascinated by the card, the plants and flowers are very true to nature drawings and yet it is whimsical at the same time. I would like to find some more of her work. I am also going to seach the net for her, but if you know of her come and tell me.