Cats in the Kitchen, Flora in the Garden

'Spick and Span', The very words send a shudder through me. I love a home with a lovely warm welcoming ambience but I am not houseproud. No, that is not a contradiction, it means that I decorate my home in a comfortable warming way, but I don't waste my days constantly cleaning, dusting, hovering. I don't even mind a couple of piles of things hanging around, things slightly out of place. Whisper it softly, at busy times I have even managed to live with a layer of light dust on the furniture. Life is too short to spend on housework, just think of all the more interesting things you could be doing. As long as things are of a clean standard I coast along igoring housework and they every so often have a giant blitz when I see grubbiness approaching and too many piles teetering. Housework must not eat into my crafting and art time, gardening time or reading time or just general me time.



I take a wild approach to necessary tasks, I change the bed on a Monday as soon as I get out of it, that way, it not much more of a chore than making the bed. I constantly wash clothes, then they may hang around dry in a basket for a few days, I hardly ever iron, most things if washed carefully and hung up lose their creases, so that just essentials to iron. Doing my housework this way, it almost becomes an enjoyable task to turn a room upside down every couple of weeks and thoroughly clean it. The dyson comes out just when the carpet needs it, not every day, anyways its bad for carpets to hoover them too often, ruins them, also I am lucky that we have some wooden floors.



My Mother would probably have thought in her younger days that I am a complete slut, but I' m not, I 've just got my priorities right. She, when I was a little girl used to have a 'friendly' competition every Monday with the next door neighbour to see who could get the whitest whites out on the washing line and who got them out first. I'm afraid I need more joy and fun than that. So that is how I will continue with my housework until I get my housework fairy, but when I put an advert for one on this site a few months back no fairies replied, just a few ladies masquerading as fairies looking for a chance to stay in England at my cottage.

That was my contribution to Daisy Lupin's Stream of Consciousness, I bet I am, as I predicted the last one to participate. Not sure how I came to choose the phrase Spick and Span, because it wasn't what I thought I was going to pick. Also quite surprised at what emerged as I was writing it. Goodness knows what you all think of me now! I wonder what the message in that for me is, could it be that underneath I feel guilty about not doing a lot of housework and part of me is justifying myself to myself? Who knows? But I don't feel any guilt, just that I have got my priorities sorted.



Here is a photograph of some of the Christmas Ornaments I am now engaged in making. Pretty stars and perky birds, all bright and jazzy colours, not exactly Christmas Colours, but definitely twinkly enough for Christmas. This, as I said last posting, is all part of my love affair with felt, my mind is in overdrive with other beautiful hanging felt items I want to make. I have been busy with them all day today inbetween baking the last Christmas Cake. I must get started on some Christmas Cards I want to make too, so when I finish this batch of felt ornaments, it will be onto cards and then back to felt ornaments for my own home.

I did need to visit the glitter store again yesterday, I have to confess, but I really know I have everything I want now, I did need more feathers for my birds and shiny bits. Then I had a lovely surprise this morning an envelope from Robyn and the Australian Secret Fairy. It was delivered by her magpies and I found it amongst a scattering of feathers, I believe they were having a little pecking argument about which of them was to actually post the envelope in the letterbox. Inside were some lovely glittery christmas stickers, and the cutest little tinkling bells like the sort you get on a cat's collar. I have been looking for something like that everywhere, wasn't it clever of the Secret Fairy to know?



My magic hat was working its wonders when I was in the town yesterday. I found two books I have been looking for, Ya-Yas in Bloom and a Sue Monk Kidd one,[the Bee one] at the remainder bookshop, and the most exquisite fairy book I have seen for a long time Betty Bib's Fairy Christmas, it is full of whimsical drawings and photographs, it was saying 'pick me Daisy, you will enjoy this', how could I resist? Some of the Charity Shop's new gift selections are excellent this year, lots of little bits and bobs for stocking fillers. I think a lot of them have been all around the world hunting down traders and suppliers. I don't like to overwork my magic hat, in case, its powers wane, so I do keep swapping hats, its just that the best things happen when I am wearing that hat.

Summer memories, that's what I call the photographs [apart from the birds and stars one] that are illustrating this posting. These are all photographs taken at the height of summer in my garden. The film has been lying about since then and I have just had it developed, you know how lacksadaisical I am about these things. The photographs are in order of being shown, the shady cool spot outside my back kitchen door: where I sit in that spot beside the barn door out of the heat of the midday sun: the view of one of my beds my barrel with my magnolia tree and nasturiums in: looking back up the alleyway: getting ready for tea in the garden: the pots in the alleyway with my favourite buddah's head which is now growing moss [making it look venerable and ancient]: the pots underneath my back kitchen window: and my very favourite clematis.

I just thought it would bring a bit of warmth to our cold, wet and gloomy days here. There are some more photographs of my garden on the film, but I will save them for another gloomy, wet day.



I would like to say everyone, lets keep thinking of Robyn, who at the moment is living with the worry of a bush fire very near to her home, I know the stress and despair of waiting to see if a natural catastrophe is going to strike your home. Almost three years ago, we waited hour by hour in the worst floods in living memory watching flood water creep nearer and nearer to our front door, and we were exceptionally lucky that it peaked just below our front door step. Just let's send her thoughts focusing on the bush fire to be put out. Her own son is one of the voluntary bush fire fighters.



One happy note to end on, Mercury comes out of retrograde on the 24th November, so our computers should be working better, our travelling should be smoother and hopefully some of our heavy feelings should lighten.



Also the moon has passed out of its dark moon days and is waxing again, so those creative juices should be flowing extra well.

Don’t forget to join in Daisy Lupins’
Christmas Story or Memory Posting
Post a Christmas memory, story, even a ghost story
Or poem you would like to share,
More than one if you wish ,
Anytime between 17th and 24th December
Just let me know it is your contribution
I will transfer them to a temporary site
There they will remain for everyone to enjoy
Until the end of January.
Come on lets have a Giant Christmas Story Circle