Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway draw to celebrate my first blogaversary. I’m delighted to announce the winners.
Lady Fi won the Daffodil card:
And Tammie won the Mother’s Day card:
The cards will be winging their way to Sweden and Montana within the next few days, and I hope you’ll both be very happy with them!
I haven’t been out taking photographs very much recently. Because of the damp weather our skies have been a very boring blanket of white clouds, and these don’t make for good photography. Instead, my contribution to My World this week comes to you courtesy of yesterday’s reorganisation of the cupboard where the photograph albums are kept!
This is Mont Saint Michel, part of Normandy, and located about 1 km off the French coast. There has been a monastic presence on the island since the 8th Century but the present monastery, situated at the top of the mount, dates from three hundred years later. Houses and shops cluster around the lower parts of the island and are presently home to 41 people. Although for many years this was a place of pilgrimage, today’s pilgrims come mostly in the name of tourism, and this is very much reflected in the shops and restaurants that fill those steep, narrow streets.
Originally completely cut off from the mainland at high tide, the Mont has for many years been attached by means of the causeway you see in the first picture. However, a huge project is currently taking place to restore it to its original island state. This will bring many benefits to the area, both environmental and conservational, and will also have a regenerative impact on the adjacent mainland. When the project is complete visitors will reach the island on foot via an elevated light bridge, or by shuttle. You can read about the works (in French, English or, interestingly, in Chinese) and see an artist’s impression of the area after completion here.
Whether you’ve heard of Mont Saint Michel or not, chances are you’ve seen it before. Not surprisingly, it has inspired or been featured in many books, films and pieces of music. Some of these are listed in the Wikipedia entry – see ‘Mont Saint Michel in modern culture’ towards the bottom of that page. But you only have to spend a little time wandering around there to appreciate that it has many stories of its own to tell, too. It appears in the Bayeux Tapestry (permanently housed in the nearby town of Bayeux) which I also recommend if you ever find yourself in these parts. Click anywhere on the picture below to go straight to a YouTube video showing the whole of the tapestry. I paused the video at the precise spot where the Mont Saint Michel appears and did this screen grab. Do you see the rocky mount in the background right in the centre of the screen? And to the left of this are the Latin words ‘ad Monte Michaelis’.
I first visited Mont Saint Michel in 1986, and my photos date from that visit. Although I’ve been several times since, despite recent improvements in technology and in my own abilities with the camera, I think these are the nicest photographs I’ve taken of it. I look forward to visiting again when the new bridge is complete.
Many thanks to our hosts Klaus, Wren, Sandy, Sylvia, Louise and Fishing Guy who organise My World for us every week. Please click on the badge below to see what others have contributed this week.
When I heard a couple of days ago that a new record for the sale of a single piece of art had been set at Sotheby’s, my immediate thoughts were not that £65 million (US$102 million) was an awful lot of money to spend on artwork. Although – come to think of it, there does seem to be an imbalance when one person, having a spare £65 million lying around, chooses to spend it on something nice to look at rather than, say, reconstructing Haiti. However, as I was saying, these were not my first thoughts.
No, I was bowled over by the uncanny resemblance of Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture of L’Homme Qui Marche (Walking Man) to a piece constructed by my younger son when he was nine. In case this news story passed you by, to the right is a photo of Alberto Giacometti’s piece. You can click on it to go straight to an online news article about the sale. Below is a photo of my son’s artwork.
Now I will be absolutely honest with you here and admit that I have already been in hot water over the precise activity being portrayed in my son’s piece. Although I’ve decided to go with the title of L’Homme Qui Joue Au Basket (Man Playing Basketball) there is an equal possibility that it should more correctly be L’Homme Qui Porte Le Monde Aux Epaules (Man Carrying the World on His Shoulders – i.e: Atlas). I remember causing grief by getting it wrong when this first arrived home from school, and whether it is the former or the latter is now lost in the anals of time.
But what do you think? Should I get on the phone to Sotheby’s without further ado, and request an estimate…?
My very first contribution to Skywatch Friday was a photograph of the full moon taken from the balcony of our house. At the time I said how much I love to watch on cloudless nights when the full moon casts its beam across the water of the bay. Finally, I’ve managed to capture it. This was taken from my bedroom window last Saturday evening before the moon had risen too high in the sky to be able to capture both it and the sea. It was such a beautiful scene, with the moonlit water shining through the trees at the end of the garden. To be honest, this photograph doesn’t do it justice.
A couple of nights later I glanced out to see the moon peering through a different clump of trees. You’ll notice that in both these photos, and particularly the one below, the moon itself is overexposed. I’ve learned that it isn’t possible to capture the detail of less bright objects without overexposing the moon itself.
So, I took the same photo and played around with it. Instead of cropping it to draw attention to the shapes of the branches against the moon I adjusted the hue and then superimposed the scene over a photograph of a moon that was properly explosed and therefore retains its detail.
You can see lots more beautiful skies from all over the world, if you click on the badge below.
Skywatchers who don’t usually visit here except for Skywatch Friday might also be interested to know about my little giveaway, being held to celebrate my first blogaversary. To find out more and leave a comment to go in the hat to win one of my hand made cards, please click on the picture below.
Yes, it’s that time of year again. Lucy will soon be preparing her Valentine’s cards to send to the men in her life. Last year she made these iLove cards. Each one contained a small bar of chocolate, and they were very well received!
If you’d like to make one, you can get the instructions here. You’ll also find a downloadable scroll wheel and playlist – you can use the playlist as is or type in your own choice of songs. As you can see, Lucy chose her own.
The directions give precise measurements to fit a specific North American brand of sweets (candy). Lucy ignored the measurements and made these to fit a small British chocolate bar. She also added heart shaped buttons as charms instead of little sweets.
I wonder what she’s thinking of making this year… She’s such a talented dog!
Click on the badge below to go to Angie’s Seven Clown Circus blog, where she hosts Wordfull Wednesday every week.
I’ve just had my first blogaversary, and to celebrate I’m having a little giveaway. To find out more and leave a comment to go in the hat to win one of my hand made cards, please click on the picture below.
Right through high school and for much of my adult life my main creative outlet was singing. In London in the late 1980s I joined an amateur operatics society, and that was where I met Barbara. With her beautifully rich deep voice and comic timing Barbara was very much the jewel in the crown of the group, perfectly suited for the lead contralto parts of the Gilbert & Sullivan operas she loved so much. Barbara always took a special interest in me, encouraging me and introducing me to a singing teacher. You can see the two of us in the photograph below. She’s on the verge of using that spear to kill me, although I should point out that normally we got along much better than that!
(From our 1988 production of Iolanthe, Barbara in the role of the Fairy Queen, myself as Iolanthe.)
A couple of years after this Barbara asked me and two other friends to work with her on a series of charity recitals. In all the years since I’ve never again experienced such a comfortable and mutually supportive creative atmosphere as the four of us enjoyed together. Now in her eighties, Barbara no longer sings. For different reasons I too haven’t performed for several years. We have also both moved away from London, but we still keep in touch. And she occasionally gives me a bit of an ear bashing for not keeping going with the singing.
Last September when I put the lyrics of YumYum’s aria The Sun Whose Rays on my blog alongside my photographs of a sunrise I was reminded that Barbara used to say how much she would love to hear me sing that piece. A few weeks later she was in my thoughts again when, working through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, I drew up my Champions’ Hall of Fame: a list of people who have encouraged me. She was the very first person I put on my list.
It was then that I got the idea that has eventually led to me writing this post today. I decided to record that aria especially for Barbara, and send it to her as a token of my gratitude and admiration. It has taken three months to achieve this – but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it!
Despite the obvious fact that this wasn’t recorded in a professional recording studio I’m quite pleased with the result. It was actually done in the dining room and conservatory with the aid of a hand-held recorder, a karaoke machine, a lap top and my Long Suffering Husband who spent four hours over the weekend delving into various aspects of technical wizardry to produce the digital version and an audio cassette to send to Barbara.
Now, imperfections and all, I dedicate this to Barbara, with love.
The Sun Whose Rays – click to listen
Although I did this for Barbara I thought one or two of you might like to listen too. If you do, I hope you enjoy it, but I’m sure you’ll join me in thinking some of those high notes would have been easier if I’d just done it twenty years ago when first asked!
The theme for January for Creative Every Day participants has been body. The link between this and my recording is not as tenuous as you might think. Since I will never win any prizes for my prowess as a pianist I spent two months working my fingers to the bone to perfect the piano part! Then I had to try to get my vocal chords back into shape. Singing is an aerobic activity, and the long, high phrases meant I had to really work at increasing my lung capacity again and strengthening my diaphragm. Not to mention taking care of my throat…
Click on the badge below to see what others have been doing for Creative Every Day. The theme for February will be home.
I’ve just had my first blogaversary, and to celebrate I’m having a little giveaway. To find out more and leave a comment to go in the hat to win one of my hand made cards, please click on the picture below.
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday, dear Blog
Happy Birthday to you!
Yes, it’s my blogaversary! I can’t believe it’s exactly one year ago today since I took my first anxious steps into this wonderful world of blogging. Now, as of this week, I have TWO blogs and I feel very lucky to have lovely Blogfriends all over the world. Blogging has become very much a part of my life.
I’ve decided to commemorate this momentous occasion with a little giveaway. I’m offering two cards, both handmade by me. All you have to do to be in with a chance of getting one is leave a comment saying you would like the Mother’s Day Card:
or the art nouveau style Daffodil Card:
or Either.
In the event that only one person leaves a comment you get both!
Each card is roughly 15cm (6 inches) square and comes with a handmade box. The central design on each is stamped with rubber stamps, carefully cut out by hand and then decoupaged:
On Sunday 7th February I’ll draw the names (if there are any!) out of a hat and notify the winners. This giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere in the world, as long as you have a postal address.
I know from my stats that lots of people who read my blog never leave a comment. What I really hope is that some of you will join in on this. Please do leave a comment – and don’t forget to state which card you’d like!
Just one more little thing…
This blog has been nominated for a Dorset Cereals ‘Little Blog Award’. If you click on the badge below – I’ve also put it in my sidebar – you’ll be able to read all about it … and maybe vote for me…? Please! 
UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who has so far tried to vote for me. Unfortunately I’ve just found out that you need to be in the UK to vote… 
Julia Cameron’s book and programme: The Artist’s Way is not just about achieving greater levels of creativity in your work and life; it’s about finding yourself and using your ‘art’ (whatever that may be for you) to express yourself. I started working through the course several weeks ago following a recommendation from Julie, although I’ve had the book sitting on my shelf for a good few years. How many? Well, let’s just say the pages have yellowed with age!
I thought I had a handle on creative areas that interested me – music, needlecrafts, papercrafts, photography and creative writing – and I was hoping for some kind of ‘unblocking’ to occur in one or more (well, all!) of these areas. Probably that has started to happen. But alongside all that a coincidence of events has led to something completely unexpected!
It all started when I watched a TV programme just before Christmas about using herbs and wild plants to make seasonal brews, lotions and potions. Then I found myself increasingly listening to songs about winter, which led on to thoughts about celebrating the seasons of the year. Alongside this Leah chose body as the theme for January for Creative Every Day participants and I figured I needed to do something about my own body, particularly because my long-time problem with very bad tension headaches has returned with a vengeance over the last couple of years. Finally a number of related things came to the fore as part of my work with The Artist’s Way.
It came to me quite suddenly what I wanted to do: after many years of dabbling and skirting around the subject I wanted to learn how I could use fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers and natural oils in food and skincare preparations to enhance the health and wellbeing of myself and my family. January has found me poring over books with titles like Kitchen Cosmetics, The World Food Café, Country Wisdom, The Sacred Kitchen and The Holistic Herbal, making lists of likely looking recipes and the necessary ingredients. It wasn’t until last week that I had the idea of keeping an online record of my progress so that other people can use it and hopefully even contribute the odd home remedy once it gets under way…
So here it is, folks, my fledgling blog: Potions from Wildwood. It’s part of my personal challenge, and I hope to commit to it for one year, then review my progress as well as the progress of the blog. Click on the badge below if you’d like to have a peek – you’ll also find the link in my sidebar.
Of course, there’s not that much to see yet! But now that the blog is designed, up and running I actually have a little time to – well, you know – make some potions! The saffron cantuccini in the image at the top of this post will be featured there within the next few days.
The strangest things can occur when you join in at Creative Every Day! You don’t have to embrace your long-lost Inner Wise Woman – but well, it could happen! To see how others have been working with the body theme, just click on the badge below.
One of my Dad’s photos from the 1960s, mounted for a competition.
I never knew he could be so poetic!
Please do click below to see what other ‘wordless’ images have been posted at today’s Wordless Wednesday.
Last week Ines posted this video clip on her blog Daily Forward Tumble. I’ve really enjoyed watching it and thinking about the ideas raised. So much so, in fact, that I’ve watched it several times and added Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Eat, Pray, Love to my (embarassingly long) Amazon Wishlist. I’d not previously heard of her or the book but I think we’re going to get along just fine!
I had also not heard of TED, the organisation hosting this presentation, but have now tracked down the official TED website and am very pleased I did! So far 4 videos have caught my eye - on topics related to education and photography – and they’ve all been fascinating and wonderfully thought provoking. I wanted to share not only Elizabeth Gilbert’s presentation but also the entire library of TED videos with you. You don’t have to ‘join’ anything – just choose a topic and click to watch. I couldn’t get the video to embed directly from TED so it comes to you courtesy of YouTube. At just over 19 minutes it’s quite a commitment of time but from my perspective definitely worth it, and if you choose to watch I hope you enjoy.
The ideas discussed by Elizabeth Gilbert here are not new to me, but are expressed so much better than I ever could have expressed them. They are in any case not new to the world: Elizabeth points to the daemons of ancient Greece, the geniuses of ancient Rome and dancers in the deserts of North Africa who appeared to be ‘touched by divinity’; but she could also have drawn on the Native American Creative Voice. I suspect that every culture embraces some version of this concept of channelling a creative force from outside the self, and it’s only in the West that we’ve lost sight of it over the last few centuries. It doesn’t matter what we call the force we’re channeling - daemon, genius, Allah, God, Creative Voice or The Universe: what matters is that we allow ourselves to be open to it.
For several weeks, now, I’ve been working my way through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. Aimed at creative people generally – writers, artists, singers, actors, musicians or whatever – the book is about a spiritual path to higher creativity. Put another way, it’s about understanding why we might be blocked and working to get past that. So for me, this video complements very well much of what I’ve been thinking about – and yes, I have made some big leaps forward as a result of the work I’ve done so far on this. Some of these have been in unexpected areas, and I’ll be sharing some of them with you over the next few weeks.
As Elizabeth Gilbert says, ‘Even I have had work or ideas come through me from a source I cannot identify.’ Me, too. And when this happens I know without a shadow of a doubt that what has just entered my head is the right way to go. And yes, what I would love, as a result of working through The Artist’s Way, is for it to happen more often!
How about you? Have you ever experienced this? Or maybe you’re completely atuned to your Creative Voice and work with it all the time…? Lucky you!
I took the photo below when I was in Seville in 2008, and I’ve just been playing about with it. I thought I might put a copy on the shelf above my desk. If you watched the video you’ll understand why!
