Beltane Celebrations

Well my lovely chums Summer must be upon us, as I have waxed my legs (with bargain wax strips from Poundland, 99% natural ingredients and cost of £1.12 to do both legs). I have also given myself a pedicure and tinted my eyebrows and eyelashes. Actually the Mr very kindly does my eyelashes for me, he's super nice like that. If I had visited a salon for these treatments I'm guessing I would have paid around £100. So I'm feeling very pleased with myself. Who said smug?

The reason for all of this body maintenance is of course the change in weather in Blighty but also because tomorrow I'm away to Italy for a very exciting event.

It has been organised by a wonderful woman I met last year at a retreat. Each day has planned events, workshops and all sorts of exciting activities. I'm hoping meeting all these very special folk will be spiritually transformative, there is always room for personal growth, no? There is a Floral Beltane ceremony on Saturday and I'm feeling very honoured to be selected as the second flower girl in the procession. We will be making floral headdresses on the day before. I'm hoping I might be able to dry my headdress and bring it home as a keepsake. I'll do my best to capture some images for a blog post when I return. In other news I have managed to get my head around the vintage Fair Isle pattern and I'm enjoying the process. I'm toying with the idea of knitting the back in plain navy, which would then mean I could make another one to gift or sell.

I'm super pleased to extend another warm welcome for another new follower, welcome Vivian, many thanks for pressing the follow button.

Happy Birthday Jane

(Image by Trina Dalziel for Simple Things magazine). When I first stumbled upon Jane Austen I was at secondary school and her second novel Pride & Prejudice was part of my English Literature O level syllabus. Thinking back I don't believe I had any concept of how such a book or any book, could reveal and share with me the social history of another time. I did enjoy it in a superficial way, but now of course it is a sheer delight to read. I was extremely lucky to go to a school that introduced me to the arts in all of it's forms. I saw a young Vanessa Redgrave performing Shakespeare at a small modern theatre in London, I went to see an Opera at The Royal Opera house, and as our school was close to Hurlingham tennis club, I also saw Billy Jean King amongst other world class tennis players. The school was also quite close to the Kings Road and Fulham Road with it's wonderful shops, galleries and green spaces. I was a very lucky girl indeed. But I digress......back to Miss Austen. The BBC recent drama starring Keeley Hawes was a fascinating semi-fictional account of Jane's relationship with her sister Cassandra. If you are an Austen fan I urge you to watch it, I found it quite remarkable and tremendously entertaining.

During this year which is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, there are to be many many events, probably world wide. I have a yen to visit her last home , Chawton in Hampshire. It is now a museum and how fascinating it looks. Jane wrote, revised and published all of her six novels whilst living there.

But perhaps it may be a little busy to explore this year? I would like to extend another very warm welcome to a new follower who has kindly pressed the follow button, Peggy Poole.

A Prickly Man & Prickly Plants

The Mr and I dragged our sleepy bodies out of bed Sunday morning to sell at our local boot fair. Thankfully it was dry but bloomin eck it was freezing. Selling on items I no longer feel attached to or need, is part of my decluttering strategy before we move house, of which there is no progress. We had a very positive house viewing last Thursday but haven't heard a peep back. The wait continues. We did quite well at the boot fair and made a few pennies for the coffers. I do like people watching at these events too, always good value. I chatted to some very nice folk as well. Although just as we were packing up a rather grubby man came up to ask me what price I had on a pair of Lulu Guinness shoes. £25 I said. He scoffed , "they're not worth it FAR TOO worn, I sell shoes you know!" Oh says I, but they are well over £200 new and actually not worn very much at all. What price would you offer I asked him? I wouldn't says he, as he stormed off with a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp. So really he just wanted to come and tell me how foolish I was. Grrrrrr. (Btw the shoes were a charity shop purchase and when I do sell them some of the money will go to one of my favourite animal charities).

On a much brighter note a very nice man came to our house this morning to collect some succulent plants that I felt would not survive the house move. I've had them years and rather than compost them I offered them on the Freegle website. The man called Les is in a local cacti and succulent society and will use them to raise funds to hire guest speakers. He was as pleased as I was.

Fair Weather Fair Isle

I know I'm a wee bit on the strange side, only I would get the urge to knit just as the sun starts to show it's face. But my logic is that the natural sunny light is better for knitting, especially complicated patterns like Fair Isle. I took inspiration from a rather sweet vlogger called Ration Book Rebecca. She has been absent for most of 2025 but I'm pleased to say she has made a return to YouTube, she is a total delight, quite scatty of course, like the best of us. She showcased an old knitting book, which rather took my fancy.

I do have oodles and oodles of knitting books and magazines but this one has a few patterns with unusual motifs.(That's my story and I'm sticking to it).

I've chosen a different colour palette, which I think will work well for Spring and Summer. I've also opted for a 50% wool 50% acrylic yarn as I find the Shetland wool recommended quite itchy.

I've made a start so I'll pop back and show you my progress soon(ish). Anyone else knitting at the moment? A very warm welcome to my new follower Sue. Thank you very much for clicking on the Follow button, much appreciated.

My Best Girl

A warm welcome to my latest follower Pili, thank you kindly for pressing the follow button.

Wet Wet Wet

The Mr and I have just returned from a few days in Bergen Norway. Such an interesting and historical place. We went after seeing an American Vlogger's post about it's charms. A world heritage site with a delightful 14th century old wharf area known as Bryggen, surrounded by majestic mountains and waterfalls. Very picturesque but oh my THE RAIN hardly stopped for breath. It had a goodly amount of thrift and antique shops which as you know make me very happy indeed. I was very circumspect and only came home with two items, one of which was a vintage hand made pewter candle stick, which I safely packed in my husband's case and which got him stopped and searched at the Bergen airport, ha ha. Sorry, shouldn't laugh, but usually, well always really, it's me who is stopped after setting bells ringing. I am still slowly selling off and donating items, trying to get our belongings down to a reasonable amount for our move, whenever that might happen. We did have a house viewing booked today, but the agent called this morning and said it had been cancelled. Still the threat of the viewing has had me clean the house to within an inch of it's life, so silver lining and all that. I'm also making efforts not to acquire too much. But yesterday I spied a couple of things I thought were very stylish and reasonably priced, both from Zara, so a purchase was made.

I couldn't seem to find the full sizing guide on the Zara site as it was not alongside the garment as it should have been. So we will see if it fits. No problem for the necklace of course. I love the idea of coral, this is faux coral of course, but I think it looks rather swish and will do for my May trip to Italy where I will be attending a Beltane special event, hosted by a senior druid friend of mine. A very exciting prospect.

Welcome In Spring

The sun has crossed the celestial equator here in the UK, and Spring is at last showing us it's sunny face. We will be planting some seeds today. Spring blessings to you all my dear blogging chums.

This beautiful image from Wendy at Painting Dreams. Do pop over to her website for more inspiration.

Ah Me I do Love Norfolk

The Mr and I spent a few days last week in Norfolk. We had hoped to be living there by now but the universe is holding us back for a reason or two. Patience is still a virtue right? Norfolk holds a world of possibilities for both of us and we are excited at the prospect of a move there. For now we will just have to savour small visits. And may I say, make the best of where we are. Otherwise we would be wishing our lives away. We found a sensational Asian museum cum store. Antiquities mixed with modern hand made items for sale, in particular hand blocked textiles, so beautiful.

We also explored an ancient medieval house called The Strangers' Hall, it was like a maze inside but so evocative of the many times and lives of the house. I loved wandering inside experiencing all the different rooms and antiques. The only place I didn't enjoy was the childrens nursery room it had a very bad feeling about it. The feeling didn't stay with me for long though as we scooted off for some delicious lunch at Jarrolds. Our first time visiting the department store, we were not disappointed, it has EVERYTHING. Incuding a lovely view of the old lanes of Norwich.

Don't Be Cut Off From Yourself

A tremendously sad piece of prose from Virginia Woolf, which touched me on reading it recently. I'm not sure she ever felt a true happiness in her life, her mental health struggles are well documented as is her eventual suicide. I DO understand how and why she perceives life in this way, but I hope that most of us have the power and enough life force to increase our levels of happiness. And I do feel isolation from folk is not the answer. We all have to try and create and recognise the small pockets of joy we are blessed with. I know I'm doing my best to do just that and I see the same determination in many of the lovely bloggers I follow. On a happier note a warm welcome to my latest follower Carole, thank you very much for following my blog, I do hope you find some of my musings Joyous.

Happy International Women's day

I'm very fond of this portrait and am very lucky to see it regularly. 'The Duchess' film didn't really explore the many sides of Georgiana, she was a fascinating woman with a good degree of tragedy and heartache in her life, like many of us. I have a soft spot in my heart for her.

I'd Like To Believe George "It's All Love"