Little Altars at Home

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while will know how much I loathe housework, but these are strange times! Today found me actually wanting to give the bathroom a thorough going over!

As I was putting things back on the windowsill, I realised that every item has a special memory or significance to me.

Left to right:

There is an Umbrella plant, that I grew from a root cutting given to me by a dear friend who I see only rarely nowadays. She is currently staying somewhere in deepest India, unable to return home due to the transport system in that country being under lockdown. The glass bowl it sits in, has been with me since I got married in 1972, nothing special, not beautiful, but it has become an old familiar friend.

In a little pot next to it are some honeysuckle cuttings, waiting to see if they grow roots, so that I can give some little plants to my daughter as requested.

The fish shaped little dish holds a bumble bee that sadly died in my bathroom, I know Little Miss M (7) would love to see it, so I am keeping it for when she is able to come into my house again.

The clay dolphin was made by Miss E when she was about 8. I took her to some wonderful sculpture and stone-carving worshops when she was being homeschooled.

I bought the brass incense burner with the Ohm symbol when I was travelling in 1994 and visiting Buddhist communities all round the world – such powerful memories. It reminds me of chanting in the echoing valleys of the Himalaya Mountains.

The scallop shell was given to me by my neighbour, who is a diver, and brings me yummy scallops in the summer. The shells it holds all come from the beaches of my beloved Pembrokeshire, collected on my month in a treehouse by the sea.

Sea glass, collected on my local beaches, in times gone by.

A collection of tiny white pebbles – there is something so beautiful about them.

The twisted piece of wire with beads: this was a spiral Christmas decoration I had been making with my grandchildren

One of them sat in the bathroom, and after the twins came to stay – I found this one had been just too tempting to resist – I rather like the resulting tiny wire sculpture.

The jam jar has more honeysuckle cuttings,

and the shell on the right was given to me by my Mum when I was a teenager.

A whole lot of family, friends and memories on that tiny windowsill.

Do you have similar little collections about the house?

Notan Butterflies

This gallery contains 4 photos.

Walk

little hands to hold

then let them go to explore

smooth transit to joy

~

After doing some drawing games with my grandsons, we went for a WALK, although we don’t mention the word ‘walk’ because then Big Bro will not move from the sofa.

We were not going on a walk, we were going ‘exploring’ to find badger sets…

luckily Granny knows Evvvvv–er–ry–thing – even where badgers live.

We talked about those families sleeping underground, we found back doors and front doors and neighbours doors, we made up stories about them, we imagined them all coming out in the evening and playing together, tumbling and play fighting and quarrelling and chasing….

Walking with my grandchildren comes very high on my list of favourite things to do. Seeing the world through their eyes. … …

Precious…..

….climbing, falling, getting caught in brambles, jeopardy – where are we?

who lives in these magical holes – under trees, in trees….

how do we find our way out of the wood?

Phew! we found the way into the field

now for some tracking

 

looking down –  who or what has walked this way before us, was it last night by the light of the moon

looking up – at baby catkins

thinking of Spring

looking down

oh wow – an abundance of acorns, let’s pick some up.

Muddy puddles!

with tiny red wriggly worms in them

worms swimming,  who knew?

squelch and splash and jump and laugh

Oh no! Where are we?

Look for landmarks to find our way home – ah-there’s the big oak tree near Granny’s house…… there’s her house!! – race you!

~

Ronovan’s Haiku Challenge prompts this week are: SMOOTH and HAND

Cathy and  I have put together a list of One-Word promptsfor our One-a-Week Photo Challenge. You can join in by leaving a link to your Walk in the Comments, either here or on Cathy’s Post.

If you love descriptions of walks in far flung places, Restless Jo has some corkers every Monday.

Pond

Week 14 of our One-a-Week Photo Challenge: POND

click on any photo to see it larger

Back in the darker January days when frost dusted everything with magic, Miss E and I went walking with our cameras. Miss E was given a camera for Christmas and she was keen to get some frosty shots. We went to Thorncombe Woods and headed for the pond.

chagrin felt at school

healed with home education,

love, joy and freedom

Joining in with Ronovan’s weekly Haiku Challenge, prompt words:

CHAGRIN and JOY

~

Do you recognise the bobble hat? – I made one for each grandchild last year, but trying to get a decent photo of all of them was like herding cats

Cute though!

I’ll be away from the computer for a couple of weeks. Cathy will be holding the Photo fort over at Nanacathy, leave a link on her One-a-Week Photo Challenge posts and I will include them in the April Round-Up. Thank you Cathy and as Cathy says:

“Happy Snapping”

😀

Check

~

home schooling:

free rein on the quest

for knowledge

~

Last week Miss E and I went on the train to the Lymington Museum and Art Gallery where 22 Home Schooled children gathered to take part in the most wonderful workshop based on an exhibition of work by many different artists all creating pictures of trees.

The children were invited to leap into a painting and imagine themselves there – what could they hear, see, touch, smell. What would they need to take with them. how did they feel whilst they were there.

They then chose a painting to look at for 10 seconds then turn away and draw from memory, then a different painting to draw just the outlines for 5 minutes, then 5 minutes to use colour. After that we went to the craft room to create a printing block of their drawing in polystyrene, to print on coloured paper.

On the train I was allowing the movement of the train to create wiggly lines in my sketch book as a quirky diary/memory of our day.

Miss E noticed that the rain on the train windows made similar lines when travelling down the windows

which in turn were similar to the lines of the branches of the trees in one of the paintings

I just LOVE the way her creative mind flows.

Joining in with our 52 Week Photo Challenge, this week’s prompt CHECK

and

Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku Challenge, prompt words: REIN and QUEST.

I’m a little late this week as I have been away for a few days visiting my son and his three girls and then to Chelsea Flower Show with my sister! We had the BEST time – more of that soon. A highlight of the day was meeting up with fellow blogger Dorris – Wow! That was really special!

There’s a Dragon in the Playground

There’s a dragon in the playground

He’s playing catch with me

There’s a dragon in the playground

Can I invite him round for tea

~

There’s a dragon in the playground

He’s playing in the sand

There’s a dragon in the playground

Can he hold my hand

~

Poem using DRAGON and INVITE by Miss E.

This is a poem Miss E wrote when she was 6 years old and still at school. The poem won a competition and was published in a book which was sold to raise funds for the school.

When Miss E was thinking of some words for Ronovan’s Haiku Challenge she decided to use words from this poem so that she could share the poem with you all this week.

😀

Message for Ronovan from Miss E: ” Thank you for using my words” 😀

Layer

mossy layers invite

tiny dragons to lay eggs

deep in our psyche

~

A response to Our Photo Challenge prompt: LAYER

And Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku Challenge prompts: DRAGON and INVITE

With Miss E as a guest prompter this week – so exciting!

It has been wonderful for me to read all the intriguing haiku that have been created around these words – Miss E will be so thrilled and encouraged – can’t wait til tomorrow when we can read them all together.

A huge thank you to Ronovan for giving her this marvellous opportunity and experience.

The Haiku

mossy layers invite tiny dragons to lay eggs

tiny dragons to lay eggs deep in our psyche

I am a Scorpio Dragon myself – there is a fascinating post by ‘Work in Progress’ if you are interested in this sort of thing.

A bit stuck this week, I went through my photos and found this photo of a wall in Gloucestershire I took in 2010 and then it all came together.

To join in just leave a link to your LAYER photo in the comments on Cathy’s Post, or here, and I will include it in the round up on Sunday.

Next Week’s Photo Prompt

FERN

~

Work

beauty created

under pressure and time

by earth and by man

*

skills honed from a lifetime’s work

more precious than diamonds and pearls

~

Ronovan set us the prompt words of DIAMONDS and PEARLS this week for his haiku challenge.

To marry this challenge with our Photo Prompt of WORK  was a huge challenge and has taken me a while to get there. Go to Cathy’s Post to see more entries and leave a link to your ‘WORK’ photo.

I found it difficult to convey what I wanted to in the 5/7/5 haiku, a few more syllables were needed and so I have written a tanka this week. It does not perfectly fit the ‘rules’ but …

The sentiment is that beauty created by human endeavour and skill is more precious to me than diamonds.

The photo was taken in Mr. Hiroshi Murase’s shop in Arimatsu where we did our tie-dying workshop on my trip to Japan last November. They are preparing the cloth for dying by tying it in intricate patterns.

~

Miss E (8) saw me struggling with this challenge and wanted to write a poem using Ron’s prompt words – she wrote:

diamonds and pearls

diamonds and pearls

how lovely they can be

~

diamonds and pearls

diamonds and pearls

they form in the sea

~

diamonds and pearls

diamonds and pearls

they form under the ground

~

diamonds and pearls

diamonds and pearls

all waiting to be found

~

this is my poem I hope you like it

                                                                                       

   ~~~~~~~~

Next Week’s Photo Prompt is

LAYER

 

Reflection

~

beaming through stained glass

sunlight dances on water

’til the moon rises

~

This photo is of the amazing font at Salisbury Cathedral, designed by William Pye

Back in February, I took Miss E on a ‘school trip’, mainly to see the exhibition of Sophie Ryder wire sculptures,

but the day held so much more….

Miss E immediately engaged with the huge beings

in both a thoughtful and playful way

…..talking about how they might have been made and looking for the baby hare

….found it

She was fascinated by the quirky things she found in the sculptures

and started making a collection of photos of ‘unusual things’.

Totally unprompted by me, she responded to many of the sculptures by adopting the same poses and then interacting with them … I could see she was not only seeing the forms, she was feeling them in her body and becoming part of them.

She danced with the dancing hares…

and stood strong under the ‘clasped hands’. This structure was originally over the path but had to be moved as people were bumping into it whilst walking, heads down, texting on their mobile phones!

Inside the cathedral Miss E talked about the scale of the huge sculptures and marvelled at the scale of the cathedral, again wondering about how it had been constructed,

noticing the richness of its history and the patterns and shapes.

Taking time for personal REFLECTION

We had such an enriching day together, and only just made it back in time for Miss E to get to her gymnastics class.

Joining in with our Photo Challenge , prompt word REFLECTION

and

Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku Challenge: Prompt words SUN and MOON

beaming through stained glass, sunlight dances on water

sunlight dances on water, ’til the moon rises

or in 3,5,3

bright sun-beams 

dancing on water

’til moon-rise

~

Which do you like best?

~

Next Week’s Photo Prompt:

WORK

 

iHanna’s PostCard Swap

I have just signed up for iHanna’s Post Card swap again. We each make 10 postcards  for the beginning of May, to send on a particular date, and Hanna gives us 10 addresses from all over the world, so we all get 10 handmade pieces of art back. It is great fun.

The photo above is of a Post Card I sent a couple of years ago. If you put ‘Post Card Swap’ in the SEARCH box you will see my entries for other years.

Miss E absolutely loves to see all the cards coming in from different countries, and this year we will both make the cards together.

I could not copy Hanna’s email exactly, with all her amazing graphics but here is the essence of it.

Hi from Sweden! This is your invitation to join my PARTY – read on!

Dear Sandra!
Hi my old friend Sandra, I don’t know if you’ve missed my Newsletter but it’s been waaaay too long since I wrote you. I’m sorry, I’ll try to do better. If you’ve visited the blog recently you might have seen that you as a subscriber to the iHanna Newsletter have been entered into a fun giveaway!? Awesome huh?

In my next Newsletter I will annonce TWO winners of THREE months of the class The Journey Within – so do not unsubscribe, but rather forward this e-mail to a friend so they can get a chance to win to by signing up…

Also you’ll help me spread the word about the awesome postcard swap:
Join us right now for SPRING 2016 SWAPPING – time to make 10 awesome cards and send them to people from all over the world!
The DIY Postcard Swap
I’ve hosted this fun & big online party twice each year for many years now. The party starts online, but carries into the Real World and spreads a lot of happiness and joy to the homes of hundreds of people… I’d love if you could join us.

“The party” is what I’m calling my lovely brain child the DIY Postcard Swap this year. Many of you subscribe every time I host it so you might already know that you get to create 10 postcards and receive 10 postcards back from 10 other people around the world! It’s global, it’s fun and it’s easy to sign up.

All you need to do is read the rules and then decide if this is something that you’d like to do. Your postcards doesn’t have to be finished until the end of April, so you’ve got plenty of time. Sign up now:

SIGN UP FOR THE DIY POSTCARD SWAP

Questions? All the rules and a quick-to-read FAQ can be found on my blog. If you have further questions just let me know. Also, check it out on instagram: #diypostcardswap

wishing you a happy Easter
lots of love,
/Hanna

Wanna take a peek into my art journal? I hope you’ll agree that it’s someswhat of a
Visual Feast……

Do take a look at her blog iHanna, if you like art or crafting you can find so many tips and inspiration there. And if you sign up to her Newsletter you have a chance to win her online class.