music

I feel I've always had a love of music of all kinds.  I love everything from bluegrass, soul, gospel, 90's rap, hippie, folk, country, Sinatra ( who IS in a class by himself), Christmas music (which I have been listening to since June) and much more.  I pulled up folk on Pandora this week.  I found a new crush of genre.  My new favorite song, among others, is this.

I just want it to be a summer day.   Hot... barely swinging in my hammock in the Oasis listening to this.


I also found 98.5 FM on my radio.  A listener supported radio so no commercials.  LOVE that.  I hear anything from folk to bluegrass to The Band.  It eases my soul in traffic and sitting still.  I wrote this this week...

  I want to be comfortable in my own shell
  I want to be the skirted, long-haired gardener
  Comfortable, make my brew and drink it
  Live it always, give in to who I am - not go along
  Do what I want, breathe deeply
  Take it all in - my surroundings, my creations, may garden, my world
  Accept the calm and welcome it - settle down
  and be content, breathe the air
  Learn to listen to the wind, speak my language
  taste my sin, listen to the birds
  Allow for time to sit down
  let the stillness calm me
  to enjoy laid back music w/ no angst

It's a journal entry of mine.  It's not finished.  I will continue to add to it as I feel it.  It is written in pencil.  I love a good pencil entry in my journal.  It feels different somehow.  It's permanent, yet not.

5 etsy finds

I find myself very lucky to already own two pieces of Bell Trading Company's copper jewelry.  Mine came from my beautiful Aunt Ann who most likely bought it straight from the business in New Mexico in the seventies.  Not that these are terribly valuable or extremely hard to find.  I typed in THIS search on Etsy today and found quite a lot.  I am sure Ebay has a lot as well.  HERE is a brief history of the Bell Trading Company.  Their pieces are fantastic and well made.  The two pieces that I have from my Aunt are below.  I always get compliments when I wear them.  Which is often.

a black friday walk in the woods

Yesterday, Kate and I decided to go for a walk.  How can you ever feel lonely in nature?  As soon as I topped butterfly hill looking down at the creek I noticed all of the activity going on.  Little wrens and winter birds fluttering everywhere.

I am not a fan of winter.  I have to approach it very carefully because I let it get the best of me sometimes.  I have to pick out the things that I like about it.  I like finding nests in trees and shrubs where winged families were raised over the summer.  I like wearing a coat at the beginning of our walk and halfway through removing it because I am burning up from trekking up and down hills.  I like taking a seat on the ground or a tree stump and just listening and looking at what's going on right outside my door.  I like being able to spot deer through the trees running from my presence in their world.

I also like to string white Christmas lights throughout my home for illumination because it gets dark so early.  I do leave them up past the holidays.  But what really gets me through the winter is knowing spring is right behind it.  And soon I will be mushroom hunting and spotting new blooms with every step of my world here.  It is a wonderful place.

Oh how the swimming hole changed from the last hurricane rain.  Maybe it will hold more water next summer!

The red bud pods look like fringe on this one.  How pretty!!

I was truly only gone about an hour and when I got back... Kitty had paid her rent.

a peek inside my spell book

A peek inside my spell book.  Not so much spells... those are generally uttered silently and concocted when alone.  No evidence of them on paper.  These are more of natural recipes that I use or have used since I got my little book HERE.  I love her new one with the skull on it.  I figure it will take me years to fill this one up.  I created a new "Winter Tea Bath" this morning.  Since the heat in the house has been turn on my skin feels like  it went from a summer time plump grape to a shriveling raisin... itching all the way!  Even though I use very good lotion with argon oil and all the good stuff... it still isn't enough.  "Eat more fish" I am hearing in the back of my mind right now.  Hmmm that is a thought.

That is supposed to be tea BAG not back.  I do that a lot,  Write the wrong words.

Calendula tops from my garden.

Rose pedals from my rose bush.

My medicine cabinet.

I'm off to enjoy my bath!

what doin

What doin... that's the text I get when my friend Kim is wanting to drink coffee and talk on the phone.  I love it.  What have I been doin?  A little of this... a little of that....

Last Sunday I went arrowhead hunting with my friend Gilbert up by the Red River in Milldale, TN.  Didn't find any complete ones but dang it was fun.  I could walk around looking at the ground all day.  This is the only picture I took that day.  There are tons of round rocks on the hillside that have flint inside.  I was very impressed.

Here are my findings.

You know I am a big sucker for this stuff.  Quartz.  I have a lot of it that I find in our woods.  This was from Milldale and the rose was from my birthday.  The honey bear belly from the old house Shaun tore down at the street where the trailer sits now.

This is what the scenery went from and to in one week.

This morning I made Fire Cider.  A natural folk remedy for winter time junk.  Recipes found HERE and HERE  Beautiful pictures of the making of mine here....

I asked for this record for my birthday and my lovely family came through for me.  I ordered Shaun an Elvis Christmas record that should be here today.  His birthday is Wednesday.  If he sings Christmas songs... which is rare... but it's always Elvis.  Unless he does that Porky Pig version of Blue Christmas.

But Ella Fitzgerald is what I am loving on and listening to.

And Honey... I'm just waitin on you.  

And that's.... what doin.