20 Steps Outside my Door

I just got back from being away on Mudge Island for 3 1/2 weeks and the first thing I did today was take a walk in my garden. When I am working amongst the plants with the sun on my back and my hands deep in rich, fertile soil I feel I am in another world.

 "There is another world,

But it is in this one."

- William Butler Yates

Here are some of the other bloggers doing the same challenge... why not check them out!

Nicole Valentine

Mixed Metal Mimi

Amy Waldman-Smith 

Ken Miner

A Year of Healing with West Coast Herbs

Last Saturday I attended the second month of Heather MacLeod's "A Year of Healing with West Coast Herbs." What a simply amazing day! We came together over nettle and blackberry leaf tea, sharing our previous month's experiences, and how already the course was having a profound effect on each of us. We then looked over the excellent handout detailing the wild plants and homework for the month ahead. Weeds were on the menu, in more ways than one.

Piling into Anne's van we took off, high in spirits and drunk on the sunny weather, in search of the perfect nettle patch. A kind gentleman had offered his land for the taking. Gathering nettles in the sunshine, sharing feelings with fellow gatherers, to the gentle sounds of Patsy Kline coming from the landowner's radio, will not soon be forgotten...

Bags filled to the brim, we made our way back to class. Heather had suggested a pot luck lunch this time around. While snacking on goat's cheese and Anne's honey wafer crackers, and Linda's delectable smoked salmon, capers and cream cheese pita breads, we chopped and sliced, sauteed and stirred.

For the very first time I learned the proper way to use Phyllo pastry. Seven women in a kitchen and not a cook too many! Soon the Nettle spanatopika was ready to go in the oven. 

Back outside into the sunshine, this time to learn about, identify and harvest common weeds for a nutritious salad.

Lunch was simply delicious... I had brought a coleslaw to which Heather added a delicious dressing made from Anne's blackberry vinegar...

Judy brought homemade pie casing with a jar of her mother's homemade lemon curd, a perfect end to a perfect feast! Unfortunately I didn't get a photo, so maybe she'll make more for next month... we certainly hinted enough...

But the day was not over. Gathering the plants we had harvested during the previous month we learned how to put together the makings of a tincture, and then all worked together to make a wonderful, soothing healing salve.

Just like the day was to my spirit...

Part of my Process

At the beginning of the year I joined Carla Sonheim's wonderful "2013 - Year of the Giraffe" course - an amazing opportunity to immerse ourselves all year long on one subject, exploring it in as many different ways and with as many different mediums as we could. I was beside myself with excitement. I couldn't wait to get started...

 Blind Contour

 

Gesture Drawings

Then, true to form, I deliberated. A lot. Okay, an awful lot. This time it was months... For the right sketchbook. I freely admit that this is a particular neurosis of mine, and finally, after a very long time and due to the kindness of a my dear friend, Janie, have come to accept that it is in fact, in her words: "part of my process." 

 

 One Liners

 

 Contour

During the previous three months, a few odd (please note this is a figure of speech... and not a critique of my sketching skills... I hope) sketches did find their way into some of my pre-existing (and equally deliberated at the time) sketchbooks and journals, but honesty dictates that I cannot really count them as they were not, as such, in THE Giraffe Sketchbook. But thought I would include them, you know, as "part of my process."

 Random One Liner a.k.a. "So that's where the Xmas lights went..."

  So how long are their necks, anyway?

  When in doubt... add another one!

I do this... I take forever to get started on something, and I quite often abandon projects without giving them a further thought, mid-stitch or stroke. Ignoring them blithely for weeks, months, even years on end. Then one day... they resurface and give birth to a myriad of inspired pieces without further ado. It's "part of my process..."

 

"Just checkin' in..."

Anyhow, today I sat outside on the deck in the sunshine and started my Year of the Giraffe... I will, as I have with everything in my life, go at my own pace, doing things in my own way. And I will learn, and enjoy and be inspired again... and again... you see, it's part of my process!

What's your part of the process?

Picking weeds for supper

I spent last Saturday having a wonderful time with an amazing group of women led by Heather Macleod teaching the second month of my "A year of Healing with West Coast Herbs" course. I'll write about it in more detail later, but tonight on the way back from the beach I thought I would pick some young dandelion leaves to put in my salad. The search led me to some Pepper Cress... and there right beside it I found some Miner's Lettuce! Lo and behold in searching for more I soon came across some Chickweed... and suddenly I had a bunch of nutritious, tasty, mineral filled greens for my supper...

Last night we had steamed nettles with olive oil, pepper and grated Asiago cheese... I could get used to this wild crafting and eating!

20 Steps Outside my Door

I have decided to continue with the theme of last week's blog photo challenge, here is another world I found when stepping outside my door, here on Mudge Island which is my home... my world, for another week.

...

"There is another world,

But it is in this one."

- William Butler Yates

Here are some of the other bloggers doing the same challenge... why not check them out!

Nicole Valentine

Mixed Metal Mimi

Amy Waldman-Smith 

Ken Miner

A Year of Healing with West Coast Herbs

A little over a month ago Tony and I were at our local library and I noticed that there was a Herb Talk beginning shortly. The speaker was Heather Macleod, the wonderful teacher who I spent evenings with in her home last winter for a series of talks about the healing properties of herbs. Tony and I decided to stay for her talk. We had a wonderful evening and, before I knew it, two days later I was attending the first in a year long series of workshops designed to learn about, identify, harvest and process 50 wild plants of the West Coast of Canada.

One of my life-long dreams has been to connect more fully with the land and learn how to treat and feed myself, my family and later on, those in need. And here it was, opening up for me. And I remember: Good things take time... Great things happen like lightening.

 

Each month, we learn about new plants, go on a walk to identify them, learn when to harvest them for their strongest properties, and how to do so ethically to ensure their continued growth for future generations.

We learn to dry and store them for later use, making teas, infusions or decoctions.

 

During the month we harvest our own plants and then learn how to process them into tinctures, salves or creams at the next class.

The last week I have spent foraging to gather what I need for this weekend's class. I head off into the forest, savouring the fresh earth smalls all around me, the dappled sunlight on my body, the breeze in my hair. I marvel at the sheer glory that nature reveals when we take a moment to pause, and wander, and appreciate.  An hour or two passes. Unnoticed. I am where I belong. At home with myself.

20 Steps Outside my Door

A couple of very talented artists, who belong to the same Artists Collective that I do, have started their own blogger challenge and I thought it would be awesome to join them! (Thanks Nicole, for starting this, and Mimi, for inviting me to play along!)

One day every week I will take 20 steps outside my door and take a photo of something.

For the next couple of weeks, I am house sitting on Mudge Island, a tiny island accessible only by a very small boat from Gabriola Island, which is a larger island accessible by a bigger boat from Vancouver Island, which itself is a considerably larger island which... well you get the idea...  every time I take a boat to a smaller island, I step into another world.

So, I thought it fitting that I would start with this photo and quote.

"There is another world,

But it is in this one."

- William Butler Yates

Can you guess what the photo is, and who might live there?

Please visit other "20 Steps Outside my Door"

N Valentine Studio 

Mixed Metal Mini

  

Making a Connection

I began thinking about my word for 2013 late December, and immediately the word "cohesive" came to me. I have to admit that I although I know and use this word, I wasn't entirely sure what why it would have come to me so swiftly.

On the second day of the new year, I had narrowed down what I wanted my "word" to represent: slowing down, attention to detail, thoroughness... and one which would encompass my health, my well-being and the connection between my mind, body and spirit in all that I do.

Connection...

• with people, from my past, those around me now, and those yet to meet... 
• with the land, the rocks, the trees and the ocean that surrounds me...
• with birds, fishes, animals...
• with the food that I grow to eat...
• with whatever I am creating, writing, painting, designing with fabric...
• with whatever I am doing...
• with the events that make up my day...
• with my clients...
• with my business...
• with my body...
• with my self...

I knew that this was the year of connection, of really being present at all times, in all that I do and with whoever I'm with. And that began with myself, truly re-connecting with who I am and what I am here to do.
To re-engage a loving relationship with my body, so that it knows, without a doubt, that I am there for it, so that it may, in turn, continue to be there for me. To understand the connection between what I eat, and how I move... to how I feel.

To slow down and truly connect with people, not just brief encounters that leave an emptiness in our hearts. To remember, unequivocally, that I am an integral part of nature, not separate from it. To seek connection with the other beings that share this earth with us.

To recognize that we are all in this together... the planet, nature, all the species, every single human... just trying to get from one end of this life to another, as best as we know how.

So I had found my word - CONNECTION


In the writing of this blog post I looked up the meaning of the original word that had come to me: "Cohesive"

The root word "cohere" has the following dictionary definition:

• stick together, remain united, be logical or consistent...

The adjective "coherent" means:

• able to speak intelligibly and articulately, being logically consistent... and in reference to physics:  having a constant phase relationship...

The noun "cohesion" is defined as:

• the act or condition of sticking together...

I can definitely see the connection...


So what's your word for 2013, and what does it mean to you? I'd love it if you would share it with me here...

More from the "Wonder" Book

I finally made a choice for my "Wonder Book" for this year - a beautiful little red Chinese "Diary" with a cover made of silk fabric and edged with tooled canvas. Measuring 5 x 7 inches (125 x 178 cms) it fits snugly in any bag, and has, very approximately, 380 pages, allowing me to do double page spreads when the need arises. With designs already faintly printed on the page, the wafer thin paper accepts light watercolour washes surprisingly well without buckling, and handles as a whole assortment of markers and crayons quite nicely.

Here are the start of a couple of pages. The first represents the year long Giraffe Class I am taking with  Carla Sonheim, an absolute dream come true for me. (this was actually my first quick giraffe sketch... from a photo!)

The second page depicts the day we spent last weekend on Mudge Island, where I often go on retreat to house and cat sit. It is always a journey to another world for me and I loved how the old sailing ship already ensconced on the page fits right into the theme.

Both pages are unfinished, designed so that I can go back and forth as the days go by and add little touches. Together with a tiny art kit I sit up in bed in the evening and reminisce about the little "wonders" that have made up my day, or week.

So what else might find their way into these pages? Here are some more examples from my own life recently:

• the day Juniper, one of the lovely cats I cat sit who is painfully shy at the best of times, came to lie beside me, turned over, and presented herself for a long, delicious tummy rub...
• the email from a friend, written in gratitude, that sent tears coursing down my cheeks...
• the quiet meal we shared last Sunday with a very precious person in our lives...
• the walk I took earlier today which soothed my weariness...
• the comment from a client, that reminds me why I do what I do...

Years ago I knew a very wise young man who believed that his day could begin anew whenever he wanted to. That even in were late in the evening of a rough day, he got to start that day afresh. I think this "Wonder Book" should be a lot like that, not restricting it to having to start at the beginning of a calendar year, but allowing us to begin, at any moment of the day, the week, the month to make a brand new start.

I don't have to fill in every day, but I do try to find one little seed, one little nugget that stopped me in my tracks, took my breath away. Something that reminds me of who I am, why I am alive, and why this life, even on the worst of days, truly is quite wonderful...

So what would fit into your "wonder" book today? Have you begun one already? If so please send me an email with photographs so I can feature them here on the blog. 

The "Wonder" Book

Often a new idea emerges from a series of separate events. On New Year's Eve, there was a quote posted on my Facebook page that read:

 

Stark, to the point. No discussion. Serious food for thought...

On New Year's Day, a second quote appeared:

 

Now there was no ignoring it... 

A few weeks previously a wonderful suggestion did the rounds: to take a glass jar and fill it with all the things that you are grateful for during the year ahead, as they occur, and then at the end of the year, open the jar and read about all of the wonderful things that have happened to you.

I had read a great blog post a while back about a man who, instead of writing about his day, sketched it. His daytimer page was filled with tiny images recording the special moments of that day.

All this, combined with an urge to have more connection with every aspect of my life this year, sparked an intense desire to begin keeping a book that would record the wonder that each day brings. I journal extensively and would never want to be without one, but this book would contain those precious moments, those things that mean so much at the time, but are so often forgotten in the busyness of our days.

I began the search for the perfect book. Would it be a daytimer, plain and simple, with a day for each page. Or a book that contained.365 pages? What size would it be? Spiral bound or hard bound? Lined or Unlined? These are individual choices that only you can make. Those who make their own journals may consider making signatures of 8 folded pages for each month, giving in total 32 sides to work on, binding them together at the end of the year in one book. The choices are endless.

After scouring the stores for the perfect daytimer, I have narrowed it down to three books: a regular daytimer, a blank sketchbook and a beautiful little Chinese diary that I already had at home, with fine paper that already has light sketches on it, perfect to doodle with.

So what can you record in your "Wonder" Book? Whatever made your heart sing that day...

• a photo you took of a special sunrise...
• a quote that touched you to the core...
• a sketch of something happened...
• something someone said to you that meant more than they'll ever know...
• a link to a thought-provoking video that shifted your thinking...
• another person's thought that inspired you...
• a piece of something that you want to keep for any reason...
• a line from a book that spoke to you...

It really is endless. Limitless. What can you think of that would make it to this list? I'd love to hear your ideas.

We're not that far into the year that we can't begin this now, with what was wonderful about today. And we can forage back to the last week for something each day that meant something special. That stopped you for a moment, made you think, took your breath away or simply caused you to smile...I'll be sharing my first few "wonders" over the next few days, and would love to post some of yours in the upcoming weeks.

Our lives are so fast these days and I am hearing from so many how much they want to slow down. Maybe this is one way to savor our days, recall magical moments, remind us of what really and truly matters. I wonder...