Usually winter is a slow time but not so this year. Well the snow storm has slowed things, but otherwise there’s been a lot of good energy happening in the studio, that I’d like to share in this mid-season studio update. This is another favorite time of year, when we see the first signs of spring, Imbolc, Candlemas, Ground Hog Day! (more…)
I’m feeling warm in my cocoon of a cozy home when it is frigid and grey outdoors, looking at photos of milkweed and butterflies taken in summer time. The best Christmas gift was Sunwise Farm & Sanctuary’s certification as a Monarch Waystation. Thinking about the this and the butterfly cycle was the inspiration for the next Sunwise Celebrations, February 6. (more…)
As of the Mid-Summer studio update, I thought things were settling down, but things have been busier than ever with art coming and going from the studio, there is a lot to share in this mid-season studio update. We are so grateful that the hard work of summer is behind us, our gardens fed us well, our milkweed has created a butterfly sanctuary. This is a favorite time of year, the time when we can slow down and count our blessings, Samhuin, the night of the Ancestors, is just past. (more…)
For fun I am doing Mountain Mermaid Studio’s Doodle Days. I love it because it takes hardly any time and it allows me to reflect on the highlights of a day, at the end of the day. She provides the templates for us to draw within. Printing them out on HP premium presentation paper is a good support for the Caran d’Ache luminance pencils that I have mostly used in these first few days of the project. Starting to post early in the month, I’m adding the pages till the end. (more…)
Now that the mad garden rush is settling down to merely processing tomatoes (the good news and the bad news) much new activity is going on in the studio.
Thank you St. Joseph East Hospital for promoting this philosophy; “Art has the power to heal the world through the eyes of the heart.” Through a recent call for art, they purchased my Song for Superb Parrot to display for patients and their families. It will be displayed in a public area to promote a calming and healing environment. It fulfills my mission as an artist for my work to be experienced in a place that brings a bit of cheer to people who are suffering. (more…)
‘Tis the flower season to be jolly about engaging in friendship with flowers of many sorts, wild and cultivated. By caring for flowers and plants we can develop a sensitivity to communicating similar to our treasured friendships, a pleasant giving and receiving. The nature spirit residing in flowers has much to share to with us to support growth on spiritual, emotional and mental levels, we need only to listen (in our Heart Chakra) and follow through. And there is much we can give back to the flowers – what is your gift to the earth? I have enjoyed teaching Making Flower Essences since 1991, and will present this summers’ installment as a Sunwise Celebrations. (more…)
Summer is here, a time of minimal online interaction because so much is calling me elsewhere. It is a time of external growth in the garden and internal slowing down long enough to allow new ideas to steer my direction. I have joined Cigdem Kobu’s Summer Sojourn, Slow Down and Get Spacious, a 21-day virtual retreat that guides you to slow down, feel grounded and recharge. Based on benefits from her programs, like the Winter Joy Retreat and as member of Progress Lounge, I look forward to allowing creativity to percolate in expanded ways. (more…)
Most creative efforts for about six weeks have been in the garden. Like most people, I adore flowers, food for the soul. We also grow food for the body. We get so excited when we see the first flowers, daffodils. When they fade my sadness is brief, as the next and the next show up attracting our and the bees’ attention. I can’t help but photograph them to share their beauty with you. (more…)
The cloud people were so generous with their raindrops this spring that the lilacs responded in multitudinous wonder at Sunwise Farm and Sanctuary. All I could do was sit next to a bunch and breathe. To date it is the most uplifted I have felt from “my” land. All I could think of was to call my friends and coax them out of their frenzy to take have an afternoon tea next to the west porch hedge. Or lie with the blossoms that were draped over the hammock. (more…)
It is hard to believe we have arrived at the mid point of Spring, for many of us the sweetest most favorite evening of the year tomorrow, May Eve, Beltain, and the beginning of the light half of the year. It is a joyful time to give a surprise bouquet to loved ones. This lilac picture is my bouquet for you. And click here for a video, Full Circle Tour of Lilac Lane April 20, 2015 Sunwise Farm & Sanctuary. It is kind of long, but we just couldn’t stop filming the thousands of blossoms exuding their fragrant invitation to linger and love the sight of them along with the innocent sound of birdsong. Perhaps in our life time someone will invent a way to layer the sense of smell onto the visual, audio levels.
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