A blue witch

I like to think that in a past life, I was a witch. The herbal healing, mothering and making, community elder type of witch. I have all these elements within me now, it's just that these days peeps like me don't get a cool name and we don't get the cred. But that's cool, 'cos we also don't get burned at the stake for making poultices!

This little guy has come to live with me.

As has a new camera, yippee! We're still getting to know each other; I think it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

My grandmother once told me that it is considered very ill luck to let a Solomon's Seal plant die. After the death of her mother, Nana transplanted the Solomon's Seal from her mother's garden to her own and thought little of this poignant superstitious ritual. The plant gets it's name from Hebrew Lore, it is thought that once granted great wisdom by God, King Solomon saw the value of the plant and placed his mark (the seal of Solomon, more commonly known as the Star of David) upon it. Apparently the scar left on the rhizome after each year's flower resembles that same seal. The plant has long been considered effective in helping to seal wounds and knit bones.

Columbines, Ladies' bonnets, Aquilegias: these dainty little poppets have been cottage garden favorites for centuries. Literally, there is documentation of their use in gardens back in 1580! One of their names is obvious: they do look like little bonnets. The name Columbine is thought to come from the Latin columba, meaning a dove or pigeon. Look below, can't you see little clusters of doves flying? What I learnt recently, from a fantastic novel (The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier) is that representations of aquilegias were used in the Middle Ages to signify the Holy Trinity. This is because, everything on an aquilegia comes in threes. The leaves are triple lobed, placed in clusters of three and the buds flower in sets of three. So there you are. Now what do you see?

Today is good.

Today is good. I have been a very blessed little lady of late and today was a reminder of that. When you're exhausted from driving between your cottage in the mountains and the big smoke, tired of living out of your car boot and nearly in tears because it's too wet to rotavate and it needs to happen yesterday; it's easy to forget. This week, for the first time since I decided to work on developing The Urban Flower Farm, I thought "Why am I doing this to myself? I should just give up." It was just a brief thought, it didn't last long but it happened. Then the good old family determination (or stubbornness, it's all in the way you look at it) kicked in. I will make this work! And who really needs it all to happen yesterday, my dear? The flowers? Or maybe it's you ...?

Ahh.

Tou-shay, LB, tou-shay.

However, today, things happened.
New friends came to the urban plot. We drank tea and ate cake, we mixed poo and soil. We planted out all the lil seedlings and then, all of a sudden, it was possible; it was happening. In celebration, we tested all of the home-made spirits :-)
The funny thing is, earlier in the day I had nearly called a rain-check on it. The judgement imps were raising their pointy little heads and their raucous voices. "The place is in a mess."
"I haven't had time to bake." "My little project is at a standstill." "They're going to think I'm a lost cause" "It looks unprofessional..." "They're going to realise that I am not Superwoman, I'm not perfect and then they might tell the rest of the world and ... etc. etc."
I sat it out, I busied my itching fingers as they kept stretching for the phone and I'm so glad that I did; what a wonderful afternoon I would have missed out on! How silly those little imps look now.

Listening to this with a warm belly and a smile on my face.

Facing Up

... to Reality?  I'm getting better, much better. 

... to People?  I'm working on it, trust me.

This last week or two has seen a number more upheavals in my little world. The Universe's way of saying, step out of your bubble and look at the big picture? Probably!
The short story is, I'm moving out of my house.
But it's gorgeous! But you love it there! But you've done all that work! But you planted things in the ground! And you've got big plans for those things! etc. etc.
It's hard letting go, it really is but the frustrations of renting and holding together a share house have taken their toll and it's time for a little break.
Besides, I'd be a pretty silly little business lady if I didn't have an escape plan for my garden at my rental property, wouldn't I? It just means that moving house for me also means moving a garden. Totally do-able ... right?

I'm not even going to brief y'all on the new plan because the way this year is turning out, I bet you it's changed 3 times by next week. 2012 really is a lesson on taking a deep breath, trying to stay centered and keeping your eye on the big picture and when all else fails throw your hands in the air and laugh hysterically.

What I do know is that I want to do this, I want to grow stuff, I want to share it with people. I am going to do this. So in the face of all the recent upheaval, I went to Facebook :-) That is, I launched "The Urban Flower Farm" on the book of faces, here and you may have noticed, added a page here. It's happening people, it's really happening.

Filling in the gaps

I get a couple of day's rest at the farm and what do I do? Spend most of it on the computer! I kind of like it though, it's catch up time. I've been filing away photos and things to tell you for weeks, mainly because I was too exhausted to actually sit down and do it. Thanks to the Never- Ending Cold. Seriously, I've had this baby for over 5 weeks now; grrr. All I can say is I'm getting pretty good at swigging these naturopathic herbs. 

In between that, things have been slowly getting busier and busier. We're gearing up for Summer over at the Cecilia Fox studio. Which means my period of being voluntarily, predominately unemployed has come to an end. Exciting! The whole idea of taking time out was to try and improve my health (ha!) and to be able to work on some of the things I value; read yoga, art, weaving, making pretty things, spending time with friends and loved ones etc. The reality is, I hardly got any more of these things done than before and though I was a lot more relaxed; I realised that I love what I do and I love doing it. 

So let's see how long I can maintain my zen while working pretty much full time ...

Gifts such as these absolutely stunning lemon ranunculi from Mel definitely enhance the Zen. I've been staring at them for about 10 days now and I never tire of their beauty.