Snowdrops have been showing white tips for a few weeks and we have just about got a few in full bloom. Today I saw that other harbinger of Spring, my first lamb! A set of twins being carried over to a waiting land rover, I think the ewe caught the farmer out, as most of the sheep on my route to work usually get put under cover to lamb.

Only another week to Imbolc! Hurrah!

The lamb photo is the 2007 winner of the BBC Countryfile Photo Competition. You can read all about how Richard captured this image of a Spring lamb at his blog, Richard Peters Photography

Just a quick How Do to let you know I’m still about! I’m hoping to be back a bit more often now I’ve almost got the hang of time management!

In the never ending quest to reduce the ‘stuff’ in the house I spent quite a few hours this weekend sorting through boxes of paper clutter. I came across this photo which I’d ripped out of an RSPB magazine some years ago in one of the files. I don’t know if he took it himself, but a Martin Phipps sent it in – it’s a pair of spotted fly catchers. They built a nest and raised five chicks in  the bowl of his friend’s wall mounted bird bath.

Fantastic picture!

I was in Manchester again yesterday afternoon, I will be travelling in quite regularly for the next few months as I have been taken on as a Guinea Pig patient for the students at the dental hospital.

It’s a bit weird walking around the campus at my age, like some sort of backwards time slip. I think a part of me has remained a perpetual  student, I certainly still get my typical ‘I’m under stress dream’ which started during my final year. This is usually a variation of  ‘I’ve not revised for this exam’. When I had kids this morphed into a ‘I’m at Uni with no child care’  and also ‘I’m at Uni with no where to live’ In the end I got so used to these sort of dreams that I reached  lucidity, I can bump myself out of them in my sleep by reminding myself that I have, indeed, already actually graduated, and have the piece of paper to say so.

On my way to the hospital I came across this little Geological Garden which is to the side of the Museum (that’s the building behind it in the top photo) It’s composed of large rocks, paving slabs and pebbles found in the North, I had a few minutes pottering round the stones and wished I had my dowsing rods with me. It‘s man made, but has no obvious design, apart from the aesthetics of display and an eye on the efficiency of use. It has not been used for ritual as far as I know – it would be interesting to see what sort of energy pattern the stones have created between themselves.

2A – Cumbrian Greenslate in case your interested!

I’m still trying to acclimatise to working fulltime, there is so much work that I feel like I’m just treading water at the moment. Although I try to keep positive, I think I may be kidding myself that I can actually reduce the heaps rather than add to them! I find myself so exhausted that by the time I’m home and been out for an hour with the dogs, it takes a supreme effort of will to get back on the PC for anything more than half an hour of surfing.  Hence the lack of posts!

Yesterday there was bit of a bright spot in the unrelenting toil when I was asked to babysit this floral tribute for a while. So beautiful, and it smelled wonderful too. These days it’s unusual to have flowers (other than from the family) at a funeral, and it does seem a bit of a waste since they only probably get given a fleeting glance. The florist who put this together put a lot of thought into it. It was made for a gent, which probably explains the lack of showy stuff, and the thistles and the heather are a tribute to the fact that he was, you guessed it,  Scottish. I particularly loved the pussy willow, a lovely reminder of Spring!

Mr Stoatie found this shrivelled up hyacinth bulb in the garden a few weeks ago and brought it into the house, where it languished, forgotten, in a corner of the kitchen windowsill. Last week I noticed that it was starting to show a green tip and feeling sorry for it, I stuck it into a little candle holder. It’s so tiny that I had to stick a pebble under it to stop it submerging underwater. Within days it had sent down roots – you could practically see them growing – and now flowers have begun to appear!

I don’t think it will amount to much, but as a symbol of the drive to live in all aspects of Nature; as a promise of the return of Spring and a reminder of the Cycle of Life I find it resonates more deeply with me than any of the ‘perfect’ blooms we have in the house.

After bemoaning our lack of mistletoe on Christmas Eve, what should I find when walking the dogs on the day itself – a large sprig of the stuff under a hedge! Much more than I could normally stretch to if truth be told, although it has now been rather depleted by the youngest, who is carrying on the family Tradition at her own student gaff. Still I can replace the dried up bunch from last year, so thank-you whoever arranged that!!

Photo MSN News

Last Thursday I caught up with an old friend at late night shopping in town – working fulltime sure does interfere with your social life! I took along the camera hoping to capture some of the hustle and bustle in the streets and the beautiful Christmas lights, but my camera – and my talent – weren’t up to it. I did however get an acceptable photo of the Nativity which is traditionally set up in the Market Square, under the Christmas Tree. These wooden figures are the third set we have had in the last nine years. What happens to all the old ones?

Well we have a little secret at work. As you know I work in the old lodge which has extensive cellars – three separate rooms, one of which holds the old kitchen range. When people ask me what there is down there, the answer is always old records and …. Baby Jesus.

Yes we have the Holy Family camped out in the cellar. This is the old set I remember from my childhood. When I first worked here they were collected by the Parks Dept every November and returned the following January. The lads always used to carry the ox and the donkey by the ears which was most undignified and rather careless. Now however they never get their annual outing and have been left to languish in the dark, superseded first by a papier mache set and then the wooden ones which are out now, these are provided and looked after by the local Catholic church.

Our little family are dusty and pretty badly damaged now – there are ears, feet and hands missing, chipped paint and bits and pieces glued back on. It is all very sad. Having been objects of veneration for years I think they deserve some sort of respectful retirement or decommissioning. Perhaps the old pagan practice of breakage and ritual deposition would be preferable to being forgotten in a cellar.

I’ve just got back from walking the dogs, we did a lap of the little housing estate in the next village so we could enjoy everybody’s decorations in the twilight. There is quite a lot of house bling around here, and of course as it was still a little light you could admire the inside trees before folks shut their curtains. I have four days off work which hasn’t come a moment too soon, although unfortunately I am working fulltime between Christmas and New Year – by myself yet again!

The day started with another bad headache which has been the story of my life for the past few months. I had a five day headache last week which culminated on the Saturday with such a stonker that I had to stay in bed, and so missed the Grove’s Alban Arthan ceremony. The obvious culprit is stress of course, I always think that it’s particularly soul destroying that the most debilitating headaches always come when you have a day off work.

Anyway now all the holiday madness is more or less sorted I’m feeling a lot better. We’re at home this year, and with just my Mum and our youngest here on the day, we decided to forego the turkey dinner until New Year when the in laws and my eldest will be around and instead we’re going to be having an Indian Takeaway! My Mum took it very well – even though she doesn’t care for it much – but my daughter was rather affronted. Oh dear…  Mr Stoatie had been thinking of taking us out but when he saw the prices the hotels were charging he balked!

The eldest called by this afternoon with some holly from her boyfriend’s parents garden which I cut down and popped in a jug. It’s laden with berries and really beautiful. What I haven’t got this year is mistletoe, this is the first year that I have missed buying any but since I have been running round like a mad thing for weeks due to work and Mr Stoatie having a hospital stay I won’t beat myself up about it.

We’re still having problems at work. We’re still, three months later, a fulltime member of staff down, which means I am running the office alone a lot of the time. To cap it off my job share is leaving at the end of this week, which means that I lose the luxury of working two and a half days and have to go back to week day mornings. As if this wasn’t bad enough because we can’t replace her yet I have been asked to work fulltime for a couple of months at least. Eek! I will be glad of the money but I’m not sure how I can fit everything in!

On a cheerier note we have a lot of lurve in Stoatie Towers at the moment thanks to this spud heart which turned up in the tattie bag yesterday. Mr Stoatie, the old Romantic, reckons we should list it on Ebay. *sigh*

The youngest disappeared with my car for four days and so I had to walk to the local shop for some necessities on Saturday. To be honest it was quite a treat to be able to walk without being dragged along at jog by the dogs. Passing by the garden centre I noticed there was some sort of fairground ride at the back of the car park, which explained the loud music I’d been hearing on and off all day and been blaming on the neighbours!

When I told the young girl serving at the shop, she said that Father Christmas had arrived at the Garden Centre and thought that maybe this had something to do with the fair. Last year, she said, her boyfriend had been an Elf. (There must be some jokes in answer to that but my mind went blank!) But, he wasn’t doing it this year because “Santa wasn’t very nice” which is really rather depressing, as it reinforced all those stereotypical movie representations of  ‘Santa’ being a miserable, bitter, drunken, child hating old man when out of character. It sort of put a tarnish on the beginning of what is an exciting, mysterious and magical period running up to the Solstice/Yule/Xmas/New Year holidays

I have been having lessons about looking for magic in the Ordinary world for a few weeks now while journeying and so I’ve been making a conscious effort to find the ethereal, the out of sync, the wonder in everyday life – the glory and the freshness if you like. Sometimes it falls into your lap … the new moon, a flower, an unexpected kindness or connection, and other times you have to actively work for it, squinting at things out of the corner of your eye, turning over metaphorical stones or looking at things from the wrong end of a telescope.

One image that illustrated this for me was when I was ‘shown’ a snow globe, undoubtedly on the surface one of the tackiest, plasticy, souvenirs going, the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower in a snow globe ….no thanks! But give it a shake, clear your mind, and really look into it and despite it all, it can still transport you to another world. Magic out of the Ordinary.