~Sgurr an Doire Leathain~

'peak of the broad oak grove'

what about this little squishy, cutie then?

this is Sgurr an Doire Leathain and in a few weeks he shall be coming the 652 miles down from the Isle of Skye to live with us here in the new forest.

we were offered a pup from this litter two weeks after we lost cody but at the time said no to the very kind offer.

we finally decided to put ourselves forward to be placed on the breeders waiting list for her next litter, but instead we were given an offer we couldn't possibly refuse.

but we think we were meant to have him

he was born the day we lost cody and his litter-sister died within two hours, so we like to think cody is now busy looking after her

~*~*~*~*~

his kennel club name is taken from one of the 'monros', mountains in Scotland over 3000 feet high and all his litter mates are named after a mountain.
of course we shall not be using that name and so i have been busy thinking of a suitable house name for him, but keeping with the Gaelic theme.

so now we are busy considering everything that will need to be 'puppy-proofed', carefully considering plants for the garden that are not highly toxic to dogs and of course the excitement of buying new collar and lead.
its also very special because our good friend Al will be picking up his new pup in three weeks time~his pup can be seen here ~funnily his lovely old dog was named jodie, the name of our pups mum.

~birth of a camper~

yesterday was glorious, more than glorious

the sun shone all day...yes, all day and despite getting my books out and writing a few words in my notebook i ended up spending the day watching swampy work on the ongoing conversion of our new 'house on wheels'~i even helped out, varnishing the wooden bulkhead while listening to 'pagan folk at the fairy ball'~ he had put it in to replace the horrid original metal wall that separated the drivers space from the back.

our old camper was like a little french cottage, appropriate for an old french van.

this time given it is so much longer,13 foot 6 inches from bulkhead to back door...huge...i am thinking narrowboat/houseboat.

i love houseboats, my granddad lived in one on the Thames and my dad also bought one for us to live in when we were young, but my mum refused and so it never happened.
so my dream of a houseboat is now being put into 'pretty pagan'

ohh and standing there with the warm sun on me felt so good~my spirit was high!

so this has been our on-going project for the last four months...

a dirty,empty shell~smelling faintly of damp vegetables...see the horrid bulkhead?

our friend sean helping with laying the floor and putting in wiring...no bulkhead!

hole in the roof~actually two; its such a big van we decided that two roof vents would allow for plenty of light and air on hot days camping

battening in the roof ready for insulating and lining

the bench seats with a table to go in-between~which will easily convert to a bed

its a big project and taking us much longer than we thought to complete but with me finally getting to varnish something it feels as if we are slowly getting there~we can now look at her (yes its a her!) and say 'yes, its finally coming together' it now feels as if the end has slowly hove into view and in a couple of months we shall be ready for camping...

~blue sky~

i woke with blue~sky joy this morning

the sun is shining and i can see buds on our forsythia tree and the crocus and snowdrops are blooming

will it last i ask myself?

probably not but it is nice while it lasts.

the downside?

i need to catch up on my studies...big time. i have been easily distracted of late and time-wasting on a massive scale and so find myself nearly a week behind on my work...

~its freezing~

two weeks ago i had high hopes for the weather improving

as i wrote here i could smell spring in the air, hiding just out of reach but oh so temptingly close~where has it gone?

the past few days have been freezing cold with a sharp, biting wind that makes you want to stay indoor snug and warm.

my maudlin mood has passed and i am needing to get out in the garden~i did manage to go around with my dibber in the back garden yesterday.
because it had to be completely re-worked last year (older visitors will remember the dreadful state of both house and garden when we moved in!) the flower beds are bare~no evergreen to be seen and of course no spring flowers. the only flowers are the ones we planted when we worked on codys garden.
so out i went, scarf wrapped around my neck, dibbing holes and putting in little tete a tete's, it became so cold and it was making my m.e aches and pains worse, i had to the leave the snowdrops for another day...maybe later today if it warms up.

i have also become behind with my studies, a week behind, which is far too behind for comfort for me, so i am going to have to put in some big study days over the coming week for i have an essay due in the beginning of march, another in april and in june my exam.

i just can't seem to get going...

~a birthday gift~

it was my birthday last week and as with any special occaision swampy commissioned a special piece from our lovely friend Roses

if you look closely you can see teeny-tiny oak leaves on tendrils around the whole piece

~thanks~

this came from the lovely twiggy a few weeks ago and i am finally getting it up on my blog~sometimes my mind is such a sieve {solsticedreamer gives a big sigh}

and as when twiggy posted hers, today here in the new forest is a cold, damp, grey day~it started out promising, a light mist through which i could see blue sky but slowly the clouds took over and it is ever-so dull.

i am also feeling really unwell today~just regular M.E, moontime combination and so need to just be.

i have taken up my place on the sofa and burning some vetiver oil sent to me by my friend, blended with lavender.vetiver is very like patchouli, which from my last post you know i am rather fond of! it is said to regenerate mind, body and spirit as well as being relaxing,as is lavender, all of which i really feel i need right now.

so today i am giving thanks that i can spend the time just sitting here, with no plans made for the day~i am going to have some soup later and select a few books that dont need proper reading, that i can flick through and pick out pages of interest, i may get my knitting out, i may have some special hot chocolate, brought back from america, that i have been saving for when its really needed~and i think today is one of those days.

as this has been out there with you for a little while now i shall not pass it on but i ask you all today~

***what are you giving thanks for today?***

~wishful thinking & maudlin time travel~

i sat and watched 'seven ages of rock' this evening.
normally anything with the word 'rock' in the title would have me skipping past pretty quick i can tell you, but being as swampy is into his rock and he was sitting there i thought i would check to see who it featured~oddly it was about REM and Nirvana with some focus on the other 'alternative' bands of the time, the eighties and early nineties.

and this started off my present maudlin frame of mind.

i always see this as 'my time'~ my mid to late teens drifting into my early twenties~the time i first started to get pierced and tattooed and i really found music and my identity.
i still remember how mad my mum went when i bought my first pair of DM's (and a pair of monkey boots too) and had my nosed pierced~my dad as usual went with the flow.
i had always been a little...eclectic...in the way i was dressed...so of course i just carried on regardless. traipsing into college, stinking of patchouli, in long black skirts, paisley shirts, waistcoats obtained from the post office,hand dyed jumpers in shades of black and grey, long strings of beads and the most amazing pair of black, pointy boots with about four sets of buckles from a shop called 'bondage in general'. a bit later i had a pair of traditional clogs made for me complete with brass toe caps...now these gathered some attention i can tell you!

Nirvana and REM were in my album and tape (remember them?!) collection, as were bands such as the pixies, dead kennedys, butthole surfers, mudhoney, alice donut, sonic youth, the throwing muses...to name a few. as well as more local bands here in england~the levellers, the cropdusters, judacutters, senseless things, mega city four, the whiskey priests...again an endless list of bands i followed around.

it would be nice to turn the clock back for a while and re-live some of those times~front of the crowd two years in a row to see Nirvana at the Reading Festival, falling asleep at the Smashing Pumpkins, a rowdy hoe down in a field...

~a special painting~

when cody began his journey we asked our good friend Al if he would paint us a picture of cody...

Al's artwork can be seen here

~blessed imbolc~

the great wheel turns again

the heat of brighid's forge is warming our land and we give thanks to that which brings life~new beginnings, purification, healing and fire

the light of the sun is still weak but growing stronger each day.

the promise of warmer and lighter days to come is seen pushing up through the earth all around us~small green shoots pushing through the earth, braving the still cold and frosty nights, buds appearing on the bare branches.

i have been feeling this change for a couple of weeks now~an ever-so slow, invisible turning of the great wheel~ just a spark of feeling deep inside.
the air has been feeling different, smelling different and there has been a change in the birds~for many days it was almost as if they had become silent, living the last days of deepest winter without song~then they seemed to burst with noise and activity and their songs now seem more joyful.

the blue sky no longer feels the cold blue of past weeks, there is a touch of warmth in the air

the garden surrounding, and being enclosed by our little forever home has, in the last week, shown green shoots pushing up through the cold earth, past the piles of brown oak leaves that have been laying like a blanket over the earth since they fell.

buds are appearing on the little rowan and a new shoot coming from the tiny oak that is growing from the acorn that sprouted in our dorset garden.

~i need to get out and about~