But lets see what is underneath!!!!............Saturday 26 July 2008
Ruminations
I'm just writing this afternoon really to put a few thoughts down 'on paper' or something of that sort!!
Steve and I have been through some very trying and difficult times over the last few years - and that is no exaggeration. If it could happen - it's happened to us! One big wrench for us has been to leave our beautiful home and life that we had in Ynys Mon ( Anglesey for you anglophiles!!) to move to Oxfordshire - this was a work thing. Behind us we left our very eco-lifestyle and lots of friends and fellow eco-warriors. It has been a very difficult thing to find our motivation to pick up and move on and create that same feel in our new place.
However, the Great Spirit knows better and knows when to twang that web and push you to get off your bum and do something!!
All of a sudden, in the space of a year, we are now allotment holders (replaced our previous veg garden with avengeance!!), we are beekeepers and chicken keepers again. We recycle, re-use and think hard about out footprint on the land. We support charities that are beloved to us (WSPA, FoE, CAT, bumblebee conservation, etc). We shop where possible in local farm shops (http://www.foxburyfarm.co.uk/). I have been to my first local Parish council meeting - there is nothing quite like it to really embed you into the community, warts and all!!
Why is this important?
It's given us back out real identity.
It is hard sometimes just to stop and just be.... not to worry about belongings and the current financial crisis, property prices and energy bills. Earn enough if you can to pay the bills but then really really enjoy Life ......up until now, I don't think I have done that in some time.
I can now have the internal peace to sit here in my garden - or should I say on that bit of earth that I am borrowing at the moment - and simply be here. I don't need anything more fancy than that. I never fail to look out across the fields in wonder and feel a glow at seeing that scruffy new great Tit or Robin, or lately a brand new Spotted Fly-catcher! This wonderment comes also from knowing that we are trying to 'do our bit'.
I feel very strongly about the countryside and particularly about animal welfare and I can finally say that loudly and without embarassment - it is my passion in life. I count myself very lucky that I have found a partner in Life who feels similarly. Also that we have friends, old and new, who are also of the same mind.
This brings me rambling back around Life's web again and how we are now suddenly on the edge of something new and even better than before, by meeting our new and good friends Tim and Julie (http://www.fiddlesticks.uk.net/) and now setting up the Longworth Allotment Apiary. We have lots of ideas on setting up a mini ecosystem there and using it potentially as a local school education facility as well as an asset to the local environment. I am total blown away by the possibilities!
Julie and Tim, I thank you both from the bottom of my heart - you are both fantastic people and I hope that we remain friends for many years.
So what was the point of this Blog?
Well it is a "Thankyou" really to the Universe for giving me a purpose again. I have whispered it on the wind and chanted it over my altar and now it is on another web!
Blessed Be xxxx
Wednesday 2 July 2008
Bee's at Last!
Finally! back up and running as a Beekeeper! Collected my bee's from Maisemore in Gloucestershire, and fine bee's they are too! Very gentle, and not in any way 'feisty'! Unlike my previous bee's up on Anglesey.......they were widely regarded as 'feisty....with attitude!'
Really looking forward to joining Tim down on the allotment. It's taken a while to slowly canvas everyone we could, and get permission, and now things are coming to fruition. Photos show my apiary at the back of our garden, and a couple of shots of my nucleus (nuc) hive, prior to moving it to the lottie. With luck, and good weather, we shall be able to supplement Tim's bee's, and set up my own hive on site. Either way, we are up and running so to speak!
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