blogging without obligation, another award! and a little bit of 'christmas' from Inglewood.....

first of all.. blogging without obligation... right now, each and every one of us is busy, frazzled and some of us, near demented... I am trying to visit blogs but I may not get to visit all my friends.. so please don't think I have forgotten you.. I am just busy.. as well as getting ready for 'christmas', I also have to look after my garden in this summer heat & rain that alternates lately.. and I know every one of us is busy so if you can't get to visit.. that is ok. Don't stress. We will all catch up after the silliness is all over xoxo ....

Jamie gave me an award - I am so honoured that this wise woman chose my blog thankyou Jamie xo a blog award from the gorgeous Jamie - who to pass this on to? I am thinking.....

and last but not least, I will leave you with a couple of photos... more to come tomorrow, I hope. but for now, here is my token 'christmas' - 'tree' :-

I just cannot bear to even wrap in a yule tide theme.. so I searched for something summery & bright... lime green paper and brightly coloured ribbon.... and a card that simply says 'have a magickal Midsummer'..... most of my friends here, just don't get it.

leading up to Midsummer

I woke early this morning and went into my garden, to water and as i turned the hose on, a magpie greeted me with his divine carolling.... there were butterflies galore, the warm days must be helping them to escape their cocoons in readiness to greet Midsummer which is coming up on Sunday - flitting around the garden, fluttering around and around me... ... and while all this was happening, I was standing in the most magickal perfume of the gardenias. Pure and absolute bliss... I am sure this is what heaven must smell like. A true summer perfume. I was in awe of Mother Nature.. forgiving her for the destruction she had wreaked upon my garden last week

I am puttering around my home today, putting up some of the obligatory Christmas decorations - very simple with lots of candles. And my tree this year is a Camellia. I bought it on Sunday and have some divine fabric rose lights to put in the branches.. then a few birdies that I am yet to make and it will be done. Tonight we are off to the city of Sydney with our children and grandchildren, to see the shop window display and the Christmas tree in Martin place....

is it beginning to look like Christmas? well, yes I guess so... I must find a way to accept that Christmas is now... but it is just wrong to celebrate this in summer. The coming of the sun? that is at winter solstice... but I won't go on about it any longer.. I am beginning to sound like a broken record

On Monday, I spent 4 hours in the garden, tidying up. It was like a meditation. My plants survived... a little worse for wear but they were tended and loved yesterday. I gave them a feed of my bio dynamic comfrey tea, trimmed their broken bones, tied them up and loved them and yes, there are more flowers and fruit forming.. the whole while I did this, a blackbird sat in my ancient apple tree and sang.


a big thankyou to: Tori - an amazing 18 year old young woman. who has given me this friendship award. I feel blessed and honoured that she thinks that my blog is an inspiration.... I am not good at choosing who to give these to, so I would like to give it to each and every person who visits Inglewood, you make me smile with your comments and your words help me on my journey. xo

and the winner is...bloscars - those awards in blog world & an award for YOU !

just the past few weeks, I have been awarded two blogging awards and I am very touched and grateful... I really am....
however, I must admit I have a thing about these blogging awards and in saying what I am about to say, I hope I don't sound ungrateful to those who have given me awards in the past. Because I am touched when someone thinks so much of me or my blog that they choose me.

as well as receiving awards, I have also missed out on some... and some of those I missed out on were on blogs who I thought I was a very good friend... and it hurt and I felt sad. I felt like a child that had missed out on an award on presentation night. I didn't feel at all like a '50 year old mature woman'. I felt leftout and I felt silly and petty and childish for feeling this way. I told myself to get over it. I told myself, just like my mother did many years ago, that not everyone can win an award, but that didn't help either.

I know these awards eventually get around to everyone.. so does it really matter when we get them? .... to go visiting blogs and seeing the 'award' title, scrolling down and seeing your own name isn't there, not a fun feeling at all. OR am I the only one who feels like this when they 'miss out' ?
and then once you actually do receive an award, you have to 'choose' so many others to give it to... and of course leave others out.... so how to choose 7 or 3 or 5 ??

when I receive awards I am always touched but then I always think of those like me.. who had missed out and how they felt... do they feel the same as I do when I miss out? ....... so I sat and pondered why I felt this way and tried to look at it from a different perspective... but I couldn't. So I did something creative ......
I thought that each of us is a good blogging friend to many and many are good blogging friends to many others.. so I deciced to create an award for every one who visits here.. to take and pass on to every single blogging friend who visits their blog and keep it going... the 'I am a good blogging friend award '

so take it with love, share it with love and if you wish.. link to this post so that others may see what it is all about. xoox

a few awards...chatter, a bit of a laugh at myself and missing celtic tree lore

Not much happening here in Woodford right now... we have had a lot of rain the past few days and my garden is sodden.. the damn snails have eaten my new beans, my tomatoes are thriving, the lavender needs a good pruning and I have just about finished my mulching. At the moment, I am trying to work out what I am going to make for my 'Yule' craft because even though I am on the opposite side of the wheel of the year to the Northern Hemishpere, where it is really Yule in December, the powers that be, dictate to me that it is Christmas here, in December.. of course, it doesn't make sense but who am I to argue? If it were just me, then I would ignore all the silly christmas hype and celebrate it in June when it should be celebrated on Winter Solstice, but with my grandchildren, i must make memories.. so I continue my mixed up celebrations, thinking to myself that for some odd reason, I chose this life... all will be revealed oneday, I hope. However, this year is going to be different... and I will share as I go along during December.
The 'true moment' of Beltaine is coming up for me, traditionally Beltaine is October 31/November1 .. but I have decided to celebrate this year on Wednesday as it suits me.... so will be posting about my Beltaine rituals, soon... I truly am feeling such a peace in my soul at the moment... I still have a soul lonliness but I am going with it.. I am sure there is something to learn from it all....

A while ago, there was an advertisement in our local paper.. wanting people who were interested in celebrating Ostara - spring equinox with a picnic in a local park... I was going to go but then Daisy died and mum had her operation and well, i kind of retreated... last week, I received a phone call from the organizer who wants to start her own wiccan group... so I went along the other day to meet her.... she was quite young and very intense and has definite ideas... and quite gothic... that is ok by me.. she was sitting there asking me all sorts of questions and I was asking her a few, but feeling quite uneasy with the intense-ness of it all and deciding in my head that it wasn't really for me... when she asked how I felt about doing ritual 'skyclad' (naked) - I just about choked.... I am not a prude but there is no way that i am prancing around naked in front of people i don't know, or anyone else for that matter.. lord, I didn't know what to say... she kept going on about how liberating it was - yeah right. So I told her i was not at all interested and she said to think about it and let her know... so I said my good byes and just about ran back to the car as if I were chased by demons.... got in the car, slammed the door and laughed and laughed myself silly.... another lesson learned.... it seems to me that whoever is in charge 'up there' has a sense of humour.

Over the past few weeks, I have been awarded quite a few awards... I never liked these things to be truthful..they always seemed to be handed out willy nilly... but over the past days, I have been thinking about them and I now accept awards with honour... that women on the other side of the world think of me in these ways, really does touch me in a different way lately. I am to pass them on but I am only going to pass on each award, once.
so with honour I accept these awards:

from Grace at the Wild Pomegranate, I accept the Beautiful Blog design award: 'has a unique visual flavor which really just makes my senses go “ahh”, every time I visit - and a brilliant human as well' - thankyou Grace... honestly, your words made me cry..so I pass this award on to: Suzie, at Suzie's Sacred space, a place that is peaceful, a place to take refuge from the busy-ness of life.


the Halloween sweet treat award from Moonroot and even though it is Beltaine for me she gave me the award.. for my 'Samhain' post about my ancestors... and I just have to pass this on to Peggy... if you haven't seen what she does with her goats at this time year.. go over quick! Peggy is one of my first blogging friends and has stuck by me through all my ups n downs xo Hidden Haven
I know there are more but for the life of me.. I can't remember where I put them.. so I will continue my search and when I find them, I will pass them on.

Oh and I know I missed this months Celtic Tree Lore which was Reed... just couldn't get my head around it.. I had the post half finished but well, stuff happens.... so I will be posting about Elder at the end of November for the 13th Moon of the Celtic Year - I know Daisy is wanting me to continue with this.. so that I can learn and pass it on.