Farewell to Inglewood

[the removalists arrived bright and early]
I was excited, at last, moving to Villa Maria! something i had dreamed of for weeks..

[piece, by piece they took the furniture to the truck]

[bit, by bit, they filled the truck with my treasures]

[and emptied the house]
and as the house emptied, I pondered on the magick that was Inglewood.. I realized that the magick was me... and I could take it wherever I go

[leaving nothing much of me, but the words I had painted on the wall...]
the last day as I gardened at Inglewood, it started to rain. was Heaven shedding a tear? wonderful rain, watering the garden as it had since before my time there & it will continue after I move on..

[yes, farewell Inglewood].....
and now I live here : Villa Maria taking a little while to settle in, but I know I will get there....

how hard will it be?

to leave Woodford?
to say goodbye to Inglewood?
to close Tales of Inglewood?

Inglewood has been my heart home for 10yrs. the place where I found out I had cancer and went through treatments. the place where Sophie grew up from a girl of 10 to a young lady of 21- the place where my eldest daughter was married from. *wedding day*
the home which saw the birth of three of my grandsons.
the place where I started to blog at Daily parcels *cleaning timber floors* ..[how did I know back then that I would be needing a recipe for a wooden floor cleaner?]..Daily Parcels was a simple blog..my very first...
my home Inglewood: where I 'met' my online friends, where I lost & grieved for Daisy...
& what will I miss about Inglewood? I will miss the garden, the changing seasons. I will miss the birds: currawongs, choughs and my friend the Magpie with the sore foot. I will miss how the home wraps itself around me every time I walk through the door.

Woodford is a glorious mid mountains village. not much here except a post office. the general store closed years ago. 10 yrs in a life of a village in the mountains is alot these days. the roads have got busier and now there is a highway being built across the way.
the road where I live was once dirt, now it is kerbed and guttered.
next door to Inglewood where once stood a vacant block of land is a new home. *save faeries*
a home where city folk have moved. those kind who use airconditioning instead of wood fires to keep warm.
so much has changed.
what will I miss about Woodford? I will miss seeing a trickle of smoke coming from someone's home in winter time.. I will miss the eccentricity that is Woodford. the climate that is Woodford. I will miss the chilly cold days.. I will miss the mists that Woodford is known for. I will miss the magick of Woodford

and this beautiful blog. the blog where I moved to when Daisy died. where I have bared my heart and soul. .. will be sad to leave.. but it is really the end of this chapter in my life. I have grown alot. still searching, but a soul peace has settled over me. thank God....
[i may be without internet service for a time (dutch husband is organising the disconnection today).. not sure how long.. when I come back, I will be at Villa Maria full time - both online and in real life]

we move on Friday

yes, this Friday, the removalist truck will come and take all the large furniture to Villa Maria. Friday night will be our first night in our new home..

I am at the last of the packing.. you know all those bits that you really don't know if you want to keep or not. so you put them into a pile in the middle of the floor, stepping around and over them. trying to ignore they are there, but all the while knowing you will have to deal with it eventually.

I play on facebook for a little light relief and go to Avis & Bills place for a cup of tea and a break.

My spiritual life is suffering. badly. I am not taking time to sit in silence. I feel completely disconnected from the Divine. I am a mix of emotions - excitement & sadness. But most of all I am tired. absolutely exhausted.

forgive me for not visiting your blogs..

if I don't see you

at the moment, I am overwhelmed. with packing & renovating, cleaning & trying to stay sane amidst chaos.. burning lavender oil but no music because my iPod is down at Villa Maria

I wander around from room to room, trying to find a starting place.. overwhelmed with the mammoth task ahead of me, trying to keep Inglewood tidy so that my mind doesn't feel like a jumble sale... and I am tired. over whelmingly tired.. so if I don't visit.. you will know where to find me... amongst the boxes & tissue paper sound asleep.

[I am still blogging sporadically here.. and at Villa Maria as things get done.. but visiting even more sparsley. for this, I am sorry. *and I found my wedding ring, tucked under a little crevice in my lounge chair.]

tempers run high, lost things ..oh my ~ telling it how it is in my life today.

they say that selling & moving house is one of the top things on the stress list. Right up there with death & divorce. Add to that, renovating.. well as you can imagine, tempers are snapping here.. tension between the gorgeous dutch husband and moi... but they flare and go down just as quickly which is a good thing. But I tell you.. there are moments when I feel like running away. to be by myself.

*sigh* such is life.

a disorganised house with half packed boxes.. stuff in piles to go to the bin. more piles to go to Vinnies and amidst that, I am supposed to keep the housework done. I walk around looking at all I have to pack & wonder why the hell i have all of this stuff. why? why collect bits & bits & bits..

a mother who is ready to move into aged care, but there is a delay. so I have her on the phone every day telling me that her whole life has been disappointment, after disappointment.. and this delay is just another one.. she is used to disappointments.. she never expects anything else. so she tells me.

my head is going to explode.

a 21yr old daughter, who believes she is a princess and thinks that packing and moving is just going to 'happen'.

I look at the garden at Inglewood & wish i could go outside to bury my hands into the earth. But it is freezing [well freezing for Australian standards]..so I stay inside.. still feeling like I want to run away somewhere. to be alone. somewhere sacred, where I can lay on Mother Earth & be enveloped by her earthiness, by her peace & tranquility. hugged by her arms. I imagine a deep forest, where rain is falling gently & the smell of wet leaves... I just want to be there. surrounded by ancient rocks.. anywhere but here in the midst of chaos.

& have lost my wedding ring after taking it off to rub Arnica cream into my poor hands
I could cry.

my first prayer flags ~

in between packing, renovating Villa Maria and tending Inglewood.. I have finally made a start on my prayer flags.. so far I have made two with 2 others half completed. I was going to make 7 but 5 is the number I am to make. .. not sure why but 5 kept popping into my head.

the turtle was the first one I created.. trying to create these in the way of our indigenous people of Australia. my squares are 10" square & I will sew them onto tape to hang in my apple tree

[the fish is my second]

the other thing that I feel I must do is kick start the Earth Healing blog Earth Healing and Nurturing. Unfortunately, I lost the list of participants .. so if you were on my list as an Earth Healer, please email me [I will posting there soon..] ~ as well as creating flags for the Gulf, I have also decided to create one for Mother Earth..

and one more thing.. it looks like we may be moving in about 3 - 4 weeks so you can imagine how busy I am.. finishing the renovation is tiring work, i have aching muscles in my legs from up & down the stairs, my arms are becoming very fit & toned & my back aches dreadfully.. and then we have my mother moving to aged care in the next week or so & it is up to dutch husband I to do that AND we are selling our business.. dutch husband has to finalize over 30yrs of work in 6 weeks... I am trying to visit blogs & I am sorry if I don't get around as often as I usually do... and if I don't get to yours.. give me a prod..

working magick

at Inglewood? ~ my snowdrops are flowering.. lots of lemons, oranges and limes. a list to take cuttings/seeds/& snippets from my garden: welsh onions, borage, feverfew, yarrow, comfrey, nasturtiums, calendula & russian garlic.

but onto the magick..

you know, I didn't think I was doing anything special when I posted the prayer for the Gulf.. nor did I even think that I could be working magick... but it seems I was [well, not me really ~ I was but a tool....] You see, Ruth posted it on her blog let's pray for the Gulf ..

she emailed me to tell me I was working magick..comments on her post:
Love, Love LOVE IT!!! Have sent it on to all my friends and will be recreating with the children tomorrow morning.
&
I belong to the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids. I have copied your blog entry and posted it on the message board. It could now potentially be seen by 10,000 members!
I made my prayer flags today by gathering ribbons and writing the names of every creature I could think of along their length.
The children have drawn pictures of happy birds and fish on a card which I have laminated and added as a tag.
This is a fabulous idea. Thank you for writing about it.

and Ninnie ~ going through chemo herself for breast cancer.. still took time to sit with her grandchildren to create prayer flags.. Ninnie's prayer flags

so you see... this is really rippling out there.

and as Master Jesus said:

Again, I tell you that if two of you on Earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."

draw a heart around the Gulf.

when I first 'met' Sr.K through blogging, she talked about drawing hearts around people or events.. and I loved that idea.. I began to do the same.. and then I was taken with this blog : RIPPLE sketches & I decided to create a little piece of art along the lines of the Ripple project..

what I did was this: I found an old map of the Gulf [I used an old encyclopedia, but it is easy to find one on the net as well].. drew a heart around the area and then created a collage - postcard size.. I will put it in my Soul Journal along with the Gulf Prayer... magick happens when I do this.. things manifest even if I close that journal and forget about it.. Shakti Gawain calls them treasure maps...

wanna join me in this? draw a heart around the Gulf!!

prayer flags for the gulf ~ create for yourself.

while having a shower this morning.. in gorgeous clean water.. [very much different to the animals & fish in the Gulf at the moment]..

my mind always wanders while showering.. off it goes! i was thinking about the Gulf prayer and how it was being said all over the world...probably one every moment.. constant prayer..and then prayer flags came to mind..

i have been wanting to make some for myself since I had the breast cancer scare [people made them for me all over the world & hung them in their gardens]..

I am going to make a string of 7 flags.. for the poor dolphins, egrets and many other animals & birds that are suffering.. the backgrounds will be in various plain ocean & seaside colours..on each flag a different sea animal or bird will be represented..[I am thinking maybe in an aboriginal style art] and there will be one white flag in the middle on which I am going to write the Gulf prayer ~ the whole string of them will hang them in my garden here at Inglewood.. and every time, the wind blows.. that prayer will be carried off.. when I go to Villa Maria.. I will take them with me..

wanna join me in this? make yourself some prayer flags to hang in the garden, on a tree or on a balcony.. share this on your blog... every prayer flag helps..

PRAYER FOR THE GULF - Dr. Masaru Emoto - Prayer WORKS!!! Let's perform a Miracle!!

the following was taken from Godlike Productions, something I stumbled across while searching for info about the Gulf [I don't normally post things like this, but I feel so strongly about what I read.. we CAN do something.... [I think I might create some art for this]

'We do Know that prayer works and when 1 or more are joined it is stronger. May we use all the ways we can be helpful to help heal the earth and us.'

Dr. Masaru Emoto is the scientist from Japan who has done all the research and publications about the characteristics of water. Among other things, his research revealed that water physically responds to emotions. Dr. Emoto did experiments where words like love and joy were written on bottles of water and other words like hate and anger were written on others. The bottles of water with kind words formed crystals while the bottles with angry words did not. What does it mean? I believe it means that rocks and trees... and even the water out at sea responds to our intentions...
Many people have the predominantly angry emotion when we consider what is happening in the Gulf. And while justified in that emotion, we may be of greater assistance to our planet and its life forms if we sincerely, powerfully and humbly pray the prayer that Dr. Emoto, himself, has proposed.

I am passing this request to people I believe may be willing to participate in this prayer, to set an intention of love and healing that is so large, so overwhelming that we can perform a miracle in the Gulf of Mexico.
We are not powerless. We are powerful.

Our united energy, speaking this prayer daily...multiple times daily...can literally shift the balance of destruction that is happening.We don't have to know how...we just have to recognize that the power of love is greater than any other power active in the Universe today.
Prayer for Gulf ~ A beautiful, meaningful prayer from Godlike Productions:

"I send the energy of love and gratitude to the waters and all living creatures
in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings.
To the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, planktons,
corals, algae ... to ALL living creatures ... I am sorry.
Please forgive me. Thank you.
I Love You."

Please join me in often repeating this Healing Prayer by Dr. Emoto's.
Feel free to send it around the planet [post this on your own blog if you wish]. Lets take charge ... and do our own clean up.!

3 years ago

3yrs ago
Daisy came to visit me in my dreams.. I saw her standing beside my bed as if she was at the beginning of a road, her hair was blowing gently in a wind and she was surrounded by a white mist..
little did I know where that road was taking her.. until I woke and turned on my computer.. reading frantic email after email from friends telling me to go to her blog.. some saying how sorry they were.. and of course, what had happened, was that my best friend, my soul sister, one of my tribe had passed away during the night. I was absolutely gutted.. at that time I was prepared to fly to the funeral.. but looking back, I am so glad that I didn't.. I spoke to her daughter Sweet-Pea on the phone a few times during that week .. grasping at straws trying to make sense of it all.. it was surreal. 3 years have passed..

oneday, i am going to visit Daisy's family at Dene Cottage.. where I will meet her new baby grandson, Oliver.

it has been a long, long grieving process for me and I am still not 'there' yet.. nearly every single day i think of her - sometimes with such a raw grief that it is like yesterday..

a week or so after Daisy died, I stopped blogging at Wednesdays Child and moved to Tales of Inglewood.. where I went through alot of 'morphing' to where I am today. I still miss her many daily emails, I still miss her Sabbat gifts. I just miss knowing she is there... but good always comes from sad.. and I have met other new friends.. and cemented quite a few others to a lovely strong friendship.. and to each and every one who visits here, I say thankyou.. for being here for me when I have needed you.
grieving for Daisy ~ oh god I miss her blog posts

today, I have felt lost and an underlying sadness is in my soul.. I fight that sadness.. but all I feel like doing is sobbing.. I pour a bath and sit, tears trickling down my cheeks.. how long does grief last ?

time out for a little bit of art

according to ancient wisdom.. one must stop to smell the flowers, take time out... and I am doing that amidst packing & renovating ~ blogging is my respite, my time out from all the work that is to be done..

this morning while hanging the washing out on the clothes line.. i did just that.. I bent over and took time with the flowers.. a gorgeous little calendula - a pot marigold, self seeded between bricks and rocks.. oh this so reminded me of Daisy..not sure why.. note to self: must take some seeds for the garden at Villa Maria

the vegies are growing steadily at Inglewood.. celery, leeks, beetroot, peas and lettuce. I most probably won't get to harvest the leeks but might be lucky enough to get some peas and the beets will be ready soon.

remember the doll paper doll swap that I joined in a few weeks back.. well I forgot to show my doll.. she has flown across the sea to a place unknown to me as yet..

I also joined in Janet's 6 x 6 swap and these were finished last night and hopefully be put in the mail this week [among other various packages]..

and then there is my art studio here at Inglewood.. for Judie..

my art desk.. an absolute mess. i do tidy it up, truly I do.. but the creative frenzy starts and well.. this is what happens

I love the door. we found it somewhere once while trawling the renovation yards.. the coloured glass is brilliant. I hope to be able to have doors like this throughout Villa Maria when we eventually get around to renovating that part of the home.. I don't want anything to match. a mis-match hodge-podge magickal place to live.. that will be Villa Maria.

thoughts from today

I love blogging. I really do. at the moment i am living two lives.
one at Inglewood, where I am taking things down from walls much like un-decorating a christmas tree. I wander around my garden, gathering bits - statues, wall plaques, pots & other things that dutch husband and I have collected over the years, and each one holds a memory.. I look at my garden with different eyes, a bittersweet time.. remembering when we first bought the house and all we have done to the garden.. but there is an underlying excitement of course with the life to come at Villa Maria. .. but like I said, it is really like taking decorations down at Christmas time
then I pack it all into my car and take it down to Villa Maria where it sits until I have time to find a home for each and every piece of garden art. what I cannot find a home for will be given away to friends..
Villa Maria, the other part of my life.. where I go each day and renovate.. pulling up carpet, cleaning out cupboards, pruning trees.. [and of course you can read about that at Stories from Villa Maria.....]

today at Woodford we had a frost.. and the oranges will be really sweet, ready to eat.. I will leave some on the tree for the new owners.. I can just imagine their excitement about picking their own fruit.. what a life they have to look forward to!

[I am visiting blogs, as I can ~ trying to run two homes at once and also moving my mother into aged care in the next few weeks, is quite a daunting task.. so if I don't visit please don't think i have forgotten you.. I will be by as I can.. ]

well, it has happened

today, we received an offer on our home Inglewood.. and we accepted. Not exactly what we were asking but with the world market as it is.. we thought it is better to sell than wait .. plus the woman has fallen in love with the home.. and that is all that matters to me...
contracts were exchanged tonight and there is a 10 day cooling off period just incase minds are changed... dutch husband & I have 6 weeks to pack 10yrs of living at Inglewood.. and move it all to Villa Maria.. chooks and all.

today at Inglewood

the real estate agent thanked me for the way I present Inglewood for showing prospective buyers... he just doesn't get it.. I do this kind of thing all the time for myself.

the little finches are back. the winter finches who flit from branch to branch in my garden, disovering insects that have been left exposed by the fallen autumn leaves. a winter finch breakfast delight!

the capsicum have almost finished only one more on the plant that I will use for pizza and then the plant will be left to rest until summer time.. for the new owners of Inglewood whoever they may be.

the bush peas have flowers, the swedes are slow, celery is coming along fine. the lime & lemon trees are heavily laden and the oranges are just about bursting off the tree.. and the tamarillos continue to supply fruit rich with vitamin C.

it is cold but sunny, the washing blows in the breeze. as I clean the bathroom, I can hear the currawongs calling in the distant valley.. my soul sighs with contentment.

winter is here and even St.Francis is kept warm.. a scarf of mine hangs around his neck, while he holds produce from the garden..

[don't forget to check Villa Maria.. I do update that often]

I'm gonna share some art..

a few days ago, I had an urge to paint [and let me say here; I don't paint.. I have dabbled a little but faces or people are not something that i have been taught].. I wanted to do a child-like painting that I had done many years ago while at school.. you know, one of those people with big heads, little legs and colourful clothes.. so I started to paint.. starting with a background of gesso and stenciling etc, etc.. then I used a page from an old encyclopedia to make the face and painted over that with a kind of opal pearl paint. and a funny thing happened as I looked at it.. a face appeared.. the eyes and mouth were there but no nose.. so I played with some brown paint and filled in facial features.. then got going with the hair, dress etc...left it for the night & came back to it after dreaming that I had to collage 'something' to the piece of art work.. so I went through my gatherings of magazine cuttings that I have collected over the years and found a stone rose and a little bird [is it a robin?]... and this is what eventuated from my creative streak:

[it isn't 'perfect' [the crown is crooked among other things] I am my own worst critic.. but I like this piece of art that I created.. the eyes follow me around the room.. very odd]

had an interesting comment on my previous post about selling Inglewood
in part: 'Try to remember, you are selling a roof and walls - not a lifestyle.
Don't take it personally if your taste and ways are not to others liking. This is a business transaction and whoever buys it (even if they are your type of people) will still change things you would never think of. Inglewood will sell when you detach your lifestyle from the house and attach it to Villa Maria. De-clutter and give some one else a blank canvas.'

thankyou Carol C.. [and maybe I am on the defensive here] but unless you have either been here to my home or been following my blog for sometime.. you can't really know that Inglewood IS a lifestyle, not just a house & I cannot detach myself from it until I move - the garden cannot be detached from, it needs to be tended & nurtured & loved, until i leave it ~ our home here is being sold as a mountains cottage which lends itself to the clutter and decorating style & we have been instructed to leave it as is. I totally understand that people will change it when they move in - we always do. we put our stamp on our homes as most people do. Inglewood will sell when it is divine right planning.. not when I detach myself.

[new post at Villa Maria]

don't give up on me..

at the moment.. I am in quiet time.. and I worry that my blogging friends will think I have disappeared and stop visiting Inglewood.. I have been journalling alot.. working through Walking in this World is bringing up alot of things to sift through & also opening up my creative self.. so I am painting and collaging, writing poetry and other such stuff.. and it feels good and is fun.. [I will share when I work up the courage to put that part of myself out here]
And, I have been occupied with a few online workshops..

story telling & collage with True North Arts..

I also joined Barb Kobe's Medicine Doll Workshop

& then joined an online Art community

so you can see that I have been busy, busy ~
working through Julia Cameron book always seems to open up a whole lot of new worlds for me.. and with my work at Villa Maria.. well, life is full.

I will admit I have also been a little in the doldrums with Inglewood still not selling.. it actually saddens me that no-one has come along and fallen in love with the home... I feel as if I have created something that only I like.. with Imagine painted on the wall, the extensive gardens and the eccentricity of the home, have i created an unsellable home? Dutch husband says no.. we made a silly mistake with the real estate agent.. the contract is up soon and we will go to one closer to Woodford .. I am trying so hard to remember that everything is being orchestrated as planned in the Heavens, but sometimes, I feel well.. i guess lost is the word.. does that make sense?
[thanks for not giving up on me xoxo ~ I love that you still come by even though I am not visiting you as much.. I will, I really promise.. but just right now, I must honour my soul]
[there will be a new post at Villa Maria tomorrow - I took photos tonight of some more work we have done]

it's been awhile

it has been awhile, hasn't it? I have been going through a very quiet time.. maybe I am intune with the seasons..but I have been doing alot of inner work & learning quite a few things about myself.. lessons in life, you could say.
we had a lovely few days away & returned home to rain.. and it has been raining on and off ever since.

I have been taking part in a couple of online workshops - True North Arts 'storytelling collage' & have recently joined Barb Kobe's Medicine Doll workshop..as well as working through "Walking in this world" - it may seem alot.. but surprisingly or not, they seem to interlace with each other . I am still in two minds whether to share here or not.. I have learnt that I must trust my own inner guidance on the art work..

while we were away, I was in the company of some amazing trees.. complimentary of Mother Nature..

I went walking one morning and came across this tree.. I just had to take Joe back so I could get a photo of me hugging it. the bark was amazing

I actually gathered some of the fallen bark. it can be used in art work. the Aboriginal people of Australia, used the bark for many of their baskets and in many other ways. it is brilliant.

Goddess Tree. this tree stood out to me, as soon as I saw it.. a lovely, lovely energy

have my blogging days come to an end? I don't know.. I will visit as I can & my posts, well we shall see what happens.

off for a few days

dutch husband & I are off on a little adventure.. riding up the north coast for the weekend..
I have been rather quiet as I have been working through Walking in this World.. & as Julia Cameron tends to do.. stuff has been coming up for me so I am doing a bit of inner work.. have joined the collage workshop as well as a medicine doll workshop with Barb Kobe..

I finally found a naturopath who I am comfortable with.. I had a long session with her today and she is of the school where no supplements are taken but heal yourself with whole foods.. a very positive lady who shares recipes and herbs from her garden with her clients.. I came home with an armful of kaffir lime leaves and quite a few recipe ideas! she also said to make myself a mix of clary sage & geranium essential oils in a carrier oil to rub onto my breasts and ovary areas to help with the night sweats.. and 'ordered' me to do yoga at least 3 times a week.. [she is yet another butterfly in my life now.. very compassionate and warm.. just what my soul needs at this moment in time..] oh and buckwheat pancakes for breakfast & home made sushi for lunch.. looks like I will be cooking quite a bit. fun. looking after myself with food, creating for myself.. treating myself with love & care..

busy, busy, trying to sell Inglewood

the past week has been busy - we had an open day on Saturday at Inglewood and the past week I have been getting the home ready.. I tend to go a little overboard.. wanting everything to be perfect...
plus working through Walking in this World and the online story collage workshop.. well, I am sure you get what I am saying.

Inglewood has been on the market officially for 2 months and it is slow..
we have had about 5 viewings. the first one, I have my suspicions about.. a woman and her sister came to look and adored it and raved about the home & wanted to come back for another view with her husband [that is the feedback from the real estate] - when the real estate tried to contact her, she had given a false number.. I am beginning to believe that it could have been a reader of this blog, sticky beaking.. just a gut feeling I have.. a very strong one. and that bothers me. but not much I can do about it.

what I am trying to do is trust - trust in the order of things.. that it is all being orchestrated in the heavens to bring the new owner to Inglewood.

I am wanting desperately to move to Villa Maria and even though i keep telling myself that all will happen in divine time according to the divine plan.. my impatience is getting the better of me..
but then of course, if Inglewood sells right at this very minute, I would be panicking as our new home is no where near ready to move into..
I do believe patience and trust [as well as loving myself] are two of my biggest lessons in this life.. will I ever learn?

today as I drove up the road to Inglewood.. about 4pm.. the autumn sun was beginning to go behind the mountain and I gasped as I looked at our maple trees that line the road. the colours were absolutely brilliant...

the liquid amber is performing brilliantly this year. I will rake the leaves and take them to Villa Maria to enrich the poor dead soil.

this lipstick maple is brilliant. autumn is gorgeous in the mountains.. once the days become cold.. the trees put on an autumnal colour splash...
and now.. off you can go to Villa Maria & read about my Sunday there..