'bottling' the calm,
the fading light of last year  .    .    .






happy dawn to all!
.

wishing you beautiful christmas days !













.

friends and family are starting to gather round .  .     .









.

at first i thought it was all going to be white on white
but then the greys and the blacks started to creep in

pebbles, feathers* .    .    .     funny, that.

* i liked this simple idea in a magazine of photocopying real feathers into cards or gift paper - they look like watercolours.














.

some old flowers on the way to be thrown out .   .     .


i mentally framed some beautiful images on the school run today against slate sky + rain that i would have loved to snap but i didn't have the camera and so i remember them all distinctly - because i do think that sometimes by taking a photograph we may let go of the memory

.

a pause to be with friends,
remember what's important
+ restore some energy
with this chocolate cake almost made of silk.











the days are soggy, busy, grateful
i hope you're bearing up!
.

ever since she was a little girl, i gave my sister an angel at christmas.
i hope she won't mind this year's handmade version
with a golden rose blooming on her head
( and some heavy eye make-up? )


on her way .    .       .










.

bright sun pinned against the sky
but i've been craving snowflakes
so i made some indoor ones
by pressing my grandmother's crochet bedcover
into clay

+




do you remember these + these? vibeke is giving one away
on her advent calendar, if you'd like to join.








wishing you a beautiful week!
.

the study/studio looks nothing like this
my inner elf is beginning to stir
and she is making a right old mess : )





+

this morning, a moist, red chocolate-beetroot cake 
for the olive pickers - one tree down, two to go.

.

a brisk walk around the neighbourhood

while the lentil soup bubbled on the stove

a cold wind blowing *    *         *

.

a weekend away
from lists, chores and time
little voices, best friends
about to be drawn apart by distance
little faces glowing in the embers
the forecasters are promising snow



i hope yours was fun .  .   .  or quiet.








.

"it's my party and i'll cry if i want to"
etc.


phew. we're all glad that's over : )
have a wonderful week!

.

it's true what they say, that the days are long
but the years are short

five today
five years to the day when she joined us in the world
a few minutes before midnight.

do i love you as much as on that day? more?
i'll never know the widths or depths of it.

happy days, my little girl.










.

our little parachute person (old handkerchief, gauze, wool)
which started off as an angel but morphed into a sumo wrestler :)


we looked at a prospective primary school today.
wasn't it only yesterday that this day seemed so far away?









.

it's been raining, with sun.











.

when she came home from her walk
with two palmfuls of acorns
i couldn't resist making her a tiny peg doll
of herself in pink boots


the hat* is removable

* inspired by olga's little people
.

a walk through the woods
the empty picnic site like a vast outdoor classroom
and a. wanting to sweep up every leaf off every table.











.

k brought us news of autumn in brussels

and books and chocolate

and two postcards of 'la fillette a l'oiseau mort'
early 16th century, painter unknown
one of them is yours, dear olga
if you'd like it













i wish you a good weekend!
.