A Valentine's Day Treat.

I have seen the Website and heard about this craft shop and so added it to my blog but I had never seen it in reality. So when Steve said where do you want to go for a Valentines treat I though it would be nice to find Lyrebird.
It is a little gem of a shop tucked away deep in the Cornish coutryside in the village of Constantine.I hope they approve of the buckets of flowers I have added!!

Inside we found Nichola Butland working away surrounded by Cornish crafted buttons, ribbons and lace. She was very welcoming and and happy for me to take photos.The aim of Lyrebird is to be an outlet for local crafts people and if you check their site you will see that there are many strings to their lyre!

These unique necklaces are all handmade in Cornwall,very tempting!

I bought a patchwork kit put together locally by The Other Thing and Lyrebird.The message on the recycled packaging says "Good things come to those who make" and I think this a wise saying. My husband's Grandma who was a wonderful woman told me that if ever she felt despondent or fearful the best thing was to "Do something with your hands" She made many crochet quilts and was an expert knitter.

Patchwork kits ready for you to make a cushion and felt kits for do it yourself decorations.

I love the Russian dolls and the Raku buttons .

Here we have just the thing for the eco witch about town, no petrol and easy to park!

These charming buttons are locally made and are so tempting that I bought some!

Lovely broaches made with beads and buttons ,so individual and eye catching.

How about this for a Valentine's night outfit ?

There are also  bags and hats.

Gloves and scarves all hand knitted.

I bought a lovely flower broach in pale lilac , it would look good on a coat or jumper .

These are nice smaller felt flowers.

Some examples of the individually designed jewelery.

I hope you enjoyed the visit to Lyrebird, we certainly did and it is good to know that most of the materials used are recycled which fits in with my view that "a thing of beauty is a joy forever" a quote from John Keats.
Another hero, William Morris would also approve of the aims of this  captivating shop.
You can feel the happiness and fun of being creative in the shop. It is also lovely to see Nichola at work at her big wooden table and to get a warm welcome from her. She even told us of a good place to get a cup of tea in the village! If you want to find out more and view the Etsy shop the link is on my blog.

Time for tea!

Love Libraries!

Councils in England are being told to save money because the banking crisis and the world recession have caused a large deficit.The present government is attacking our public services in a calcualted ideological manner to move as much as possible into the private sector. I am apposed to this and as a public service worker all my life I resent the way Cameron ,Clegg and the boys are trying to trash us!Many councillors think that libraries are an easy target for cuts because they have no idea of the cohesive effect they have in local society.
They house other agencies in some areas, for example Citizens Advice , Links To Learning and services to the housebound .Can a bookshop visit you and bring large print and audio books free?
  I have worked in the Public Library Service all my working life except for a brief spell in a bookshop where I learned that profit was the main requirement.The library on the other hand was for enjoyment ,inspiration and education for all not just those who can pay. I have no problem with bookshops making money ,great and I love using them but the library is so much more. It is a meeting place and a hub!

Here we have the poetry group I started at my Library,a monthly meeting of poets and poetry lovers!

A craft day with children where they created with different media and Mums joined in!

Members of a reading group.

The help desk.

Reading the papers.

Something to grab you.

I urge everyone to get out and save your local library,once it is gone it will not be reinstated ! Libraries are the universities of every man ,woman and child.They are magic for kids and essential for all of us.  Sorry to be a bit soap boxy about this but I really believe that our puplic libraries which do books and so much more are a treasure we cannot afford to loose !

.

I am going away to my Mum's for a week!

My Mum is 87 and a very active and lively lady.She lost my Dad a few years ago and found it very hard to live without him.They had been married for just over 60 years.She is quite a nervous and anxious lady even though she always appears the life and soul of the party, so losing her rock was not easy.

As a little girl she was often lonely,an only child who lived in her imagination and it is to her I owe my interest in books,poetry and fantasy.She also taught me to sew  and her artistic way of homemaking was inpirational Of course I was a headstrong little hippy and often we clashed as daughters and Mums do!Now we are older a greater understanding is possible.

This is Mum, Margaret Leonora Moreland,she was such a dear lttle thing!

Here she is 19 and getting married during w.war 2, her dress was made from parachute silk and some bits of brocade.Mum and Dad met on the train to Waterloo when they were both working in London.When Dad was called up she sat and cried and the people on the train comforted her ,they were known to the other regular passengers as "The Young Lovers"

 This is a school photo,she loved poetry and wrote it from an early age and she still writes today when she isn't rushing around at home in the garden or dressing the window in the charity shop she works in two days a week!

A Chidhood Memory of the Early Thirtys

By Margaret Day

I remember a classroom,green painted

A wooden desk with a lift up lid

On the right at the back

A hole with a china inkwell.

Thirtyfive or more children sat in chairs

Hands clasped tight together

Showing white on the knuckles

Praying for something unknown.

A shaft of November's yellow sunshine

Slanted across the blackboard

Dust motes sailed in the gold

As the distant gun sounded.

Everything stopped for the silence

Buses trains ,all traffic

"Bow your heads now" the teacher said

"And think of those who fought and died"

Eyes squeezed tightly shut in reverence

I tried to picture mud filled trenches

Whistles blown and over the top

But then I was an earnest little girl.



She also wrote this next one which I find enchanting ,hope you do too.

Bonfire.

The apple wood is burning

and memories rise

with spiralling smoke

into a violet sky.

Golden grass in the sun

Bare brown legs

Apples like fallen treasure

And children's laughter.

The round whicker basket

The leaning ladder

The strut holder and the climber

Both sadly gone.

Still the sweet scent rises

From the embers

Whisps of curling dreams

 Drift into evening.

Mum loves flowers,her garden, flower arranging and has spent her life making things beautiful .She is a Grandma and Great Grandma and continues to flirt with any lovely young man she comes across !

 Her she is at Christmas having a paddle in the cold Atlantic ocean.

Well I am of for a week to stay with Mum and so this will be my last post for a while, Ihope you enjoyed this one I feel all emotional now!

My greatest weakness unusual clothes !

I have discovered this lovely Japanese style called Mori .It is popular with girls who like individual styles and mixes.A Mori is a woodland girl.

The movement is against the dictates of high street fashion and includes retro.I think that it is a charming idea.
However  I am a little too old to be a woodland girl although I did a bit of tree hugging in my last post!
I am of the opinion that all dress is fancy dress in a way as we are all born naked so clothes should be fun,individual,an expression of self and comfy anything else seems like bondage!

There is a touch of the fairy here !

A Sunday Walk

This Sunday the sun was out and we drove to Trellisick Gardens which are very near us ,a National Trust Property we love to visit it in all seasons. Someone  has had a lovely idea to put a bow on the romantic tower that always reminds me of Rapunzel !

Without their leaves the amazing shape and texture  of the trees we could see was wonderful.This isjust one of many gnarled and twisted examples.

Have you ever read The Secret Garden ? Could this be it? What mystery lies behind the green door? I love doors , it must be pschological ,always searching for what is hidden.

Steve got snapping with his Blackberry and caught me looking at the rusty brown dead heads of this plant.

The Sensory Garden did not have many scents to share at this time of the Year ! Only the Rosemary was fragrant.

The shapes of some of the ancient trees  remind me of Rackham ,I can imagine a willowy fairy hiding here!

 Trellisick is on the banks of the Fal which in the words of Dylan Thomas often has "a heron priested shore"

I couldn't resist a bit of tree hugging,no one was looking!

We found that someone had decorated  the little summer house with seasonal paintings , leaves and crafts.It was very charming!

The shapes are incredible!

This is a really lovely picture taken by Steve , he is pleased with this one!

The trees,the river shining in the afternoon sun  and a kind of peace that only winter brings is very good for the soul!

The ivy is still green and the mosses that cling simbiotically to the resting trees.

I love this,who lives here? My imagination returns to childhood and I see the entrance to a magic world maybe?
It was a great walk and then we had a pot of Earl Grey tea at exactly 3pm how English is that and ginger cake too! Thanks to Steve for the photos,I left my camera behind that day!

A Little Moment of Magic

We are going to Majorca in the Spring,it has long been on my list for a Literary Pilgrimage and now at last I shall follow in the footsteps of George Sand and Chopin!

With this in mind I searched Amazon for some suitable reading to take with me.I found the two books shown above.Both lovely little paperback volumes used as they are described but in good condition.George Sand and Chopin stayed in the Cartuja of Valldemosa,he composed some of his most beautiful works and she wrote A Winter in Majorca while her children Maurice ,the adored son and the headstrong daughter Solange ran free in the corridors.George hoped the stay would cement their love and cure Chopin whose health was failing.

They arrived by boat and Chopin had his Pleyel piano shipped over.The corridors of Valledamosa echoed with the sound of his playing while George wrote and the children ran wild.

So many people have followed in their footsteps and I believe there is always a red rose on the piano which is kept in the Cartuja.

Imagine how lovely it was to open the book A Winter in Majorca and find pressed between the pages petals from the bouganvielia plant.This grows in abundance at Valldemosa and I imagine the previous owner of this book having it in his or her hand while touring the Cartuja.Then so as to remember the visit tucking a few petals between the pages.The book was probably put away and not opened again until I held it! Well that is my romantic fancy anyway! However I will take this book back to visit Valldemosa  again.I can't help wishing I knew who pressed those flowers, perhaps two music lovers had a tryst and wandered in the grounds together.

Well  I shall never know but  I am so glad this book came to me ! I am a hopeless romantic sometimes but Hey! Ho!

New Years's Resolutions!

Last night was the last day of a year that had many wonderful moments and some truly scary ones too.My husband Steve had a serious illness and I thought I might loose him, thankfully he fully recovered . Work was good with many events and exciting stuff going on a  the library where I work and facilitate a poetry group and reading group.Our poets have just published a small collection of their work over the last year and will soon have a launch and perform some of thier varied poetry for the  public.It has been a special joy to work with them all.The readers group is inspiring and much "book crossing" takes place .  We are all anxious about the fate of our public library system here  as the government is making swinging cuts to our public services however I live in hope!

A special highlight this last year was taking my Mum who is a glamorous 87 year old  to Hampton Court Palace where she attempted to be Henry the 8Th's 7th wife.Not a good idea Mum if you value your head!!!

We enjoyed  Christmas and now it is time to make plans for this empty canvas of a New Year. So I resolve to  to live ,love learn and hopefully be happy! I quote a poem sent to me by my Dear friend Karen a talented potter and renaissance woman if ever there was one.

"Departure"

Plans have to be conjured,

Magicians consulted,

escape to green leaves and willowing forests a priority,

Stealing away in pink dawn lights.

before the metal madness and fume filled streets erupt with maggot cars.

 New destinations ,more literary pilgrimages,I am excited!! Majorca in the spring to follow in the footsteps of George Sand and Chopin and Robert Graves!  That is the first  adventure. New books to read old books to savour and new and old friends to cherish ,how's that for a few attainable New Years resolutions?

A Happy, peaceful and creative New year to everyone who drops in on Bright Star, I was given Keat's biography by Andrew Motion for a Christmas present,how good is that?