My daughter and her family, live on the far north coast of NSW. It is hot and humid most of the time up there, and it does not do my psyche any good to be in the heat and humidity. Something comes over me, I don't know what and I become angry, annoyed, impatient, frustrated and many more words that describe the heat for me.
we arrived home yesterday, to mountains mist and rain and this morning, the mist is thick. I took myself for a walk, to re-centre myself and as I walked in the mist, the damp smells took me back to the moors. Those damp earthy smells. The smell of rotting and decaying leaves during autumn.
As I walked, I knew why the heat and humidity affects me so much. I am a moors girl, I discovered that when I was in Yorkshire and walking Bodmin Moor. I am a mountains and mist girl and being away from my soul environment, takes me out of my centre. I know I cannot go up there as often as I would like. That is the truth of the matter. I must nurture myself and keep the promises that I made at New Year to stay truthful to what I want and need.
While I was away, Joe and I celebrated our 26 year wedding anniversary. We stayed at the beach for a few nights and I went foraging to collect bits to make myself an autumn equinox poppet.
"there seems to be an obvious beauty in landscapes,
wild seas and skies,
layers of light and shade...
but what about seaweed or sand?"
It didn't seem right to me to be in the sub-tropics for autumn equinox. It isn't the same as at home, where the dew sits on the ground and where the currawongs sing their autumnal song. I missed my foraging, I missed the cool nights, the colouring leaves and the opportunity to make something special for dinner. I guess I am a homebody. But all is not lost because as a friend and mentor told me last week: "in the old days in England they used a fixed date and it was called Michaelmas. Which was 29th of the month. One of the old cross quarter days". As usual, this is all topsy-turvy to the Northern Hemisphere, but I have to work with what I have. I will still be able to do an autumn equinox ritual here.I have also been away from blogging.. and the reason is that facebook took over my life.
A few days ago I closed my account because I was finding that I was reading about other peoples lives without really engaging in my own. For the past few years I have been chronicling my life on Facebook, updating my status constantly.
Telling friends what I had for breakfast, if I saw circles or hearts, I would announce it to the world. I had discussions about life and posted photos of family events. And I don't know why I had the need to tell all about my life.
I was also inundated with light, love and butterflies constantly, when, sometimes life is just not like that. Well, not for me anyhow.
And what bothers me now is that I have lost connection with those friends on Facebook and wonderful information about herbs and remedies but most of all, I have lost my thoughts and photos of three or more years of my life which is journaled there.
I don't want to go back, I want to live mindfully in my own physical life, experience life without the need and pressure to tell my status. Instead, I want to hard copy it in an art journal, creatively.
what is happening in my world here in Katoomba?
the leaves have begun to turn and fall, the wild apples are still bearing fruit and blackberries are still to be found. I have planted kale, leeks, and radicchio in my garden. It is time to prune the raspberries and I have had my apple tree professionally pruned by a bio-dynamic gardener. He pruned it on the dark moon earlier this month.
it's good to be back!
