Category: News

It has been a while since I last wrote a blog – it has taken a wild, wet, windy return to Uist for me to put pen to paper. Life for everyone has changed, I realise that, we don’t just return to how things were. The jigsaw remains, the pieces are altered.

I am now a granny, and much of my time is spent viewing life through the eyes of a small, energetic child, who has an insatiable and joy-filled enthusiasm.

My parameters have changed in other ways. Increasingly I find the garden to be a place of solace. Much time and energy has been spent planting trees and ever more bulbs. Bulbs for me are one of life’s miracles, they look so unpromising and yet brave new shoots are piercing through the frost-hardened ground. I eagerly anticipate the results and will then plan again for autumn.

The studio continues to be a place of welcome and creativity but is no longer open every day; so if you are planning a visit please check before travelling too far.

I look forward this year to reconnecting with old friends and to making new ones.

They say pride comes before a fall and way back in January I was going places. Out and about with my friend,Sharon…. that is until I fell on black ice and basically mashed up my shoulder.!

However 9 months on and 2 weeks post surgery I am looking
to resurrect myself in the manner of a phoenix. This is a bit of a pipe dream as recovery promises to be a slow plod requiring oodles of patience.

It is a very strange and challenging thing to lose the use of my right arm in such a fashion and I still struggle to get my head round it. Basically I process all my “stuff” by journalling which I do copiously. I have journals about everything….art, the garden, family, ….life. I fiddle with words and images. Scissors, paper and glue are certainly one of my foundation stones. Creativity is the driving force of my wellbeing but for the next few months I am having to take a different tack,a brave new world awaits… I just have to find it.    To be continued…..

The Rosehip cards have now been added to the shop

Rosehip Cards – Pack of Six – £12

For the inspiration behind these cards see my blog post Rosehips

December: I walked down the snow covered lane to find the rose bush. It was sharply cold and slippery underfoot and I felt the ice crunch and crack, but the tarmac was reassuring rough nevertheless.

The House Sparrows are fat and fluffed up in the hedge, chirping noisily, and overhead a single silhouetted Starling fluttered it’s wings and sang to itself.

The sky, for this moment was blue. The rose hedge stood stark and brown and my eyes searched for the remembered red of the hips. They are much reduced and shrivelled but still add welcome punches of colour into the bleached ochre and pale straw of winter.

A skein of geese pass over, low enough that the dry rustle of wings is audible. Water drips into a hidden ditch and a passing car disturbs the slush.

The Starling’s song fills my mind as I turn towards home. The sky darkens to pewter as the next hail shower sweeps in from the Atlantic.

 In search of roses
 Shrivelled red hips punctuate
 A darkening sky 

Cards available in the shop now 🙂