Dharma in the Garden

Mosaics - Part 1

It is unseasonably warm today.  More like June than March.  The summer house is baking hot, bees are buzzing, birds are singing and butterflies are fluttering.  I'm wearing factor 50 sunscreen and sunglasses and wondering what happened to Spring.

The weather is confused, the plants are confused, in fact we're all a bit confused.  Which may explain why I decided to teach myself mosaics today.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. I have the basic kit of materials I bought a while ago which contains tiles, grout, adhesive, nippers, goggles, tweezers, even an apron and gloves. What I hadn't realised was that adhesive and grout don't really keep that long.

This Week

So far I have been:

enjoying the sight of spring bulbs starting to push their way above ground; removing the moss which has covered most of the brick edging surrounding the lawn; discovering Cruickshank Botanical Gardens and I ♥ Art in the city of Aberdeen (both hidden gems); photographing trees (again!); thinking of taking up crochet (and I ♥ Art do classes!); choosing plants for pollinators (I so want the garden to contain only plants, shrubs and flowers which attract bees, butterflies and insects); reading The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo; wearing red (a colour which has been long absent from my wardrobe); receiving a parcel of skincare goodies from Liz Earle; waiting for the arrival of two new art books - Unfurling by Misty Mawn and Art at the Speed of Life by Pam Carriker; voting to retain the beautiful Union Terrace Garden in the heart of Aberdeen; finishing my evening class in acrylic painting (loved every minute, could do another four weeks).

Inside Out Explorers

Well the Inside Out e-Course has now finished and I'm starting to have withdrawal symptoms!  Missing my daily dose of reflection and creative fun.  I would love to do another one but time, money and a digital photography course have put paid to that plan. 

Anyway, Shannon (our inspirational guru and course organiser) has put together a montage of all the course participants' creative efforts from the four weeks and you can see this on YouTube

Lose the scissors!

Just completed Week 1 of my creative e-course Inside Out and about to leap into Week 2!  It's been great to just mess about with paint and other fun materials and not worry about the results on the paper. This is something I have real difficulty with so hoping to learn how to release all the angst I feel when I start a painting.  The best part has been snipping words and images from magazines and making wonderful collage.  For a little while I was taking time to cut words and pictures out with scissors but then I realised that it was actually far better to just rip and tear things out.  Essentially learning to let go and just be a child again, not caring about being neat or tidy.  Lesson of the week for me has been "lose the scissors"!



There are some parts of the e-course that are challenging for me.  Particularly the journal writing exercises. But I am finding the free form writing to be cathartic. After all the course is called Inside Out and that is just what is happening when you get your thoughts down on paper.  Some thoughts aren't so nice (lots of negativity that needs a light shone on it) but equally I am finding lots of nice stuff turning up!  I have done something similar many years ago when I tried to work my way through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way (no fault of Julia's that I never managed to complete it). Anyway, morning pages (as they were called) threw up some pretty good stuff and I re-read them again the other day to remind myself of what was going on in my life back then.  



Loving the relaxing meditation (which I just don't do enough of) and looking forward to learning about yoga. 

So can't wait to see what's in store this week, although definitely will need to plan my life better so I can do a little something every day instead of a huge splurge of activity at the end of the week!

Other pictures from my journal of self-discovery can be found here

September

"By all these lovely tokens, September days are here, with summer's best of weather, and autumn's best of cheer." September by Helen Hunt Jackson.

A definite chill in the air this morning but the sun has shone all weekend and I notice that the leaves on the trees are starting to change colour.  I do love September.

Here is a picture of the summer house we ordered on Saturday.  Finally!  We have had our garden nearly a year now and it has looked incomplete with just a concrete base in the corner where the summer house should be.  That should all change in about six weeks.  Then we need to get the electrics put in and have it painted.  I'm thinking inside it will have white walls and floor with maybe a pale blue ceiling. The exterior will be a wood stain - not too dark. It would be nice to paint the exterior like it is in this picture but I think that might be a litte too bright for our little garden!

Then it's off to the art supplies store to get myself an easel.  I've always wanted one and now I will have the space!

WhiteSpace

WhiteSpace is a local art workshop run by the City Council's Arts Development Team. I stumbled across a page about them on the Council website about a week or so ago during a google search for local art classes but the information there was well out of date.  Then last night I was flicking through our local free newspaper (which I don't normally do) and there was an article advertising the latest programme of art classes at WhiteSpace! 

I knew they would be very popular so phoned first thing this morning.  As I expected most of the classes were fully booked already but they did have a jewellery class starting in January which still had places left.  Now synchronicity definitely played a big role here.  Surely it was meant that I would find this course at this particular time...  So I didn't hesitate and booked a place there and then.  It's a ten week course for beginners. We will be working with silver which is exactly what I'm interested in. 

Today's Horoscope

"Although you can be so intently focused on the minute details of your immediate environment, the astrological month of Taurus opens your vistas of thought and imagination. Today, however, with the Moon in your 10th House of Career, it's crucial for you to make an effort to push beyond your own self-limiting boundaries. Widen your vision in a practical manner so you can eagerly open the door when opportunity knocks."

This is very appropriate considering the current situation here in my office.  We are living on the knive edge at the moment and not sure which way things will go.  Before I read the above this morning, a few of us were discussing the way things are and how we probably need forced change in order to jolt us out of our current environments.  We moan and complain but we put up with our lot because it's safe and it's what we know.  I think this is true for the majority of people.  Unless change forces us out of a situation, we are happy just to stay put and accept our lot.  But if our work is a huge chunk of our lives (we spend more time at work than we do with our families), why are we putting up with something that makes us so miserable? 

The last few years have seen me taking steps to change my working life so that it incorporates some or all of my interests. Progress hasn't been as fast as I would have liked but moving from full-time to part-time working is one change that has definitely had a huge impact on my life (for the better!).  I'm still heading in the right direction as far as my plans are concerned, although I now accept that things don't always happen when we want them to.  Life can change at any time and we never know what is just around the corner.  I'm definitely going to be prepared for when the opportunity comes knocking.

Dharma Creation

In the beginning...

Dharma in the Garden is being created.  Watch this space!