Days of yore ...

In a way it is fun how the same thing can totally change its meaning based on the perspective you're looking at it. When I was still in school I had a deep hate for history. I thought it was one of the most boring and annoying subjects a pupil could undergo. All those dates and empty names of battles and meaningless blablablah .... Then with my family we moved first in a small medieval town in Tuscany and later relocated here in the far north in a traditional wooden house which is more or less 110 years old. My wolfpack of five kids are not in school so we have so much time to spend together learning new things, and through their inquiring eyes and thoughts I started understanding the beauty of looking back. Not battles nor names,but way of living, way of doing things, of loving things. Perspective shift. Endless questions on the line of 'how was when they didn't have street lights ? Can you imagine northern lights how scaring could be in the total darkness of northern winter ?' and so on... and all of a sudden history became us, history became almost a longing for a truer life, in which humans needed to prove their worth in the every day pursuits, even the more simple ones. The other day I went in the barn with my two youngest, and while the second young was telling the little one all the wonders that used to happen there in the days of yore, I took a few pictures of beautiful details. Unfortunately the barn is not the original one anymore, but it is anyhow very old.

Mutant Monkeys

In the last couple of days, thanks to a very mild and springish weather with my two youngest we have spent a lot of time in the nearby forest. Along with so many amazing and beautiful gifts from mother nature, we have also found the not-so-amazing and rather-ugly human leftovers. The sight of such a ruin made me think of a brilliant OMNIA song, 'I don't speak human', in which a wolf is talking to human beings; a line of it is especially fitting the situation we have witnessed ...

...Upon a wing, a flying thing, to you I seem so small
But I look down on what you've done, my raven's eye sees all
You people lika a cancer grow, destroying all you see
And 7 billions mutant monkeys won't listen to me

Because I don't speak human, you can't understand a word I'm saying
I don't speak human, you can't undersrand a word I'm saying

I won't run this human race, your war is not for me
I hear the voices from the wild, they thought me how to see
It's us who are the strangers here and we don't own the land
My words they fall upon deaf ears, cause no-one understands

Because I dno't spaek human, you can't understand a word I'm saying
I don't speak human, you can't understand a word I'm saying...

Wreckage and despair,

 and no, they're not going to clean it as it is clearly very old things that already spent a lot of time there.

Should we maybe stop being mutant monkeys and start being considerate humans again ?

One Week, back to life

One week since the vernal equinox and here in the North spring has sprung as she has been anxiously waiting Father Sun permission to show herself in all her majestic beauty pulsating life. So yesterday the outdoors called us really loud and me and my youngest doughter, another spirit of the woods as I am, have spent most of the afternoon-evening wandering in the nearby forest collecting fallen branches for our future creations and stones and much more for the young one collections. Before showing a few of the pictures I took let's track Father Sun, if you're curious to see the changes in one week have a look here .

Sunrise has been at 6:55

Sunset will be at 19:49

Lenght of the day 12h 54 min

 

( + 38 min of daylight in one week )

 

 

 Rhubarb has started growing ! Spring is really here

My guardians ...

One of my feathery friends in the golden morning light.

Father Sun, Sister Moon

Beside runes and nature, another of my passion is Sami culture. The Sami are the indigenous people of the north, they suffered a lot and have been dispossessed of their lands, their ways, their religion and for many years even of their language. Now they are trying to thrive in this world, they are trying not to give up their ways, and I think we could all learn so much from them ( as we could from most of the -few-indigenous groups still existing on the planet. Anyway, a while ago I did some research about Sami's Shaman drums and I could find some images online ( I'm sorry I can't remember which web-site at all ) and loved them, so i started realizing some pendants in polymer clay inspired by those signs. Here the first one I finished yeasterday. It's sun\moon signs and I really like it. It is polymer clay carved, coloured with pastel chalks and polished.

Country Tales

One of the most lovely side of living here is the nature. Nature still wild enough to take over our 'humanly' ways. We have very often tiny guests sharing the house with us. Little country mice as small as lemmings, with a soft grey\brown fur, a short tail and the most precious rounded ears. they are very well behaved, they come in only when outside is really cold. They have two or three 'entrances' and come and gather food and play ( yes they play !!! They love to roll small objects on the floor ). They never climb over tables or kitchen to steal left-overs but only collect what is on the floor ( and let me tell you, with 7 people in the house, of which 5 'youngsters' there's always plenty ) and bring it in a safe place. Usually the safe place is in some corner of the house or near one of their entrances, but lately we have found two rather funny niches they have been using ....

One morning my husband tried to put on his shoes and it was filled with food ... we checked all of them and we found a second pantry ... always in one of his winter shoes... 

In a small toy-box, again food and some wool taken from a 'stuffed' toy- garlic

Smart little things they are ...

Vernal Equinox

Finally it has arrived ! Today is the Vernal Equinox in the northern emisphere, this means that the following three months will be characterized by a growing amount of light hours until the Summer Solstice when here in the north there won't be night anymore. It is an exciting period as the energy level of all living beings rises and rises along with the track of Father Sun. A few data for today :

The Equinox will be at 10:29

Sunrise has been at 6:16

Sunset will be at 18:32

Lenght of the day 12h 16 min

At the moment the weather is cloudy but you can spot some blue here and there and the temperature is +1 C. I can't tell if tonight we had a light frost or an even lighter snow fall, either way now outside it is beautiful, birds are singing and temperature feel quite mild ( even if on the colder side of course )

A few pictures I took earlier :

I will try to write an update of the light situation every monday, as I love to nature journal.

More wood-working

Living where I live and having the heating system that I have, there is always some wood around. I think wood is one of the most wonderful and versatile gift we are given by Mother Earth and very often I really can feel its call. So for a couple of days some new idea and new project started taking form in my head,floating around without letting me grab it until yesterday when finally it became clear and I could start working on something new. This is probably the most exciting stage of every endeavour, when you first dive your toes in the water of creativity and hand work and slowly start swimming in the sea of your mind.....

The King

I already featured this wonderful Tolkien's poem here but being one of my all time favourite poems I have worked on it several times and in several ways, so here I am again presenting it in two different yet very similar ways.

Here it is written in English. To part the words I used the small dot as a hommage of the runic ways.

I have to say that English language it is not my mother tongue, but when I tried to read it translated in my own language it sounded so weird and different that I couldn't get myself to love it, not even nearly as much as I'm in awe for the original. And of course I'm saying this with the highest respect for the translators, as I know well how hard of a job it is, having worked as such a few times.

Here the same poem written in Khuzdul (Cirth) runes. A few words about this version. It is the english poem simply written with Khuzdul 'letters' (runes) it is not translated in the actual language. I pondered why I keep using this kind of runes, which are not the ancient norse and celtic ones, but the ones Professor Tolkien invented for the dwarves and Elves (some of them) of the Middle Earth. I still don't have an answer, I'm probably just font of them and their look, so as much as I'm working with Futhark, I will be gentle on myself and keep using Cirth.

Aegishjalmur or Helm of Awe

One more try at carving. I'm especially happy of the outcome I got this time.
This is Aegishjalmur , or the Helm of Awe, an ancient Norse symbol, whose general meaning is protection and irresistibility in battle. As many mysterious things there's not a real reason why ones feel drawn to something and I really not know why I feel so bound to this symbol at this moment, but as I always do, I just let this feeling flow and this has been the result.

(realized in polymer clay and charcoral medium)

One White Tree - JRR Tolkien

Tall ships and tall kings

Three times three,

What brought they from the foundered land

Over the flowing sea ?

Seven stars and seven stones

And one white tree.

                     (JRR Tolkien)

In the picture a carved pendant I made in polymer clay and charcoral medium inspired by this wonderful poem and original illustration.

Slowly

This winter has been very mild here in the north.A few days really cold (-20C or so ) a lot of days between 0 and -10 C. Not so much snow, just the nice quantity to play and walk on in safety and have light, but not so much that needs snow-work ( we only had to make hard snow work three or four times ). But on the other side this is showing to be one of the longest winter, as for every springish day we have a very light snowfall in the night followed by a few cloudy and colder days. I personally don't mind that much, but there are a few people, even in my own family, whose nerves are about to have a breakdown over this. But still, spring days, as a matter of fact, being quite rare stuff this year, are even more exciting than usual and yesterday it was one of those.So even my youngest, who usually prefer the comfort and warmth of the home, asked me out for a walk, in which i joyfully indulged along with the oldest doughter and faithful camera.

How the yard looked like yesterday morning

And around ....

Amrâlimê

In this period my main artistic endeavours are aimed in learning new skills on a side ( carving and  woodworking  mainly... ) and including my interests with a few techniques I learned through some online art classes that I took last year. Here a few tries I did with celtic knots, mixed-media art, Khuzdul runes and words.

Amrâlimê is the Khuzdul word for 'my love' or 'I love you'  taken from one of The Hobbit movie, on the lower circle it is written in runes

My first attempt with engraving, not totally satisfied, but I'm trying to be gentle on myself as it was the first try ever with this specific technique.

Credits: sources for all things Khuzdul and Neo-Khuzdul  are Midgardsmal  and The Dwarrow Scholar

Squirrel and Crows

I'm lucky enough to live in the 'outskirt' of an already tiny town in the south of the north. This means that I'm freely and abundantly given the chance to meet so many wild animals in my everyday life and my children learn how love and appreciate them and their specific lives in the wilderness, not in artificial settings of any kind, which is quite rare nowadays. Anyways a few of our small friends are more shy than others, so squirrels, rabbits and hares and hedgehogs are much harder to be seen long enought to get the camera. But last week I had the fortunate chance to see all at once a squirrel, gathering wool for the nest-my idea- and three crows queing for their turn to get some of the crumbled bread I leave outside in the evening. I had my camera at hand and shot a few pictures from inside, as opening the door would have them flee right away, so not the best quality maybe, but a great memory for sure.

 The squirrel is on the tree trunk closer to the 'lonely' crow, on the red woolen cloth hanging from there.

Crows have fled, squirrel feel more confident.

Feeling blue

The time soon after the sunset in this period of the year it is also called the blue hour . Most of the days the sky is still too cloudy to notice its real color, but there are a few days of pure bliss in which we are given the greatest display ever of divine colors, painted by Sun and Moon greeting each other on the doorstep of their own realms. I took some pictures a couple of days ago, actually divided in two sets, one without any artificial light, which are of course a bit blurred because of lenght of the shot due to the dim light; the other one with the artificial light of camera flash, which gave quite a good effect to most of them.

These were taken with no flash, and no other artificial light (too) close by.

Same place, same moon, same trees, but with camera flash. The second last is my favorite.

(p.s. Pun in title is intended ! )