Eight weeks: back to life

Yesterday some technical problems didn't allow me to post, so here I am today, exploring how is life 8 weeks after the equinox. First of all I have to say that next sunday, 21 of may, we will be leaving and hit the road for approximatively 4 months, so I will have to stop my light tracking and mostly I won't have any internet connection, so my posts from around Europe will be very seldom. For the first time in years I feel so heart brocken at the idea to stop my life, my projects and go away. I'm not sure if I should be worried about my gypsy spirit being tamed or happy because that means that I'm finally enjoying the 'here and now'. But my family has been organizing this trip for so long, way before I could find my own peace of mind and so next sunday my life will have a turn and change to the core for several weeks.
Here we're experiencing the most cold spring in years, or possibly ever. Temperature just rised a couple of days ago above zero, but never more than 12-15 C in the sun ( it means maybe 8 ? ). It feels good on our frozen to the bones bodies, but still watching last year's nature journal, we were way over 20 this period of the year. The trees are amazing. They're still bare, but yeasterday's rise in temperatures is making blossom all the buds so the tiny leaves start making their shy appearence on the branches. Life goes on, Mama Earth is shouting, and I try to make her braveness my own, to face the colder moments of my own life. But let's track the light:

Sunrise has been at 4:35

Sunset will be at 21:53

Lenght of the day 17h 17min

( + 5h 1min of daylight in eight weeks, + 39 min since last monday)

 

A few of the older stats can be found here (equinox) and here (three weeks) and here (seven weeks )

 

 Can you spot the raven on the fence ? We have been bringing him food for two months now, and he is becoming our 'friend'. He waits for us and while we are in the park he sits on the fence and looks at us. I will miss him like a crazy, as silly as it may sound.

 

Woodworking

It has been a long while since I last showed some of the things I'm doing with wood. It is very exciting to me since I'm learning everything 'hands-on' so to say, but even without any guidance but trial and errors I can see getting better and better all the time. I'm learning to master our new-to-us stand drill, chisels and wood-burning iron and I'm looking for a good carving knife to test myself on a new level of the carving experience. But here the last things I made ...

Flower-shaped pen holder (or brush holder). It is quite fun if you look at the first two pictures, the toys around the stand drill ... house full of (unschooled) kids that's it heheheh ....

Candle holder out of a branch

 

Pyrographed dread or beard beads

 

All the wood i use is either recycled ( the pen-holder ) or out of fallen branches that I find in the forest, so everything is extremely eco-friendly.

Seven weeks, back to life

Almost two months since the equinox, it is already time to look forward at the solstice and the mid-summer celebrations, incredible.
The light is nowadays our mistress, this part of the north has been blessed by several sunny days in a row now which feels so good after a winter so long which lasted way after the vernal equinox. Life now is in full bloom, animals are nesting, trees are showing the first tender leaves or buds so big ou can tell they're about to burst. Yesterday as I was outdoors with my two youngest we experienced something amazing. We usually go in this playpark which happens to be basically in the forest. From the short wooden fence we saw an hedgehog coming, and that is rare enough already as the little ones tend to be very shy, and 'burying' very close to us under a pile of dry leaves. We could hear the little thing grunting and moving and startling and all of a sudden it came out litteral dragging another hedgehog ! They started an epic fight ( from what we saw they looked to be two males ) that lasted almost 20 minutes, when one of them gave up and run away to let the other one go back in the pile and fall asleep almost on the spot. For once I had my cell phone with me so I could take a few pictures and make some videos. We didn't disturb them at all, just watched them from the fence of course.
But let's track the light now...

Sunrise has been at 4:55

Sunset will be at 21:33

Lenght of the day 16h 38min

( + 4h 22min of daylight in seven weeks, + 37 min since last monday )

 

here the Equinox stats and few more here, here, here 

 

And now a few evidences of our adventure yesterday ....

Five weeks, back to life

When observing the nature and trying to tune in with Mama Earth, every new week means extraordinary things happening and filling your days with beauty and awe. Even if this season is much more colder than any other in the last (at least) five years - I have been living here that long- many signs of the nature waking up and enjoying the warmer sun and the longer ( and longer and longer ! ) days keeps showing up. Trees are still bare, even if the buds are swollen and seems just on the verge of bursting in the greenest leaves you can think of, but the first brave flowers are blossoming in the fields and in the forest.
But let's track the light right now ...

Sunrise has been at 5:30

Sunset will be at 21:00

Lenght of the day 15h 30min

( + 3h 14 min of daylight in five weeks, + 39 min since last monday )

 

To see the situation of the past weeks you can check here, here, here, here, here. And now please, follow me in a walk in the forest ...

Smoking Mushroom

A few days ago in our daily walk in the forest we came across this mesmerizing mushroom. It looks like a rotten potato with a small mouth-like hole on top. Unfortunately beside a couple of kind of edible mushrooms, I don't know anything about these creatures ( I'll provide to start educating myself as soon as I find a good handbook ), so I have no clue if it's poisonous, edible or what, but non the less it is amazing. We spent quite some time with my two youngest poking gently the mushroom with a long stick (just in case it is not healthy ) just to see a cloud of smoke coming out from its mouth. My almost five years old have been laughing and giggling so much at the sight while me and my doughter were taking pictures over pictures.

Textures

Since I have started taking pictures as a form of art, around ten years ago, I have been always attracted to the different textures that I could find in the nature. During my wanderings I often get lost watching the ground unfolding in front of me and under my feet, so basically I either walk with my nose up to the sky or my eyes glued to the earth. Not the most social being probably ... but there's so much to see, to dive into, to savour and tresure and be grateful for.

Into the woods

Do you fancy to come along a walk in 'our' woods ? The forest is my shelter in hard days. When life's storms hit I sneak out of the house and walk the few hundred metres to the nearest wood patch and get lost in the trees, listening to the birds, smelling the moss, filling my eyes with wonder, usually with one or two ( or more !) from my wolfpack, and all the bad things, and bad feelings and bad mood just melt away and disappear in the beauty of creation.

 A hare was here !

 

The birches are peeling off 

 

 Woodpeekers ?

 Can you see the arch ? It reminds me the door of Moria

The beautiful texture of the spring ice