1,2,3 excuses

My silence can be explained by the following things:

1) I have been writing a novel.

This is an illustration of a main character.

2) I've been making jelly.

This is spiced apple jelly and it tastes like sweet christmas and delcious boiled sweets. Good set, good clarity, good taste. Full marks.

3) I have been helping Mr Kite spruce up our cabin. I have essentially moved into the cabin and now only return home every few weeks or so. Pictures to follow.

Winter came yesterday. I am going to go and walk in it.

Sour Grapes

This song describes almost everything that I think about spiritually. I'd recommend reading the lyrics rather than watch the video. The lyrics are written below, (though not every word is certain.)

As with all Puscifer, Tool or APC songs the lyrics are very open to interpretation and are definitely tongue-in-cheek. I have interpreted them in my own way.

Mary, if you have time to look at this song and the lyrics I wonder what your thoughts are on the matter and whether any of this links to the teachings at the Zendo? The same goes out to any interested readers.

And the angel of the lord led me
Into the belly of the holy mother
A chamber black as pitch
But I felt no fear, only comfort,

For I was as a child in the womb
And she begged me
"Hear through yonder portal
Which looked upon the heavens,
And behold! a morning angel"

She ascended slowly from far beyond the horizon,
Her light like a heavenly finger pointing the way
And on yonder wall she traced for me a path
Which led me five directions, eight winters to east,

And behold!
As my feet landed firmly
Upon the final winter of the second storm
There appeared before me a heavenly star

A holy virgin, the bringer of life and breath
And she spoke unto me saying
"Fear not the movement of the heavens above or the earth below
For change is what we are, my child.

Righteous are those
Who look up and sway with the wind,
Who look down and dance with the shifting of the soil,
Who swim with the movement of the tides

Who seek the truth around them
And discover that we are
And have always been in paradise.
The reflections of heaven on earth. Amen!'

And she spoke again saying
"Know, my child, that there is no devil seeking to conquer the hearts of men.

No evil, save blind faith, ignorance,
And the desire for the unprepared
To blame others for the devastation
Left in the wake of change

Change, my child
Change is in the heavens
Change is on this earth
Change is all around us

And we are reflections of the divine,
We must roll with these changes,
For we are these changes.

Eyes wide open,
We must look upon
The heavens as a mirror.
Wide awake, aware, deeply breathing

And when the shit comes down, my child,
You will be there,
A true and holy survivor
To inherit the kingdom of god.

You will rise above the crumbles of the unprepared
To greet the new day,
To drink from the sweet fruit of the vine,
The water of life, the blood of the risen Christ, my child.'

'Go now, son,
Tell them all.
The ignorant, the blind paw by dogma,
Blinded by faith, the doubters, the nay sayers.

Tell them all, child,
They can not see
The kingdom of God,
They can not see paradise
Unfold before them

They can not drink
From the chalice
Which holds the blood of Christ,
The water of life,
Until they get right with Jesus.

Until they get right with Jesus.
It's always gonna be
Sour grapes with you, boy,
Until you get right with Jesus. Amen!

Welcome, Mary of the woods.

Regular readers of this blog might recall the mention of a girl called Mary, who crops up in the occasional post here and there. Her first appearance is in this old post from last year: http://jump-into-the-void.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-saw-osprey-just-other-day.html

Mary has just finished a 6 month stint living in a yurt and cooking in the woods for students of greenwood working. As I might have previously mentioned, I occasionally help her, or whoever happens to be cooking in the woods.

Mary has left the woods for the streets of Southampton. Yes, a very stark difference there. For the next three years she will be studying for a degree in Environmental Sciences. She is wary about this, as she knows this is time spent away from learning crafty country things. But she will be learning in depth, important and interesting things that will go on to help her understand more about the world that surrounds us and our place and duty within it. While she studies into these things, I will continue to make jam, spin wool, weave baskets, sew quilts and knit ponchos. Plus all the other literary stuff I am working on. We will share our thoughts and what we have learnt and experienced here. Together we will learn the best of both worlds and stay in contact while she lives in the city and I live in the country.

Mary and I are both interested in things of a spiritual nature. She was in regular attendance of a weekly meditation group before leaving for Uni. I was not because I am stubborn. But we share many of the same ideas, and perhaps we will continue to discuss these things via this blog.

Mary likes to read weird self-help books recommended to her by her weird older brother. I hope she will continue to tell me about them, because in general they are hilarious or insightful or a bit of the both. I will endeavour to occasionally review any particularly good or particularly bad fiction or non-fiction I come across. In many ways this blog will not be changing much, but I hope it will change a little for the better.

There is no guarantee we will both update very often, and maybe not at all. Mary will be very busy, and I am working very hard on the aforementioned novel http://jump-into-the-void.blogspot.com/2010/09/linc.html But if we manage to post anything, it’ll be good. So keep your specs peeled for interesting, insightful and immature dual blog posts.

Recipe for a cold

Recipe to make you feel nice when you have a cold:

2 tbsps elderberry syrup

A generous splash of brandy (or 2)

Hot water (mug of)

A splash of lemon juice

A sprinkle of sweet spices such as Cinnamon

A tiny amount of honey

Put it all in a mug. Taste it, if it’s weak tasting, add more elderberry. Add more honey if you like it sweeter.

And some good music

Linc

So I'm writing a new novel, this time adapted from a comic book script I wrote a while ago and did nothing with. The novel will be illustrated. I will enter it into a contest, though don't expect to win. Having a deadline (31st December) is something I have never had to be strict about. So this is a chance to try and write to a real deadline.

Here is a visual taster.

This is Linc, a wannabe Knight too lazy to earn his place on the roundtable. He quickly finds himself thrown in the deep end when his path crosses with vengeful Tarmigan Fae, a girl who cares only about finding the mysterious mage who murdered her family seven years prior. With nothing much else on, Linc joins her quest.

Produce

The garden wasn't very productive this year due to a general lack of nutrients. We need to fertilize the soil before next season. We did however get some produce. Our new fruit bushes were great. Shame that the birds thought so too. We hardly ate a blueberry between us.


Blueberry flowers in the springtime

Ripened in the summer

The two we managed to eat (after having put some netting up around them)




Courguette's were in glut, and still are. Here's the first couple along with a cake I made using some of our chickens' eggs, wild strawberries growing in the garden and last year's strawberry jam.


All our berries went into a delicious summer tart



To make a summer tart:

Simmer the berries for a while, then add a little sugar. Make some pastry, blind bake it and then pour in the cooked berries and put into the oven until the pastry is cooked.

Dorset Bear

I made a new bear for Mary's birthday: Dorset Bear! She's wearing the flag of dorset, on a ribbon around her neck is a mammalian skull found on a walk, as well as a beaded necklace that can double as a bracelet for Mary.



Happy Birthday Mary!