There's something special about getting a package in the post.
In this day and age of online, digital bla bla bla it's so nice to
see a hand written, brown paper parcel in the mailbox.
Especially when it has that big gold Royal Mail stamp on it!
...I'm always intrigued by the return address' in the UK...
Maybe it's the child in me that thinks of Dr Doolittle's house in Puddleby on the Marsh.
Maybe the actual place isn't the storybook English village I imagine but it's fun to think that.
I just sent off a sculpture to an address of 7 Horsecart Lane...How pretty does that sound?
Anyway, back to my package...
I love when someone take the time to wrap up their product in a pretty or interesting way...
You would think I ordered the finest linen in Provence the way its wrapped.
But alas! it is one of my favourite things to do sculptures on...
Antique wooden bobbins from England!
Have a look in Brocanteart's shop if you are at all interested in vintage
decorative antiques, textiles and haberdashery (love that old world word!)
If they could only talk...
Maybe they would tell the tails of the grand fabric mills that once dotted the
countryside of the UK.
(image from Henry Clark on Wikipedia of the Gilford Mill in Northern Ireland)
I love a thing with history...
They are perfect little stands for my felted pieces...
(...who have since gone on to other places.)
Two days later I received another package of something else I couldn't resist on Etsy...
Again, packaged in a gorgeous little morsel of a box...
Reminded me of something my grandma would have kept a precious ring in...
In this case it was this lovely resin cameo...
Delicate shades of carnelian and ivory...
This from a seller who has all sorts of cool vintage treasures... Have a look here
Pinkys of Saratoga Springs in the US.
So there you go...a few great little finds from our beloved Etsy packaged with care and thought!
PS
(If you have any nice wooden spools you might want to de-stash in exchange
for a sculpture, let me know!)
They are the first birds up and the last to go home.
The light creeps in around 5:30 or 6 am and if the weather shows promise,
I am up and ready for tea....
The sun is waiting for me in the kitchen and streams through the window by the sink...
It's still a difficult thing to get used to the quiet void...the space that was Griffin...
But I'm getting through it and starting new routines...
I have my big mug of tea and venture out for a bike ride.
This morning I took some time to admire those beautiful blossoms on the apple trees...
And the little olive green warbler in the budding maple tree
announcing himself to the world this morning!
Down behind the trees in a little swamp, I stop to marvel at the back lit shapes
of last years cattails...no doubt nesting material for this years broods...
I know these are favourite haunts of the red winged blackbirds who
hunker down below the reeds to shape beautiful nests of grasses.
They blend in so well with their environment that it's easy to miss them...
...but if you look very closely and be aware of the chipping warning calls of the male bird...
...you may catch a glimpse...
I only stay a moment or two and use my zoom lens to have a peak from a safe distance...
The female has gone off to have a break or a drink so she's not there for the time being.
I spot another nest in the brush, built of the usual moss, mud, lichen and twigs and just
for something extra special...some blue bits from an old tarp!
After I take a few shots I carry on and as I look back I see the female blackbird come back to the area
to resume her duty as a patient mother, warming her eggs in preparation for hatching.
And I resume my morning as a girl who misses her walks with her dog.
I ride along the paths we used to walk finding a different way to greet the day.
(It's been a month now since Griffs been gone so a little reprise of his lovely face is in order.)
