Wild Tulip

"If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"

(Percy Bysshe Shelley: "Ode to the West Wind")

This can be a busy time of year for many of us but between late autumn storms nature can be especially peaceful, birds falling quiet early and waking late, sap sinking back to the roots of the trees and all those wind-blown seeds finally falling to earth.

the wild tulip - which you might find in English meadows, April and May

sunset/moonrise -  the North East coast, November

silver tulip earrings, available in the Etsy shop

silver-tulip-earrings

A Season Ago

... already.

Organic lavender growing this summer, long days, busy with butterflies and bees.

The lavender plants grew so well this year there was plenty to dry and use for eye pillows - here are the aromatic flowers with some new organic cottons. When these pillows are sold I think I'll buy more plants for next summer - bee haven, holistic.

October: North Light

Autumn has hardly touched the trees, mists are slight and clearing early but at ground level it's a different story: the trefoils and vetches which were still flowering a fortnight ago have almost disappeared and the dried ones I have will have to do to make prints from until next summer.

The grass in the castle moat has had its final trim, pink convolvulus and a few stray garden flowers threading the steep banks.

 

Later in the month there will be stories for Halloween in the priory and castle ruins, perhaps one of the local dragon tales, such as the tale of the Laidly Worm, from nearby Bamburgh Castle, in which a Northumbrian king unwittingly marries a beautiful but cruel witch who changes his daughter, Margaret, into a dragon:

"I weird ye to be a Laidly Worm,
And borrowed shall ye never be,
Until Childe Wynd, the King's own son
Come to the Heugh and thrice kiss thee;
Until the world comes to an end,
Borrowed shall ye never be."

(Childe Wynd thrice kisses the laidly worm, John D Batten, 1890)

A little calm...

then storms next week).

Cloud, Eesit, Stone

Little cloud from one of the maroons announcing the Breeches Buoy Demo on 23rd August at Prior's Haven, part of the 150th anniversary celebrations for the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade. (The event was filmed by BBC Coast, and I'll post a link, for those with access to UK tv, as soon as it's available).

Beachcombings: hag stone, or holey stone, from the beach at Prior's Haven.

Now the dog rose flowers are almost gone, same colours in bindweed growing above King Edward's Bay.

In progress: lace stitch cowl in Native Shetland Wool (shade: Eesit).

Flowers, Dancing, Gulls

A fragrant parcel: new lavender  arrived from Chateau de la Gabelle, Provence. Single origin, organically grown on a sunny mountainside 1300ft above sea level… we're dreaming of flower fields and tours around perfumeries in medieval towns… (a neat way to send it, flat like a letter).

school summer holidays have begun, freesia and gypsophila my daughter chose

ballet school continues for another week - these light summer evenings I go to watch the gulls hunting among the waves while she dances

Sea Witch at Tynemouth Market, Saturday 26th April… Witchi-Tiki, Ocean Alchemy and a Herb Pillow Recipe

Sea Witch will be at Tynemouth Market again this Saturday, 26th April, 9am until 4pm, with plenty of Fair Trade and handcrafted finds including cotton batiks and new season shell and Witchi-Tiki jewellery.

We'll miss you next weekend as will be visiting London, then back at the Market for Saturday, 10th May with aromatherapy pillows in new 'Ocean Alchemy' organic cotton fabrics...

until then, here's a sleep pillow recipe adapted from William Turner's 'New Herball' (1551):

25g lavender
12g lemon verbena
12g lemon thyme
12g woodruff