Samhain and Dias de los Muertos

This is the first year I've done a Day of the Dead table. I love it! I've used a lot of the Samhain flowers and decorations. Then I picked out photos of my loved ones and placed them around with my New Orleans voodoo dolls. These fellows are fairly simlar to the Mexican skulls that are used to celebrate the dead. I think the bright colours in their decoration are so right in celebrating the fantastic dead. Oscar helped carve the pumpkin, and we spent a long while playing at putting the eyes and mouth in and out. We did a happy side and a sad side, again celebrating both sides of life. One can't exist without the other.

So here are the final results. (Sorry not got a camera yet!) I'll be welcoming my loved ones back into my life for the night, remembering life with them.

A piece on the history of Samhain. We celebrated Samhain with pumpkin muffins and an evening out at the local ice cream parlour. It was lots of fun.

Dia de los Muertos

A lovely video on Dia de los Muertos and a great little film and another documentary.

Crushing Leaves

Well what an autumnal scorcher it was this morning! We had a great walk and cycle around a local park at Cannon Hall...just look at all those lovely crispy leaves.

The Deer Shelter

Yew columns

Hot House Flowers

Straw Man Skiing

Trained Pear Tree

Walled Garden

Cacti

Entrance to Fairyland

Park Life

Cannon Hall

New Hair

I decided to go for a more neat and groomed look for a change! I must admit that I love it :)

Samhain and Thinking of Death

I did a flower arrangement a while back when I visited my mothers' grave. I cut peonys, ferns and eucalyptus from the garden and did this for her. She died at 41 due to medical negligence. She is still much loved and missed. As a seven year old it was too much to deal with really. But I don't think I truely understood the loss until I became a mother. It's not often I've ever said this or allowed myself to feel this but... Mum, it was really hard without you and I ache in my heart for you still. I still miss you every day and hope you can sense how well your little girl grew up, even without you.

Samhain

I WILL get a new camera this weekend I promise! So sorry about the not brill photo quality.

These are pictures of my Samhain/ Halloween displays. I have bought dendrathemas, anthurium, hypericum, lillium, curled leaves and a mixture of ugly beautiful gourds. I used old wine bottles to arrange the flowers in and to repeat the theme in each room.

I absolutely love this time of year. It's so magical and colourful. I love the darkness drawing in and taking it's place as ruler for the next few months. I love cosying up inside and looking out of the cold glass of the windows onto twinkling lights in the distance. I've been thinking a lot about my loved ones in the summerlands who have passed over.

We've been watching Nightmare before Christmas and The Corpse Bride here. I love the celebration of the dead that Tim Burton addresses in these films. I will do another post this week showing my Voodoo Doll collection and talking about the Day Of The Dead.

Getting Fit

I'm on a major 'get fit' regime at the moment. Oz and I have been on a 5 mile (or so) walk/run today. We are lucky to live near to lots of bridal paths in the countryside. Oz has been walking a lot and nodding off in his pram on the way home. He won't go in his sling anymore, so the pram is a good solution so we can go on longer distances.
We split the walk in two today with a long play at a park. We were running around like hooligans. On the way back we made friends with a long legged cat. He walked with us for around 300 yards, before heading back towards his home. Oz loved him.

I will hopefully be moving in the near future so I'll have lots of decorating and home crafting to do. I'm very excited to have a room to use as a studio! My artwork has come to a standstill recently, as I just have no room to myself in this house. So I'm looking forward to a totally new beginning! I'm trying to focus on my blog novel and am trying to stay off the internet quite a bit. Just to get some balance back. Very apt seeing as we've just had the autumn equinox. I'm on a bit of a 'getting back to nature' vibe.

I'm starting to think about Samhain/ Halloween at the end of the month. It's time to think of casting away old habits and concentrating on bringing in the new. Time to reassess life and routine to see what's still working for our little family and what we've grown out off. How fabulous that it falls on a Saturday this year. I would like to make an outfit for Oz, but I'll probably end up buying one as they are so cheap in the shops. I'm disappointed not to have any pumpkins from the garden this year. They got savaged by mice I'm afraid. That reminds me, I really should get my carrots up!

International Babywearing Week

Cool Video for International Babywearing Week!

Pot Head

Just thought I'd share my lovely pots. I've filled them with hydrangeas, autumn pansies, cyclamens, Fatsia, Cordyline and Fan Palm. How cheerful.

Running through the fields

We went for a fabulous family walk in the September sunshine today. We walked about 2 miles through the fields to a neighbouring village. This was a fab way to create some energy on a lazy Sunday. As it is Mabon this week, it was great to celebrate late harvest and the Autumn Equinox. We wandered through the freshly cut hay fields, and traversed past many Highland cows.

Happy Birthday to me!

We had much fun blowing out candles on my birthday cake earlier this week.

Swell September

So since writing that Oz was still in nappies in the night he has refused to wear one and is dry until about 5 mins after he's out of bed in the morning. It does help that I've got a great waterproof sheet to rely on, so I'm not worried about possible midnight leaks! When he does a caca (poo) he has to take the potty upstairs and drop the caca in toilet himself. This is cute..but not so cute with wee...taking into account the splosh factor.
We are busily looking at houses for sale at the moment, as a move is planned in the not too distant future... hopefully, possibly, maybe. After searching online for the past year, like a total psycho, it's strange to see these houses in real life. We may have a family home soon! It's so exciting.
Just a short one today!