Notes from the forest

Greetings Everyone!

My goodness it has been a long time since I've posted!  

I've been focusing more on actually living and being engaged with life and creativity... and less on commenting on it. This practise engages the heart and mind in being well-focused in the moment whereas writing about life and creativity engages a different set of skills, which sadly, appear to have fallen into disuse! I love the expanded sense of time and space that comes from this way of living but my blogging has suffered greatly. My apologies for leaving such long pauses between posts. Hopefully your summer has been filled with sun, fun and magic and you've been too busy to notice the gaps!

A little while ago I was blessed to spend a magical week in a place very dear to my heart. A lovely lake nestled in a gentle landscape. The mist rising off the warmer-than-air waters, being hit by the first golden rays of the sun was utterly sublime.

 This landscape is ancient, abundant and still mysterious in its depths. The lake is pristine and clear. Loons call out in the dawn and dusk hours. Blueberries encircle each shore. Laurel bushes give it an almost tropical look in some parts of the forest. Birds abound from Eagles, to Great Blue Herons to tiny Kinglets and Hummers. We even got acquainted with a new member of the forest; Black Bears, a sow and her cubs as well as a single individual- probably a young male. But the part I look forward to most is finding a new location for a Faerie house. The moss beds here are amazing.

   Surprisingly, this year I was led to make a house very close to our little beach. I noticed that during the late afternoon, the reflection of blue sky off the lake water made the shaded side of the trees on shore shimmer and dance with deep blue reflections. Since the pine trees had very reddish bark, the effect was quite surprising and dramatic.

  I set to work and created a small little house at the base of a particularly beautiful tree. I used some windows and a door that I had made in my studio earlier and combined those with materials I found on site. I loved how the little house nestled against the large tree and the reflected light looked amazing on the lake/shadow side of the tree.

 But it needed a bit of "dressing up" so I collected a few more bits from the generous forest floor and installed those as "landscaping". It is surprising how little it takes to just spruce up a house just enough. I had to wait a little longer for the sun to clear some other tall trees but eventually the light filtered down again and I was able to snap a few more shots.

So this is one of many houses that have been made this summer. I hope to share more images soon. I tried several experiments with flowers and some were quite lovely. All of these creations are celebrations of the beauty of summer here in the North Woods. I am busy trying to make as many new creations/images as possible so we have lots to chose from to make the next calendar.

   Speaking of which, I have received my copies of the new 2016 Amber Lotus Faerie Houses calendar and it is a real beauty! I feel incredibly grateful to be working with such a fine publishing company as Amber Lotus... everything they do is first rate AND done with the Earth in mind.
For those of you who were disappointed because they ran out early, now is a good time to order as they are now in stock in most of the usual locations. Here is the new cover:

And here is the link to see more of the images and to place an order, if you like:
 http://www.amberlotus.com/faerie-houses-2016/   they have a lovely slideshow feature that lets you see all the new images in great detail. Enjoy!!!