Inspiration strikes: Fever Ray and Shaman

Have you heard the eponymous Fever Ray album? It's bloody good.

I adore When I Grow Up. I wake up to it ever morning, and the video is mesmerising.



After watching the video repeatedly for days on end I decided I needed more shamanic, witch doctory attire in my life.

So I got stenciling and ended up with this motif on a t-shirt:


I'm pretty pleased with it, especially the feathers. I also love the way the antlers reach right onto my shoulders.

I suppose it's kind of gruesome?
What do you think?

What one thing could you not live without this winter?

What is the one thing that really makes winter for you? The one thing that you really love and look forward to?

For me it's probably wool: being snuggled up in heaps of scarves, socks, tights, jumpers and gloves.
It may not be all that fashionable, but there is little that pleases me more than being snug while outside on a cold, crisp winter's day.

At least I didn't think it was fashionable until I saw Missoni's A/W collection:



In preparation for autumn squirrels will be burying nuts, but I will be hunting for scarves! Many, many scarves.

Of haws and thorns

Has the Natural History Museum identified your parasite yet?

My commute to work is generally spent chatting to my fellow car sharers

How's the knitting?
Do you want to talk a three hour lunch break today to walk to the Crowmarsh Battle Barns?

But recently I've been distracted by searching the hedgerows for a sign.

I'm looking for the tiny spots of acid green that means the hawthorn is coming out. If the hawthorn is starting to grow that means spring is just around the corner.

Hawthorn is one of my favourite things in the world.
It's green leaves are a joy to see in the otherwise brown hedgerows. Not to mention you can eat the young leaves, they make a great addition to salads and are one of the earliest spring wild foods to be found. Now that sounds like an excellent sign of spring to me.

We're nearly out of the darkness.