I am crushed.......................

found out my lovely poppy poos had a cancerous tumor, fingers and toes crossed its all gone and she will now have a happy long life with me!

I am looking to move again....

i am a busy bee looking for suitable places for poppy and i to live... we are wanting to be as close to the countryside as possible and we are so excited about the new chapter ahead, so watch this space!

i am so so happy!

yesterday we got the news we wanted! I feel like I can breath again - the best news I've had this year!

just had a lovely message from the lovely mrs b

love the new picture. So beautiful, you look so happy.... I'm wishing I could take you back to sardinia, to beer o'clock and the sunshine. It's good for the soul.....x xx

last night i saw..... andy cave

my parents treated me to see andy cave latest tour 'learning to breath' at caernarfon. It was a true inspiring talk and it has topped me up again to do more and more, so watch this space! He is one remarkably chap. Check out the promo for the tour here

Also here is a snippet from the promo site:
Andy's show will bring to life his best-selling book of the same. He takes the audience on a tremendous human journey through his experiences of the miner’s strike in 1984-85 to his traumatic expedition to the perilous North Face of Changabang in the Himalayas in 1997 - an expedition in which his climbing partner paid the ultimate price. His inner-turmoil and eventual decision to return to the mountains is one of the most stirring tales of modern mountaineering. Set against a backdrop of the Himalaya, Patagonia and Alaska, Andy explores some of the severest challenges modern Alpinism can pose in his understated but humorous style.

artist: richard long

the other night i spoke to zoe on the telephone and she was telling me about a photographer who she thought I would like called richard long. And she was certainly right, he uses space around him whilst walking in the countryside to create sculptures which he captures through photography.

Here is a description of his work:

Nature has always been recorded by artists, from pre-historic cave paintings to 20th century landscape photography. I too wanted to make nature the subject of my work, but in new ways. I started working outside using natural materials like grass and water, and this evolved into the idea of making a sculpture by walking.

Walking itself has a cultural history, from Pilgrims to the wandering Japanese poets, the English Romantics and contemporary long-distance walkers.
My first work made by walking, in 1967, was a straight line in a grass field, which was also my own path, going 'nowhere'. In the subsequent early map works, recording very simple but precise walks on Exmoor and Dartmoor, my intention was to make a new art which was also a new way of walking: walking as art.  Each walk followed my own unique, formal route, for an original reason, which was different from other categories of walking, like travelling. Each walk, though not by definition conceptual, realised a particular idea. Thus walking - as art - provided an ideal means for me to explore relationships between time, distance, geography and measurement. These walks are recorded or described in my work in three ways: in maps, photographs or text works, using whichever form is the most appropriate for each different idea. All these forms feed the imagination, they are the distillation of experience.
Walking also enabled me to extend the boundaries of sculpture, which now had the potential to be de-constructed in the space and time of walking long distances. Sculpture could now be about place as well as material and form.
I consider my landscape sculptures inhabit the rich territory between two ideological positions, namely that of making 'monuments' or conversely, of 'leaving only footprints'.
Over the years these sculptures have explored some of the variables of transience, permanence, visibility or recognition. A sculpture may be moved, dispersed, carried.  Stones can be used as markers of time or distance, or exist as parts of a huge, yet anonymous, sculpture.  On a mountain walk a sculpture could be made above the clouds, perhaps in a remote region, bringing an imaginative freedom about how, or where, art can be made in the world.


Look at some of his work here, I hope you enjoy!

don't let others take your light away

zoe introduced me to dallas clayton

This is all you need to know to understand what goes on here :
I try to make things that are beautiful.
Sometimes these things are written down.
Sometimes they are drawn.
Sometimes they are wrapped and plastic and sold in important stores
for more money than they cost to manufacture.
I love making most things.
I am most interested in making people happy.
I have a son who is five years old.
I enjoy making him happy most of all.
I would like to do this more and more every day forever.
This is why I write for children.
When I am not writing for children I am writing for adults and the
companies adults run, drawing pictures for those adults, and reading things out loud to crowds of strangers.
I love strangers.
If you need more please contact-
Dallas@dallasclayton.com

had a lovely email from zoe

hello beautiful, how's things? sorry we haven't had chance to have a proper catch up yet. it's all been a little crazzyy don't really know where the tickiety tock is going but must time be going some where...... how's life up in alderly edge treating you?  well i hope as you deserve all the richess there is to offer.
i checked into your blog yesterday and love it, it's a real real calm space full of love and good times.
i'm working on a website at the moment (well my friend is) so I can maybe sell my drawings, need to really get back into it, so hard to motivate when there is so much going on all the time. i checked in with a guy called dallas clayton - you should look him up - and he seemed excited about my drawings. i'm thinking maybe of starting a kids book too which should be fun. going to set aside a weekend to start working on it some time soon.

em and i had a blast in portland, i'm sure she has probably filled you in already. we are thinking of going back next year starting in vancover and ending up in portland around my b'day. going to invite all, would love you to come as you would have such a good time. we are long over due a big girlie holiday and this will be the perfect road trip. will work on the e-mail to everyone soon.
hows your poorly foot straping up? can you do a 360 yet? i've discovered eggs are very good for everything.... quite a revelation infact. my friend sam made me eat one when she came to visit and i felt as if i had just bungee jumped off my roof (that probably also had something to do with her force feeding me multi vitamins that she had in her bag all weekend).
anyway i will leave you with this track. set aside at least 10 minutes to dance star jumps and hug the air.....

hope to chat to you soon lots of love xxxxxxxxx

what I am listening to: horse feathers

a beautiful band called horse feathers, described as indie/folk. I am really enjoying listening to them, and I hope you will to. Listen here and here and here, enjoy x

the last word by my grandfather d.wyn edwards

the editors of 'y gorwel' have kindly allowed me the privilege of having the last word in this, our first number of the magazine, and I do not intend to bore you, dear reader, with a long essay on this and that. Enough will it be for me to make but one point, which is this.


The time has come for all of us to start taking pride in ourselves and our actions. By pride i do not mean haughtiness or arrogauce, but pure, innocent, simple pride, which is the grand feeling one derives from anything well done and honestly accomplished or achieved. If only every one of us, even in our little club, could really find the right place for pride in our lives, I feel sure that we and everyone connected with us would find life much happier and richer. We could start by taking pride in our personal affairs- in ourselves, our homes, our clubs, our friends, our town, our country and in our poor, troubled,, suffering, nervous world. Let us take pride in our work, our play, our manners, our language, our traditions and our Christian civilisation. True pride is not the stuff that breeds bullies and bores, dictators and disheartened dead-enders, but s the spirit which captures all those who have discovered the richness and the beauty and the thrill of a full life, however humbly and simply they live or however complicated is the pattern of their circumstances.


My plea is that all of us who have anything to do with the club and its activities may do so with pride, to our own satisfaction and as an example to all others.

blimey what a week!

smile and have fun

i went for a lovely swim today

listen to the child thoughts inside you

what i am listening to: emiliana torrini

I am listening to emiliana torrini, some of favotite songs which makes me smile. Listen to them here, here and here

enjoy x

just let go and be happy and free

a bright, wonderful and glorious future ahead

believe in yourself

today is going to be a good day!

look what i found today

george mallory

George Herbert Leigh Mallory (June 18, 1886 – June 8/June 9, 1924) was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s. On the third expedition, in June 1924, Mallory and his climbing partner Andrew Irvine both disappeared somewhere high on the North-East ridge during their attempt to make the first ascent of the world's highest mountain. The pair's last known sighting was only a few hundred metres from the summit. Mallory's ultimate fate was unknown for 75 years, until his body was finally discovered in 1999. Whether or not they reached the summit before they died remains a subject of speculation and continuing research.

Mallory is famously quoted as having replied to the question "why do you want to climb Mt. Everest?" with the retort: "because it's there", which has been called "the most famous three words in mountaineering". Recently some questions have been raised regarding the authenticity of that quote, and whether Mallory had actually said it, with the likelihood that the quote was invented by a newspaper reporter.

Chris Bonington's assessment

Chris Bonington, the widely respected British Himalayan mountaineer, summed up the view of many mountaineers all over the world:

"If we accept the fact that they were above the Second Step, they would have seemed to be incredibly close to the summit of Everest and I think at that stage something takes hold of most climbers ... And I think therefore taking all those circumstances in view ... I think it is quite conceivable that they did go for the summit ... I certainly would love to think that they actually reached the summit of Everest. I think it is a lovely thought and I think it is something, you know, gut emotion, yes I would love them to have got there. Whether they did or not, I think that is something one just cannot know."

- from wikipedia.org

i am currently reading... the lost explorer: finding mallory on mt. everest

On June 8, 1924, George Leigh Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine were last seen climbing toward the summit of Mount Everest. Clouds soon closed around them, and they vanished into history. Ever since, mountaineers have wondered whether they reached the summit twenty-nine years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

On May 1, 1999, Conrad Anker, one of the world's strongest mountaineers, discovered Mallory's body lying facedown, frozen into the scree and naturally mummified at 27,000 feet on Everest's north face. The condition of the body, as well as the artifacts found with Mallory, including goggles, an altimeter, and a carefully wrapped bundle of personal letters, are important clues in determining his fate. Seventeen days later, Anker free-climbed the Second Step, a 90-foot sheer cliff that is the single hardest obstacle on the north ridge. The first expedition known to have conquered the Second Step, a Chinese team in 1975, had tied a ladder to the cliff, leaving unanswered the question of whether Mallory could have climbed it in 1924. Anker's climb was the first test since Mallory's of the cliff's true difficulty. In treacherous conditions, Anker led teammate Dave Hahn from the Second Step to the summit.

early morning stroll

be the voice inside of you

I must try to re create this fabulous hairstyle

i like this look

what i am listening to: the doves

having a blast from the past by listening to the doves, they are such a great band! i forgot how good they were, it's stirring up fond old memories!

here are some of my favorites, listen to them here, here, here, here and here. enjoy x

so so blissful

out for a walk with poppy

embrace all your dreams and hopes

bread, must not eat

inspiring salads...original superfood salad

I am trying to capture inspiring food recipes on my blog to help me get back in the kitchen and cook!

so here is one of my favs which is very healthy and scrummy!

broccoli, alfalfa, peas, cucumber, avocado, quinoa, feta, fresh mint and parsley, toasted seeds and a pot of vinaigrette.

- leon

just some thoughts....

do you believe things happen for a reason?
do you understand why things dont go your way?
it is beacuse of fate?
or is there a reason behind it?

what I am listening to: beck

This is on repeat all the time at the moment, another great song by beck called walls.
enjoy! x

poems: the daddy long-legs and the fly

Once Mr. Daddy Long-legs,
  Dressed in brown and gray,
Walked about upon the sands
  Upon a sumer's day;
And there among the pebbles,
  When the wind was rather cold,
He met with Mr. Floppy Fly,
  All dressed in blue and gold.
And as it was too soon to dine,
They drank some Periwinkle-wine,
And played an hour or two, or more,
At battlecock and shuttledore.


II

Said Mr. Daddy Long-legs
  To Mr. Floppy Fly,
'Why do you never come to court?
  I wish you'd tell me why.
All gold and shine, in dress so fine,
  You'd quite delight the court.
Why do you never go at all?
  I really think you ought!
And if you went, you'd see such sights!
Such rugs! Such jugs! and candle-lights!
And more than all, the King and Queen,
One in red, and one in green!'


III

'O Mr. Daddy Long-legs,'
  Said Mr. Floppy Fly,
'It's true I never go to court,
  And I will tell you why.
If I had six long legs like yours,
  At once I'd go to court!
But oh! I can't, because my legs
  Are so extremely short.
And I'm afraid the King and Queen
(One in red, and one in green)
Would say aloud, "You are not fit,
You Fly, to come to court a bit!"'


IV

'O Mr. Daddy Long-legs,'
  Said Mr. Floppy Fly,
'I wish you'd sing one little song!
  One mumbian melody!
You used to sing so awful well
  In former days gone by,
But now you never sing at all;
  I wish you'd tell me why:
For if you would, the silvery sound
Would please the shrimps and cockles round,
And all the crabs would gladly come
To hear you sing, "Ah, hum di Hum"!'


V

Said Mr. Daddy Long-legs,
  'I can never sing again!
And if you wish, I'll tell you why,
  Although it gives me pain.
For years I cannot hum a bit,
  Or sing the smallest song;
And this the dreadful reason is,
  My legs are grown too long!
My six long legs, all here and there,
Oppress my bosom with despair;
And if I stand, or lie, or sit,
I cannot sing one little bit!'


VI

So Mr. Daddy Long-legs
  And Mr. Floppy Fly
Sat down in silence by the sea,
  And gazed upon the sky.
They said, 'This is a dreadful thing!
The world has all gone wrong,
Since one has legs too short by half,
  The other much too long!
One never more can go to court,
Because his legs have grown too short;
The other cannot sing a song,
Because his legs have grown too long!'


VII

Then Mr. Daddy Long-legs
  And Mr. Floppy Fly
Rushed downward to the foamy sea
  With one sponge-taneous cry;
And there they found a little boat,
  Whose sails were pink and gray;
And off they sailed among the waves,
  Far, and far away.
They sailed across the silent main,
And reached the great Gromboolian plain;
And there they play for evermore
At battlecock and shuttledoor.

- edward lear's

i am currently battling some thoughts

does anyone have the answers?
does your heart know when enough is enough?

my yoga teacher read this today

Free and Easy - A Spontaneous Vajra Song
by Venerable Lama Gendun Rinpoche

Happiness cannot be found through great effort and willpower, but is already present, in open relaxation and letting go.

Don't strain yourself,
there is nothing to do or undo.
Whatever momentarily arises
in the body-mind
Has no real importance at all,
has little reality whatsoever.
Why identify with,
And become attached to it,
Passing Judgement upon it and ourselves?

Far better to simply
let the entire game happen on its own,
springing up and falling back like waves
without changing or manipulating anything
and notice how everything
vanishes and reappears, magically,
Again and again, time without end.

Only our searching for happiness
prevents us from seeing it.
It's like a vivid rainbow which you pursue
without ever catching,
or a dog chasing it's own tail.

Although peace and happiness
do not exist as an actual thing or place,
it is always available
and accompanies you every instant.

Don't believe in the reality
of good and bad experiences;
they are today's ephemeral weather,
like rainbows in the sky.

Wanting to grasp the ungraspable,
you exhaust yourself in vain.
As soon as you open and relax
this tight fist of grasping,
infinite space is there -
open, inviting and comfortable.

Make use of this spaciousness, this
freedom and natural ease.
Don't search any further
looking for the great awakened elephant,
who is already resting quietly at home
in front of your own hearth.

Nothing to do or undo,
nothing to force,
nothing to want,
And nothing missing.

Emaho! Marvelous!
Everything happens by itself.

what I am listening to: fionn regan

I am listinging to a beautiful song by fionn regan, its called the underwood typewriter, listen to it here. enjoy x

out for a walk

today I was lucky enough after finishing work to head to the beach with poppy. A great place to blow away the cob webs. The weather was perfect, poppy and I had a great time! Here are some happy snaps from our walk.

 

 

 

 

veggie patch

I am dog sitting at the moment at my parents house. I've just been outside to pick some broad beans from their veggie patch for dinner, thought I would share with you. It has inspired me to grow my own!.... its just like living the good life.

thought i'd share this with you....

my lovely friend zoe tom introduced me to spike jonze's amazing creations, check out a few of these below, they should make you chuckle and smile. I am sure some of you might have seen these before, but they are all new to me, you can tell I dont watch telly!

spike jonze / levi's advert: doctors

spike jonze / short film: how they get there

spike jonze / adidas commercial
karren o sings on this, very beautiful

what I am listening to: yeah yeah yeahs

I just seem to keep playing runaway from the yeah yeah yeah's latest album over and over again, love the lyrics.

listen to the song here

enjoy! x  

truly beautiful

maurice sendak's

I loved reading where the wild things are when I was little, thought it was so special and magical! I am so looking forward to seeing the spike jonze adaptation of it later this year.  Every time I watch the trailer, it makes me smile. I thought I would share it with you, hope it makes you smile too! Enjoy!


spike jonze / trailer: where the wild things

wise words

there is no limit to what you can become

- neale donald walsch

poems: the jumblies

This was one of my favorite poems as a child.


 I
 They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
  In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
  In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, 'You'll all be drowned!'
They called aloud, 'Our Sieve ain't big,
But we don't care a button! we don't care a fig!
  In a Sieve we'll go to sea!'
      Far and few, far and few,
            Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
      Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
            And they went to sea in a Sieve.


II

They sailed away in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they sailed so fast,
  With only a beautiful pea-green veil
Tied with a riband by way of a sail,
  To a small tobacco-pipe mast;
And every one said, who saw them go,
'O won't they be soon upset, you know!
For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long,
And happen what may, it's extremely wrong
  In a Sieve to sail so fast!'
      Far and few, far and few,
            Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
      Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
            And they went to sea in a Sieve.


III

The water it soon came in, it did,
  The water it soon came in;
So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet
In a pinky paper all folded neat,
  And they fastened it down with a pin.
And they passed the night in a crockery-jar,
And each of them said, 'How wise we are!
Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,
  While round in our Sieve we spin!'
      Far and few, far and few,
            Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
      Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
            And they went to sea in a Sieve.


IV

And all night long they sailed away;
  And when the sun went down,
They whistled and warbled a moony song
To the echoing sound of a coppery gong,
  In the shade of the mountains brown.
'O Timballo! How happy we are,
When we live in a Sieve and a crockery-jar,
And all night long in the moonlight pale,
We sail away with a pea-green sail,
  In the shade of the mountains brown!'
      Far and few, far and few,
            Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
      Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
            And they went to sea in a Sieve.


V

They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,
  To a land all covered with trees,
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,
  And a hive of silvery Bees.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,
  And no end of Stilton Cheese.
      Far and few, far and few,
            Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
      Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
            And they went to sea in a Sieve.


VI

And in twenty years they all came back,
  In twenty years or more,
And every one said, 'How tall they've grown!
For they've been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,
  And the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;
And every one said, 'If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---
  To the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
      Far and few, far and few,
            Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
      Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
            And they went to sea in a Sieve.

- edward lear

recipe: yummy hummus

When ever I am down in London, I like to pop into Leon, an amazing restaurant which serves great healthy and exciting food! Today I was sent an email from Leon for a recipe for hummus, sounds lovely and yet another reminder for me to get in the kitchen and cook! I thought I would share this with with you guys.

1 X400g tin of chickpeas (drained)
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 clove garlic (finely chopped)
1 tablespoon tahini
70ml extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt + pepper

Blitz everything in a food processor. Season to taste. Scoop into a bowl and drizzle with a good shot of extra virgin oil. Sprinkle with cayenne pepper. Serve with a floppy, warm flatbread ad a white wine so cold there's a kind of mist on the side of the glass.

- leon