It's a while since we journeyed to Orkney, but it's never too late to share snippets from the journey...

Travelling along the main road (which by the by is two lanes - one in each direction) we saw a howe (hillock or knoll) in the middle of a field, and we stopped in by to make arrangements. Further along the road we saw the Barnhouse Stone, protected by fencing in the middle of farmland. As we travelled towards a narrow causeway between the Loch of Harray and the Loch of Stenness, we could see a landscape unfolding marked by stones rising from the earth, some solitary, some in alignment, some in groups and in the distance the hazy hint of a great ring.
The road took us past the spit of land where a couple of houses overlooked an insignificant hump - where recent excavations have revealed an important site described as a "stone age cathedral." Just last year gave up the only example of "painted" walls in a Neolithic site in Britain. The dig is closed until June, so we simply drove by musing about the way these islands continue to reveal our past.

And then the Stones of Stenness loomed before us and I was almost out of the car by osmosis... I stopped just inside the gate to take them in, their towering size and their placement within the wider landscape. These stones mark the oldest stone circle in the Orkney Isles, and one of the oldest in the British Isles. The whole circle was really an ellipse and it is believed this circle was never finished, with possibly two of the twelve stones never erected.

I walk amongst the stones and am immediately centred. I cannot see the modern fence lines, power lines, buildings... I see the stones in the landscape without clutter. They are welcoming and somehow peaceful despite the hard, cold wind that is blowing my fingers to ice. The stones have ragged edges and many lichens soften the aged shapes - the air is so clean up here.

I walk slowly and listen with inner ears and then I step towards the stone that speaks. I lay my hands to him at shoulder height and lean my body in so that my heels are off the ground and I close my eyes. The sense of spinning and the vision of a vortex offer to sweep me away, and for a few moments I let them.

Then it is time to go, and just as we are turning away from the stones, a group of three young men arrive. There is a smile between us as they approach, and I muse about the more than five thousand years that these stones have been connecting people as they stand in silence...

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Meeting The Standing Stones of Stenness originally appeared on Taexalia on June 14, 2011.

Do you believe that if you choose to put the right kind of energy in the right kind of direction desired things will come to pass? I do.

Do you believe in magic? I do.

Are the two things one and the same? Hmmm. I think that you can put the right energy in the right direction and magic is the ingredient that brings you what you want and often with bonus extras.

This month I have felt inspired to blog, and also to give my blog some added visibility by adding it to places like Technorati and MyBlogLog ~ I think the technical term is pimping my blog. The result is that it has become a habit to blog every day, even on days like today where I think I have nothing interesting to say. Another result is that I have more readers, more people are finding me on Google (the post about rubber seems to draw them in so rubber, rubber, rubber!) And even more affirming - I got another award!

Zephyr1 over at the brilliant Climate of our Future has decided that I am also worthy of a Creative Blogger Award and I'm all puffed up and proud to display my new badge Thank you for your support! It motivates me to be even more creative.

Today has been one of those days where I have been so go!go!go! that I have almost run out of time. I did something that rarely works for me and wrote a To Do List. A long one. Then I re-wrote it prioritising the tasks and so far I've managed to get two thirds of it done - way more than I anticipated. None of it was creative though, it was all organise, tidy, clear out.

I have this big idea that I am going to conquer my life before I leave for New Hampshire next week so we will see how far I get. I do love Freecycle though! I had this big bag of grip n seal bags and I couldn't bear to throw them out so the bag has been growing and growing with each new stock order that has come in. I don't know why I didn't think of it before - but within an hour of the email posting, the bags had a new home.

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Busy Busy originally appeared on Taexalia on July 21, 2007.

The Maiden Stone

Where to begin when you reflect on a whole year? At the beginning I suppose... I started the year with a miscarriage which isn't really the best way to start anything really. Looking back, much of the first half of the year seems shadowed by the aftermath - not just the grief and confusion and emotional side, but the physical rollercoaster my body travelled. I had to learn to be gentle with myself - which doesn't come easy for me - and I began to learn that sometimes slowing the pace gets things done in just the same time.

I started the year self-employed too - I had left a job in August 2005 and for some bizarre reason had taken on a new job in December. The new job lasted all of two weeks and I look back and think it was mostly a lesson from the universe to trust my gut and go it alone - I'm just not made to work for other people and be treated with utter disrespect. And I'm closing this year self-employed, satisfied and confident that I am well on the way to crafting my own life and living my dreams.

I have a natural tendency to analyze with a negative slant - you know... the "I didn't spend enough time MAKING things" "I didn't eat healthily" "I didn't get enough exercise" "I didn't ..." blah blah blah. So OK that's out of the way, I'll turn it around and look at it from the other side...

I actually made quite a lot of things - I made a website, I made a great eBay shop even better, I made HTML templates, I made this blog, I made new friends, I made people laugh, I made a trip to Odense in Denmark, I made it to my annual women's gathering - this time in Michigan, I discovered and made SoulCollage cards, I made an attempt at NaNoWriMo (during the second busiest business month of the year), I made several letters to politicians, I made some wonderful rituals and dreamed some wonderful dreams.....

I cried when the whale got stranded in the Thames - a voice from the deep telling us something is wrong. I cried when some people tried to interview me about adopting a dolphin whilst I was hand picking rubbish during a beach clean up - and afterwards I felt frustrated with myself because my inability to speak in front of that monster camera was perhaps a lost opportunity to be a voice for creatures who cannot speak. I cried when I read or watched the news on too many occasions and I cried when one of the family cats, Tizzy, crossed the Rainbow Bridge after 17 years lighting our lives with her gentle presence, her ferocious defense of her territory and her sweet tinkly bells.

I laughed a lot too - don't be mistaken. If you lived with my honeybunny you would be challenged not to laugh at least once a day. Despite what seems to be a tendency towards the shadows - I'm a cheerful person most of the time. I even laughed whilst a man drove ink into my flesh - and if there's one New Year's Resolution for 2007 it is to get a new tattoo and not leave four years between inkings again!

So I'm closing this year with a sense that I have never been as happy and content as I am in this moment and I have some ideas of the directions I want to take in 2007 and the places I want to visit inside and out.

Wishing you a Happy Hogmany - a guid new year tae yin an a

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Reflections originally appeared on Taexalia on December 31, 2006.

We left the church and walked home in the bright sunshine. My Mum, Claire and I had animated discussions about Aberdeen City issues - I notice the changes more acutely because I'm now an occasional visitor and the increase in traffic and noise since I lived there is appalling. It's fun to see that my sister is as outspoken about politics as I am and even my Mum is becoming more opinionated. We shared stories of letters to MPs and discussed dear Donald (Trump) and concluded that he and his corporation are unwelcome in the North East. Mum and Claire were amused at the fact that I wrote to Tony Blair twice in 24 hours but not so amused that he has not written back. We voiced our collective disgust that he remained on a beach holiday whilst the UK was under a critical alert and we bumped our gums about the ineptitude of office.. We bumped our gums about a lot of things but it got us home in good time!

Claire had decided not to join us for our walk as she had a night out planned and didn't want to limit our time so we said goodbye and piled into the car. Brian drove us to the Pitfour Estate near Mintlaw and we set off into the Forest of Deer to look for a stone circle. Brian had been searching for this circle and was seriously bemused by the confusing sign-post some distance away and the lack of signs nearer to the actual circle. He was unsuccessful on his first attempt and eventually resorted to his GPS! Even then, having found it once - on a return visit he had trouble finding it again and I reminded him that some of the stones are said to walk...

I was in no hurry to get there as I was enjoying the walk - more butterflies and bees decorating the heather, which was in gorgeous late summer bloom...

Blooming Heather ~ Forest of Dean

Soon enough we came upon Drinnie's Observatory and we climbed the spiral staircase to take in the view of the estate. The observatory hosts several information boards giving a bit of history of the estate as well as views across Buchan and out to sea. Unfortunately the Gemma Dog refused to climb more than six steps and had to be tied to the lightning conductor (!) whilst we went up. Allan and I decided that with a bit of work we could turn the tower into an interesting home (but I doubt the estate is really within our budget...).

Drinnie's Observatory

Eventually Brian directed us onto a rarely used path into the trees which led us through the damp undergrowth to our destination. But before I found the circle, I found another great treasure in the form of a Fly Agaric Mushroom. It's quite a few years since I have seen one and at one time they were suffering from habitat destruction, so I was tickled to find one so close to a stone circle...

Fly Agaric Fungi (Amanita muscaria)

There is so much lore about this small and colourful Fungi - it's history as an hallucinogenic used by Druids, it's association with the faerie folk, it's use in flying ointment by witches... and it's beautiful bright red glow in the dank green undergrowth. Of course I didn't touch it and only imagined taking a bite but I sensed the magic none the less.

A short walk on and the trees opened and blessed me with the sight of Loudon Wood Stone Circle...

Loudon Wood Stone Circle

The circle appears to be a classic North East Recumbent but is now incomplete. The recumbent and flankers are present, although one of the flankers has fallen, and two of the circle stones remain standing. Some of the stones are fallen, or appear as broken rubble and the grass and moss cover the rocky cairn. The left flanker stands proud and both Mum and I were getting vibes when we hugged it. The recumbent stone had an interesting feature that must have been created by the weather - it appears to have a backbone.

The circle is well worth the walk and I hope to return and spend a bit more time there - the setting amidst the pine trees with heather, thistles and a beautiful rowan tree dripping with bright red fruit was lush.

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Loudon Wood Stone Circle originally appeared on Taexalia on August 30, 2006.