Wondering about giving up the allotment...

I cannot imagine anywhere more perfect
more reflective
of God
than being here in this
allotment garden
with all it’s autumn
golden glorious generosity

with its neglected magnificence
with its late flowering fruitfulness
and sun kissed chill windedness

here is heart
here are fragments of pulsating life
here is grace and peace in infinite measure
here is overwhelming love poured forth
played out

in simple songs
of rustle
of birdsong
of distant traffic hum
of aeroplane high overhead
of nearby buzz

unaware universes collide
in the chaos
of a million tiny moments
of untended harmony
played out before my eyes

what is there to say
who is there to thank
silently
I attempt to bear eternal witness.

Autumn Wisdom

autumn

coming so soon

catching me unawares

leaves fall overboard 

smiling

their fate

my fate

but

smiling 

is a little forced

watching

or

watched

accept

loss of control 

or meaning

which

though long sought

never was

within the grasp

the native tongue

this time

worse 

lost almost everything

in translation

gathering up the crumbs 

she said

come to terms

wrestling must

inevitably cease

resolving itself 

in rest

unceasing awareness

acceptance

watching peace

fall gently from the sky.

Finally!

Grooved Example

So I finally got there.

This example has grooved boards and the endcaps were formed to fit the shoulders without having to add extra pieces in. 

Inside

Be still...

Be still
how hard is that
overcomplicating
let it all go on around you
witness.

A pinch and a punch...

Walking

by the river

high fiving the hazel

sometimes snagged by a blackberry

that's life.

Some more progress
made along the road
time to integrate
expressing gratitude
by responding

simple things
make overcomplication
blush

time
which you thought was wasted
revealed something
of which
at the moment you aren't sure
but
having confidence
in the process

trust
gently almost
in spite of yourself
pulls us along.

Trials

Knowing
all will be well
comes from a still centre
done with this worlds realities
let go.

First Learning

The thing is that until you try you never know. It has to move from head to hands and then mistakes can be learned.

Close up

This close up reveals why.

When dry fitted it can be seen that the transition between the edge which has been rolled over and glued will always leave an unsatisfactory edge. Future trials will need to eliminate the right angle and merge smoothly to the line of the endcap.

Dry Fit

Echoes from the past

Dad: "The man who never made a mistake never made anything."

Son heard, "Never make mistakes."

Something lost in the exchange

no one's fault

never is

no matter 

everything is redeemable

it was never truly lost

all it takes is will and effort

trying and mend

belief in goodness

no matter what the numbers say

test them and see for yourself

I understand and give thanks.

Wor(l)ds End

Six Months since my last confession…

bless me father for I have sinned

I have not practised awareness and as a result

have become soft and fat and lazy

I have followed no path.

By my confession I see that it is better 

to follow any path than none

that there is no ‘right’ way but there is 

a way

the way followed today

new every morning BBC (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Coming from the heart

not so much repenting more

realignment

reconciliation

becoming aware of unawareness

leading me

some gene

some restless part of my heart

yearning

Even though I do not know what it would look like

I see its promise held

by some ghostly muse before me

something Grail

something Yoga

something Pray Constantly

something To Work is to Pray

something Wild Activity

too much complexity

Root out the desire

attraction

aversion

the very core

no good will come of it

perched as it is on the shoulder of destiny

look rather to the East in the morning

standing in the West

North and South side by side

Sky above

Earth below

focus of the Six Directions

like Indra's Net

All views are wrong views

there is nothing to do 

but the nothing to do must be done 

with constant vigilance

measured performance

Penance is

recognising

that importances are

not the achievements

but glimpses

whilst sat in pure awareness

A different gentler discipline is needed.

Looking back...

god sighed
oh not again
things never go my way
then returning to the future
knew why

Clamshell Box and Sewn Board Book

Clamshell 1

Clamshell 2

Not a bad first attempt quite pleased.
It's dust and air tight and doesn't rattle so that's the main thing.
Working on a cover for the exposed boards trying to figure about shaping the boards or leaving them square. More experimentation needed.

Exposed boards

Clamshell 3

Fragments

"These fragments I have shored against my ruins."^*

Confused
late summer's ghosts
wreathed with fallen feathers
thin pieces of reality
comfort.






^{* The Waste Land T S Eliot (v. What the Thunder Said)}

Three Day Story

Challenged

the call went out

make a book in three days

fortunate stock of endpapers

response.

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Tentative

Parental Guidance

Wonder

Creatures Great and Small

Boat People

At Sea

New work...

Cuthbert
finishing work
going into the world
finding its place in the rhythm
blessing.

Book

Some days

Along the Road

The thing is

along the road

which twists and turns

we meet 

the nicest things

take yesterday 

for instance

the magician

wove a spell

  waved the wand

    things changed 

        faster 

   than we 

planned.

When All Around...

Keeping Hold

A troubled mind = a troubled bench

The Bench

internal confusion

manifests itself

physically

and I wonder

why there is 

chaos in my life

time to restore

sanity...


Later the same day

The Bench

order

restoration

feeling of time well spent

along with the day that's in it

job done

Just now...

no I
just nature
getting on with itself
wonder in the present moment
empty

Every day's a school day

Often my sewing results in a torpedo shape spine due to me over tightening the kettle stitch at each end.
Natalie Stopka a textile artist has a great tip in this regard here.


And an example of how this has cured the problem:

Parallel Spine

Liking these little books...

Sewn Board Binding

A nice little video from Peter Baumgartner, I used a leather offcut for the centre one. They are lovely to make.
You can find the video here: Easy Bookbinding: Sewn Board Binding


He also has a video about folding a slip case here: which lead me to a fabulous book, "The Art of the Fold" by Hedi Kyle. It rightfully gets very good reviews a book combining excellent production values and superb illustrations. Full of great ideas and starting points, not a book about bookbinding in the traditional sense, but about folding and making book like structures.

The book is available on Amazon.

The Plaiting's Over

Turning the Corner

complete

step at a time

it's a labour of love

some things just need close attention

daily

Another day

Approaching Half Way

tension

fear of failure

mistakes are our teachers

realising impermanence

wake up

Curiosity

All in Plain Sight

surface

simplicity

nothing is as it seems

looking for deep understanding

complex

hmmm...

complex
keep it simple
back to the beginning
hear the story for the first time
let go

Anatta

walking
round the jewel
see the many facets
do not dwell upon confusion
let go

Almost nothing

Craving
something missing
short term filling the gap
suffering following closely
look deep.

A River of Being

Here is a river of being:

stopping

stillness

silence

listening

reflecting

discerning

acting
stoping
 stillness

 silence

listening

    reflecting

                    discerning

                     acting

                                                          stopping

stillness

silence

listening

reflecting

discerning

     acting

 stopping

stillness

silence

                                 listening

           reflecting

      discerning

  acting

                                            stopping

                                        stillness

                                                           silence

                                                             listening

                                                              reflecting 

                               discerning

                                   acting

                                                              stopping…  

"Too many words 

are vexatious to the mind

the root of discontentment."^*

sit with one word until 

no word 

comes along
calm the mind by interrogation
ask it what it is thinking
watch the response

relax in the emptiness of 

no words

no-thing-ness

                                          

^{*Annals of St. Godwin}

Constructing an Altar of the Heart

Silence
heard behind time
echoes caught between beats
autumn winter spring summer sensed
calling.

Annals of St. Godwin*

Listen

be not troubled

make a space in your heart

attend to it every morning

gently.

* The Annals have moved here

Annals of St. Godwin

"... and I saw that all my words and prayers built a ladder of smoke. Falling to the ground I was shocked into silence and watched as the dawn whispered  'Listen!'"

Annals Book One xxiii

Annals of St. Godwin

"...and so, in the nosy fire of my mind, suddenly I found myself rising above the flame; a shimmering heat haze. Below the crackling, hissing, spitting fire of delusion. I rode the thermal currents into a warm silence. The sensation lasted just a moment but from then onwards I knew a new direction was possible"


Annals of St. Godwin (c. 648)

The Lord is My Shepherd

The Book by Camus

A journalist hounded the French writer, Albert Camus, asking him to explain his work in detail. The author of The Plague refused: “I write, and others can make of it what they will.”
But the journalist refused to give in. One afternoon, he managed to find him in a café in Paris. “Critics say you never take on truly profound themes,” said the journalist. “I ask you now: if you had to write a book about society, would you accept the challenge?”
"Of course," replied Camus. "The book would be one hundred pages long. Ninety-nine would be blank, since there is nothing to be said. At the bottom of the hundredth page, I’d write: “Man’s only duty is to love."¹

The only question is...

"How will I Love today?"

¹Link to PDF  here.*

*(I have no affiliation nor do agree, disagree or endorse the views of this or any other website.)

Epiphany