Friday, November 5, 2010

Pink Baby Feet (Of A Different Kind!)

Happy Pink Saturday one and all... Here's my pink contribution for the week... (well at least the feet are pink!)

My Mother-in-law sent me these photos with the caption...

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A BABY PORCUPINE???

How cute is this little guy???




Isn't he/she ADORABLE???  I am reminded of the Beatrix Potter character "Mrs. Tiggywinkle" - who was actually a hedgehog.... but still looks very similar at the baby stage at least...

Don't forget to check out all the Beverley's Pink Saturday bloggers at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/



Wednesday, November 3, 2010

A Way To Remember...





This past Monday was the Mexican holiday "Dia de los Muertos," a day for the living to celebrate their  family members and friends who have died.

I've been fascinated by this alternative cultural attitude to those that have passed since my first visit to New Mexico where I visited a cemetery on the outskirts of Taos some 8 years ago with my good friend Gioia.

It was the day after the celebration but  all the graves still had their decorations,  strings of marigolds, fruit, candles, bread, bright colored plastic flowers... and other offerings...

  Instead of feeling the usual sense of forebode when I saw the graves, I felt a deep sense of exhilaration and joy..., at what seemed to be such a wonderful idea - Once a year, paying respect and celebrating the lives of relatives and friends who were once with us.  I was struck by what a healthy attitude this was to  deceased, loved ones,  and how uncomfortable and unsatisfying my own limited, stiff and morose beliefs were...

I remembered how I felt after my parents both died, I felt a great yearning to honor them, wether it was denial or not, I don't know, but I had a very hard time letting them go...   At one point I'd wanted to create a shrine in my flower garden to them both... with photos, candles??? I wasn't sure, I worried what people might think, I worried that whatever it was I was trying to conjure up wouldn't be right, and might in someway be offensive to some, they might think I was crazy!  - Yes, it was a confusing time and I never built the shrine...   I wish I could have whispered in my ear 11 years ago... "Its ok, do what you feel is right,,, it will be perfect, its a good thing to do, you will have a place to go be with them, whenever you need to talk/pray.."

Fast forward 11 years, and here I am making my first shrine/alter to celebrate 2 people I loved so very much.  I started to worry that I was doing it wrong, then I realized that my internal  critic/negative non-creator nellie was about to have her way with me again and so I and laughed at myself (and her,) and grabbed a scarf, lit a candle, found a couple of photo's and some other personal items that are imbibed with spiritual meaning to me... and there...was my sacred place to honor and celebrate my parents.  As soon as I lit the candle the room felt different and a quietness descended upon me... I think they loved their shrine..,and I felt their love and their presence...


I'm already planning how I want to celebrate next year...

Better late than never....

HAPPY DIA DEL LOS MUERTOS!!!





Saturday, October 30, 2010

Life IS Beautiful... here's a reminder...


Rosa ~ Just Joey


This morning I received an email from my extra, special, caring, loving friend Morgan, it included a link to an incredibly inspiring youtube video. ~ (Thank you Morgan:)

I recommend you watch this remarkable documentary, I believe it speaks to each and everyone of us  living in this great and beautiful world. 

 By meeting "Alice - The Lady In Number 6," we get to see the power of love, and what sharing your heart and soul (through music for Alice,) can do to for your life and the lives of others, when existence and hope has all but been taken away...


With Love,

Neinah








Friday, October 29, 2010

Happy Pink Halloween Saturday...





And Happy Halloween To One and All.....


Making Jack O'Lanterns

Just take a golden pumpkin
Of quite the largest size,
Cut all round the stem, just so,
Scrape out the inside below,
And cut two holes for eyes.
And now fix a nose beneath,
And such a great big mouth with teeth,
And you've a jack-o"-lantern!

Then fix a tallow candle
Just big enough to light,
And when it flickers, see him blink,
And when it flares up, see him wink
And smile so broad and bright.
This is the jolliest sort of fellow,
With cheery face so round and yellow,
This funny jack-O'-Lantern.

Anon...



Wishing you and your families a joyful Halloween weekend... don't eat too much candy!
Love,
Neinah





Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A Trip To The Park...

This morning we took the pooches to the park...


The trees are many shades of red, burgundy, copper and gold...



Walking around the park we spotted many varieties of fungus and toadstools...  There's something so magical about them..., ever since I was a little girl, I've thought they held some special properties..., believed they were where the fairy folk and little elves lived...  They seem to grow in places that look very deliberate..., like the little white ones that would grow in rings in our lawn...,  or others that can be found clustered at the base of certain trees...

Take a look at the fairy houses I found today...







Just a short walk in the park can reveal so much beauty, each day is different, each walk, always on the same path is never the same.

Do you have a favorite place where nature reveals itself to you???









Monday, October 25, 2010

Halloween Party time...

This weekend we hosted a Halloween bash for family and friends...

Goblins and fairy's (and strange men in kilts), munched on skeleton
cookies, gummy body parts and stuffed olive eyeballs...

While the Spider Queen, sliced bread for the 
hungry hoards... (yes those are spiders in my hair!)

A scary mummy roamed the halls...

...and Gothic Vamps chilled out and drank cider (instead of blood!)..

And a bespectacled witch was nabbed by the sleuth...

Puppies were loved..., people were fed...

And a good and scary time was had by all...

Do you have plans for Halloween? Parties, dress-up, trick or treats???

Wishing you all a happy Halloween, with fun and much love...

Neinah





Friday, October 22, 2010

Still Life With Pomegranates...




Pomegranates have arrived at the local market..., so I plucked three, and put them in my shopping basket.

I love this fruit (remember this post http://neinahavelin.blogspot.com/2010/08/pomegranates-persephone-full-moon.html) not so much to eat, but more to look at... I find them exotic and beautiful, their skin,  luscious and shiney red, open one up and it exposes its hidden treasure of  ruby jeweled seeds....

I took these photo's with my new SLR camera, I'm slowly learning how to operate it, there's so much to learn about how to take good photo's and get satisfying results...



I'm always on the lookout for interesting subjects to take photo's of, if the photo's are good enough, I can
take them to my oil painting class...  I think my next painting will be of pomegranates...


Below is a poem by Dublin born poet Eavan Bolan.... 


The Pomegranate ~ by Eavan Boland

The only legend I have ever loved is
the story of a daughter lost in hell.
And found and rescued there.
Love and blackmail are the gist of it.
Ceres and Persephone the names.
And the best thing about the legend is 
I can enter it anywhere.  And have.
As a child in exile in 
a city of fogs and strange consonants,
I read it first and at first I was
an exiled child in the crackling dusk of
the underworld, the stars blighted.  Later
I walked out in a summer twilight
searching for my daughter at bed-time.
When she came running I was ready 
to make any bargain to keep her.
I carried her back past whitebeams
and wasps and honey-scented buddleias.
But I was Ceres then and I knew 
winter was in store for every leaf
on every tree on that road.
Was inescapable for each one we passed.
And for me.

It is winter
and the stars are hidden.
I climb the stairs and stand where I can see
my child asleep beside her teen magazines,
her can of Coke, her plate of uncut fruit.
The pomegranate!  How did I forget it?
She could have come home and been safe
and ended the story and all
our heart-broken searching but she reached
out a hand and plucked a pomegranate. She put out her hand and pulled down
the French sound for apple and
the noise of stone and the proof
that even in the place of death,
at the heart of legend, in the midst
of rocks full of unshed tears
ready to be diamonds by the time 
the story was told, a child can be 
hungry.  I could warn her.  There is still a chance.
The rain is cold.  The road is flint-coloured.
The suburb has cars and cable television.
The veiled stars are above ground.
It is another world.  But what else 
can a mother give her daughter but such
beautiful rifts in time?
If I defer the grief I will diminish the gift.
The legend will be hers as well as mine.
She will enter it.  As I have.
She will wake up.  She will hold
the papery flushed skin in her hand.
And to her lips.  I will say nothing.


o ~ 0 ~ o