In Eden,- lol, seriously where I live now comes pretty close to it, I love the area, I can see why Paul McCartney chose it to set up home here with Linda, it's a wildlife haven, a country backwater , off the beaten track, beautiful countryside, woodland, winding leafy lanes, and small farms, not far from the ancient walled cobbled,street, cinque port town of Rye, and a wildfowl nature reserve, and a beautiful sandy beach not far away, also a river, and a canal. Last week I saw a huge flock of the canada geese migrating back to winter grounds, honking loudly to announce their departure. I have been picking blackberries and wild damsons.The villagers are friendly and  people still leave surplus produce by their garden gate here, trusting folk to put the money in a tin, often for charity. .We have an independent local supermarket, that supports local farmers and producers, and it is an absolute  pleasure to shop there, the staff are encouraged to be friendly and helpful., the owners are Quakers so it is closed on Sunday, and their staff get that as a day of rest with their families.
Being on the south coast and with a south facing garden I can grow fine crops, at the moment we are enjoying lucious fresh purple grapes fresh from the old vine in the garden, and I have planted onions, shallots, garlic, peas, broad beans, spinach, greens and winter lettuce, some crops in the greenhouse for winter use.I have travelled, but I absolutely love where I have settled I feel blessed to live in such an environment.

Everything nature created is already sacred, sometimes it takes us a little while to
realise it, it just is.- nothing makes it,,  all life was created divine. We alone have freedom to choose, we can veer towards the divine, - the sacred or the profane

Dance with the Cosmos

Learning to dance

on a shifting carpet

I flow with life's rhythm

I leap from the parapet

I can't stay the music

I am part of the flow

one partners hand above

and one supports below,

they meet in my heart

a triple spiral our goal

abounding with passion

we all dance into soul

I tend to think the best of people unless they show me differently, but when I was younger I think I really took universal intelligence for granted and busied myself with other things, now I really am in awe, and appreciative.

Why the battle of the sexes still rears it's ugly head ? Why are there still male dominated areas, why do a lot of women only appreciate an extreme feminine image.  As I see it we complement each other, we are all people, we are all a balance of male and female, with one or the other predominant. A man can still be fully masculine and yet develop his feminine side if he wishes, there are men as single parents or homemakers, who are nurturing their children, caring for them when they are ill, baking their birthday cakes, doing the washing and cleaning etc who are no less masculine for doing so. There are women, who are the breadwinners in the family, who can take an engine apart and mend it,, who are pioneers, who are entrepreneurs. As people we are all capable of growth, women can develop their strength, men can develop their sensitivity, both can actively listen be observant, and nurture one another, we need to respect each other, appreciate each others skills and development and kiss goodbye to stereotypes. That includes understanding and appreciation of those people who are somewhere in the middle, neither completely female or male stereotypes, why should they have to conform to either if it is not their wish, acceptance is important for us all.

Belief into Action, - car gone, hoover gone, I sweep instead of hoover. I don't fly because my holiday pleasure,might cost species and cost the earth,  I re-use recycle, renovate,  buy local and secondhand.  I use eco friendly products. I have solar heating on my house and am getting solar under a grant scheme on my mothers house. i grow nearly all my own fruit and vegetables and I am vegetarian, I plant trees at home and some abroad, it is possible to donate trees to poor areas via charities. I shop ethically, eg a lot of products use palm oil, the palm oil growers are cutting down virgin forest at an alarming rate, so I avoid products containing palm oil and those that have clocked up air miles. Thirty years ago i noticed the first changes in global warming and began to change my lifestyle accordingly, I am quite green now. I don't do it for me, I am in the autumn of my life, I do it for my children, grandchildren and their descendents future.
          My latest change is to extend my organic gardening skills to become no-dig, this simple change sequesters 33% more carbon into the soil than conventional  till and dig gardening, think how much carbon we could tuck safely away in mother earth if we all change to no dig methods, and how much more if the farmers all changed to no till farming.. It also puts humus in the soil helping to retain moisture, and breaking down minerals for plant use.  Did you know our supermarket mass produced  food now contains 40% less minerals than a decade or two ago? 

• Food is grown on minerally-depleted soils in the first place.
  
• Plant breeding of hybrid seeds, and crop management, result in another measurable decline in protein and vitamin/mineral content.
  
• Pesticide spraying leaves poison residues in our food.
  
• Food processed by any of the techniques mentioned,  (irradiation included) further decreases its value, food could also be irradiated before being shipped to food processors;  However, it is conceivable that some food could be irradiated to keep it "fresh" longer for the food processors as well, in which case it would undergo two assaults in this step alone.)
  
• As if all the above steps do not reduce the life in our foods enough, much of our food is then cooked, spiced with condiments, salt, etc., smothered in sauces, and, to top it off, eaten in excess and/or in improper combinations, washed down with beverages that dilute our stomach's digestive enzymes, and often eaten in a hurry, and/or according to "the time of the day" instead of true hunger, and sometimes in a state of mind that is not conducive to good digestion.

We are paying a high cost for our ignorance and lack of good conscience, because we are destroying more and more of the life factor within our foods and the soil each time we alter them further from their natural  state.

How can we expect food that is virtually dead to sustain life? It has been said, with reference to vegetarianism vs. meat eating, but this also applies in the case of lifeless, foodless foods, that: "from life comes life, and from death comes death."
          You can grow lettuce tomatoes cucumbers, peppers and herbs on a balcony or patio, compost your waste to avoid landfill and produce your own life giving compost, plants thrive in direct relation to soil depth and quality, give it a try and taste the difference, five minutes from plant to plate -  crisp crunchy juicy tender and flavoursome. My bet is you will get hooked and want to turn your lawn to food production. It doesn't even have to be hard work, if you choose natures no dig way, nature has fed us for millennia with no plough or spade, no fertiliser. A plant gets 80% of it's nutrition from the sun and 20% from the soil, nature returns most of that to the soil building fertility and depth, we just keep taking all and using chemicals to replace the deficit, top soil used to be 3 or 4ft deep, we are left with about a quarter of that, at this rate what will be left for our children?

         Earth is our ferry on the sea of existence, without her we die. We are cooking earth, with our fuel burning emissions - and cooking our own goose. 
How do you like your earth?  Raw, medium, done, or charred ?  Personally I think she is most beautiful in the raw.

Oooh lots, I just put a little idling time to one side and wait for divine inspiration
Like idling at the checkout my eye fell of the jersey potaatoes, so tasty ,and divine inspiration says to me, why not put four or five in a grow sack in the lean to greenhouse with my winter salad and veg,evenif it snows I can harvest. .
A big pot of my own recipe garden soup, divinely inspired. 
My own creative recipe for  a sugarless curry sauce made from the surplus tomatillo's...mmnnnnn, tangy, warm, naturally sweet, delicious with most things, and my diabetic mum loves it.
A productive garden for us and a haven for wildlife.
Creating a new book..
A new poem.
some new faux snakeskin covers for my tired old dining room chairs, from a bargain remnant.
Divine inspiration hangs around in the ether, just waiting for me to tap into it, once it used to call at inconvenient times - like when I was driving or busy, I have slowed down a little and given up the car, walking or sittong on a bus is great for idling time, ideas come flooding in from out there where divine inspiration waits patiently for my. attention

It is still the same world, inherantly beautiful, though she has been abused a lot by us and much of her fine pelt has disappeared under our concrete, like a dog with fleas she has been scratching at us, and i suspect she will have a good shake soon to try and rid herself of the infestation.. She is badly in need of a little TLC, She breathes through her skin and we are destroying it.bit by bit.
        Er...how have I changed,? Perhaps more aware than ever, and doing my best to not hurt earth further.by treading lightly on her and working with  nature, allowing her to increase her fertility on my little patch, feeding her with compost and repairing depleted soil, (her skin), by not polluting or poisoning her.I now have funghi popping up all over the garden, they work in symbiosis with plants to aid growth, and don't thrive in depleted soils or polluted soils Now that she is sick, and we are in danger of losing her,, or rather being wiped out as a species, perhaps I realise more how precious she is, how much I appreciate and love earth. I have learned nature is far wiser than humankind, and I listen to her..

Compromise to me feels like meeting somewhere in thje middle, but I if I can I aim for win, win, my heart wants us all to be happy. I guess we all have to follow our own path and be true to self, learn our own lessons in life, grow and flower, sometimes this means setting boundaries, sometimes we can please both parties, sometimes compromise is acceptable to both, but if it causes resentment that is not helpful.
A delicate path to walk that is helped by experience, no one is an island, everything we do has ripples, we all are capable of making mistakes but if we have love in our heart we try not to make too many negative waves, and more positive and uplifting ones

Ga Ga, wide smiles blowing bubbles through raspberries... LOL, Well I  am 69 supposedly approaching my second childhood and being cared for -  Wrong... instead I am caring for another full time, and trouble shooting needed changes in our health service from the consumer end not the service end, writing a book, tending the garden, active except when asleep. Luckily I look younger than my years, so I still get treated as normal, People usually take me for in my fifties, one even thought I was late forties.  Shall we say I am an experienced human being who can still let loose her inner chiild when appropriate, for what is life without some fun.? Not ready to retire ( from life ) and usually friends are considerably younger than me.
I want to enter the pearly gates skidding through on my backside having lived right up to that moment for others as well as myself.

Frequently but purposely.  It isn't just my life I am not an island, but part of we or us, or a citizen of my country or the world, what affects one affects all.  Sometimes i shift gears for me sometimes for those dear to me and sometimes for the good of strangers if I see a wrong that needs action. then sometimes I slam on the brakes and concentrate on a priority. Today was such a day, everything was put on hold while I composed a letter, to the regional primary health care authority, carefully targeted to the complaints officer at the highest level with our complaint , This was after an arbitary decision was made by a nurse on inadequate information, allowing an assessment of a patient's needs for allocation to three different forms of respite care to take place without  any communication or involvement with patient,, carer, or doctor. The outcome I requested was full proper assessment with patient and relative / carer input, for my mother,  and a  change in the system for all, so that all patients and carers can be involved in the assessment process and will have an understanding of which choice best fits their needs. So I guess i shift gears for myriad reasons as and when needed.and sometimes I slam the brakes on for a priority. Who knows I may need that service myself one day. I spoke to the complaints officer on the phone, and she seemed really on the ball, a lovely lady, and I am optimistic there will be a positive outcome, not just for us but for everyone who uses the health service. I think the universe is on our side because as I walked out of the house to post the letter a neighbour in her car offered to take it to the post for me and just caught the postman before he sealed the post box, there is a postal strike tomorrow, I would have missed it if i had walked there.

What's boredom? I don't think I have ever been bored.


check a risk assessment scale for depression, severe boredom can cause it.if you are depressed get professional help, if you are not depressed - here are my tips -

carry something to read or a notebook to write on

learn something new - at any age.

take up a hobby or sport that fires your passion

if you have nothing to do help someone else,  eg volunteer for a charity of interest

consider a pet if you can be a responsible and kind owner and can afford it.

make some changes in your life, particularly something you thought you would never do.

watch tv selectively not slavishly

if you don't like work change to something you love doing

make time for fun

play lets pretend  - you are a robot, a film star, a super hero etc etc, use your imagination

if all else fails blink wildly, then close your eyes for a while and watch the light show,
that should amuse you for a few minutes, .

Love - the power of love, nothing else comes close.

A smile always spreads easily, in fact my childhood nickname was smiler. The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary, most things that are worthwhile require application, but if we love what we are doing then it doesnt feel like hard work.

I have no desire to teach anyone anything, more a desire to live what I believe and continue the learning process..Sometimes I am unlearning, - how do I know  for certain that my way is best? Others may know a better way,so I try to remain open to new ideas, with enough humility to listen actively.and hear all viewpoints. I learn from research, experience, or from others being admiral examples. The best learning is self directed and at a time and place suited to the individual.and their passions. Maybe the best teacher is life and the universe, it has a way of returning us full circle, or should I say spiralling onward.