Thank you :)

Hello, just a very quick post to say "Thank you!" for all of your kind wishes and words on my last post.

I've not been on the computer that much over the last week or so as my shoulder is not good, but I hope to be back here soon with a much more cheeful and crafty post in the near future :)

I'm planning to do all my Christmas crafting in the next four weeks before I go into hospital so hopefully there will be some very early Christmas themed posts here soon!!!! Poor Mr P will proabably be roped in to help me but he doesn't know that yet... ;)

Hope you are all well, take care xxx

Back from the hospital

Well, I'm back from seeing the consultant at the hospital and he has confirmed that I will definitely need another operation on my shoulder and I'm booked in for surgery on the 19th of November.

I'm feeling very upset and sorry for myself at the moment and unfortunately Mr P is not here to cheer me up :( I know I', being a bit silly and that I need to have this operation done, but last time it was very painful, I had an allergic reaction to the morphine and I wasn't able to drive for two months, which when you live somewhere as rural as we do is going to be very tough! It looks like I'm going to have to do much of the Christmas shopping online this year!

I've just realised as well that the date of the operation means I'm going to miss meeting up with some friends at the end of November, which I was really looking forward too :(

Anyway, enough with feeling sorry for myself, I need to look on the bright side - hopefully this operation will cure the problems I've been having with my shoulder and neck and I will be able to get back to normal :)

I've had to drive to the hospital this afternoon as Mr P is away and my shoulder is really painful now so I'm going to run a hot bath, take some painkillers and snuggle up on the sofa with a ginormous bar of chocolate (sod the diet!), two gorgeous kittie cats and my "True Blood" novel which arrived this morning :) I'm loving this programme already and when I found out it was based on a series of books I knew I wanted to read them! I also got a copy of Cath Kidston's "Sew!" in the same package but I'm under strict instructions not to look at it as it's a birthday pressie for next week! Gonna be tough not peeking though...

Wish me luck....

..... I'm off to see the consultant at the hospital about my shoulder this afternoon. Hopefully I'll find out today what the next course of action is going to be in dealing with this. I can't wait for it all to be sorted and then I can get back to normal :)

Magus of Stonewylde :)

Over the last couple of weeks I have been off work with a shoulder injury. I had an operation on it about a year and a half ago and the problem has recently recurred leaving me having difficulty driving. The painkillers I have been prescribed also make me very drowsy so I am currently stuck at home as we live approximately 3 miles from the nearest bus route and my OH is at work. With all this free time on my hands I have recently been doing a lot of reading and I am now in the process of re-reading the Stonewylde books :)



I think I might have blogged about these books when I first read them but at the time I was so caught up in the story that I devoured the books one after the other. Upon re-reading these books I have been pleasantly surprised to realise that they are even better than I remember and there are allsorts of details and plot twists that I had forgotten about :) I read Magus of Stonewylde and Moondance at Stonewylde this week and have just started re-reading Solstice at Stonewylde today :) If you haven't already heard of these books and love a cracking story that you can get completely caught up in, then there is a treat in store for you :)

The books are about a young girl who is ill with an undiagnosed illness and unable to cope with living in inner-city London. After making friends with a doctor who is treating her, she moves with her mother to a secret community hidden away in Dorset and once there the adventures begin. Arriving at Stonewylde is like stepping back into another place in time for Sylvie and she soon starts to recover. She meets the Magus of Stonewylde, who is the charismatic leader of the community and she also meets Yul, one of the Villagers, who has never left the community and challenges Magus's authority. The community follow the "old ways" and celebrate all the different festivals, such as the Equinoxes and Beltane, the mythology of which is woven into the story.

Personally, I loved the evocative descriptions of the countryside around Stonewylde and the village itself. Kit Berry described it all so perfectly that I could "see" it all in my head as I was reading the story. I also can't think of many books that have made me care so much about the characters, you really want everything to work out for Sylvie and Yul and the inhabitants of Stonewylde (well, most of them!) At one point I was so angry at one of the characters that Mr P was laughing at me getting so wound up! Seemlessly blended as part of the story, there are descriptions of the various festivals that the community celebrates and the significance behind each one.

I think I've probably babbled on enough now, but I would definitely recommend these books to you (pagan or non-pagan) as these are such fantastic stories. If you'd like to know more about these books, there is a Stonewylde website, which can be found here: http://www.stonewylde.com

I'm off now to get back to Solstice at Stonewylde, I'm at one of my favourite parts of the story :)

The Road Not Taken

Yesterday was National Poetry Day so I'd like to take this opportunity to share with you a couple of my favourite poems (they're pretty short!)

First up is "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
-I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Next up is "Aede Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" by W.B. Yeats. I had to study this poem at university and really love the final lines:

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

I didn't really like poetry much when I was younger but have found over the last few years that I have a new appreciation for it :)

Do you have a favourite poem you'd like to share with me?