A 40th Birthday Album and Getting Back To Nature

Life's been a bit crazy these last couple of weeks so I'm way behind on my blogging. But I'll catch up during the week..... all being well.

" weekends ago it was my baby brothers 40th Birthday. He's a keen motorcycle rider and owns a Fire blade, very fitting that he should have a cake like this then....

Seemed a shame to eat it!

This is the Album I made for his photographs, in his favourite colours of Orange and Brown.....

We have been blessed the last couple of weeks with the most wonderful weather, showing us that Spring is very definitely on the way. It was so warm in fact, that I jumped at the chance of a visit to the Lake District, after the long and seasonally cold winter I needed desperately to get back to nature.

With the trees......

The water....especially the water, I find water so cleansing!

Oh yeah and the fabulous Stone Circle... hidden away and not many people know about it so it's usually so very quiet and peaceful

Walking along we spotted this tree. Now calligraphers are passionate about texture, probably because calligraphy forms texture on a page.

We are also passionate about music, as music and calligraphy are very closely related too, as in the beat and the rhythm of the letters, lines and text.

Anyway, we stumbled across this amazing fallen tree. We couldn't quite make out what sort of tree it was and why so textured.....

As we got closer I don't think we could believe our eyes.....

Ah so that's it! It's a Money Tree!

There was a rock placed very carefully on the trunk and the whole thing was covered and I mean covered in coins from every walk of life! I wonder who had started this off and then it took someone else to follow suit, and another and another. You see someone had an idea and the ripples spread and continued to grow. It reminds me of the quotation: Every great idea was started by one person and one thought. Anything can be achieved in small deliberate steps. The journey of a thousand miles, starts with a single step.

The sun was shining and warm, the water was clear and fast flowing. How amazing is water? so soft to the touch and made of tiny droplets, but hard as iron, when over a period of time it can wear away stone.


When I started calligraphy there were two things I wanted to do more than anything else. One was to write on glass, the other was to carve letters in stone....well, it was.... TILL I TRIED IT! I still have my failed attempts at the studio. It almost broke my wrist and was so much harder than our tutor made us believe! AND he brought special stone composite with him that he used to use for children! My gawd! Don't give up the day job Sue!

Although the Stone Circle is Ancient, there were a stone set near the road to celebrate the Millennium . There were 3 symbols one on either side and one to the front. On either side there were the Alpha and Omega (Can't say that word now without thinking of fish oil capsules for the brain!). Although the carving on pink granite was wonderful, and I take my hat off to the stone mason, someone perhaps should have told him that the A was a Roman A and not really the symbol for Alpha! Oooops!
Ironically the symbol in the middle was a Christian Cross, which is strange when you consider that the Stone Circle was built long before Christianity and was a sacred place for Pagans!

And when you see wonderful, natural, freaks of nature like this, it's no surprise as to where Tolkien and other fantasy, mythical and magical writers get their inspiration from.

Is it a dinosaur foot? Or a Pixie Hole?

It looked like molten lava....
Seems like I may have cured my fear of heights!
It's true what they say.... the best things in life are free