Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

Thbonsai from last year, still here! And geranium i've repotted and the marjoram grown in Camphill - on the kitchen window. That needs cleaning, i know. My dresser/larder. It also now has a salami hanging and bay leaves...it is probably the singlmost useful piece of furniture in the kitchen. Spring mantlepiece DVDs finally under control And the play area!!! The top of the piano... In the hall Summer colour Worksurface in the kitchen Spice cupboard Sundries ALl the cleaning stuff is now in an alcove which used to hold nonsense - and now it's easily accessible which means that... under the sink is uncluttered and cleaning out the bin is a straightforward activity. The cutlery drawer - organised - like every cupboard and drawer in the kitchen. I won't bore you with the other ones, but i'm sooooo happy... The recycling. It's not perfect, but it's ok. The midicine cabinet which for years was the bane of my existence. Finally under control. The top of the fridge which...

Again apologies for the non update. I've been working flat out on the house and school. The house is looking better than ever. I've now only my room, the study and the bathroom to do. Everything else is now under incredible control. I've camped for the last two weeks in IKEA, developing what was unkindly termed a box fetish. It is partly true, since i have been eyeing the largest box in IKEA for weeks now and on Thursday i finally had the excuse to buy it as i needed the space to put in Darth Vadar's mask, the Millenium Falcon, a safari helicopter and a digger. I'd say it's value for money, don't you? I must take photos of the house now and all the bits i've organised. Just so that Ma can look at it. Today i went for this BBC meeting in Armagh and then to Benburb where Peter is taking a Bhuddist retreat now. Benburb is this incredible place. I should have taken photos, but the loooocals might have not appreciated it. It has this huge Gothic building whi...

Ghin is now playing on the smallest areas of playgrounds. I can't remember when watching a little thing was such compulsive viewing. What happened? I remember thinking that it was so dull doing the precise same thing with Oisin. Why is it different with Ghin? Why or what about me is different? The decluttering has gone on a pace. I have drawn up a new manifesto. It's called The Manifesto of a Cluuter Free Republique. It goes like this: 1. Moratorium on the import of any forms of stationery - pens, papers, colour pencils, etc (as evidenced by the buckets of aforementioned items which i have managed to gather bucketfuls of.) 2. Movement to a paperless society - all bills, CDs, mags on line where possible (we receive at least nine, yes i kid you not, nine bank statements every month. An amazing feat, if you also consider that we do not have a credit card, not a single credit card amongst us.) 3. Absolutely no stuffing of drawers. Give it to comrade Mummy if unsure of where it belo...

I am so pwoud of myself. I am exhausted to the bone, but my god, my kitchen has been decluttered and reorganised. There isn't a single drawer which hasn't been touched. Not a cupboard that's been spared. I'm especially thrilled with the medicine cabinet which now has FOUR spanking new containers labelled 'Natural remedies/Herbal', 'Non-natural medication', 'Equipment' and 'Cosmetics'. I say cosmetics, but it really is five bottles of nail polish remover. Which is the exact number of times my mother has stayed with us. I also rescued a table from Oisin's room. After years of telling myself i'll restore it it is beyond restoration. So i painted to white and then painted a picture on it of a tree with a blackbird. If i had bought it in a shop it would have cost us £50. Instead it's free and i've recycle furniture. I feel so damn virtuous. In addition to all this, i also got nine new fileboxes and sorted out all the banking co...

This is Jacq. This picture is probably about fifteen years old, if not older - not older than 20 though. Don't she look lovely? She'll ill me i know. I was hoking through pictures i had brought from Singapore. Many of them had been damaged by the damp - but not the ones that counted, strangely enough. Mostly shots of places i had been to. Places that i still have in my head. Places which i could google on the internet. The web has made things like pictures of places redundant. Because i read On Photography when i was in my second year in university and became something of a nihilist, i stopped taking photographs in my third year. It's a good thing Annie Lebovitz wasn't so stupid. Anyhow, i have, as you can see, in the last the years, managed to get over it and started taking pictures again. The upshot (ho-ho) of this is that i have whole areas of my life which are entirely uncatalogued. And then i have whole areas which i wonder why did i bother. Like a trip to the prin...

Was reading Manley Hopkins there and this morning Mervyn was discussing Newton. How must is Newton's view of the world based on his belief in God? It has everything to do with his belief in a monothestic god, was the reply. Then reading Hopkins, i can see where the idea of a peak experience and monotheism feed off each other. If you are going to create a god, a being, in which supremacy is attached to the tip of a pyramid, you are certainly going to be more inclined to have a frame of mind that WOULD put all your eggs in one basket emotionally, spiritually, mentally. I can see that. Whereas if your view of spirituality is less concentrated and more spread out - such as in animism, where rocks, trees, rivers, all have a spiritual existence - you're more likely to have a less hiearchical sense of the world. It would be Anarchic, in the real sense of the word. I love anarchy. Anarchy is real responsibility. It says, i do not divest myself of culpability - nor do i take power away ...

Farmers in the making. I took this shot of Oisin's class planting potatoes. Oisin is o the right flying up to me. He came over and gave me this huge hug going Mommy!!! It never felt more real the fact that i was his mommy. Sigh. And his mommy too. Less than two months ago Ghin couldn't walk without the aid of his pushy dog. Now he is able to spin around in circles, bend at the knees, walk with some degree of confidence or assistance. I don't understand how it all happened so quickly. I think my period must be due. I found myself wishing - it's been a long long time since i wished or indeed blamed my period for anything. It is my second period and along with the usual stuff, i do feel so fat. Sigh... What did i wish for? I wished i was back with my mom in Singapore. It is said that before people die, they ask for their mothers. I wonder if that's true? I can see that. I can see why. I dug and dug through the shed and came up with lots of stuff. Unfortunately a lot of...