the female mind

image from pinterest

Having read the Moomins to my children and several of Tove Jansson's adult books (although I really do feel the Moomins have a lot of sage advice that most grown-ups would benefit from) I'm hankering after small spaces. Warm, cosy, nesting spaces. My needs would be simple. A wood stove, a coffee pot, a cast iron cooking pot or two. A wood supply and a comfortable bed would be nice. A hot shower. Books and bookshelves (of course). A fairly limitless supply of chocolate. By fairly limitless I mean totally limitless. Somewhere for the dogs. Somewhere for the children. Oh no, I can't move in here... it's too crowded...I need space, endless frontier-like space... and chocolate.

breathe

September, a month of new beginnings but also of endings. The nights are drawing in and the garden is slowing down, things are folding in on themselves. We too are folding in, we light the fire and read, we can't quite believe the early darkness, we spend less time outdoors. This is soul time, a little like hibernation but not quite. We please ourselves. We eat purple - roast beetroot, plums, blackberries. We watch cawing crows circle the tree tops, the autumn breeze on our faces, the mists in the morning, we slow our breaths and breathe in the earth.

the whole universe

I am not here. I am on a small rocky island in the gulf of Finland. I am warming my face in the sun while the sea washes and backwashes. I am drinking my coffee brewed on the stove, listening to Grandmother and Sophia squabbling like seagulls. At my feet is moss, warm springy damp moss. I am breathing in the sea, the air is shimmering.  I close my eyes. I am complete.