Secrets of a Butterfly

Breathe in beauty

a moment's pause, a meditation on the beauty
surrounding us
within us
this image is by Inmost_light

love & light
kathryn x

Cornish spring flowers

So much snow, so little flowers around. My heart is missing you sweet blooms.
I am most enjoying the photos that Cornwall based florist The Blue carrot shares daily on her facebook. Arent they stunning, i love their rustic style and wild free arrangements. Nothing forced or contrived, just letting the natural beauty shine, and putting just the right flowers together, to compliment and never overwhelm the eye.









Much to enjoy and browse at The Blue carrot website too.I wish i lived in their area to enjoy them for real.

Love and sweet sweet blooms

Kathryn xxx

A touch of red

1. ready to go, 2. Untitled, 3. Untitled, 4. poppy field

Red is not usually a colour that i feature here at Secrets - since i havent felt drawn to it myself. But when i saw the girl with the rose above by i-Anton it took me on a journey to find other images to compliment it and the mosaics were the result

1. advent., 2. Untitled, 3. Des coquelicots..., 4. full bloom

Are there colours that you favour more than others, what about if you mixed it up, and looked anew at the colours you don't usual feature. Red is such an earthly, warming colour, rich and exotic, yet also homely and inviting. Maybe it depends on the tone, and the context.

Once upon a time

1. Untitled, 2. like a snow, 3. All You Need Is Love, 4. 春天的綠葉, 5. BE LINEN MOVIE on Vimeo by Benoit MILLOT, 6. Untitled, 7. Moment of eternity, 8. Glory-of-the-snow, 9. IMG_1452, 10. woods' ranch, 11. Untitled, 12. watching ducks, 13. Spring Dreams ~

Love and gentle wishes

My dream wedding

 

 

This is the ambience that i would dream of having for a wedding of my own.
(for all the credits see my pinterest board here)

Countryside or a field setting

pale peaches, pinks and white

vintage paper touches and lanterns

Swing optional ;)

 

We love trees

(* by anna)

Playing under the trees,
almost as magical as under the stars

certainly just as fun
and you get to hug trees

you can't hug stars
though you can make wishes on them

(* Luigi)

(*)

(* by Bonita)

(*)

maybe you can make wishes on leaves too...

(* amelie)

( this post features my friend Anna's 5 year old Luigi with photos taken in Wales and photos from my friend Bonita of her little girl Amelie taken on the other side of the globe, in New Zealand)

with love

Dear sweet Earth

Dear sweet planet, our home, that we call Earth.
Thankyou for being our Mother, thankyou for not judging us in our misdemeanors towards you. I extend my gratitude to you for all that you provide us with, the chance to live and love and the beauty that surrounds us everyday. This little green and blue ball, floating in the Universe, that we call home, thankyou, i love you xxx k

Here is a beautiufl video from Heartmath about how choosing to feel feelings of appreciation for the planet really makes a difference.Read about it here

The sincerely felt feeling of Love is such a simple yet powerful thing. It does not always take great force to create change, there is wisdom in gentleness. blessings to you today,

here are the all important image credits for the mosaic at the top, that i made with love, for Earth Day...(loving some of the titles here too,as hadnt realised they were so lovely till i uploaded this list!)
(1 is the centre image then counting from left hand top corner)
1. bazeltit, 2. blessing, 3. Untitled, 4. Little Life ~, 5. Creation, 6. ツバメシジミ／Short-tailed blue, 7. “There are two kinds of light - the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.” , 8. Calliope Dreams of Long Grasses ~, 9. I Hear in the Silence My Heart Begin to Sing ~, 10. wallington hall, 11. delightful, 12. The light will always shine on you, 13. Untitled

The Gardener

 

 
Hello Sweetpeas,as you probably know by now i adore the work of British Jewellery designer Alex Monroe and have quite a few of his pieces from over the last, oh what must be 5 years or so now. So I was delighted to come across his new collection The Gardener,which on his website already! I hadnt been expecting it till the Spring.

 As you know my own garden has been such an important thing in my life because its where i have been able to venture to when traveling any further was out of the question. It has been invaluable as a way of connecting with nature and all the healing things that it has to offer, such as sunlight and fresh air, watching birds and picking flowers. For 5yrs or more even this world was out of reach to me, so it holds even more of a precious place in my heart. Consequently anything that represents that healing environment to me is very symbolic, like a talisman. indeed apples themselves have somehow come to symbolise health to me. And a key has come to represent a type of freedom, an opening up, or having the key to my questions now with me.

I have a soft spot for peas because of eating them raw from the pods as a child at my dad's allotment. So i am rather taken with the pea pod necklace. But and its a big but, there's also a key though. Which to me is like the Secret Garden key that you open to enter a whole new beautiful world. One i imagine to be full of magical things,like little water fountains, rose bushes, badgers and red squirrels...just like in the film there'd be a wooden swing too,with trees in blossom, and the little robin. So now i think you've helped me pick, i am decided on the key. I really want to add it to my list for Christmas now. love Kat x
ps here's some of our little garden at various times of year. Its my dad who is the gardener and keeps everything going,(thankyou Dad xx) he grows alot from seed in the greenhouse. Flower for hanging baskets and vegetables for the allotment. My best friend Jo loved her garden, she would have been 41 today but passed away from cancer in 2006. So i am dedicating this post to her. Xxxox

 

Wings of delight

 

I don't have a favourite type of butterfly, but i have always liked the delicacy of these tiny Holly blue ones. I heard that its Save our Butterflies week in Britian up until the 2nd August. Although there are many butterflies about this year, many of these arent resident to the Uk, they are the varieties that migrate often from far flung places such as Africa.  Infact there could be as many as a billion Painted lady butterflies scattered about the county here in August!

 The picture for native British butterflies remains mixed. Numbers appear to be up on the previous two summers, which were extremely wet and not good conditions for them. This summer has been better, in spite of the recent showers. This is particulary good news for the endangered Heath Fritillary,(seen below) which appears to have rallied and is having a good year.Butterflies seem to be nothing but resilient in spirit. They may look delicate but think of the strength it takes to fly,and as far as they do too!

 I recently found out about a charity aimed at helping them: Butterfly Conservation  with 14,000 members, one of their main goals, involves seeking ways to save habitat that support the butterflies life cycle here in the Uk. You can add species sitings to the website, and they have a great index of all the different types with photos, which is where the ones featured in this post came from including the Swallowtail below. with butterfly wishes today, kat x

Simple magical things...

 for image credits please click

 

Unicorns, bunnies, blossom and books.

the sky, falling leaves, sunlight through the trees

and little dancing lights that could be fairies

....all these are some of my favourite magical things

you know the song raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with string...these are a few of my favourite things. i thought of this when after making up this collage, i found myself wondering upon a subject to blog to go with it. i realised its my version of that song. what are your favourite,simple, yet magical things? kat x