I can help you reconnect to the natural world

& find a slower, more creative, more joyful way of life.

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A SEASONAL WAY: Winter, Fire and Frost

It isn’t the weather that I find difficult in the Scottish winter, but the dark.

The weather indeed is often wonderful - as I write this it is a clear, crisp, bright blue day, ice has given the puddles scalloped rims, you can taste the freshness as you breathe.

But the dark, the drawing in of the days edges, is relentless.

I left my first proper job because of the dark. I was an art gallery curator, specialising in women printmakers, and I worked in a basement office, down beneath the University Gallery. It was a place of deep, unalloyed ugliness. Ceiling tiles stained at the seams, long yellowed fluorescent lights flickering imperceptibly. There was no natural light, no fresh air, just tall, slowly rolling stacks of print storage, the drone of the air conditioner.

From October to March I would walk to and from work in the dark. Street lights and greasy puddles. I was young and keen and anxious not to be passed over so lunchtimes were spent at my desk or in the University canteen ‘networking’. I began to fragment.

At the end of the seventh spring I left that job. If felt like a surfacing, I had only one goal - to be outside. I retrained in horticulture. The rest is history.

This course is a celebration of the time between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. A time that may see the worst weather of the year but where the darkness begins to withdraw, a few minutes at a time and where everywhere there are signs of Spring.

It is a time when I can relax into the joys of the dark, the fire and the frost, confident that long and lazy days are on their way.

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Snapdragon social

It’s the private view of the exhibition From the Land @fodderandfarm tonight and the exhibition runs until 17th (open 12-5 each day). 
It’s part of @forthvalleyartbeat trail of Open Studios. 

I have some work in the exhibition- showing alongside @allthatisbraw, @kevinharri and @katgoldin and the whole show has been curated by Kevin. 

In today’s film I’m talking about the build up to the week and all the doubts that came up in my mind. 

Was the work I was showing good enough? Was I good enough? Am I even an artist. 

The link is in my profile - 
I’d love to know if it resonates with anyone. 

#scottishartist #selftaughtartist #forthvalleyartbeat
I don't think that I have ever seen the hawthorn looking as amazing as it does this year - great white billowing mounds, right along the valley. 
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I have had some leaves and twigs, pruned from a hedge, in the dye pot this week - such gorgeous colours.
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I will put up a reel later showing the five colours of wool that came out of the pot.
This should be titled
I've been making some very short films - a way of getting my 10,000 hours in, of getting used to filming through the day.
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I put these buttercups in a jar for one of them - for these are my favourite flowers of late Spring/early Summer.  I'm arranging some flowers for an event next week and am crossing my fingers that the buttercups are still in bloom.
The hedges - planted twenty years ago to shelter us from the winds that funnel up through the valley and down across the fields - are in many ways the best thing in the garden.
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Thick and home to countless birds, at this time of year they vibrate with song and rustling, edges fringed in bright, light spring green.
This week I have been resting a lot to try and get rid of the shingles that developed as I headed north for my birthday weekend. 
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So this week’s Friday film I’m talking about the frustration of not being to do as much of things as I would like to - especially at a time of year when there is SO MUCH TO DO! 
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You get to see all the sad seedlings waiting to go into the garden and an insight into what I do when my energy and to do list don’t match up.

#chronicfatigue #addisonsdisease #scottishartist #chronicillness
This month’s workshop in The Studio Club is about printing with plants - it’s a chance to learn an ancient technique, slightly adapted so we don’t set fire to ourselves. 

There is still time to join us - the link is in my profile - and all May Studio Clubbers get the course to keep. 

I’ve added in a reel showing making this in slightly speeded up time! 

#printingwithplants #thestudioclub  #snapdragonlife #createsomethingeveryday
Sweet rocket at dusk, surrounded by moths and perfuming the paths.  A plant I wouldn't be without. 
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Here is my annual reminder that it is time to sow biennials. It is so easy to forget in the bustle and busyness of - all those plants that fill out the late May and June garden need to be sown now to flower next year.
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For some - especially if you run a relaxed garden - this is a case of making sure that they self sow, or sprinkling some seed in a suitable place.  Others need a little more cosseting.
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If you are a Studio Clubber there is a download of my favourite plants and top tips for growing them in the Studio Club Library.
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About Snapdragon Life

At Snapdragon Life I help bring the changing seasons into your daily life, helping you slow down, so that you can experience increased well being, calm and creativity.

Find out more about The Studio Club

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