Christmas Merriment and Yurting joy.

For those of you who I have been around recently would have heard me say I can’t believe how quickly 2014 has come around, my last blog was about moving out and now we only have two weeks left at our friends and three weeks till our trip, so with that hasn't time flown by….

Christmas was beautiful, I read my blog from last Christmas this morning and it’s interesting to look at where I was there to where I am now, I was reapplying for university, living in our flat and making decisions for my future. I guess at least the latter is still true, decision making is always at the forefront of my mind and my friends know I am always planning and making changes to my life, I am not happy sitting content and I don’t know what that’s about but as a Counsellor I could definitely look for a deeper meaning, today I will just look at as an excitement for adventure and filling my life with goodness!

After the intensity of my most recent course it was nice to spend 2 weeks relaxing at Christmas, I love being in my family home, it makes me feel very happy and relaxed and the feeling of Christmas is so strong it’s like a magic in the air. The run up to Christmas was nice but without being in our own nest it didn't feel the same and I missed that Christmassy feel of decorating a tree, crafting decorations and hanging stockings, so to arrive in Newcastle to my Mum’s grotto was bliss and filled me with delight.

We always stay in on Christmas eve, I used to go out but feel being at home is special and important, we eat delicious food, swap a Christmas present, put our Christmas PJ’s on and watch something Christmassy, its beautiful and I know it will be a tradition I will carry on when I have kids. Sam and I spent Christmas apart (again) this year which was hard and didn't feel right but it was what we decided due to our trip, I missed sharing Christmas morning with him and speaking on the phone is never the same as being present together. After this year we agreed next year we would be together and the year after (fingers crossed) where in our own place and have agreed it would be spent in our home – together, yeah!

Sam arrived on the 27th and we went and spent two nights in a Yurt at Wild Northumbrian http://www.wildnorthumbrian.co.uk/ , it was a present I bought for Sam in November but I thought booking it over Christmas would be a delight and would be really magical, it certainly was that. We stayed in the Merle Yurt and agreed to have our Christmas here, we took our family dog – bowdog and spent two glorious nights with Wild Northumbrian in the beautiful Kielder Forest. For those of you who don’t know Kielder it’s another amazing part of Northumberland and recently won the best darkest skies (basically meaning there is no light pollution so the stars are incredible), the yurt had been decorated beautiful and when we arrived they had the log burner going and the candles on, we spent the evening drinking mulled wine and feasting on veggie stew, exchanging gifts and talking of our Christmas days, I felt so happy and blessed it was more than I could have asked for.

The next day we enjoyed breakfast, watched Bow running around (and under) the Yurt and enjoyed the beauty of the scenery around us, wild northumbrian is positioned in a beautiful area and it was just incredible to be out in December in the wonderful countryside. We found a nice walk to go on that day and walked a good 8 miles through Kielder national park, the dog loved it and enjoyed the freeness of the country air, we had our cameras out and got some lovely shots of our walk and the beaming sunshine surrounding us.

NYE was spent in with the family, eating delicious food and enjoying plenty of sparkle; it was nice to not be out and about and just enjoying family time.

Flower Fever

After many a festival with my fave friends wearing beautiful flower garlands I decide it was time for me to try my hand. After making my feather headband I felt more confident at giving it a whirl, I had had a look at a few of my friends styles and stored all the ideas in my head for my craft session. 

With a night to myself I made my room I to a flower haven and got the sewing machine at the ready. It was really fun making, gluing and stitching and was really happy with the final results - so much so I made a few more for friends. 

Can't wait till 2015 when I head back to Glastonbury! 

Mine.

My lovely friend Rosa's (Christmas gift - which she told me she loved)

Caroline's.

My feather headband (don't think I blogged this).

I have been really enjoying try all these new projects out and my confidence in craft projects is growing so much, 2013 was a good year for learning. 

Love these words.

One step closer

The last month has been pretty crazy in the curly Austin household, with our moving date impending we knew we needed to make a start on packing and clearing out our beloved flat and taking the next steps towards our travel and move North.

After much deliberation we managed to get my family to store our worldy belongings in their loft space, we knew we didn’t want to pay for storage as it would cost so much and obviously when away the last thing we want to be doing is pay for our stuff to be stored in a locked cupboard, for me it felt right for everything to go North, we know our plan is to head back there at some point so seemed right for the move to start now especially if we can store our life possessions without a ridiculous cost. It’s made me excited knowing our things will be stored there as it just feels one step closer to being home.

Lately life in London has become more and more distant and I don’t feel a connection to where I am, yes I have an enjoyable job, lovely Austin family and a few close friends around but the sense of living somewhere I feel I don’t belong resides in me so strongly. I did an exercise in a course I was doing last week where we made a paper alter, the alter included a page of things that I enjoyed and made me feel at peace, when complete I realised no part of it contained London, it was all about the country and the coast.

Our plan is still uncertain in a sense but we know that when we do know when we come back in 2015 Sam will still have his work in London whereas I will be jobless, the plan is we will stay in Ldn with Sam’s job but I will look for full time work back North, with the eventual plan of Sam moving as soon as he has work, hopefully within 6-8 months. People keep asking how it will be being apart but sadly I know its part of what probably has to happen as we both won’t get jobs at the exact same time – it would be beautiful if we could but I just think it will be difficult. I have no fear about us both getting jobs it’s just getting the right ones that suit us. I know my eventual plan is to set up my own female counselling service but feel I would like to be in other employment before taking this risk and new challenge.

So with our boxes packed and moving day tomorrow were nearly out of our Brixton abode, we will be living with our lovely friends Stef and James until end of January then its home for a week and then travel time. Its never felt more real than it does now and I can’t actually believe were doing it, it’s going to be an adventure of a life time and the experience can only strengthen Sam and I to another level and allow new experiences of adventure and exploration.  

Shambala beautiful.

Shambala

2013, another year frolicking in the hidden fields of the Midlands, our yearly journey to Shambala; we were one down but still a car full of feathers, glitter, fancy dress and cosy warmth travelled the road to Shambala town, with a pickup in East London we were on our way, happy and smiling. The journey sadly didn’t go as smooth as planned and a quick stop off turned into a long lost walk along the motorway looking for Ewan’s bag, with the bag found we got back on route ready for our exciting journey in the wondrous fields of Shambeautiful.  

We arrived later than our usual time but the joy of Shambala shone bright, with new areas to frolic in and a choice of new campsite we decided to pitch a bit higher than usual, this year we had two new campers joining us the lovely Emily and Sophie so we spread out our belongings out and made sure we saved enough space for our whole Shambala crew.

The Thursday night was spent feasting on a BBQ of delicious treats, tasty cider and vino, the joy of watching people arrive, set up and prepare for a weekend of silliness is great, the festival is so different from others, its definitely one of my favourites and even though its smaller there is a romance about it that I don’t feel at other festivals.

The Friday was spent enjoying the musical treats, venturing into the new areas and basking in the delight of Shambala brilliantness. The colours and features that make the festival are just so incredible and there is a real vibe of goodness and warmth from all attending. What I love about Shambala is that there is music on but it’s not the main part of attending the festival, it’s about all the other things that are going on, there are times on the main stage where there are big slots of no music but it works as you can go somewhere else and get involved with something else like a dance workshop, yoga, meditation, basket weaving or playing the fool its just filled with a great amount of goodness and smiles.

One of my favourite parts of the weekend was playing the fool with Jonathon Kay http://www.jonathankay.co.uk/ we spotted a huge group of people running around the festival being very silly, at first we couldn’t work out what was going on so attempted to ask some of the group but all they replied was they were not sure either, we chose to take the chance and join the group and the brilliantness of the performance was just allowing yourself to be you, that silly part that we lose due to the seriousness of the world we live in. It was just great, so lovely to be part of a wider circle of loveliness and childlike fun. Jonathon Kay (the Fool) got everyone involved and his level of energy was electric and really made the group perform and enjoy. Sam and I enjoyed it so much we went back on the Sunday and played again, a number of friends I talked too that weekend had also caught one of his workshops and it seemed the fool had enticed everyone’s inner child and brought out a whole lot of goodness in everyone’s hearts.

Some of the great bands we saw were the beautiful Alice Russell, her soulful voice filled the fields and Emily and I enjoyed a good boogie at the front. The Shambala beatbox orchestra were also incredible; the sounds these 5 boys made were out of this world and magic to watch. Smerins Anti-Social Club, a favourite of Sam and I’s who we were introduced to last year was once again brilliant, a lot of brass band jumping. We saw the beauty of Amadou and Mariam, a friend had told me about how amazing they were and to see them perform and sing was heart moving. There were just so many brilliant bands, some I knew, a lot I didn’t but that’s part of the exploring of Shambala, finding out about music that you once didn’t know about, the different types of music, joyful beats and lovely voices allows a wealth of different era’s and great new and old sounds to enter your world.

The festival stays open all night but some of the great night time areas enjoyed this year was the pirate ship and the disco shed, the woods still held the crown and glory of being a place to party but with all these new places there was a lot of time spent wondering spangly from one place to another, soaking in the disco beats and great dancing. My disco companion this year came in the form of some heart shape glasses, everytime you put them on and looked to the lights the lights turned into hearts and suddenly your whole world was lots of colourful beautiful hearts, what more does a girl need then disco and hearts!

The Saturday brought the parade and the theme this year was the lost tribes of Shambala, our group decided to go with the lost tribe of tourism and I do believe we were the only ones dressed as this. The different costumes are always amazing and everyone goes to such great lengths – some of my favourites were the lost tribe of board games, to see someone dressed as an operation board game was a great highlight and lovely to see the artistic skills of people. Sam had made us all brilliant guidebooks and Shambala maps to make our costumes look as real as possible, with Ewan as our Shambala guide we were ready to go and walk the procession. It’s a great feeling being part of such a large scale procession, the boom boxes are always blaring and everyone gets involved, the delight of colour and beauty fills the Shambala fields and a real sense of happiness and glow shines bright from the smiling faces of the weird and wonderful.

Our last night was spent dancing to the English disco league in the pirate ship, a lot of funky moves were made, heart glasses shared and cocktails drunk. We ended the night back at camp, burning the last of the firewood and giggling at the weekend’s delights.

With our travels next year (2014) and a possible wedding (2015) we won’t be gracing the fields again until 2016 but 2013 has defiantly left me with the feeling Shambala will be a festival that will be in our lives for a long time, the greatness it brings is one I hold and take away and I feel privileged to have enjoyed the last 3 beautiful years there.

A Celebration of Love and Unity

We received our invite to lovely Nick and Holly’s August celebration some time back and both smiled with excitement at what the weekend would entail. I loved the concept of what Nick and Holly were doing and how the invite explained the love and unity celebration was about them two and their love, but also the love and unity we all share as friends and how the weekend was a way of celebrating that all together as one community and one heart. As the months went by we received trickles of information and emails of organisation and a view of the weekend started to be born and the beauty it was to hold.

We arrived at the beautiful Featherstone Castle on the Friday afternoon, Sam and I had gone to the Cumberland earlier that week so had met a few of N&H friends prior to the weekend which was really lovely as since moving away I feel there are so many wonderful people I don’t know. An element of my love with my friends is getting them to meet one another and see the brilliance in each other to become friends together, I knew this would the case with all of N&H friends,  so I was really excited to spend a weekend with hopefully what would become new friends and fond memories. When we arrived there was a number of people outside, enjoying the sunshine and revelling in the weekends activities to come, it was great introducing, talking and finding out who was who and how everyone knew N&H, I enjoyed telling my stories of my memories of being young with Nick then meeting  again at WHQ, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride at our friendship and how over the years we have both grown into happier, more grounded people and both lucky enough to have two fantastic curlie’s by our side! 

There was a huge sense of community that felt so strong and reminded me of a good friend who has grown up in such a beautiful close community, her parents and their friends bought a terrace of mining houses after the mines closed and have all brought their children up on South Terrace, all the children are close friends and are now of all ages but the community has stayed strong and together. When I visit I have always talked of wanting to have a close knit group of friends that offer this support and friendship that feels so connected and supportive. I felt a great sense of that with N&H and their friends and it just felt great to be part of all this and see the community they have in the North East. 

Friday evening was spent socialising and eating amazing dahl, we then went to the blue room which was set out as I would describe a huge love bed with mattress, comfy sofa’s, blankets and warmth. We all gathered in, got snug and listened to the array of love and unity dedications from N&H friends and family, it was great listening to the way people dedicated their feelings and words and see the love and happiness in the room. 

Around 9pm Nick Hennessey story telling time started and wow, the room was blown away by his beauty and passion for telling the most amazing stories, the silence in the room was moving and you could tell everyone was entranced by his musical talent and endearing voice. The next few hours were just incredible and such a perfect way to start the weekend learning about the border reivers, nasty zaars and huntsman, so enchanting and beautiful it was incredible to hear the sounds of the harp and beats of the drum. 

The rest of the evening was spent playing ping pong (the most intense silly ping pong playing I have been part of it), drinking red wine, exploring the castle and dancing. As we walked back to our campsite, that night we were excited at what was to come the following day as if this is what the Friday night entailed we knew there would be a whole lot more delight and enchantment tomorrow. 

We woke Saturday morning with a spring in our step, we dressed, and put on our bindi’s and arranged our flowers in our hair ready for another day of smiles and adventures. When we arrived people had started to congregate outside the front of the castle ready for the procession, everyone was holding something to hang on the tree and I could feel a buzz of excitement in the air. Holly came down first and looked as stunning as ever, in a flowing natural looking dress and an amazing flower garland circling her curls she looked incredibly beautiful and at one. Nick arrived with a round of applause dressed in perfect Nick style; it was so beautiful to see the smiles of everyone, the love and unity crafts and the excitement of the beautiful Brown-Greenwood unity that was in full flow. 

We started the celebration by walking in a procession around part of the grounds of Featherstone Castle, standing back and watching the procession was so beautiful, the smiles and merriment of everyone followed through the procession and it was joyous to see everyone interacting with one another and new friendships forming. There was music and talking as the procession went along, enjoying circling the great trees and walking near the river that flows along the bottom of the castle, we ended the procession walk by entering the back gardens of Featherstone and walked to a beautiful striking tree where we hung our crafts of love and unity. Everyone had put so much effort into their craft and standing back and watching everyone was a picturesque and wonderful moment, it made my heart feel so happy the wonder of friendship and the strength of the friends and family celebrating the love of two wonderful people. 

We then all gathered together for the ceremony and stood in a circle listening to different readings from close friends, songs of importance and Nick and Holly’s commitment to each other, the love that shone through them both was enticing to watch and I felt so lucky to be part of their commitment of forever together. 

We spent the next few hours relaxing in the garden, flying kites, drinking elderflower pimm’s, taking (a lot) of photos and embracing in the afternoon of relaxed niceness and mesmerising fun. 

Lunch time came and we feasted on an array of delicious food throughout the afternoon and drank copious amounts of tasty wine, Sam being over excited at their being an ale pump in the craft room. It was blissful listening to the speeches that took place and the commitment of friends and family and the kind words they wished to share of their love and closeness to Nick and Holly. When hearing Joss’s speech it really moved me as I really feel there has been a solidarity in mine, Joss and Nick’s friendship and I feel we have all changed and grew but have remained so close, my move to London left so many close people behind but the friendship between has stayed strong if not stronger and I know they will be two friends who will always be part of my life. I just feel so blessed we have all found amazing husbands, wife’s, fiancées who are just as amazing and the fun we all have together as one group is so lucky, happy days with happy friends. 

Nick and Holly surprised us all with a bhangra dancer; everyone joined in, laughed, sweated and smiled trying to keep up with the dancer’s moves and rhythm. After all the dancing a dip was required and after much debating I participated in my first skinny dipping fun (and freezed my bits off in the cold lake), both myself and Holly lasted five minutes whilst the others enjoyed games, swimming, nakedness and a whole lot of laughter. 

Our evening meal was served and a delicious vegetarian chill was enjoyed, we danced till the early hours to the sounds of Diddly Squat with the night ending with a rave up in the ping pong room downstairs. We finally sulked off to bed at around 4am and positioned our head torches for the mile walk back to our campsite, tired, drunken, smiling and full of joy we walked and talked all the way home, remembering parts of the day, what stuck out in our own minds and smiled at the happiness the day had given us all.

Northern Times.

We always take a week each year to head back to the beloved North, last year it was in May but we decided to wait until August of this year due to a number of Northern events happening and felt it would fit snug in between our trip to Edinburgh and our friends celebration. As most of you know, I love the North, I talk about it all the time and feel very proud of my Northern routes, we at least visit once a month and I literally can’t wait until the day we head back to the beautiful Northern ways of living for good. 

My move to London occurred due to me feeling lost in who I was and unsure of the right road to turn down, the one I was taking was certainly not caring and fulfilling to me and I felt I was stuck in a bit of a black hole. After a lovely weekend in London with a good friend I decided f I wanted to move, this was August 2009 by January 2nd 2010 I was in London in a shared house with a group of strangers. My plan was to be in London for a year, further my experience in my work and really sort my confused head out, well 3.5yrs down I am still here, and married, a qualified counsellor and a chicken owner. I have always wanted to go back and have had some really low moments where I was about to leave London but reasons for (beautiful Curly) has stopped me from doing this and have encouraged me to carry on and see out the Southern ways. As I enter my 30’s though it has never been clearer to me how much the North means to me and how as I embrace a new part of my life I know my future lies back home in Newcastle with the Northumberland coast on my doorstep.  

The last two years we have been so lucky with our chosen week back home as the sun has shone and we have managed to do everything we want too. This year was just the same (bar the one day of constant rain); we visited a number of our favourite Northumberland castles, beaches and woods and really soaked in the fresh coastal air. This trip we spent an afternoon in Jesmond Dene, a place where I have spent many a Sunday with my Dad walking and enjoying the café, we met friends at Plessey Woods which is a Northumberland Country Park which again is soaked with beauty and an enjoyable walk around the woody forest. We also drove to Bamburgh and spent the afternoon on the beach with beautiful Bamburgh Castle bordering the coastal line. We also drove to Craster and walked from Craster to Dunstanburgh Castle then on to Newton beach, the beach was beautiful and Sam stated it was his favourite beach in Northumberland, the sun was blazing and we enjoyed dipping in the sea, reading our books and playing with adorable bow dog digging and encouraging her to take a dip.

I always feel so relaxed and happy after a week back home, there feels no pressure to do things and being able to get away and enjoy the outdoors without it being a huge venture is such a privilege and I now understand how lucky I am to have been brought up in a city with a beautiful surrounding coast line. I know for me bringing children up with these same privileges and options is really important, the quality of life that can be had with such ease of access is paramount to a positive upbringing and I feel a good quality of upbringing is about having access to be away from the city and the bustle of crazy city life. To be away from it all and forget the stress of the materialistic society we live in is essential to a more complete being and better sense of what’s important, as I grow older I learn this more about myself and understand what’s important to me, it’s took some time but I finally feel I am more in touch with who I am and the connection I have to Northumberland has definitely provided me this new sense of happiness and connectedness to my core being.