Love and yoga in the hotel of tiny cats!

Me and Suzi have just been on a Yogascapes retreat at the Fellah Hotel in Marrakech. What an adventure we have had.

Talk about a completely different landscape. 

This one was dry and golden with mountains in the distance

and surrounded by cacti.

 The hotel is set in 25 acres

 with vegetable plots and fruit trees surrounding all the apartments and all sorts of animals to say hello to.

It's a quirky place with lots of surprises 

and things to discover 

like Touco's place

where you can drink mint tea

and get a henna tattoo.

 

Best of all there were tiny cats wherever you went!

It was the perfect setting for some good yoga. Lately I have become more in love with my yoga practice than ever. Earlier this year I discovered a teacher called Katie Silcox who has written a brilliant ayurveda book called Healthy Happy Sexy. Katie is a long time student of Rod Stryker who I have been studying with for the past couple of years so I was immediately interested in her work. I read her book and learned soooo much and decided that I wanted to study with her in person. Ta-da! Morocco here we come. 

It was wonderful to meet to twenty or so other yogi's. Me and Suze from the UK, Mica from Australia and everyone else from all over the States (and how they loved our British accents). I loved Katie's teaching. It was like a soft, gentle embrace and I hung on every sweet word. We sang our little hearts out, learned new mantras, did sun, moon and fire practices, we learned about what we carry on our breath and how to smooth it out, we did some cathartic African tribal singing, we laughed, we shared, we cried and there was just so much LOVE. 

We have made lovely friends around the world.

Look at these lovely faces!

In the next few blog posts I'll take you on some of our adventures. We went on a huge road trip to the desert, rode camels, we went to Moroccan cooking school and had three crazy days in the busy heart of Marrakech staying in a beautiful Riad. I can't wait to carry on blogging...

Hannah Nunn cushions!

It seems a long time ago that I asked my fabric factory to print me some cushion panels from my paper meadow fabric. Product development is a lengthy process so when the real, finished product actually arrives it's time for a celebration!

So here you are. I am please to introduce you to my new cushions. This is the charcoal one.

Here it is in blush.

I think this is my personal favourite. This one is printed in reverse to the others and you get to see the lovely oatmeal linen fabric.

Here it is in kraft printed on a bleach linen for good contrast.

All of them have a sweet little Hannah Nunn label with a tiny embroidered grass stem on.

All of them are made with a carefully chosen panel of fabric featuring dandelion clocks, cow parsleys, lots of grasses and dandelion seeds blowing in the wind. 

 They all have a printed front and a plain fabric back.

They are filled with a fluffy duck feather pad for cosiness and all have a concealed zip.

This is the teal colour.

I didn't make them ( i really don't do sewing...they would be rubbish) but they have all been made by clever cushion making experts in the UK and they really have done a lovely job!

You can find them all on my website here.

Gossamer

We've been under a deep cloud of fog these last few days.

The moisture had settled on all of the cobwebs

illuminating them in the morning light.

Tiny threads

covered in jewels.

In The Tall Grass in silver

I'm pleased to have just put my In The Tall Grass in it's new silvery grey colour on my website.

 Lesley Jackson let me install and photograph it up in her beautiful holiday cottage Elmet Farmhouse in Peckett Well. 

Every trip up there, to find the right wall (with visiting student Oly), then to paper (with Emma) and then to photograph (with Sarah) it has been inspirational. It's so lovely up there and Lesley always makes us feel so welcome.

Elmet Farmhouse is turning into a bit of a Hannah Nunn house with lamps in every room and wallpaper in the bedroom and the bathroom. 

Couldn't be in a better spot!

You can see it here on my website and you can find samples for colour matching here.

Woodland treasures

I think I'm enjoying this Autumn more than any before. Maybe it's because we've had more crisp and sunny days than usual to tempt us out into the woods.

.

Maybe it's the company, who bring tea and soup.

Maybe it's all the yoga I have been doing, making me deeply appreciative of every little moment.

Probably all of those things.

I'm breathing in the colours,

noticing the patterns

and the pools of light

and feeling keen to find out the answers to the questions that we ask while we are out walking. 

Like what are these things exactly? I knew these were oak galls but on reading up I have discovered that these particular kind are called Cherry Galls which grow on the underside of the leaves rather than the twigs or flowers.

The gall wasp (turns out there are loads of different species of them on an oak tree) lays an egg  injecting a hormone in the leaf that causes it to grow this structure around it. If the juicy ball doesn't get pecked by birds it will fall to the ground in Autumn and later hatch into the wasp...

or be picked up by us to marvel over.

We were looking out for Fly Agerics as Suze has never seen one . Sadly we didn't catch any this time. This photo is from a different walk but we wondered how long they actually last once they sprout or whether they are hard to spot because they don't last long?

(no idea who to credit for this GIF but it's brilliant isn't it)

Turns out they live from 1-3 weeks. They needs lots of moisture to grow but too much rain can cause them to rot. They are super poisonous. They got the name Fly Ageric as they were used in fly repellent. I also just read that it was common Christmas motif on Edwardian and Victorian Christmas cards and possibly inspired Father Christmas's outfit haha!

We also wondered about this tree fungi and why they it seems to prefer the dead and decaying birch trunks. Apparently it can be lying dormant in healthy trees for years establishing itself in wounds and broken branches but when the tree dies it can't hold it back any more and it grows and grows. These 'Birch Brackets' can last around a year. It is edible but has a bitter taste.

I'm so glad we live here. So glad to be able to make the most of this marvelous time of year.