Golden

We have just had the most magical week at Wild Meadow  to celebrate my Mum and Dads golden wedding anniversary. This has been a special place for me and my friends so it seemed like the perfect place to bring all the family together for this special occasion.

It's funny to think that fifty years ago when they made their wedding vows this family didn't even exist and now there are twelve of us altogether. The family tree has grown lots of branches.

The hot summer we have had meant most of the grasses had been mown and I was a bit sad about that at first but I soon realised this meant there was more room to play and we did a lot of that. Everywhere you looked, up and down the meadow there was something going on.

We cartwheeled (well one of us did),

 went for walks, 

 (some of us got a lift) 

played on the rope swings, 

picked flowers for our flower presses,

 made sun prints,

baked pizzas,

 made dens,

drew pictures,

did our yoga with this view (well some of us did),

  and we did a lot of lying on the grass.

 We hired the house and the shepherds hut this time. This was Ffion and Domeniques pad.

Domenique was busy in his sketchbook

and he captured the feel of the place beautifully.

My Mums wish was to lie under a canopy of stars and she even made a wild meadow quilt for the occasion (sunny and colourful on one side for the day and dark and starry on the back for the night)! The sky was kind to us on many evenings and we saw the best shooting stars I have ever seen.

On the night of the anniversary we had a feast. The freshly caught trout from The Salty Dog greengrocers in Presteigne were my highlight.

As well as the company of course! 

  

It was so good to all sit outside and eat together.

 After we had eaten all the scrumptious food we sat around the fire

 to toast some marshmallows

 and sing some songs.

I wrote one for my Mum and Dad and I had an absolutely perfect moment sitting on a log under a canopy of stars just about able to make out their faces in the firelight and singing them their song.

 On our last night we recorded it outside the shepherds hut as the sun was setting and I thought I'd share it here. Listen out for the sheep at the end.

All great trees they start as saplings

From a seed deep down below

If the seed gets all it needs

Then a tree will start to grow

A little sunshine

A little rain

And it will be growing

And it will be growing.

When your love was just a sapling

Well how were you to know

If all your hopes and all your dreams

Would get the chance to grow

You stood together

You made your vow

To growing together

To growing together.

Then your tree it grew some branches

And a trunk that's strong and wide

And roots that go deep down below

And leaves that touch the sky

And it makes shelter

And it makes shade

It's good in all weather

You're good in all weather.

Every branch it tells a story

Every leaf a memory

And all your hopes and all your dreams

They made this family

And we've had sunshine

And we've had rain

Now this tree is golden

This tree is golden

Your love is golden

Your love is golden.

Wild Meadow is the most wonderful place and feels even more like home to me now. Have a look at their website or follow Andrea's beautiful photographs on her Instagram account here. Thanks Dad & Dean for your lovely photo's, thanks to Domenique for your drawings and thanks Andrea and Jonathan for creating this special place...and Andrea for sewing the golden bunting by hand when your sewing machine packed in! You're a gem x

Tiny Treasures in the Yorkshire Post magazine

I totally missed this feature when it was in print in the Yorkshire Post magazine in July but I just managed to get hold of this PDF showing my Tiny Treasures book and wallpaper. I'm always grateful to the Yorkshire Post. Sharon Dale who writes for them has been a huge supporter over the years and has featured my work many times. It has helped to spread my work across the county.