Girl in the Yellow Wood

This is in Sunnmore, Norway, and it is one of the pretty-prettys I've been pinning over on Pinterest...

Once again I must make my true and sincere apologies to you for being so absent from this space.

As you know, there is some difficult stuff going on in my life right now. To quote John Lennon, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".

Added to that, I have felt for a little while that things as they stood here in the Yellow Wood have been getting a little stale, so I have been wracking my tired little brain for ways to freshen things up a bit. For one thing I am now pinning all manner of bits and bobs that I like on Pinterest, so if you'd like to take a look, do come on over to...

 http://www.pinterest.com/inayellowood/

Until then, I hope all is well with you on your path through the Woods, and hopefully soon I'll be back with another little idea...

Feronia x

Rock Me

I love these rocks that I picked up on the beaches at Byron Bay. They have a soft greenish tinge to them. I'd like to make them into some jewellery but I'm not quite sure how. What do you think?

You might've noticed that I've made a few little changes to the blog. What do you think? In particular, what do you think of the new font?

Into the Woods

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/62497873@N05/6481067521/in/pool-cryptozoology

Hello! I hope all's been well with you since we last spoke. I'm blogging again over at my other blog, In a Dark Wood (http://inadark-wood.blogspot.com.au/) 

I'd love to see you there!

Feronia xx

A brief pause and some bloggy goodness

A brief post today because I have sinusitis and so am feeling a bit sniffly, headachey, ever so slightly grumpy and generally under the weather. I just wanted to mention that the very talented Sefarina over at Windleben is holding a great blog candy raffle of one of her beautiful pieces of art. Head on over and check it out (but please don't win because I want to - haha) -

http://windleben.blogspot.com/2011/08/blogcandy.html

Thankyou Thursday

Two lovely cyberfriends of mine have sent some awards my way! How very nice. First up, dear Dilly at Dilly's Castle (http://gweenwagons.blogspot.com/) has awarded me the Superior Scribblers award - thank you Dilly! - and then her sweet brother Bob over at Bob T. Bear (esq.)'s Diary (http://bobs-diary.blogspot.com/) has awarded the Sweet Friends award to all of his regular blogging friends because he couldn't pick out just one recipient. Thanks Bob! Of course I don't blog to receive accolades - truly, it's just a lot of fun - but it does give me a good case of the warm-and-fuzzies to receive nice awards from these two friends of mine.

As part of the conditions of the Superior Scribblers award, you must nominate someone else for the award and so I nominate my very good friend Bodecea over at Bodecea's Palaver (http://bodecea.blogspot.com/) As for the Sweet Friends award, I think I'll follow Bob's lead and award it to all the lovely people who regularly stroll through the Yellow Wood! As another part of this one, I am asked to list 10 things that make me happy and try to do one today. Ok...

1. Sitting in my backyard as dusk falls watching the birds fly home to their nests.

2. Eating vanilla ice-cream with chocolate topping and sprinkles (my summertime addiction).

3. Picking herbs from my garden, putting them in a vase and then enjoying their aroma as I walk past them dotted around the house.

4. Having a milk coffee mid-morning, with two gingernut biscuits on the side.

5. Feeling enthusiastic about whatever it is I might be doing.

6. Listening to a CD that exactly matches whatever mood I might be in.

7. Chatting about the day's events with my DH as we sit in the evening breeze.

8. Doing the newspaper's trivia quiz with my DH over breakfast.

9. Biting into a perfectly ripe peach.

10. Reading something that gives me a new idea or at least something to think about.

Thanks again Dilly & Bob! Hugs x

Conditions of the Superior Scribbler Award are as follows:

1. Nominate someone else for it.

2. Post the Award on your blog.

3. Mention that the Award came originally from here: http://scholastic-scribe.blogspot.com/

Bloody Fascinating!

Found: the perfect cartoon for bloggers! And before anyone takes offence, I very much include myself in this!! If you haven't discovered www.vimrod.com/, do go and take a look. I started getting their 'Daily Dose' cartoon sent to my email inbox last week, and it does give you a (sometimes much needed) giggle first thing in the morning.

Blue Moon

The blue moon casting its gorgeous spell over southern Australia, 30/12/09, 11.30 p.m.

Wishing you a joyous and fulfilling 2010!

For his last birthday, I gave my DH a telescope. Not an enormous one - we thought we'd just start off small - but one that can be easily set up in the backyard for a little nighttime skywatching. So last night we positioned ourselves out there for the full moon - of which the telescope gave us a brilliant view - and I was quite awed to actually see the craters on the moon's surface. What made it extra special was that it was also a 'blue moon' - an 'extra' full moon that only happens very occassionally (the last one was in 2007).

A blue moon is apparently quite auspicious and so it seemed to me a very appropriate note to finish 2009 on. It's been a funny year (and I don't mean funny ha-ha). I have just done a quick round-up of all my favourite blogs and a lot of people have said that 2009 was not a great year for them. Well, I must count myself among them. A hard year, this one, in which I had to face up to the fact that the professional path on which I had set myself was probably either a) the wrong path or b) right or wrong, not the path that was going to succeed. I'm still working out how to solve that particular problem. But I think I have a few little ideas which I'll tell you a bit more about in January (I hope).

All this, of course, in the time honoured tradition of vicious circles, has caused my stress-o-meter to go through the roof and has brought all sorts of other long-standing issues (anxiety, depression) bubbling to the surface. But this has not necessarily been a bad thing. Now I'm addressing things. Looking them square in the eye and trying to sort them out. Not burying them in a pile of other stuff that simply has to be done first (...before I deal with that stuff).

So, as 2009 draws to a close, I would have to say that I feel pretty positive. It's been a lousy year in a lot of ways but in that lousiness, a lot of thinking has been done and, hopefully, a lot of learning. I've still got a long way to go, but 2010 seems like that year when it might all just start to come together. But don't just take my word for it. That lucky blue moon agrees with me.

I have so enjoyed getting the blog started this year - it really has been a highpoint for me. And it's been great to meet the lovely people that I've met here in cyberspace. Tell me about your year.

When a picture paints a thousand words...

(Photo courtesy of 80s-disco-music.blogspot.com/)

Tickled pink as I was with my award yesterday, I got a bit overwhelmed and didn't quite manage to fulfill my duties as a Kreativ Blogger! So, part of the game is to tell you 7 things you didn't know about me. Here goes:

1. When I was at primary school, I was seriously obsessed with the British royal family, especially Lady Diana. I even wanted to have my hair cut like her's. My mother wisely blocked this move.

2. When I was at high school, I was seriously obsessed with the band Bros. The first concert I went to was their's. I joined their fanclub. That year, as a part of our P.E. class, I did a dance routine to "When Will I be Famous?".

3. I believe in ghosts. When I worked at a National Trust building a couple years ago, I heard one.

4. I have a large collection of teddy bears.

5. I am about to start collecting Smurf figurines.

6. I am very sentimental and cry buckets during any even remotely touching movie/tv show/ news report.

7. I don't exercise anywhere near enough, even though I know it's bad for me not to.

There it is. Hope we can still be friends :) So, here are the rules of the Kreativ Blogger award in full:

1. Thank the blogger who awarded you (done - thanks again Bodecea :) )

2. Copy the logo into your blog (done)

3. Link with the blogger who awarded you (done)

4. List 7 things which we do not know about you (done - for better or worse!)

5. Nominate 7 other 'Kreativ Bloggers' (started - I'll keep going with this over the coming week)

6. Link with these bloggers.

7. Inform these bloggers with a comment.

As such, today I would like to nominate Stardust at What's in store for a God-Blessed Box (http://godblessstar.blogspot.com/) This is a beautiful blog with exquisite photography which reminds me so much of why I loved visiting Japan.

Thank you!

I have received an award and I am really delighted! My good friend Bodecea over at Bodecea's Palaver (http://bodecea.blogspot.com/) has awarded me the KreativBlogger award and has also had some very nice things to say about me and In a Yellow Wood! Thank you Bodecea!! What a lovely start to the blogging week :)

I would now like to put forward Pina at Another Beautiful Day (http://milk-and-berries.blogspot.com/) for the award. Her great blog is full of gorgeous photos of both the lovely cities and beautiful rural areas of Slovenia as well as her thoughtful and interesting posts.