Thank you to all my readers...

Thank you for reading Dragonscale Clippings. I have enjoyed your feedback and encouragement this year. 


If you have recently contacted me, please don't be offended if I don't respond until the new year. I am slowly winding down for Christmas. I plan to take a complete break from all things technological in order to detoxify my brain!

Clippings will be back in the New Year so if you would like immediate updates whenever I post, (maximum 3 times a week) please follow me and enter your email address in the box on the right.

Before I disappear into hibernation mode to watch The Lord of the Rings, I would like to point you in the direction of Fiona Robyn's new novel. You can find Woodsmoke Press here and read all about her book The Most Beautiful Thing

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year. 

Freya

Moment - 24

Letting go of what I've been holding onto. 

Feeling free, yet grounded. 

Knowing I will not be abandoned. 

That everything happens for an eternal reason.

Moment - 23

The robin joined me in the herb garden when I was weeding. He sat on the orange bucket making trilling, contented sounds without opening his beak, vibrating his throat. I realised he was talking to me...

Moment - 22

The satisfied feeling of another short story well-crafted, complete, typed and double-spaced; undiluted by rejection for now.

Moment - 21

Feeling the knife-edge cut as my newest short story is rejected because "it doesn't work". Pain deep inside and indignation. What do they mean, it doesn't work?!!

Moment - 20

Waking just after 3am and hearing the random taps of rain on the roof and window grow to a steady downpour that keeps me awake in the dark.

Moment - 19

Rewatching Christopher Bruce's Swansong; the seemingly effortless flow of movement, playful, sinister, yearning for freedom. Testosterone fuelled contemporary ballet.

The River...

Would you like a 2012 with more colour, more juice, more clarity, more deliciousness?

During January, Kaspa and Fiona Robyn from ‘Writing Our Way Home’ will be encouraging you to pay attention to one thing every day and write it down.

You don’t have to be a writer to take part. You just need to have three minutes spare a day, and a notebook or a blog, and the desire to slow down and fall in love with the world a day at a time.

Do jump here to find out more, and Kaspa and Fiona hope to see you in the river. Here’s how last year’s small-stoners found the experience:

“I have to tell you, readers, I have loved writing a small stone every day for the last 31 days. It’s the most glorious exercise in mindfulness, in pulling yourself into this moment, and if you haven’t tried it yet please give it a go, if only for a week.”
~Rachel Hawes, writer of small stones

“My father was recently put into Hospice care and dealing with the imminent loss and pain and joy of his journey has become sweeter for me because I am paying attention. That is no small thing.”
~Lisa Haight, writer of small stones

“…I keep finding that [writing a small stone] doesn’t eat up time or mental space; on the contrary, time stops and a new space is created.”
~Jean Morris, writer of small stones

“Writing small observations daily was like a spiritual experience for me. I felt happy, joyous and free. I looked forward to my daily meditation. As a result, I feel awakened and alive; and I am truly thankful.”
~Laurie Kolp, writer of small stones

 

Moment - 18

I am here

I am alive

I have breath in my body

I have a soul within

I am being

I am breathing

I live

I experience

I choose

I am me

Moment - 17

Snug inside while the wind rattles the tiles and rain pours continuously, slapping against the window pane. Drinking nettle tea, watching the weather.

Moment - 16

Rewatching Star Wars; like meeting old friends. Incredible how much one forgets. Caught up in the detail, in the characters' adventures, lost in another world...

Octobersong...

I sang a song of Autumn green

In late October frosts began,

The dew was harsh, the light was strong

The robin sang his piercing song...

This is the first verse of my poem Octobersong which has been printed in EOTE December 2011. If you would like to read the rest of it, please visit EOTE

You can also find Linda Turner's comments on the entire poem here

Moment - 15

Feeling of gratitude and delight at getting a second payrise this year despite the difficult economic climate. I feel needed and wanted.

Moment - 14

Waking up in the gloaming and realising we're on holiday for ten days. No work, no writing, no regular routine. Thrill of excitement, drifting back to sleep, feeling relaxed...

Moment - 13

Satisfaction of digging over a weed-infested flowerbed, seeing the crumbled soil mixed with homemade compost, knowing the bulbs are hidden for now, until the Spring warmth awakes them.

Moment - 12

Getting completely absorbed in my ballet routine; feeling the flow and the rhythm to elavated arabseques, forgetting my writing, working my body, relaxing my mind...

Clippings #3 Comments from Claudia Messelodi

Thanks so much for sending the Clippings issue. I enjoyed reading it very much!!! And I thank you also for publishing "Connecting with nature" in it. I feel really happy! I find the photograph you put at its side simply stunning, wonderful. 

 

I enjoyed the exerpt of the Ice Maiden's Tale; found it highly interesting and involving. I particularly appreciated the amazing description of the image of the "river" conveyed through the girl's mind's eye. Where can I find the whole tale? Would be very glad to read it all. 

 

Also Heather's poem is very lovely, as usual. It spoke a lot to me, I can share so much.

Moment - 11

Wondering why some people had the audacity to defend the rioters in August. No excuses. No mitigating circumstances. Send the army in!

Moment - 10

Absorbing the sun that hardly ever shines hot on this exposed hillside. Enjoying the heat and warmth of Summer merging with Autumn in mid-August.

Moment - 9

Flicker of annoyance as in the Summer, yet again, the neighbour plays his radio loudly in his garden. 

You don't do that kind of thing if you're country bred. 

He is deaf. He must be. He's been asked not to, but still does it.

Clippings #3 Comment from Jenny Poulter

Thanks for Clippings 3 - interesting excerpts as always!

I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith

How I managed to go all these years without reading this book, I really don't know. 

Much as I loved reading Bridget Jones' Diary, (it made me laugh so much!), I Capture The Castle wins hands down for diaries penned by women. It is funny and tragic by turns, clean and yet full of sensuality and suggestion.

Set in the 1930s this is the story of a 17 year old living with her eccentric family in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. It tells of her hopes and fears, her dreams, her loves and how she discovers who she is over the course of a year. 

What drew me to the novel was the opening sentence. "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." I read to the end of the first paragraph and had to buy the book. This doesn't happen very often with me but I'm glad I did buy the book. It is one I will re-read many times.

Moment - 8

Finding peace in the garden, doing practical things; tying up canes, tidying things away, stilling the conversations in my head, being free just to be...

Moment - 7

Laughing in disbelief when 15 haiku were rejected by a haiku magazine on the grounds they were too traditional. 

Apparently English language haiku don't have to conform to the 5-7-5 syllabic structure. So, what's the point?!

Moment - 6

Back in the Summer; a sudden chirping of an invisible grasshopper. Looking everywhere as he rasps, to find him perched on my book!

Moment - 5

Neat pile of ironed clothes. Sense of satisfaction. Clean, dry, pressed washing. A chore well done.

Moment - 4

Seeing green globes of swelling fruit from a plant I've grown myself. Mixture of satisfaction and impatience; wanting the the fruit to ripen to red so I can taste it...

Moment - 3

Afterwards; wrapped in velvet darkness of remembered pleasure, the reassurance of mutual love and unbreakable trust.

Moment - 2

In amongst the busyness of catching up, a moment of stillness and quiet reflection; reading Claudia's poetry, refreshing my mind, delighting my spirit.

Moment - 1

Utter stillness and quiet as I rest from writing. A peacefulness invades me as energising as inspiration. 

I wait. 

I receive. 

I take in, in order to give out.