Wednesday 20 April 2016

Faerymother Greetings!

Hello dear readers, near 14 months since I last dropped in here.
I suppose no one expected me to show up again and you've all wondered away on adventures such as one does, to find new things, fresh stories, different worlds to enjoy!

The thing about gypsy types is they will show up again one day, it's like that and i'm sure you know a few of us, out of the blue people, Ruby Tuesday peeps.

To catch you up, although those of you who know us, can easily guess what we have been up to, raising my beautiful children, running my etsy shop  and traveling of course... always travelling!

So now here I am sitting in my Himalayan studio after spending the day foraging Rhododendron flowers from the beautiful trees 10km up a Himalayan mountain writing to let you know that i'm here and soon, or maybe later than sooner, I will be writing again, differently though and you might have to up and come with me over to a new space when the time comes, but yes I will be sharing and spreading my stories of treasure hunting, vintage finding, adventure having and raising children in the dynamic sometimes away with the faeries sort of way I do.




Love Love love
 Star Sarah

Thursday 12 February 2015

We have been through the desert

After successfully navigating the back lanes and losing hours crawling amongst dusty treasures from the Indian ages this small fry tribal treasure huntress abandoned the utterly exhausting negotiations of trade communications and fast diminishing coinage for the adventures of sand dunes and dusty camel cart dreams!

Gypsy encampment in the desert
People you see in the desert
The multi talented Dakini holding the reins
Waking up to the sandy morning





 For the last 12 months or so inspired by this woman stance on the futility of bra waring I have mostly abandoned the uncomfortable practice but adamantly recommend them for activities such as camel riding!

Tomorrow we ride trains across the country to the holy city of Varanasi!

Thursday 15 January 2015

We have been to the Wall


There have been so many parts of my personal journey and our adventures as a family from the last year that just haven't made it into words, once conjoined with my camera I find the dust settles on it as days go by. 
Discovering instagram didn't help this, as I kinda love it, a picture and a few words the cathartic ease of sharing and connecting.

Today for some reason I began to write and that intense flow that had me tapping out page after page like I once used to do, returned.
I have a lot of things happening in my life, a lot of changes that will take me out of the gypsy mode here in the Himalayas and into a nest that I'm weaving via emails and phone calls back in Australia.

We haven't experienced the seasons in natural order for over 3 years now, I haven't had a garden or an adequately filled book shelf for too long. Dakini wants to learn to surf and get consistent music lessons, Chimme wants to go outside and play without monkeys leering at him and Urgyen he wants to work with his friend in a new business. I have a yoga teaching gig for a few months while the usual teacher (my mother) recovers from surgery, it's been 10 years since I taught yoga and this I would like to do too.

I sometimes question if I really can relax into it... settle down for a whole year cycle and ride the waves of close to home adventures. 

I think I will need this space over the next few months and so it's time to catch it up a bit.

Today reflecting on the travels we have been on, I thought to share a part that missed the blog...

CHINA
China is a place I had never really felt the urge to visit and which was a means for getting into Tibet. 
I sat on the steps of The Great Wall, in one of my trademark dark and deep moods thinking how lame the tourist trap was and a bunch of other things that I shouldn’t mention here in case I ever want to go back.  
I was a touch polluted with paranoia, war crime stories, sweat house images and recent history atrocities in the first days, especially considering my husbands culture, but once we got out of Beijing and into the countryside I began to experience a change of heart a softening towards the experience and a deep love of the expression earth has taking here. 
We took a chartered bus to a particularly beautiful place called Ti-Shan mountain one of those picturesque sacred valleys were Buddhist masters and Chinese saints seemed to find sanctuary throughout the centuries, it was a village amongst dreamy leafy birch trees and oh my, the way the golden light filters through a birch wood forest is beyond pretty.

Glamoured by the filtering lights and convinced I would find the little people, I took of into the woods only to stumble upon a Mongolian yurt and here is my number one experience of China walking into this yurt full of big smiling, pipe smoking men who looked at me like I was some enchanted creature from another dimension we had similar expressions on our faces!  




We were in China for about a week, Tiananmen square, the Tibetan Medical Centre a bunch of museums, more temples, this and that seen, done, and check off while twiddling our fingers in wait for the the Tibet trip to begin. 

The people were friendly, helpful and easy, the city is quite and clean the air is dirty and their are too many cameras when you begin to look around but i'm really glad we went.

Photo description-
1. Chimme and me at the Wall
2. The chain of locked love a Wall tradition.
3. The Wall
4. Buddhist retreat house of the 8th Dalai Lama
5. Birch leaves
6. The Birch woods and Mongolian Yurt
7. Inside the Yurt
8. self explanatory
9. Manjushrimitras Stupa
10. Rescuing captured squirrels and releasing them in the woods.
11. riding cable cars over the forest up to a temple
12. Dakini on the cable car
13. Tiananmen square
   14. Tibetan Medicine Spa Beijing
                                                                   
*most photos taken with a phone
Bless

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Heart land

On warm summer nights they dress in spiders lace and dance to the twilight orchestra.
Having a rest in a faerie (Dakini) rings 


Oh how I love the enchanted lands called Tibet.

My absence here and everywhere is accounted to those mountains, spectacular horizons and gentle people.

The sky seems ever so close, the stars went shooting and whizzing past my head, celestial light shows danced for me each night, the mountains top is a front row seat. I swear all that star dust settled upon me, as I sat on the window sill, with eyes looking up each evening way past the witching hour.

My unfortunate lack of adaption to such thin air left me rather floaty and unfocused but their is no better place to drift upon wisps than a place where time has little hold.


Our journey started in the summer place, a nomads camp, a valley of good grass, water and views. We were told the mountain spirits where pleased with our coming, sending down gentle rains upon our arrival. Mountain magic is very potent here and always respected, we were soon taught the laws of living amongst their imposing presence.


The nomads had been at camp almost 3 months when we got there and so we spent the remanding 2 weeks here with them, before the walk over the mountain range back to their homes and gardens of the winter place.

Here at the winter camp we watched as the summer took a quick decline into chilly nights and occasional snow storms, barley crops were harvested, yaks milked, cheese cooked daily and the everyday running and maintainance of an 'off grid" home powered by small turbines in the stream below with drinking water collected from a spring above.


We left Tibet over a month ago now and have since been caught up in retreats, family whirlwinds, ticket booking and itinerary planning. 
We are headed to Nepal on Wednesday for a few months and then back to my beloved India and studio where we can begin again our crafts and gypsy gathering ways.


Until then as I fall asleep I hear those dreamy Himalayan mountains calling my name.









No more Yak yogurt please!

Bless






Tuesday 22 July 2014

Gypsy Collection

Faerymother Shop is going on a holiday from now until the 1st of October!

Here is just a wee bit of the gypsy vintage collection that will be up when we get back!


Bless!