I went out the other day to take photos of a spectacularly red azalea in the garden. As I got closer to the flowers, I realised that there were lots of yellow bumble bees collecting nectar and making the most amazing buzzing sound as they worked. They wouldn’t stay still for me to film them and you can’t see them in the finished photos, but they were definitely there, ignoring me as they went about their work.
Looking across the garden there was no evidence of a noisy buzzing reality, Up close, it was a different story. It’s like so many things that happen in spite of us like the honey from those bees. In some ways it’s good as it takes the pressure off us on a daily basis, but its important not to lose contact with our world and make sure we are contributing to the development of our earth, rather than its destruction. Another example of change is the logging of trees on various parts of the island, conifers which were planted after the war in order to provide a quick supply of wood. This backfired because the indigenous trees and life on the forest floor were smothered by the conifers. Now they have all been cut down and you could really see the difference on the hill over to Brodick which was shimmering green with new growth.
I’m still in favour of a balance in everyday life and I’m happy to take advantage of etsy.com which is being looked after even when I rest. I’ve opened an etsy.com shop to sell our digital patterns from the Arran Knitting Company. You can visit the shop and purchase the patterns through etsy using Paypal. For the time being they are available on our website for The Arran Knitting Company.
My book Handweaving: The Basics is now available through Amazon.co.uk and will be available on Amazon.com in June. All in all, I’m happy to leave the distribution of my products and the development of my environment to other responsible people. This lets me be creative and develop new ideas, bearing in mind St. Paul who said “Faith is the subject of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen”.
