big trees, small girl

 

Nothing could be better for the soul than a wander through the forest in the summer rain.

If only I could bottle the scent of freshly sprinkled leaves and dab it behind my ears on days when I'm blue!

The forest was abuzz with nature doing her thang~ dragonflies helicoptered, lily pads floated, green things grew  and the pine trees canopied way up above.

I felt like a very small girl in a big old beautiful world.

I collected sticks and counted crow feathers and listened to wild tales of Irish wildflowers and moss and wood-fern from my hiking buddy.

It's fun to be an explorer, to breath easy in the forest and get my toes wet and not care an inch. 

I hope you've enjoyed a little summer rainfall where you are, it's not too shabby at all!

Hitch your wagon to Stars in Jars!!

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⋙⋙⋙currently⋙⋙⋙

⋙⋙⋙ planning⋙⋙⋙

Tired eyes and bed head~ I'm planning to sleep for the next 10 hours.

 We drove 8 and a half hours in the rain to collect this little sass-mouth today.

Folks, meet Buddy. The new man in my life.

 Just look at that belly.

Blurry photo c/o my equally exhausted mom.

Buddy post coming soon!

⋙⋙⋙ reading⋙⋙⋙

Currently reading this quirky little illustrated travel diary on my kindle.

 This is such a lovely little book, and proof that sometimes it pays off to judge a book by it's cover! 

⋙⋙⋙ watching⋙⋙⋙

Have you ever seen a wild rose? They are growing in abundance by our house.
They smell like beautifully clean sheets on a freshly made bed. 
I must pick a few to make some rose petal ice cubes.

⋙⋙⋙ eating⋙⋙⋙

I've been treating my sweet tooth here lately. In a clean way.

This week I made Almond Milk for the first time, with a few yummy flavourings thrown in. Perfect for making chai tea and pouring over muesli in the mornings.

The creamiest peach strawberry smoothie, I know it's twee but it's definitely more fun drinking them from a mason jar with a pretty straw ^.^

These ice pops were so yummy and easy to make~ just blend coconut milk, peanut butter, unsweetened cocoa powder and 1 banana and pour liquid into ice pop moulds.

⋙⋙⋙ writing⋙⋙⋙

I've been catching up on my letter writing this week. If your waiting for post from me, it's being sent this Monday I promise!

⋙⋙⋙ listening⋙⋙⋙

So excited about Fleetwood Mac's new single. It's all over the radio at the moment and I turn it all the way up every time.

⋙⋙⋙ learning⋙⋙⋙

peek at my week// winter warmers

Beomgye High Street

The Korean winters can be long and brutal.

The deepest freeze can come along and take your breath away, red your nose and numb your ears in the blink of a night time.
If you squint your eyes and turn your head to the left you can semi make-believe you're living in Narnia.
But I don't much feel like an arm-circling ice skating lesson every time I put a foot out the door!

There's so much about this part of the year that invites the seasonal blues but I say blues are for the birds and I'm gonna keep some warm winds in these sails of mine!

This involves warm woolen socks, making blanket caves in the bed, cranking the heat and spending an extra ten minutes under the hot shower...

... it also takes wool lined slipper-socks for padding around the apartment....

...belly warming bowls of banana and almond butter porridge before work...

...treating myself to a soy chai tea latte date, wrapping my mittened hands around the hot cup for extra warmth in a classroom not yet heated by muffler-clad energy balls...

...and opening care packages filled with warm pajamas, marmalade, chocolate and all the things only an intuitive Momma could know that I need most in the world right now.

Hope y'all are keeping cozy ~.^

3 little things// sweet memories

Last night as I was clearing out our cluttered shelves I happened upon my old iPod and stopped a while to scroll through my old picture album as it was pretty much my only camera during the 6 months when I left Korea, travelled and came back (everything was sold off to fund the trip).

As I scrolled down through over 400 photos I picked off three that evoke some pretty sweet memories for me...

1. Bali Dream Catcher

I took this photo of the shadow of a dream catcher against a folding blind one night at a rickety old Balinese beach hut I stayed at during my first week travelling there. 

It was around midnight and all the other guests were asleep. I needed cash but the nearest ATM was a 30 minute walk away so the toothless, white-vested Balinese gentleman who worked for the hostel and also slept under it took me there and back on the back of his scooter. 

When he returned me back to the hut alive and in one piece I bought him a beer, listened to his life story and was taken by the sound of the waves outside and the shadow of the dream catcher jangling against the shuttered blinds by the night sea breeze...

2. Puddle reflections

Back in Korea now and caught in the late August rain showers. 

Splashing my way to school, trouser hems soaked up to the shins and wishing for a blue rubber dinghy and  bright yellow hat, raincoat and boots instead.

Then I looked down and started to notice the crystal blue, almost mirror-perfect reflections in the puddles and forgot my woes as I lost a few minutes snapping my polka-dot umbrella in the rain water instead.

3. Morose date night with Dallas

I can't but smile when I see this picture taken not long after we arrived back in Korea. 

We'd just spent three months apart back in our respective home countries and done nothing but talk and dream and scheme, write letters and talk on Skype about how wonderful it would be when we got back to Korea and were back together again.

Sometimes life has different plans and obstacles to throw in your chosen paths and the reality when we got here was we were working 40 minutes away from each other at extremely long houred and stressful jobs.

I think this picture of our date night perfectly depicts our sagging spirits during that first, difficult month back.

But, dear readers, as they say  yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery~ little that we thought so at the time we did bounce back and pull the experience around so we are living a much happier life here right now. 

Wallowing never helped anything and this picture is a perfect reminder of that!

rolling with the changes

I love this little windowsill snap of my herbs reaching up towards the dying glow of November's sun..

It tells a story of a sunny saturday spent alone in the apartment, just myself and my thoughts, basking in the silence and taking in all of the changes around me, little and big. 

Like my upward growing plants, this new and wintery month of ours and its shape-shifting weather, the end of an old semester and the start of a new, how quickly the warm breath of summer turned to the cold lick of november and how I'm quietly tucking away my skirts and short sleeves to make room for warm woolens.

Looking back on the past 6 months I can count the changes each one of them have brought to my life. Some of them bad and most of them good; the heart-tugging good-byes and the soul-filling reunions. The challenges at work and the summer and birthdays and friends and the thrill of sharing my life completely with someone for the very first time.

Looking ahead I see more changing plans, different jobs and new countries and roads yet to travel,.
Sometimes I think my life is so full of change, I never know which tune I'll be dancing to next....and I wish for a crystal ball to see where  it will all lead.

But saturday gave me a quiet tap on the shoulder and told me to just keep rolling with all of these changes, to keep on tapping my toes to whichever track is next,  throw caution to the wind and embrace all of life's curve balls. Little and big.

Caution's for the birds.
Here's to change.

monday morning ear candy

Hands up if your in South Korea and over the rain.

I know I am.

Yesterday the almost supernaturally strong Autumn sun must have caught the message her moment on stage is almost done, caught a bout of depression and became weepy.

 She called in her band of rain clouds to join in on her pity party. Then the breeze caught wind of the brewing tempest and chimed in to rattle the leaves around menacingly over the puddle grey land.

 This Monday morning~ the sun is still sulking and the heavens are still open. I dodged raindrops all the way to work without my forgotten umbrella.

Ack.

Sombre weather calls for a fitting soundtrack. I put this playlist together last night full of some of my favorite songs with cold sounds and eerie moods to suit our skies current melancholia

Press play, sip your hot morning tea or coffee, look at the rain through your window, be haunted with sound and breathe, reflect.

Cheer up Autumn sun~ There is always tomorrow. 

^^

                                             

puncture the skies

...and just like that, the rain began. sheets and sheets of gloomy grey drops so fat that Seoul has all but disappeared beneath the blanket of umbrellas that sprout up like mushrooms every morning. 

The drizzle and the grey and the moody atmosphere had me hankering for the coziness of a cafe which is where i packed myself off to last night for an hour alone with j.d. salinger, father john misty, a warm cup of chai latte and a paper bird cage to assemble. 

The wet spell has broken my summer salad run and I find myself leaning towards toaster oven comfort food recipes more and more often these days. last week was sweet potato fries, next will be banana bread. It's serving me well so far, my little toy oven :)

The silver lining to this oh so rude interruption to our summer heat blast is the breathtaking blankets of mist that have descended over Seoul's mountains. They are giving me such a romantic view on my morning walk (wet trudge) to school.

There's something inexplicably cosy and warm about teaching kiddos on a rainy afternoon...the rows of tiny little rainboots and umbrellas lined up by the door, the smell of glue and paper and poster paint... and watching cartoons  in a dark classroom while the rain drizzles against the windows. 

Yes, we could make the most of it and go puddle stomping and paper boat sailing...but I reckon this weather is better appreciated from inside...with dry socks and Tom and Jerry :)