We dream… we all dream, sadly mostly of ‘one day when,’ with little appreciation of today, this moment and the fact that we’re here, alive, sentient and uniquely individual and that we can make a difference wherever we are on this beautiful earth home by needing/wanting less…
Naturally, there are those things we need for basic comfort and safety… a roof over our head, clean water and fresh food, loving relationships, community and family friendships… this goes without saying but objects do not bring lasting happiness.
Just for a moment, in that ‘wherever’ space you reside in this moment, stand still. Close your eyes and simply focus on your breath… then consciously shift to a four count breath in and eight count breath out, which allows the lungs to clear the stale air from the bottom of the lungs fully. You may feel a little dizzy if you’re not used to truly emptying out your lung capacity but then there should come a sense of euphoria at being in ‘clean, full breath’ mode…
When we find this space on a more constant level, we begin to relax into our day more easily and no matter where we travel through the day, we remain more and more in this space of awareness until we no longer have to think about the getting there, we just are there.
The hum of bees can bring you that same feeling… the purr of a cat, wind in the trees, the tap, tap, rhythmic tap of a branch against your window, the mournful cry of curlew… even a gentle snore of a close partner can soothe and relax the diaphragm and release breath deep from within… stress held in our very bones…
Water colour and ink 🐝 @ Penny Reilly
Today’s stresses puts a burden on us… changing our way of being constantly in angst and easing the way to a more conscious approach leads to simply being… in our work, in relationships, family crisis… all emotions are better handled… more kindly and intuitively handled, when we come from a place of inner peace, leading us on into inner strength.
With our mind clear, we better know what action to take rather than acting on impulse in sticky situations from a base of fear.
🐝 vibrations
Simple thoughts and actions and yet, simplicity is the key to everything, whittling down complexity into bite size pieces. Tackling the frustrating need for things, perceived to be out of reach… realising objects are mostly on a want not need basis, especially if they don’t come under the simpler needs of life, which in turn releases the fear lack.
All around me is life…
This is the space within, from which I write and/or paint. Connected to nature allows a quasi download of information to flow. I recognise it by the ease of it and by not needing to stress about the process or worry that if I don’t get it down quickly, it will disappear. Thoughts disappear but this space remains. It’s a combination of seeing and listening that goes beyond stressing about a particular context. Editing comes much later, after the whole piece is written.
To be in this space most of the time here at home on the farm amongst the wildlings, is where it all begins and ends. It can be naturally triggered by a sight, a scent, a sound or a fleeting feeling of something ‘other’ occurring. An image can trigger words and words can trigger an image to form in my artwork… nothing happens in isolation and thus, we find a wholeness in all of our senses combined and individually. When we apply this to our ability to dream, we create whole new possibilities for understanding our existence, which includes acceptance of the fact that we are creating our own life and purpose… hopefully giving us the reason for being rather than constantly asking the universe to tell us what to do or to make our ‘purpose’ known to us.
in this space we get to decide and create that purpose…
Deep within the wild dreamer stirs awakening from slumber as change occurs Be willing to sense how your own needs are met Stay awake… be aware lest your dreams you forget You are the dreamer and you are the dream One and the same it’s within to be seen You have slept long enough wake up human-kin Awaken the wild dreamer find your truth find your magic …within
Walk softly… edit the dream when it no longer describes your purpose… Awen /|\
As self-sufficiency and homesteading skills are shared (and methods sold) across social media, verging on hysteria, I need to say, please don’t get sucked in by the romanticism set before you. It’s not about going backwards to the Middle Ages, rather to embrace old ways of being and bring them into this century. Many apparently, don’t understand the concept of off grid living, assuming we are completely without any form of electricity at all… this is a myth. A good solar unit generates as much power needed to run a normal household. Fridge, freezer, computers, TV, lighting, power tools, my studio tools, etc., etc… we live simply but not in the dark ages and are careful not to overload the system with unnecessary gadgets. We don’t, for instance own a dishwasher (water catchment and storage are more important)… and, we have two pairs of hands.
Words are often thrown at me, such as, ‘you’re so lucky’. Well, sorry folk, there’s no luck involved, it’s methodical planning. It’s sometimes extraordinarily hard work to feed a community from a veggie patch, greenhouse and orchard. It’s weather dependent; seasonal, so it means planning ahead… it means growing what you like but also what grows well and in season, in your particular area. It’s no good my attempting to grow mangoes in a cold climate anymore than Brussel sprouts grow well in far North Queensland… and then there is the pests and predator balance to uphold.
We dreamed for many years as our children grew and set out on their own life path. We grew our own veggies and fruit to some extent and had a few hens but with four growing kids and us both working full time… you know, rates, mortgage, utilities, car registration, insurances, school fees and uniforms and running around madly taking the kids to one place or another. It was a busy life and our dream was on hold to own acres of rural land. Where we lived was like a mini trial run for the farm.
Things suddenly changed… the kids were gone, we both had jobs that we weren’t particularly content with and as things would have it, we found ourselves on the brink of making that change.
Many years ago, we found our acres in Victoria in the forested and rolling green hills, with an old derelict, 100 year old plus, barn and a derelict dairy. It’s a long tale as to how we found and acquired it, but I’ll save it for the book, currently in the writing process. (Watch this space, as the saying goes.) Needless to say, it’s a magical tale, but luck really has nothing to do with it, and we still had to work to pay for the land and for setting up the farm.
We dreamed and fulfilled our dream and then the hard work began… renovating, building greenhouses, planting an orchard and fruit vines… none of which was free. Self-sufficiency is a hard won lifestyle… we saved and had a state of the art solar system installed, which we never regret spending our money on. Even so, there are still rates to pay, a tractor, fuel for tractor and hay/grass slasher, hen feed for winter, storage containers for produce, a freezer, a dehydrator, a water pump, a generator for auto-backup in uber-cold winters, when the sun is a bit light on, (despite a battery array for storing electricity), and not to mention the cost of building everything, (and we used as much recycled timber and iron as we could lay our hands on) such as bathroom, kitchen, a plumber, a solar electrician. (A must to do properly for certificates.)
Our barn/build reno, we designed and built ourselves, but then there’s planning and building permits, site inspections…. And, and, and!
Often people are caught up in the pretty pictures on social media of women in flowing dresses and straw hats skipping between overflowing, perfectly manicured vegetable beds, with equally manicured fingernails and full makeup! Photos of buffed, bronzed young men, scything and bringing in the hay harvest, single handed, while children and women, serve lunch on gleaming platters, smiling smugly and all clean and tidy… this is Hollywood style.
Then there are those pics and reels of women in floral aprons, mixing and baking, chopping and filling glass jars, with not a stain or a sticky batch of cores and peelings to be seen, when a very messy kitchen is far more the reality of homesteading. Super clean, but very messy and outside in the garden, nature is messy too, not neat rows of equally sized plants, denuded of weeds around them. There has to be biodiversity, companion planting for natural bug control and a wild garden to me is the prettiest garden but none of the above are reality. Gardening is becoming a part of nature, not controlling it… or a least attempting to and that’s a fools game.
I paused while writing this to take a short break and, lo and behold, there was an ad for an online course on Instagram on how to decorate interiors in farmhouse style. Once again, I collapsed in giggles… this is not a show or a rehearsal for life… it’s real; make it your own!
So below are a few very random shots of our barn interior… clean, often a little untidy with kitchen doings and goings on… the dining room table is covered with greenhouse plans for the new build in progress but I haven’t photoshopped, or teased to make it idyllically pretty… but it is… it’s home, it’s us… and my kitchen window has a view to our northwest boundary and the dam.
Anyone beginning this journey needs to find a middle road between fantasy and reality. Yes, a healthy body is the result of constant work outside in the fresh air, and we may well sit outside at sunset with a luscious platter of homegrown produce, but often by that time, we’re happily exhausted and often quite grubby, so dinner and a movie are often the more likely outcome to day’s end.
But then… I pause again at stove or sink in my very rustic kitchen, to listen to the birds call, admire a vase of fresh-cut roses and bunches of herbs hanging to dry. I watch the creatures that come and go through our farm from forest edge across to forest edge on the other side and I smile… because the hard work, while dreaming, working with and watching, all this life, is worth more than a hefty bank balance, it’s worth the dirty hands, muddy shoes, and wet winters. A constant cycle of observances like seasonal rituals of abundance, (most years) emerge and gratitude overflows for the fact that we dared to take the steps needed to slow the pace of our working years, moving us into a loose, rhythmic dance of life…
Waiting
for the world
to shift a gear
to slow the pace
of a working year
Slow down
let the season
show the way
drifting
into shorter nights
a longer day
Let go
the thought of chores
instead
honour what you have
what is yours
Make each moment count
appreciate the quality
not the amount
Let go
the broken thoughts
the lost dreams
the might have beens
Refocus
your misted-over dreams
as a silken breeze
indicates the change
open windows
take stock
rearrange
Think less to control
allow the flow
meander
ramble on
waiting for a heart response
Hold what is dear
close there
in a silent prayer
of gratitude
then breath
…let all else go
So don’t be fooled… this lifestyle is a philosophy about doing our bit to help this beautiful planet recover from the dreadful things we’re continuing to do as a species, and in full knowing that we’re killing the only place we have to live.
Recycle, refurbish, renew, reupholster, repurpose. Celebrate what you have.
We grow food that is free of any additives, unpackaged, raw foods, full of nutrition, (because we take care of the soil to keep it rich in nutrients) because seriously… there is no Planet B. But, if this life calls you, don’t be disillusioned, get dirty and creative, grow your own food and reconnect with the seasonal tides and shifts… dive in and feel free to chat if you need an understanding of the process we’ve experienced everyday for nearly thirty years and we wouldn’t change a thing… not even for a photo shoot of me in a flowing dress, silver hair loose and tangled, skipping through fields of wildflowers… and although I can/could… it’s done in secret without manicure or makeup, accompanied by hens and a crazy wee doglet… 😀
Author of nine books, with number ten on the way, and a professional artist/photographer and herbalist, you can also find Penny on Instagram and Facebook.
Sorry, sorry… it’s been a while… late February and the season is already shifting from summer into autumn… a strangely cool summer and wet, too. A week or so ago there was a major storm in our region but once again, it skirted around our hilltop home acres. Let’s hope today’s storm warning does the same, although a drop more rain now would be wonderful to top up ponds and rainwater tanks. ‘Beyond the Gate,’ feels like a place centred in the magic of the earth and the kindly spirit; the Genius loci, is one of benevolence, strength and protection.
The last few mornings has seen us veiled in peat-scented, eucalyptus-perfumed, mists. Temperatures have been dropping from mid to high twenties, down to five to six degrees overnight… a very early change indeed as February has the tendency to be the hottest, summer month even in our naturally cooler climate. Not so however for surrounding areas, sadly, as wildfires rage, about ninety kilometres away, with great intensity.
At this time of year, creatures begin to go to ground… curling up in the long and probably exhausted sleep, after the courtship rituals and birthing of new generations is complete. That said, I saw the strange sight of a brand new wood duck, duckling family very late in the season. This couple lost almost their entire first clutch in spring to hawk and fox, so second time around is hopefully the charm, with nine wee ones as shown below.
Hedgerows are filled with crabapples, blackberries, rowan, hawthorn and elderberries… sometimes I feel as if I’m back in the Isles on an autumn day, where we would forage along country lanes and across the wild fields of my childhood… perhaps our deep connections from one place to another, links us on the byways between worlds… opening portals to remembered places of well-being and allowing the recall of those days to manifest elsewhere.
All things and places in the pathways of our mind are linked to another… everything is connected, spreading out to infinity like a tapestry of shining threads. Perhaps the Fae of those past days along with our ancestral culture, follow us down these lanes where our spirit was the happiest.
There’s a doorway
that takes us
to a timeless space
where all that we dream
may be found in one place
Offering ourselves
to the byways between
brings truth to our journey
to where we’ve already been
We can never go back
only here in the now
do we remember those times
when we made a sacred vow
to walk the crooked pathways
turning left and then right
beyond pain and pleasure
beyond the fear of night
to journey out of the darkness
into the warmth
…of Her light
…and so the season changes, the year moves on, hurtling towards Mabon/Alban Elued (Light of the Water) or autumn equinox to many.
Our harvest time is abundant… cabbages, lettuce, tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, apples, rhubarb, onions, garlic and soon, pumpkin will form on the vines and table grapes, too… not to mention more herbs than we could possibly use, are hanging to dry in the dark, to retain their colour, some to be made into pesto to freeze. I’ve begun the process of making preserves, freezing and drying to top us up with fresh produce for winter.
This year, so much has been achieved already with groundwork done for a second greenhouse and four young hens added to our small flock as the older girls ceased laying… they will enjoy their elder days, foraging in the garden and still providing wonderful nutrients for our soil.
Everything in balance… to harvest and replace, equals renewal!
Perpetual flow
rolling in
season to season
Blessed days
of sunshine
and shadow
reflected
in how
we walk our way
in balance
…wading
through emotional
waters deep
or rivulet shallow
or exhilarated
dive
immersing self
in life
and grounded
let seeds fall
in fields
…once fallow
I promise to attempt to be more regular with my posts… summer/autumn are naturally busy times Beyond the Gate and in the quieter places between, my work continues on the tenth book, Wild Spirits Live Beyond the Gate… a book of days and new art, photography, poetry and text are currently simmering in the creative cauldron.
Penny Reilly Artist Beyond the Gate 
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