Iona 004

In time for the holiday season, the start to a new series (Iona!) and a gift idea or two in the shop with the flexibility built in for you to customize for your special someone....

In my family we are forgoing all gift giving this year in lieu of packing a small suitcase and travelling to a beach far far south. All six of us together for two weeks. No responsibility other than yawning our way out of bed and meeting the days with whatever hope each of us leaves with.

A small year of great proportions

Today I celebrated one year in my new position in a new industry. A year can be a flick of an eyelash. A coy reminder of how quickly a moment can turn into a day can turn into a week can turn into a blur of activity.

A reminder to consider each moment as a whole. To make those moments come from your core so that the blur amounts to something that pleases you greatly and reflects who you are and where you had hoped you might be.

Because it seems that if you are true to every moment, everything falls along and tumbles where it's meant to and leaves you with a discernible and sensible pattern of how you got from A to Z, even when it was not clear in the moment. And it leaves you feeling like yourself.

On the way to Iona beach. A landscape icing and slowing. Except for the small fast paws low to the ground searching every nook for a mouse that may be delirious enough by the cold to allow a dog to present itself and say hello.

A beach a sea a day a wind

Black and white films. New toys for the dogs to distract them from the whistling wet outside the window. Finding snow. Boiling kettle after kettle of water. Exploring farther with jackets pulled tight and Hunters rubbing against new soil and rock. Weekly lillies opening fast against the heat from the radiators. Holding a hand and looking outward together with cold noses and warm hearts.