Avrum Frankel made Vegetables come alive

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Perfect imperfection and growing where we are planted.

There I was on a mission…. Proud Mother going to support my son Avrum doing a cooking demonstration at the Holkham Food and Drink Festival this week-end as he is Head Chef at The White Horse at Brancaster Staithe.

Even tweeted (a new found tool) that I would be proudly videoing it and announcing with great confidence to their lovely PR lady that I would be on the case.

It all started so well – bristling with pride, full of confidence in my “new found” video abilities, basking in my son’s success, having my lovely grandchildren by my side. It would be perfect this time. I know, this is quite cringeworthy on my part! Hmmmmm.  Of course, we sat in the front with my supportive demeanour shinning out. What could possibly go wrong …

Is it any wonder that at a crucial point the whole thing started to unravel…. my IPad told me with great delight it was going to stop recording. The Universe certainly works in clever ways but without missing a beat I switched to my phone. Phew!…. it was only after that I realised that I had cut Avrum’s head off almost throughout, I had also recorded my youngest grandson being very assertive about his need to pee – he is in full flow of being potty trained and my rather terse tone saying “in a minute!” In my defence and combined with his willpower, no accident happened.

Avrum sailed through all this singing the praises of all the local producers with heartfelt passion, naming them all saying how fantastic they are. Really celebrating the Spirit of Place. He made vegetables come alive and what shone through him was his love of this part of Norfolk and what it has to offer. So the video you can see is just a taster of what is on offer. He certainly embodied the phrase grow where you are planted. As a family we certainly love where we live.

VegetablesPerfeck Pork

What I have learned over the years is to laugh at myself when it all becomes about me and at least the Universe meets me half way and mirrors the error of my ways. I can laugh with delight at perfect imperfection and a shortened video is more than enough, less is more …

Crush

 

Creativity, Nature and Meditation

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Creativity, Nature and Meditation have formed an incredible support system for me throughout an extraordinarily eventful time this summer. Birthdays, a big wedding, an exciting birth and a funeral – all part of the rich tapestry of life.

Without this support perhaps the overwhelm of emotion would have been too much as all these events came along like busses!  How creativity is part of our natural support system fascinates me and I decided to take part in an e-course on connecting to nature and ourselves as a way of my exploring this further, particularly as I am planning to write about this in more detail. I have already touched on it in my book “Healing the Ouch of Disappointment” which will be coming out soon.

We are only at the end of week one of the course and I can’t believe how much all my senses have been rewired yet again. I thought I would be roaming the countryside far and wide and yet have found extraordinary wonder and delight on my own doorstep. It has reminded me of a lovely expression “grow where you are planted”.  The wonderful spirit of place is definitely on that doorstep….

The video is about the hidden miniature world in nature that we only take time to notice when we stand still, contemplate and “wonder….”. The exquisite fragility of the young sprig coming out of the bark of the massive eucalyptus tree in our garden sparked my curiosity to explore the microcosm in our garden. Another expression that came into my head was “out of acorns, oak trees grow”.

All this made me reflect on how, despite our apparent fragility, we can be incredibly strong when we see where we have sprung from. This was even more poignant for me as my fourth grandson decided to be born at home in a hurry and literally plopped into my arms. We all felt incredibly vulnerable and strong at the same time as he entered into the world with a carpet of stars above his head and the moon shinning in through the front door.

So where does meditation come in? Well I am a great believer in meditation in its many different forms and techniques.I have been busy making lots of different kinds of meditations for clients – by default walking my talk, listening to them myself over and over again and sending them to my family as well. My son , the proud father, kept saying “I can’t believe how cared for we have been and how calm everything feels”. It could have all been so different and am convinced all the meditations helped us build that calmness up, reminding me that we never know when we might need to dip into that reserve of inner peace, remembering to replenish it afterwards.

I am continuing to add to the meditations and soon will put a specific page on this blog as they definitely connect to Spirit of Place but in the meantime you can find some on http://www.tiegsolus.moonfruit.com/#/meditations/4577484263. Enjoy the journeys.

Have a look at what the lovely Morwhenna and Jaimie are up to with their workshop on nature: http://www.madecurious.co.uk/workshops and http://www.morwhenna.com

 

Celebrating Summer Solstice

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Whenever I am having a challenging day, if I just stop for a moment and look around me there is nearly always something interesting that catches my eye. Despite the changing weather during this summer solstice, the flowers have been wonderful – especially the roses. They become like a soothing balm. Perhaps that is how the expression “stop and smell the roses” came about!

In turn they inspire my creativity and I become absorbed in making my own images. Read about this solstice on www.tiegsolus.moonfruit.com. Last night I was having dinner with friends as an early birthday celebration and I was given this apparently simple little bouquet of flowers and yet ….. these flowers represent so much to me and the friend who gathered them knows this. The yellow flower Immortelle is all over Dali’s house in Port Lligat where I often go to resource my creative energy. Such a beautiful and loving way to “say it with flowers”. People with their kind thoughts can evoke such a strong feeling of belonging and spirit of place with such a simple gesture.

Immortelle

What inspires you in nature? What small gestures have you received or given lately?

 

The Jigsaw of Spirit of Place

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For me connecting with Spirit of Place is where I can resource and have a sense of home and belonging.

A while back, I was in the doctor’s waiting room with my grandson when I started to observe an elderly lady waiting anxiously for her turn. Someone was sitting beside her talking, but she only seemed to be half listening. I then noticed another elderly lady go up to her and ask “Do you remember me?”

Her anxious face broke into a smile and she replied “Yes, we went to school together”.  From then on they sat companionably together, holding gnarled and slightly shaky hands exchanging occasional rheumy glances. Their combined energy was incredibly peaceful and so touching that it was possible to feel it spreading throughout the waiting room. I realised as I sat there that shared history is a form of Spirit of Place.

This week I went to a friend’s funeral which was in a tiny village church and she was buried under a beautiful copper beech. It was a celebration of her life and there was something incredibly comforting in the quintessential Englishness that surrounded us .A sense of everything was exactly how it was meant to be.  A part of my childhood was exactly that “quintessentially English” and I understood that it was still very much part of me despite having lived abroad for many years, a French education and feeling genetically a mixture of backgrounds and spiritual beliefs. Interestingly old friends were there too and we companionably held hands every now and again.

Whilst I was in France recently I made a video of the village where I reconnect with the French side of me and when I came back to England I had a great urge to find some bluebells in an old English wood. Spirit of Place for some us is quite simple and for others like myself it is a jigsaw of different places, feelings and memories.

Really connecting with the Spirit of Place of Fakenham has started a heart warming adventure of putting the jigsaw together. As a friend once said to me “we need to grow where we are planted”….

 

 

From Saffron to Firemen in Fakenham

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From Saffron to Firemen in Fakenham

Wow from one week-end to the next, Fakenham and its surroundings keep proving there is nothing boring about living here. Last week-end I spent Saturday afternoon learning all about saffron and how widely grown it was in this part of Norfolk. The area around Walsingham was renowned for it from the Middle Ages to Georgian times. More history and more connections with Spirit of Place. Old saffron was used to make a beautiful vibrant yellow dye. Just seeing the scarves bathing in the vat was stunning and combined with some sunshine started to confirm that perhaps Spring was here at last.

About ten of us sat outside chatting as we experimented making different patterns on our scarves. It was a lovely connection to something that would, historically, have been part of our everyday lives. The icing on the cake was that I had been putting out to the Universe to connect with someone who had llamas or camels and there at the table was a lady who has alpacas in Norfolk.  For some reason spending time with these animals is very relaxing and a great stress buster. I can’t wait to go and see them and see if I can take some clients down there.

Aviva shared her experience in dyeing with us and Sally shared her passion for saffron which she grows in Burnham Norton.  Again personally I experienced that generosity of spirit I keep finding here as she provided a lovely tea for us and made special buns just for me as I don’t eat sugar and white flour. All this took place at North Creake Abbey which is flourishing day by day and becoming a centre for specialised shops and a regular farmers’ market but also for all sorts of activities.

This week-end it was my grandsons’ turn as the local fire station had an open day and being there was a dream come true for Oisin who is nearly five and proudly dressed in his fireman’s outfit. Then little Noah who is three spotted a very special fireman and rushed over to him for a hug and “high five”. They could easily have spent the whole day and longer there. When I asked Oisin what he liked best, he said “Everything!” Again that generosity of spirit was there and nothing was too much trouble. It was lovely to see the open day so well attended.

This is beginning to sound like a travel brochure for Fakenham and interestingly enough after the first blog was posted I was asked to come up to the school to talk to Year 7s who are doing just that – making a brochure about Fakenham. I am looking forward to hearing about their final versions but it was a lovely opportunity to be able to share my enthusiasm for where I live and to see theirs too.

Fakenham – magic in the ordinary

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Sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon or being on Brancaster or Holkham beach, it is easy to feel the spirit of place. A little more difficult perhaps in the market place in Fakenham! Well maybe not…..

About a year ago I was in Tesco’s in the middle of town at the till checking my shopping out when the lady behind me said “Do you have one of these at home?” For a second I wasn’t sure what she meant when I saw a brightly dressed man behind her. A startling contrast to her muted colours. Realising that “what” she was referring to was her husband. “Yes, I do” I replied. “Don’t you find it really difficult?” was her next question. I thought for a moment as the shopping was disappearing into my bags and then replied “Oh sometimes but then I am a couple’s counsellor so I might have an advantage in working through the odd struggle”.

There were a few more exchanges, including a put-down directed at her from her husband. Then as I was leaving she said “Can I come and live with you in your villa?” I gave her as warm a smile as I could and said goodbye. When I got into my car I was overwhelmed by sadness and wondered how many other people felt like her in the later stages of their lives or even before . I was puzzled by her use of the word villa and looked up the full meaning which is farm or community. As I thought about it more I realised that in fact “my villa” was Fakenham itself.

Somehow about fifteen years ago Fakenham was named the most boring place in the World! It was a Wednesday and the shops were closed! What I love and appreciate about Fakenham is its extraordinary ordinariness and I am not being sarcastic. I asked the local historian Jim Baldwin what he liked about it and he said that he had never walked through the town without meeting someone he knew. Although I am an in-comer, it is the sort of town where you pass the time of day and know lots of the people who work there by name.

If I stand in the middle of the town long enough I can always find what I need including on industrial estates and in the countryside around  – there are crafts people and specialists of all kinds imaginable. What is even more interesting is that they will want to save you money. I was looking in a craft shop for some varnish and brushes to paint a cabinet and was advised that the really expensive ones I had picked out were not worth it or right. Guess what I keep going back. I had my card cloned and collapsed into the bank in tears and given a cup of tea (not literally that might be a step too far) and sympathy and lots and lots of willing help. The garage will try and mend the faulty part before ordering me a new one. My cup ran over when I discovered that there was also a growing group of Nichiren Buddhists in town as their desire to promote peace is close to my heart – who would have thought eh! Oh and before I forget there is Fabcom that has started to bring all the businesses in Fakenham together to put Fakenham even more on the map.

I have a huge debt of gratitude to the people of Fakenham because if it hadn’t been for them I probably wouldn’t have got married again. For some bizarre reasons at the last minute a spanner was thrown into the works. Part of the solution was proving that we had spent a lot of money on the preparations! Well we hadn’t – my son who is a chef was doing the catering, the football ground had given us an amazing deal on the marquee, friends were going to help decorate it and I had made the invitations. The blow came on market day, suddenly there was this incredible feeling that we had everyone behind us including the local registrar. I went into Aldiss, where we had our wedding list, in tears and all this passing the time of day came into play. Someone overheard and whipped off with the wedding list and said “Well you might not have spent lots of money technically, but your friends and families certainly have!” A letter was typed with a copy of the money spent and by the end of that week we were happily married. I was deeply touched by all these strangers caring and that still continues even today.

Going back to this extraordinary ordinariness, I came into Fakenham this week to take some photos for this blog and my eye was caught by a decorated lintel and I spent the rest of the morning looking up. Some of them are really lovely. There is a fascinating stone carving over the jewellers at the end of Norwich Street with the motto Animo Non Astutia  (by courage not craft or deceit) on it which belongs to the Gordon Clan.

This sets me off on a trail of “I wonder….”. My little grandson was in seventh heaven when the Christmas lights were turned on and the buzz in town was fantastic and yet the children’s ride was really simple and the highlight of his life was getting into the fire engine. We love going to the Christmas tree festival in the church – people come in coach loads to see it and yet it is so simply done but with a lot of love and enthusiasm. I find the best children’s books ever there. Every year there is a concert for Remembrance and I am always so impressed with the variety of talent there is in these parts. The hairs on the back of my neck went up when some young drummers put on a light show. 

Last summer everywhere I went people commented on my clothes and how great they were. Where did I get them? Fakenham, of course. I could go on and on about Fakenham and why I appreciate it so much but this is firstly about saying thank you and secondly about acknowledging  its spirit of place.

When we do that the feelings of belonging and support start to take hold. Meeting the lady in the supermarket has encouraged me to write a book on healing disappointment and putting something back into that “villa”. How interesting there is a history of printing in Fakenham too. At times of uncertainty in the world a need to find out who we are and where we come from often comes to the fore – a need to belong. Strangely enough when I saw that John of Gaunt was made Lord of Fakenham I understood more clearly for myself why I have ended up here as he is one of my ancestors and as if that weren’t enough I am also a Gordon. However, I had my appreciation of Fakenham before I found that out – it was simply icing on the cake.