Olivia

 

Olivia

Say Hi to Olivia. She came with me back from Morano, an island not far from Venice, Italy. As soon as I saw her in a shop window, I was taken back by her beauty. I left her and walked around and looked at the different shops, however I knew I had to walk past her to get back to the boat to take me away from the island. 

Some time ago I made cards and being who I am, they were naturally animal cards. When I worked as a counsellor/psychotherapist I used them regularly. Every time a client picked the octopus I immediately asked: Have you seen the movie? Those who had or were considering it knew exactly what I meant: My octopus teacher. 

It is a documentary and shows how a man, who has mental health problems and is used to diving and filming in water, meets an octopus. She saves him. The movie is highlighting how intelligent the octopus is and what an impact she has. Craig Foster won an Oscar award for that movie - available on Netflix.

This made me curious. I read a book, when saying reading I mean listening to. I was called "Remarkably Bright Creatures" written by Shelby Van Pelt. It tells of Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus, who is witty and cleaver and the story is very different and I found it uplifting and nice. Not long ago I saw that it has been turned into a movie. 

At the same time I also started listening to the book "The Soul of an Octopus" by Sy Montomery. The more I find out about these lovely beings the more intrigued I become. They are amazing! They are aslo very far away from what us humans are like, so it is hard to imagine how they function. 

So back to Morano. On the way back to the boat I obviously had to buy Olivia, as I named her, and take her home with me.  A while later I find a book I fancy to listen to, The glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier. To my joy it turns out it is a story that happens on Morano. I did not know the island was known for its glassmakers and their ability to make beautiful thing out of glass. Then I look at Olivia again and realise the importance of her and of other Octopus beings. 

An octopus can use their 8 legs independently, just imagine that! I struggle to do that with two arms! Respect! Total respect for the octopus! 

And if my computer will let me open the cards again, or I find another way of accessing them, I will show you the octopus card. 

Thank you very much, Olivia!

Agnetha 🥀

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Octopus 250826

New life

Memories

I check my emails, see one from RSPB and that they have live cams on a goshawk. Fantastic! I watch for a while, then on and off, and see two white chicks and an egg. Wow!

        

Hawksmountain

That's when memories of hawks come flooding over me. I grew up next to a place that was called The Hawksmountain (Hökberget). Therefore I knew there were hawks around. They were goshawks, I remember. Did not see many, but have a memory of how one of them tried to take my rabbit. Not okay! It did not succeed luckily. 

My rabbit lived outside and she, Stina as she was called, got really old. No more goshawks trying to snap her up. 

Trolls

I remember walking past Hawksmountain many times. It was not a big mountain, not from what I remember. There was something eery about it though, as if nature was holding a dark secret there. Perhaps there were trolls living on that mountain. Probably. I do come from a country where we had many trolls as well, in many shapes and forms. I will tell more about them another time. 

Thunder

Nature and all that lives in it is amazing though. Powerful and wonderful! To add to the feeling of a majestic power, our part of the world was often visited by thunderstorms, spectacular and loud ones. The lightning hit a birch outside our house once, just after we had moved there. The lightning plowed over the lawn, followed the ladder up and into the room where my mother had taken us to feel as safe as possible. We ran out as the fire started to smoke lightly on the wall. That is how we met our new neighbours.

After we could see that the fire had stopped just after, the lightning followed the electric wire round out that floor and went out through the wall in the living room. All the electrics had been affected and had to be replace, such as fridge, hifi and cooker. This showed me how small we are in comparison. The following three weeks the thunder visited us and the lake nearby every day. My older brother and I became very used to spending time in the car - as that was the safest place to be. 

The sound of a God

I wonder how it felt for the hawks and the other beings living on Hawksmountain? Were they affected by this at all? Over the years thunder and lightning was present many times every summer. So was the massive showers they brought. Enough to make anyone humble in the presence of nature's powers. 

In the olden days thunder was a sign of the anger from the god Thor, Tor as he was called in Swedish. He had a hammer in his hand and he was the one that made all that noice. I understand why people thought it was the rath of a God, when thunder called. It was the most powerful noice I had ever experienced. 
 

Agnetha 🥀

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Hawk 120826

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Hökberget 120826

Songs of joy

Joy of life

A couple of weeks ago I sat down near the daisies in the garden. I have wild ones growing in bundles, but there are lots of pots with flowers blooming now too. I have my feet on the grass and the daisies infront, but also my strawberries. Then I feel them. A warm, happy feeling full of life. Then I hear them. JOY! They are so happy to be able to bloom, to make berries and to be alive! They are doing what they are meant to do and it fills them with so much joy! I am filled and surrounded by their amazing feelings of life and living. It humbles me and fills me with so much gratitude. Sitting with them and receiving their happiness is pure love. 

Sound of joy

This is what pure love, life and joy sounds like:

Inspiration
Trying to capture their beauty is not as easy as they make it seem. They are so gorgeous in their simple, but energetic way. So I try a new thing to play with, a very small block of paper with a very small colour pallet and small tubes of water paint. Having fun and filling the page of life and love. 

Thank you for sharing and showing me life and love, the gorgeous being you are! 💖

Agnetha 🥀

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Prästkrage och JOY

Two gorgeous beings

 

A double one

I have these beautiful big poppies, red oriental poppies. I have had some for years. The thing is, I'm not the only one loving them. 

Buzzing somewhere

I walk out and I hear a strange, buzzing sound. I look around, what can it be? Now I follow the sound and it takes me to one of the poppies. There is a bumble bee, in awe, inside one of this big, beautiful - and very tasty - flower.  

The bumble bee goes round and round the middle and as the flower is so big it kind of works as a speaker, the sound becomes louder. Wonderful and I can really hear how yummy that is!!! 

The sound of joy

I'm trying to get the video to work - but in the meantime, please enjoy this photo and listen to the buzzing from the bumblebee. It is a happy tune!

Bumblebees keep coming my way. Sometimes just for the flowers and they tell me to get lost as I am in the way - usually I am just passing my big flowering bush. Then they also come near me when they are struggling. For a while it was when my cat Nelly was chasing them, catching them and trying to eat them. I used to save the bumblebee he has caught and told him to leave them alone, as we need them. Then one day Nelly must have caught a wasp instead and was stung in the process. After that he leaves the bumblebees alone too. 

Sometimes I have come across bumblebees as they were dying. They have needed a help to find somewhere to lie to rest, to find their last place to rest. I have also had bumblebees having stayed on my hand for a very long time. I assumed it was because they needed help, and as I do Reiki they were feeling that. At least that is what I think. After a while they have been able to fly again, or I have put them on a flower to eat and after sometime they have felt okay enough to fly away. 
And here is my hippie bumblebee - Hippie Humla in Swedish. 

Thank you for lifting us up, bumblebee and poppies! Love you always! 💗

(Notice who insisted on being in the photo - the daisy was there in most of them! It wants to say something! Watch the space...)

Agnetha 🥀

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Humla o poppy

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Humlesurr

Beautiful

 

My favourite

Where I grew up early summer would transform nature covering it with the most gorgeous flowers with the most fantastic scent. I was surrounded by Lily of the Valleys. I picked and picked to give to my mum, to the older lady and her husband who were our closest neighbours, to my teacher for last day in school - at primary. I picked to smell and enjoy, whenever I could. Still I was surrounded by them whenever I went outside. 

When my daughter was born in Scotland, what I remember during hours of labour was the big soap of Lily of the Valley scent that helped me through that. I smelled it and smelled it and eventually she arrived. The amazing thing is that May, the month she was born, the flower for that month is Lily of the Valley! 

After moving to Scotland I have tried and tried to get these lovely flowers to grow in my small garden. That has turned out to not be that easy! A couple of years ago I planted some in a pot and they have grown and flowered. So for a couple of weeks every year I have the amazing pleasure of sniffing these gorgeous beings. Unfortunately the cold weather and lack of sun this year meant I only got two flowers. They did however last a bit longer and still had that fantastic scent. 

In school we were at some point asked to pick a poem and explain more about it, the meaning of it. My choice was the beautiful King Lily of the Valley, touching as it was with the young King in mourning. So sweet, so sad and so beautiful! As written by the fantastic Swedish poet, Gustaf Fröding in 1896:

Kung liljekonvalje

Kung liljekonvalje av dungen

Kung liljekonvalje är vit som snö
Nu sörjer unga kungen
Prinsessan liljekonvaljemö

Kung liljekonvalje han sänker
Sitt sorgsna huvud så tungt och vekt
Och silverhjälmen blänker
I sommarskymningen blek

Kring bårens spindelvävar
Från rökelsekaren med blomsterstoft
En virak sakta svävar
All skogen är full av doft

Från björkens gungande krona
Från vindens vaggande gröna hus
Små sorgevisor tona
All skogen är uppfylld av sus

Det susar ett bud genom dälden
Om kungssorg bland viskande blad
I skogens vida välden
Från liljekonvaljernas huvudstad

I did paint it and write it down, but where that is now I have no idea of. I also suspect it was only the first two verses of the poem. I Google and find a lovely translation, unfortunately it does not tell me who made this great interpretation: 

King Lily-of-the Valley

King Lily-of-the-Valley from the grove,
King Lily-of-the-Valley is as white as snow,
now the young king mourns
over Princess Lily-of-the-Valley-Maiden.

King Lily-of-the-Valley, he lowers
his sad head so heavy and weak;
and the silver helmet shines
in the pale summer twilight.

Around the bier, a spider weaves
from the “incense place” with floral scent
an incense [that] slowly flows;
the entire forest is full of fragrance.

From the birch’s rocking crown,
from the wind’s waving green house
small songs of sorrow sound;
the entire forest is filled up with whistling.

A message is whispered through the valley
about a king’s sorrow among whispering leaves,
in the wide kingdoms of the forest,
from the capital of the Lilies-of-the-Valley.

Sounding like this

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Liljekonvalj 140526

I'm still in awe if you amazing flowers. Thank you!

Agnetha 🥀

Looking after me

 

An otter wish

"I'm quick.

I know what I'm doing, so I'm efficient.

There's something in the horizon. 

I want you to see. 

It's coming 

and we need to learn to handle it.

Look after nature.

Look after me. 

Thank you!"

        

Thank you, otter! 

Agnetha 🥀

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Otter 280526

Clicking

 

Another visitor

At last the glorious sun is giving us heat and a chance to be outside and enjoying it. We have had a really cold spring - usually May is the best month of the year, the warmest and sunniest. 

Now that we see the sun and feel she sunshine everything is growing - so we can almost hear it. There is a Swedish saying: It is growing so it is cracking. 

And that is when I meet this lovely beetle. I download an App, so I can find out what kind. It tells me it is a click beetle. How perfect is that?!? Clicking or cracking - nature grows so much we can hear it! 

This is the beetle:

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Click beetle 240526

It was happy for me to take some photos - I did ask. After a few minutes it spread its wings and flew to the next place. 

Thank you click beetle for the visit! Happy clicking! 💗

Agnetha 🥀

Cherry blossoms

 

Cherry blossoms galore

It's the time of the year when it is almost possible to feel it in the air, how everything around us is growing. Here in Scotland we are blessed with the pink, gorgeous cherry blossoms in abundance - even this year when all is late and the winds are very cold. These times makes Scotland just magical. 

Magical nature

When I go down the hill from where I stay,  there is a place where the blossoms form a roof above me. Every year when I go under it I look up, feel the joy and wonder because of these beautiful blossoms. If I am lucky there is blue sky peeking through between the blossoms and it all transforms me to another world, just for a few seconds. It is as if I am being swept away and promised that all is well and I will find whatever I am looking for. So it gives me happiness and reassurance. Just like that. Nature is wonderful! 

      

       

     

Amazing nature

Sometimes nature is more amazing than I can even imagine and remember. Thank you for making my life so much richer! 

Agnetha 🥀

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Cherry blossoms 300426

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Cherry blossoms 300426

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Mina Cherry blossoms 020526

Surprise

 

Really?!

I have just been to a Market with lots of wonderful and magical things. It was held in a hotel in the town where I stay. I'm standing outside the front of the building, waiting to be picked up, when something catches my eyes. What is that sticking up above the fence? It looks familiar but wrong at the same time. I walk closer and think to myself, it looks like something I expect to find in a lake or the sea. 

Singing 

I hear them sing to me: 

Not expected

As I come closer and look over the fence I notice that they are actually standing in water.  I so wasn't expecting this in the middle of this town with no sea or lake nearby. But there they are, just normal bulrush. I start to think about the lovely tale "Wind in the willows" and when translating bulrush to Swedish it totally makes sense: säv. In Swedish that book is called "Det susar i säven."

Now, a day later, I hear them call to me: "Stand tall and be proud! Stand tall and be proud! Stand tall and be proud!"

Just being - a true miracle

I hear you. We should all see ourselves and be proud. There is a great Swedish expression for that: Sträck på dig! Translating stretch - meaning stretch and be proud of yourself. I suppose we do feel taller when we are proud of something we have done, but the bulrush is saying they are proud just by being there! A bit like my cat, Nelly, to be honest. They don't need another reason. To be is enough. 

Standing with you on this one! Thank you! 

Agnetha 🥀

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Vass 260426

The sweetest

 

Leo

He was the most sweet and pure being I have ever met - and I have met many beautiful beings. There was something about him though. Lovely and loving. Not a push over though. If he didn't like something he would let me know. 

Could not resist him

Fist time we met was when I popped into the pet shop. The lady in the shop went and picked up this gorgeous chinchilla, gave him a kiss and said he was such a lovely guy. I bought him, but had to wait a couple of weeks for a cage, big enough for him, to arrive. He needed space. We gave him the name Leo. 

Building trust

He needed a group of chinchillas, but was sold on his own. So I used to let him out every morning, into the bathroom, where he could run about for at least half an hour, with me sitting on the floor. He would approach me when he was ready to. After a few weeks we were proper buddies. I kept doing this for 6 months. There was a moment when I knew, felt, that trust was just there from both sides. That was magical.

His new flock

After those months we properly knew each other. I let him out in the afternoon, every day, let him run around in our big hall, living room and bathroom.  Usually he would run and sleep under the coach. When he woke up he would come to me and sit on my shoulder or arm. Or behind me on the sofa. I was definitely part of his group.

 

Leo's words

It's coming up to 5 years since he had to leave, due to problems with his teeth. He was only 6 1/2 years old. For me it felt far too soon. He could have lived until he was 15. I still miss him and think about him a lot. In the past few days he has been very present. This is what he tells me:

"I have been here before. I'm sorry I had to leave so early. I love you, and you are pure, just like me. Soft, full of love, sweet and kind - but not a push over. We stand together - always! I can feel your heart. I know you know mine too. Always!"

Roses

Still, whenever I see roses, I think of Leo. They remind me of him enjoying munching my roses whenever I had some. I would buy the small roseplants as well and let him eat as much as he wanted. As a Swede I have hyacinths for Christmas and Leo enjoyed them too - not that I wanted him to.  A constant battle I always lost. 

Thank you, Leo. I love you and will never forget you and your sweetness. 

Agnetha 🥀

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Glad Påsk!

Påsklilja

In Swedish daffodil is called easter lily, as it usually comes alive for Easter.  And they are here - outside, inside, singing away.  Talking too. 

The miracle

"Hi! 

Here I am - for now!

That is fantastic!

That is a miracle!

Isn't it just wonderful!?

Here we are - both you and I

Wonderful and magical!"

The song

Outside:

Inside:

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Påsklilja inne knopp 030426

Thank you, wonderful flowers! We are here now! 💖

Agnetha 🥀

A lifetime

Vackra ringblomma! (Beautiful Calendula)

December and winter arrived. I find this Calendula (ringblomma) doing its best to bloom and survive. The main plant has kind of died, all black and brown, but this green leaved calendula with orange petals is blooming, although a bit hangy

Once inside it is perking up and showing itself in all its glory. Beautiful, sweet and strong. 

    

Head down

After a few days it is starting to struggle. Head bowing.

       

Even lower 

Bowing even lower down the next day.     

   

       

Farväl 

The time has come to take it back outside, to say goodbye and let it go. 

              

Leaving something new

Before the flower dies and the plant was giving up on life, there was something going on. There was a sign of new life and for this flower to carry on.    

       

Thank you beautiful flower for sharing this with me, with us, and then return to earth, but leaving a new life behind.  You are amazing. Thank you!        

Agnetha 🥀

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Rin

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Ringblomma inne 141225.m4a

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Ringblomma inne 3 161225

Agnetha Blomberg McCormack · Ringblommans farväl 171225