Buddha’s Garden – Fibre Art by Barbara Williamson.

Blossoms against blue skies
Swaying on summer breezes
Sweets scents of Spring
Earth awakens

Barbara Williamson

I was introduced to Barbara Williamson, the author of this poem, by her friend and co-author, Anne Copeland. Anne was recently a guest on this blog, writing about their book, Artful Alchemy. When I looked at Barbara’s website, I fell in love with the way she uses colour, painting with fabrics and a tangible joy.

Artful Alchemy on Amazon

Barbara is an award-winning artist living in Paradise, California and there is a sense of paradise in the landscapes she creates. “My love in design is landscapes,” she writes, “but I also work with animal spirit and goddess images as well as other images I consider to be spiritual.”

Lilies of the Pantanal art quilt by Barbara Williamson

“People often ask me what draws me…

It’s been longer than normal since I last posted. To be honest I’ve been busy. Yes, Jim has been working for a living. It’s something I’m supposed to do from time to time. But anyway, at the start of the week I had to go down to London for agricultural meetings. They were interesting. Agriculture is in a very unusual position at the moment. Defra is consulting and because two years ago nobody expected us to be where we are, nobody has ‘a plan.’

This is a good thing; it means the consultation is real. The cynic in me normally reckons that you read a standard Defra consultation document, as produced under all governments (party makes no difference here) and you’ll find three options.

One is too hot,

One is too cold,

And one is just right.

And it’s obviously the Goldilocks option that they want to implement and you…

Welcome to the new series of the Smorgasbord Sunday Interview –  Getting to Know You…and to show you how it will look when you participate.. I am going first.

As writers we tend to share aspects of our work in interviews, such as our blog posts, books and characters, and that is very important. However, sometimes we don’t get to share some of the other aspects of our personalities.

I was looking at some of the blogging award posts and decided that for this new series, I might ask some of the questions than you will usually find attached to them.

There are over 50 questions to choose from about life, love, humour, travel, ambitions and embarrassing moments!

You can select any five questions and the only proviso is that the answer is 100 words or longer.

It is an opportunity to show us your writing skills, sense of…

As I schedule a post or two in advance to cover my absence for the Silent Eye’s workshop weekend, there are few things I can predict with any certainty. You never know what is going to happen or how things are going to work out. One thing I do know, though, is that barring unforeseeable disaster, I will get to spend some time with the friends and people I love. And we will talk… a lot… and when we start talking, we can cover a lot of ground, from the ridiculous to the sublime, the mundane to the mystical.

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—
Of cabbages—and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings.”

I often think of Lewis Carroll’s poem, “The Walrus and the Carpenter” when these conversations get going. Though to be…