walking

The Design of a Summer Field Guide

| Sheree

The aim is to create a field guide for summer which prioritises play, curiosity and wonder. Dreaming and imagination.

I want to be intentional around who I want to {BE}/ want to do over the next few summery months.

Become consistent in relation to turning up for myself in play and wonder.

Now is the time to prioritise my joy. No responsibilities but feed my inner child.

Traditionally, a field guide is something created to provide information for a reader to identify birds, flowers or trees. Or other aspects of the natural environment.

With this energy in mind, I want to create a summer field guide that identifies areas of play and curiosity that I can explore.

This field guide is an invitation to lean into what lights me up, steeping myself in the mystery and magic of it all.

Summer Field Guide

| Sheree

I want to be in a summery frame of mind.

No worries.

No stress.

No demands.

Just ease.

Remembering the summer holidays from school as a child – endless and carefree.

I’ve started with colouring in.

As a child I’d create my own shapes and pieces to colour in just for the fun of it.

I love me some colour.

Going back to old skool

| Sheree

Sometimes when I get a download, I just have to grab the first bit of paper and pen I can see and write.

It feels as if I haven’t got the time and patience for my visual journaling practice and I’ve just got to get the words on the page.

Like short, sharp, frenzied sex after a drought, a stream of consciousness shit comes rolling out of me. From my body. Onto the page. Words here. Paint there.

And within this pile of words/ marks are glimmers, signs, clues for next steps, moves forward. Invitations.

I’m been resting, after a full on time of exams and work and in that resting time, I did nothing creative except breathe. Breathe a little deeper and longer. Fuller.

There are still times when I have that moment of dread, that I’ve forgotten something. That I should be doing something else instead of doing nothing.

I know time will heal the wound. Time will suture the skin over the rupture and this period will become a memory. A trace left in an ache running down my neck and shoulder. A dull tugging at my soul.

Anyway, I’m back here. And I’m not going to try and fill in the gaps. The gaps are important, these liminal spaces where possibility and potential are ripe.

I come back with plans to share a new series of posts which I’m loosely calling my ‘Summer Field Guide’. My plan to get intentional about the summer ahead ( or here already!) and offer myself space to play, get curious, dream and imagine. No pressure just {BEING} my inner child out loud.

I’m excited.

Blig Blousey Peonies

| Sheree

This is not a zoomed in image. These flowers have not been magnified. Enlarged through the lens.

I could not believe the size of these peonies’ heads. And not a one off. Multiple big, bouncy peonies alll in a row.

White, cream, blush, pink. A feast for my eyes and nose. Getting in my steps for the day, my senses have been heightened. I’m becoming aware of summer really coming into her own.

Big bursting peonies blooms.

Are these a special variety of the flower or have they been artificially altered? Bigger, more, massive.

I’m gonna take my lead from these peonies and not dim my big bold, blousey attitude and {being} out of fear of being seen as too much. Too blod. Too in your face.

These peonies can pull it off, so why not me too, as we are kin.