Those of you familiar with Bealtaine Cottage online and the many hundreds who have visited will be interested to see the results of what a little paint can do in terms of brightening up a home.
Yes, I’ve been busy over recent days, stood on a step-ladder, paintbrush in one hand and paint tin in the other, alongside dusters to remove the heaps of cobwebs…eek!
There’s a certain old world loveliness to “Duck Egg Blue,” as the paint is referred to, more often than not!
The colour is reminiscent of the eighteenth century and the novels of Jane Austen…a favourite author of mine. 
There’s a simplicity about the soft pastel shades which bring out the best in an old cottage.
Decorating a cottage is fairly simple too, as the walls and general layout are quite forgiving…in other words, anything goes as long as it’s a good mix of styles and time periods, for a cottage is a harbourer of both!
The wooden chest of drawers in the corner is relatively new-style, but provides a practical function of storing clothes not in seasonal use…and what better position, than by the chimney wall, where dampness is never an issue!
It’s a fuss-free environment indeed! Decorating an old cottage works well when one projects personality and quirkiness into the general style…in my case it’s always a case of what frugality allows for, so an eclectic style is as much practical as it is creative.
A reflection of what the great William Morris once said…”Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”...that allows me free reign really!
Cosy. Practical. Colourful. That’s what works for me.
The colours will also be a good backdrop to Samhain and Yule decorations…as many of the pumpkins are seasoned indoors and the window ledges are needed for storage too.
And as for the paint…well, it does go a long way…
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Bog Oak Pendants are available from the Bealtaine Cottage Craft Shop.
Each pendant is hand-crafted from locally sourced Irish Bog Oak, an ancient and profoundly mysterious wood that’s been buried in the Irish peat bogs for thousands of years.
These pendants are hand carved from wood dated as 5,600 years old.
Visit:
https://bealtainecottage.com/craft-shop/
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…flit into my head as I walk the woodland sanctuary, for it is here that I feel able to simply be, unaware of even myself!
I imagine this is the same for most people, for it is in this state of unawareness that the creative mind begins to flow evenly, unstoppable.
It was in walking among the trees yesterday that thoughts began to emerge about writing and where it all began for me in earnest.
It was of course here at Bealtaine Cottage where I found “a room of ones own,” as Virginia Woolf referred to the creative space.
However it’s not just about space, but time also.
My brother Hugh understands the importance of creative space.
Although Hugh had never seen any of the images unearthed by Professor Marija Gimbutas, as she carried out her archaeological work in Old Europe, he was moved by the forces around his little cottage to carve this strikingly similar Bird Goddess image into an Ash walking stick for me. 
Much of the creativity I am immersed in is governed and directed on a deeply magical level by Mother Earth too.
I use the word “magical,” for what I cannot rationally explain.
