nature – tracey doxey

A Little Bit in Love with Eden Fold

This week, I had a wonderful, heartwarming stay at Eden Fold – a peaceful off-grid retreat in North Yorkshire, where wild meadow meets ancient woodland and time really does slow down – and that is difficult for me to normally do.

Just outside York, Eden Fold has three beautiful wooden cabins and four bell tents. It is the beautiful passion project of Gemma and Dan, and you can feel their love feeding through in every well thought out detail within the cabins and on site.

The hand-built cabins nestle into the landscape, with the most wonderful luxurious, warm, earthy tones enveloping inside and out, allowing them to blend beautifully with their natural surroundings. Nothing feels imposed upon the land. Instead, everything is considered, natural and connected to it. The aim of the site is about sustainability, but it doesn’t feel like sustainability has simply been added as a feature or a selling point. It is woven through the whole place to give an off grid stay with everything you need for comfort.

I was welcomed by Gemma with a huge handmade soda-and-honey loaf of bread, her homemade jam and her own honey and a beautiful bunch of dahlias. Dan carried up 25 litres of drinking water for the outdoor kitchen. Those little acts of kindness immediately made me feel that I had arrived somewhere where people really care about what they had created and care about the experience of the visitor.

I’ve wanted to stay somewhere off-grid, close to the land, to step away from home for a little while – to become more aware of the world around me — and of my own footprint upon it – as I did when I lived in Shetland.

I also wanted space and time to work and think creatively: to develop the colours for my next knitting project and to read. I am currently resurrecting my book about the time I lived in Shetland, so having somewhere quiet enough to read, think and reconnect with that work was incredibly important to me.

And here I was at Eden Fold.

There are three cabins, four bell tents, outdoor showers and well thought out washing facilities for both the kitchen and the accommodations make staying – both natural and luxurious. The little cabins are powered by solar energy, which generates the lighting and provides USB charging for your phone.

It is a wonderfully simple way of living for a few days — comfortable and thoughtfully designed, but without all the invisible infrastructure and consumption that we normally take for granted.

Gemma offered me the Geo Dome, which is usually a communal space for everyone staying at Eden Fold, so that I could knit under natural day light. It is quite breathtaking.

There is something very different about sitting somewhere like this with your knitting, surrounded by meadow and woodland, rather than sitting at home surrounded by all the things that normally compete for my attention.

I knitted. I read. I thought about colour. I watched the light change. I noticed things. I plaited sweet grass. I lay down in the long grass.

And then there was the owl.

This was, without doubt, my biggest highlight.

On my second morning, I was standing outside my cabin at dawn, watching a barn owl hunting for its breakfast.

I had already been completely captivated by watching it fly around the meadow. But then it came around the bottom of the meadow and flew straight over my head, looking directly into my face.

wait to see the Barn Owl looking at me.

I have never experienced anything quite like it.

For that brief moment, I saw that bird look right into my eyes – something I will never forget.

I stood there completely still, watching it fly away, and I knew immediately that this was a memory I would carry with me forever.

There was something else I loved about being at Eden Fold too.

It felt good to stretch my solo wild-living muscles again.

I have always loved the feeling of being close to the land — of having to notice the weather, the light, the animals, where your water comes from and how much energy you are using. I love being outside – It makes me feel more present.

And being there alone gave me the space to reconnect with that part of myself.

I went to Eden Fold wanting to step away from home for a little while.

I left feeling that I had stepped a little closer to myself.

I am already a bit in love with Eden Fold

It is one of those places where the experience isn’t just about the accommodation. It is about the land, the thought that has gone into creating a mindful stay away from home, the people behind it, the simplicity, the sustainability, the quietness — and all the unexpected moments that can happen when you give yourself enough time to notice them.

And sometimes, apparently, an owl flying directly over your head at dawn.

If you are looking for somewhere to slow down, reconnect with the natural world, spend some time off-grid, get creative, read, think, walk, knit, breathe — or simply do absolutely nothing for a while — take a look at Eden Fold

It really is a special place. see the link below to find out more.

Eden Fold – Off Grid Retreat Near York with Cabins & Bell Tents

And if you do go, tell them Tracey sent you. ❤️

Experimenting with colours that you love.

Tell me …. What is it that puts you off using or experimenting with new colours in your stranded colour work project?

I’m currently in Fujiyoshida – a town at the base of Mount Fuji, for 28 days. I’ve been knitting my Tree and Star sleeves with an idea to add them to a fabric body. I bought a couple of Kimono from the flea market at Hanazono Shrine in Tokyo but the fabric doesn’t work for a body with these sleeves. So, I may knit another Kaleidoscope jumper body using 3mm needles so that all the people who wanted a larger size can see how a needle increase from 2:75mm to 3mm will make to the overall size. Would that be of interest to anyone who was hoping for the next size up?

I am using my stash yarn as evidence of a journey in colour. A journey that anyone could do with their own stash. I kept knitting this motif in different colours because I couldn’t settle on just one. Each version felt like a different mood—quiet, bold, playful, grounded. The first colours of brightest pinks with my initials and the year 2026, when the project will be finished, felt like really owning the sleeve as – not just knitting but creative freedom.

That’s when I realized the pattern isn’t about my colour choices at all. It’s about giving you a place to try yours. I would like to invite you to have a look at these sleeves and think of the colours and if you were going to knit the same jumper – which ones might you give a try.

When I lived in Shetland, my knitting patterns and their colour choices were devised around the wild Shetland landscape, the croft house that I lived in and the woman who had lived in the house for 83 years until 1960. But now, the Kaleidoscope jumper has been more playful, named after my own kaleidoscope at home, which has a great big blue marble at the end.

Kaleidoscope

Would you like to try this jumper pattern for your everyday self—or your future self? I am wearing this jumper daily in Japan – it matches the sky and I am having a lot of fun wearing it with the matching hat and a tweed jacket. On Sunday, we all (from the residency) did a drop-in session for anyone who would like to knit or weave or trying punch needling. So many people came to see us including some Tokyo Fashion guys who wore all black, all brown or all Navy and I suggested that they needed a little colour – like a Fair Isle vest just showing through their dark colours -for every day. They were very interested in the colour idea.

The motif repeats consistently and the colours can be swapped without recalculating the whole pattern. I designed this so colour changes feel playful, not precious.

The pattern doesn’t ask you to commit to one look—it gives you a place to experiment. To trust your instincts. To surprise yourself.

If you want a project where colour gets to be personal, this one might be for you.

Swatch your colour ideas first – always swatch for colour to see what works and what doesn’t – for you. Keep the motif and the background colours with enough contrast so that the pattern is not muddied. And just experiment – this is the perfect motif.

Experimenting with colours that you love.

Here is the Kaleidoscope Jumper Let me know in the comments if you have bought the pattern and are still considering the colours you might choose.

Here are the Tree and Star sleeves which are alternative sleeves to the Tree only sleeves in the original pattern.

Let me know what you think about your colour choices.

some little summer things.

It feels like summer is drawing into autumn. The nights are drawing in and mornings are nippy. I’m grateful to be able to experience a safe, carefree, summer.

Water, river water, outdoor pool water and the water in the brook below the allotments has been a daily treat. We have been so short of rain that, in turn, we have been short of natural water outside but here are some of the luxuries of water

A summer of Flowers. All year, I have collected, saved and dried many flowers – from the first Peonies and Roses to the last Straw Flowers and Statis with Bronze Fennel, Daisies, Rosemary, Honesty, Yarrow, and any number of other flowers in between.

Every year, I make a dried flower wreath – this year, it felt like I made a ring of summer. I gathered all the left over flowers and made a bright ring for my daughter too.

On Bank Holiday Monday, it was Hope Show in the Village of Hope in the Peak District. It was a wonderful, happy day with sheep dog trials, Shire Horses, prize Sheep, Sheep shearing, many stalls – great food and stalls as well as a wool tent. I sat beside a couple I had never met before so that I could be near their beautiful Merle Sheepdog who only had eyes on the the sheep dog trials. It was another hot, bright day with thousands of people enjoying the many wonderful local shows. I loved the tent with the prize flowers, eggs, cakes and knitting. I will enter next year.

I went to Park Hill Summer Fair and my son arrived for the weekend, got straight out of his camper van and sat down to play chess with a complete stranger – this is Sheffield

I have been walking every evening in Sept in aid of Cancer Research Uk – where I will walk 3 miles every evening after work in my local area. I started a little early – about the 25th August and I will continue until September 30th. I share my walk on instagram in a post or in stories and share the local wildlife. If you would like to sponsor me, my link is here

I made a long overdue visit to see my daughter and her partner, in London – along with their dog, Luna, who had a fall.

and when In London, I saw beautiful hand made cards in a shop in Covent garden and promptly went back to Pattis and made two in the same style – here (below on the right) is the first one I made in vintage green checked ribbon. I think I am on to something.

and last but not least by any means, on Saturday, 6th Sept, I saw and felt deeply, the National Peaceful Protest of 300,000 people walking from Russel Square to Parliament to say that we do not agree with arming Israel to kill the people of Gaza. 300,000 people from all across the UK calmly marched to drums, singing, whistling and 800 were arrested – mostly over the age of 60 years old. It is all completely incomprehensible and we cannot turn away to what is happening.

So, I hope that you have had a good, care free summer, safe from harm and let’s hope that Autumn will bring world changes.

Happy mid year.

Happy middle year, day.

I set the alarm for 3am so that I could drive to Arbor Low stone circle to watch the sun rise, but I could not move at 3am, so, I lay there trying to return to sleep but the cat came in and walked up and down me, talking, wanting breakfast – then the magpies started squawking which made me get up. So, around 5am, I got up, packed my knitting and a flask and I drove six miles from home to Burbage Edge, parked the car and walked over to Stanage, one of my favourite ever places to return all my senses to the present.

The sun had already risen high to my left casting a great sun-line across Burbage Edge. It was already warm and faintly breezy. I was the only person on Stanage Edge but many camper vans were parked along the ridge overlooking the valley – what a beautiful night they must have all had.

Stanage Edge is marvelous, in fact, so marvelous that it has been used in many films because of its timeless, unchanged, Peak District Beauty. I stood on the rock edge where Keira Knightly stood in Pride and Prejucice, which can be seen here. I just didn’t have a long dress or a long coat or a panning drone camera but you have the same feeling of absolute freedom. At the trig, I looked over towards Hathersage, the valley completely unchanged for years and years.

I scrambled over the edge to the Millstones and old stone trough, a place I go many times a year to have a cuppa and knit. I never tire of it.

What I wanted to wish you, is a very Happy Summer solstice day and thank you for your support, whether you’ve attended workshops, bought a knitting pattern or and other way that people have supported me.

And I wanted to say, that on Stanage ridge, I thought that, however young or old or in between people are, if you are able to, then, get out into this wonderful world of ours and stand on edges and look out over the vista – or, just walk in a park close by 🙂

Happy Solstice.

Oh, and yesterday, I went down to the Plunge Pool at Rivelin, which is 2 miles from my home. City life aint bad – here is Sheffield city wild swimming.

Rivelin Valley

A careless rapture

A first careless rapture

Today, is the 26^th May, a UK bank holiday.
I left home at 6:50am to walk the three miles to Sheffield station and buy the tickets to catch a train to Leeds then on to Saltaire for the annual BH Arts trail open up of the houses and I wanted to see the work in Salts mill by Ann Hamilton.

In Leeds, on platform 4b, I waited for the Skipton train to be unlocked, when a young woman asked me if it was the train to Keithly. I showed her that beside the train is a platform sign which shows all the stations that the train will stop at because I didn’t know if she was familiar with how our trains run as she was from China or Japan. We entered the train together – she said that she was going to Keithly for the Haworth train to go see the Bronte house. We got on immediately with an open, relaxed flowing conversation. I asked her if she lived in Leeds but she said she was on teacher training – she asked where I thought that she was from by looking at her face, which she circled with her forefinger. It wasn’t her face that I was entirely reading. Her English pronunciation was absolutely perfect without any hint of any accent and my experience of Chinese English teachers from living three years in China, is that their pronunciation is recognisable. In China, I was never called Tracey – but Tlacey. When she said she was from China, I couldn’t help saying that I used to live in China, in Suzhou – and honestly, we are talking of a dot of a Chinese city famous for its classical gardens, with a population of 8.5 million in the huge China with so many cities that I couldn’t believe that we both had a connection to the same place thousands of miles away for a brief collision of place and timing on platform 4b in Leeds. She said that she was going back to Suzhou in 3 days so I couldn’t help but mention the special people in my Suzhou life. I told her of my Chinese Jie Jie – (Older sister) who was my landlady and her husband Shu Shu and my Buddhist friend Cai Gen Lin –these three people changed my life deeply when I lived in the old hutong lanes in Pingjiang and I still love them very much to this day, but have not seen them since 2013. I lived in Suzhou from 2008 – 2010 as an English teacher and felt very grateful for the job because I learned so much about daily life from my adult students. In excitement, on the train, I found in my purse, a business card of Jie Jie’s property rental business that I have carried since 2008 and only last week, I was wondering how I could get in touch with them as none of them speak English nor have email. My new train platform friend is called Zhang Yu, I remembered her name after she only said it once and I began to speak with her in Mandarin, something I haven’t done for years. I was catapulted back to a time and place so loved that I could hear it and feel it. We parted after only 10 minutes on the same train. I gave her my email and she gave me a silk bookmark from Suzhou. I have tried to email her this evening but it bounced back. I am hoping that she will keep in touch and if she has time, will seek out my Jie Jie and hand her the card that I have carried for 17 years. On the back, I wrote, Jie Jie, Wo ai ni. Which means, Sister, I love you.

On the top floor of the magnificent, gargantuan Salts Mill in Saltaire, is the multi-faceted Bradford supported exhibition by Ann Hamilton which responds to the space, its heritage and the future. Three different spaced out horns rotate slowly in the huge roof space unhurriedly moving towards my face, playing repetitive singing then whistling. The mechanism to turn each horn is visible on the floor. I’m here early and have the huge space to myself – I don’t know what it is all about yet but I cannot turn away, intoxicated by the layering of sound. At the end of the room, great swathes of locally-woven blue fabric hangs in great lengths held down by rocks, like a loom. In another room, huge images of faces on woollen cloth hang like banners whilst a woman in a, kind of manager’s-box reads letters written by hundreds of unknown and unnamed people as part of the exhibition to their ‘Dear Future’ this is the part of the exhibition that most interested me before I came to see it. The woman reads letters while singing can still be heard from the horns in the vast room next door. News broad sheet papers hang on rails behind each large printed doll (which are blown up images of Feve’s – tiny ceramic dolls / a small trinket or charm which used to be baked and hidden inside French cakes for luck) I have walked around the gallery and collected every news print sheet, some I have duplicated, some I may have missed – there are many sheets. I’m in love with this space. It’s a space that needs a commanding artwork within its huge vaulted roof space. Every time I come, I am in love with the immediate old wooden, oiled smell and openness and light in this huge mill which once wove wool. I’m also in love with this work which I am not quite understanding but want to, so much so, that I sit on a bench near the woman reader, to eat my sandwich and to just listen and give it all time. It is so multi layered that it really needs more than one sitting. Normally, I look at art and leave quickly. Here, I am engaged, writing with enthusiasm and speed, trying capture what this work is making me feel. And here it is.

I feel alive. A first careless rapture of something so completely new to me, that I am besotted.

I feel engaged fully. I’m not off in a rush, not thinking of some other place but I am here, in this roof space in Salts Mill thinking of my own ‘Dear Future’ Something that I have been thinking of for some time but not had a thread of where to exactly, precisely put my energy to reach a goal / aim because I am, for the first time in decades, not sure. My future aim is staying just out of reach – not unattainable but latent as if I am once again standing at a crossroads. My choice is not yet clear enough to run headlong towards it or even to quietly walk or even stumble towards it – my time future is precious as I am getting older. I am hoping that I can make the right choice. The reader in the box, reads on while pulling strings to ring a bell above the large artworks, she’s opening letters from unknown people who have written to their Dear Futures, mostly thinking of the future world,

But what is my Dear Future self? A dream or hope is forming involving heading back towards the east and meeting Zhang Yu on the platform in Leeds, seems to be a sign that heading back towards the old lanes in Suzhou and onwards to the base of a mountain in Japan is maybe the path I should take.

Dear Future, this is my dream….

What is yours?

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