Hello, I am so glad you have found your way here… I’m Lyndsay — mother, creative and storyteller with a background in interiors PR.
Step inside Story & Thread., a cosy, layered home where the threads of creativity, interiors and mothering meet. Here, we unearth the stories from the seasons of our lives, with a house & a garden at the heart, and everyday beauty as our guide…
“The first time you see
something die, you won’t know it might
come back. I’m desperate for you
to love the world because I brought you here”.
—Maggie Smith, First Fall.
Dearest reader
Earlier today we gathered around the fire for A Seasonal Salon, autumn edition. It felt incredibly meaningful to share my deep seasonal love with others, to talk through the ideas and thoughts that have been swirling in my mind during the season so far, to soak in the reflections of others, and to find that some creativity had been sparked!
In the excitement of it all, I forgot to press record (tell me I am not the first person to have done this?!) but I have recorded the entirety of the Salon again for those who were not able to join this time. In my post below I also include a guide to the Salon, with details of poetry, quotes and artwork that I refer to.
My intention for A Seasonal Salon is to carve out time and space to fully immerse ourselves within the season; to find an anchor in our days; to weave ourselves into the season’s energy, finding some sense of alignment with its cues for creativity.
I do hope that your time spent at the Salon feels as though time has slowed, as you steep yourself within the richness of both the personal and collective experience of the season…
Welcome to A Seasonal Salon, autumn edition — thank you for being here.
Do take some time to get comfortable and take a moment to arrange your space.
perhaps with a view of the world beyond your window, or if you are tucked up with curtains closed, have something in your sights that feels ‘of the season’. I was able to take a few moments to gather some flowers and leaves from the garden earlier today…other ideas may be a pumpkin, conkers, acorns, apples, a candle…
Make sure you have a notebook and a pen.
we will move through a series of seasonal reflections, ideas and fragments, with an opportunity to muse and contemplate. All of these are entirely optional. Feel free to pause the video if you need longer, or move onto the next thing if you want to.
Have something to sip on (and to nibble on) that feels warming and nourishing. I often find that a couple of pieces of dark chocolate are an ideal companion for cultivating creativity!
In this Seasonal Salon, we will,
reflect on the season so far
make time to notice how the beauty of the season unfolding around us
kindle embers, glimmers and sparks as cues to craft intentions as we move further into the darker part of the year (or of course, lighter in the southern hemisphere)
Finding an anchor within this moment.
The time spanning the end of October and the beginning of November is a potent and spellbinding portal — it has a liminal and in-between energy. It is a threshold, symbolising endings and beginnings — the end of summer and of outward growth, and a signal to turn inward as much of the living world dies back into the earth as winter approaches.
It feels both powerful and tender to come together at this point in the season, a time where I am sensing a shift from the abundant harvesting and layering in early autumn, to a quieter energy of distilling and refining as it becomes cooler, darker and more sparse.
Meeting together allows us to mark and honour the threshold, orienting ourselves fully into the season and actively participating in the slow burn of transformation.
Historically around Samhain, home fires were left to burn out in the hearth as the last of the harvesting took place. Instead, a collective, community fire was lit that provided warmth and light, representing the sun in its absence. After the dancing, feasting and gathering, people re-lit their home fires with light from the community fire.
The autumn edition of A Seasonal Salon is an opportunity to gather together —as the light dwindles, we are lit up instead by the soft glow of a collective fire and take embers into darkest days ahead.
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