The Strange and Wonderfull world of Rima Staines

A couple of years ago,when i was living up the north of Scotland,in lovely little town of Oban,i was walking on the street as any other day,and i noticed a wee stall on the side by the pier.It was a stall full of little paintings made on paper and wood slices,things i only seen in my imagination and dreams.I cannot even express what was it that pulled me so towards the stall.The whole thing had such a earthfullness to it,brown and burned orange colours,from the stall to the paintings and pictures.And there was a man sitting amongst all this beauty,with long brown dreadlocks.I had to come and ask who's the wonderfull artist,and i was given a little card with the name of Rima Staines on it,and introducing her 'The Hermitage' website and blog.Unfortunately,enchanted as i was,i could not buy any print,as i was still at school,and every penny counted for my family,but i left the stall with great appreheantion (and pull from my sister).As i did not know much about internet at the time,all i had left was that wee card,reminding me all this time that i would have to find her (Rima) again.I didn't see her in person that day (she must have popped out for some tea perhaps),my sister did.Maybe for the better as i would probably have showered her with silly questions...
So now i finally did find her and The Hermitage,where she puts pictures of her paintings,progresses of making them,as well as documenting her travels,adventures,thoughts and many more.And what a remarkable journeys she had too!Perhaps something that some of us only dream of having the guts to do.

So if you enjoy reading stories as well as real life adventures,fascinated with nature,legends and all things magical and curious,it will be a lovely read for you.The prints and some of Rimas original work is available to purchase here in Etsy website.She also makes personalised clocks here,although due to neverending commissions list,at the moment she is not able to take any more orders (try in the future though).
I find strange and yet familiar melancholy in the paintings,the eyes of the people on them express sadness somehow,but beautifull one,if you can understand what i mean...i find pensiveness and melancholy beautifull and always have done,the music to me is most wonderfull when there's a little bit of  saddness,a story behind it and a hint of gloominess.Listen to the Enigma music project by Michael Cretu,and you will know what is in my heart....


When you go into The Hermitage,these words welcome you:

 Welcome travellers,if your feet are weary,be cheered,for your road is nearing it's end.Follow the sign
   to the Hermitage,a phantasmagoria of fancy,a museum of myth,realm of the ridiculous and online
   home of Rima Staines,Illustrator,Painter,Maker of things and Teller of tales...
Far away and long ago,there was a place that is also close by and right now.To get there you must
  step around the corner of everything that you hold to be real,and yield to an odd world which will
  take you in hand and tell you stories so strange and beautifull that you will be sorry to leave.
Welcome to the Hermitage...

A little cottage in the forest,a stopping place on your journey.Please come inside,stay awhile and wonder through rooms of curiousities...

One of the custom order clocks

Finished clock

Nuts about nuts

On this just passed Christmas,i noticed something strange.Hazelnuts (one of the best creations of mother earth on this planet) can be bought in nice big bags and quantities in any supermarket...only at Christmas time.I thought why?Besides containing high amounts of protein and unsaturated fat,it has vitamins that are nesessery for healthy blood,heart and muscles in general,as well as healthy reproductive system.This is how much of the good stuff hazelnuts contain:
~vitamin C
~vitamin K
~vitamin E
~thiamine (vit. B1)
~riboflavin (vit. B2)
~niacin (vit. B3)
~pantothenic acid (vit. B5)
~vitamin B6
~foliate
~calcium
~iron
~magnesium
~manganese
~posphorus
~potassium
~zink

I know...i don't understand much of this either,but one thing i can tell...
My sweet toothed other half has always had a very soft skin,which is unusual for a guy,even i don't have such a 'baby bum' skin,and i was thinking jammy dodger...
....and then i saw this:

That is acctually our kitchen corner,and so it explaines his 'luck'.He is of Turkish origin,and his family

have a land in Turkey,with hazelnut plantation so he's grown up with nuts and fruits of all sorts.I am proud to say,that i personally helped to gather some nuts by hand,one august's sunny day,on the steep hazelnut hills,and i will tell you it's not an easy task,in the Turkish heat.                                            

 And so thats what we do,evening times,we sit down,get cosy,watch a movie and munch on hazelnuts rather than crisps.So maybe we should start eating more of these little vitamin bombes?As you can

see,we made our stock in December,and hopefully it will last us for a year (untill next Yuletide),

although knowing my beau,it may not happen...                                                                     

                                       

My Pagan roots

Today,i wanted to go a little bit into where i come from and what it used to be like all this time ago,long before i was born.Today in Poland,most of the nation is Christian.But it wasn't always so.Christianity arrived in Poland in about 966,before that we were all Pagans.The Slavs (term used to describe peoples of western Europe,such as Poles,Lithuanians,Slovakians...),used to believe not in One God the Creator of all,but many gods,godesses,spirits,and all of them were associated with nature.Well,we could say there was one most important for all-Nature-Mother Earth.Every 'aspect' of Mother Earth would have it's own sort of representative,like for example: god of fire,water,sun,death,love,flowers,harvest and so on.It is so much like Greek myths and legends,which always fascinated me very much.Even modern day folklorists admit that only in Russia and the Baltic island state of Rugen,was there found the remotest trace of hierarchial superior divinities,with few crude idols,mention of priests and structured rights,and this could be due to their frequent exposure to the Norse and Germanic beliefs.

A beautifull picture i found on the web

In our pagan days,everything was nature-oriented,and we
 would celebrate days associated with certain Gods and 
Godesses,as well as fearing some spirits and fit our daily
tasks and life in general to avoid upsetting them,or even
being put at risk of death,as they believed.
Here are a couple of examples:
Marzanna- godess of winter and death
Bialobog-translates to 'whitegod' of sun,day,light
Czarnobog-'blackgod' of darkness,fear,woe and night
Marowit-god of nightmares
Dogoda-spirit of the west wind,associated with gentleness
Kupala-godess/god of fertility,fire and water

Some of the days still celebrated now

Noc Kupaly- Also known as Sobotka (The Saturday) is
celebrated upon summer solstice 23/24th June,when
the nature is bursting with blossoms and ripe fruit.
This night was all about merrymaking,dancing and feasting,celebrating the holiday of fire and water,
fire being male,water female.Young men would make fires and jump above them for a play,maidens would go to the rivers and float their wreaths of flowers onto water,often lit with candles,which by creating a certain pattern on the water,would give an insight into their future relationship fortunes.
If the wreath was fished out by a young man,he could become her future husband,or she could get married very soon.If it kept going on the water,the girl would marry but not too soon.If the wreath sank or got stuck in bulrush,she could become a spinster.Maidens would often bathe naked in the rivers,to keep their youth,beauty,health and fertility for as long as possible.
There is a certain legend in existance,i don;t know if you ever heard it,of a blooming fern.The flower blooms only once a year,on that special night of glorious June,and whoever finds it,would gain wiseness and wealth.It was extremely rare and therefore searched for by many.The legends say,the flower was protected against men,by bad sprites and spooks to scare them away.Maidens would go into the forest on that night,often naked,and search for the flower together.You may have noticed,there's a lot of nakedness mentioned about the girls,it is only because in those times,our bodies and our nature was highly celebrated and praised,we were not ashamed who we are,and women kept by themselves on outings like this,it's not like we were dancing around naked and watched by all men in the village.Because nakedness was not a taboo in those times,automaticlly it makes everyone less interested in subject,as i noticed that fact about everything around us.For example,in Holland,Marijuana is legal,and yet most of Dutch people do not use it!I know that for a fact,i lived there for a while.
Today,at the time of ever growing modernity (to my sadness at times),people still celebrate this day,
maybe not in such advanced way,but they make special gatherings outside cities,sing and dance.
There are also festivals organised,growing more and more in popularity,bands gather and people enjoy
the wonderfull time that Summer is...

Zaduszki- is celebrated on 2nd of November,it's a second day of celebrating The Dead.On 1st of November,people in Poland get a day off from work (as it's like a bank holiday here in UK) and go to the cemetaries to visit graves of the loved ones who passed into another world,remembering their time with them.Candles are lit on top of the graves and flowers laid.I remember this day as one of the most magical experiences of my short life.My parents would take me and my sisters to the cemetary,when the night falls.And walking through the graveyard,i have seen thousands of little flickering lights all over the place,lighting up the trees above and darkness and everything that would dare to hide in the corners and roots that night.The scent in the air telling itself there was something special about tonight,although now aged 22,i realise it was scented candle wax,but for a child's eyes everything is so surreal and magical.Regardless of the fact that there was a lot of people in the cemetary,there was no noise,except for the slight whisper of the crowds as if all together,repeating their own words of prayers,sadness and longing.

On the 'Day of the Dead' as we call it,nobody laughs,dances or sings as it is seen as disrespectfull for the passed away souls.This whole tradition comes from an old pagan custom of burning a fire on top of the graves as people believed that this would warm up the souls that were still wondering around our dimension (world).Also,villagers would leave fires on the partings of the roads,so the souls could find their way home.

     

Boredom,boredom...

One of the ongoing dilemmas of the young part of our society is boredom.How many times i heard them say it,how many times we can see the outcome of it on our streets,meaning smashed lamps,bins,graffiti etcetera.They are BORED.And the climate where i live doesn't help the matters either,in summertime it's too cold to go out to the water,rivers or lakes for a fun day in the water,or camping,not even talking about the fear of being mobbed in the middle of the night.Winter is not cold enough to create all the thick snow and ice that would keep.All you can do is go out,get drunk or hit the shops and spend yet more money on things that you really don't need.Maybe i'm just being a little whiny.But I remember my dad making an ice skating area on what used to be a grass field in summer,in my native Poland,and oh how much fun that was!All soaked from hours spent jumping around the ice rink and covered in bruises from numerous falls and snow ball fights (usually started by boys of course),and then coming back home at the end of the day,into the warmth,my mum putting some nice warmed up on heater soft,wooly jumpers and then getting my hot tea with honey,heating every part of my frozen body straight away.It was an undescribible pleasure,this simple thing,so much worth spending all day out in the cold just for these moments!And how much energy spent in this fun,no wonder people have the saying 'sleeping like a baby' also meaning a child.Adult world is sometimes daunting,im not going to do this because i have no time,i work,im an adult and i have to behave a certain way or i just want to watch Eastenders.I think,WE SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.Let the 'monster' out,go and be crazy and happy!Well,i have made too much excuses before,and rather than do something usefull,i sit around,day in,day out.And so I AM doing something about it now.I will keep myself occupied by starting to produce some things i done when i was younger.As i'm stuck in the house at the moment,i will try to reopen my artistic side.What happened was,i made a few mouses out of scraps of material left over by my mum,and everyone loved it!I don't even have one of my own as everyone took a mouse for themselves,so something must be likeable about them.I also thought to try my luck and see if people like them too enought to pay a few pounds for them.And it made me so happy when i recieved my first order,alas it was from my sister...she also wanted a sister for the mouse she had from me all those years ago,so i made one.And she is nearly ready,just a tail and two legs left to attach,and then she will venture away to London,along with my little sister travelling tomorrow.
Other thing i used to do is drawing.I'd draw an underground sort of dwelling for all sorts of little animals,it was my favourite thing to draw,also i made quite an impressive portfolio of pencil drawn profiles of women,and then later on i made a terrible mistake of just giving them away to somebody i considered my friend forever.I simply did not think they were good enough to keep nor show off.It was my memories,my time and heart inside them and now i deeply regret it.However,i still have the same right hand now as i had before,so i will try to draw again.
I will give further details here on my blog,should anyone be interested,about the progress of my mouses,and also the site i shall put them up for sale....
Below is her,still unfinished,with a little bagpack...

P.S

My first ever sale was sucssesful :)- 1 happy sister and 4 more orders (also from family)

From mum,dad,sister & fiancee!Got to start somewhere i think...

Hello world...

I am starting this blog as i felt a great need to pour down my thoughts,feelings,experiences and also all things that i love.Although i despise all things new and modern,blogging-as i discovered recently,is a very usefull thing,it connects you to the world,and the world to you.Don't hestitate,You-who decided to read this,to leave comments here,about anything you would like.I seek friendships,fellow souls like me,sharing everything and anything...    
                                                                                                                   Karolina