Welcome To The Geopod

The soul selects her own society,
Then shuts the door;
On her divine majority
Obtrude no more.

Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing
At her low gate;
Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling
Upon her mat.

I've known her from an ample nation
Choose one;
Then close the valves of her attention
Like stone.

 

 

by Emily Dickinson, via 1

 

 

 

The Outfit:

Vintage Silver Donna Karan Dress: bought in a charity shop years ago

Black Wool & Faux Fur Cardigan: very old from the High Street

Nude Pumps: old from New Look

Vintage Faux Leopard Coat: found in Afflecks Palace, Manchester in the 1990s

 

 

 

The Soundtrack 

David Bowie: Space Oddity

 

 

All photographs taken by Mr Eve or myself during a weekend holiday on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall.  Details of The Geopod, available for holiday let, can be found at the glamping website Canopy & Stars.

 

 

 

 I am delighted to be a part of the next Visible Monday, hosted by Patti from Not Dead Yet Style, click on the website link to see her outfit and those of many others.

Shepherd's Hut Love

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”  

 

 

Extract from Walden: Or, Life In The Woods, by Henry David Thoreau via 1

 

 

 

The Outfits:

Vintage 1970s denim hot pants: inherited from my dear Mum, along with the legs!

Green & Black Breton Top: from a charity shop

White & Blue Swan Breton Jumper: old from Topshop, in the days I still shopped there

Watercolour Painted Top: gift from my Mum

Capri Pant Jeans: old from H&M

Hunter Wellies: from Ebay

 

 

 

The Soundtrack

Mazzy Star: She Hangs Brightly 

 

 

All photographs taken on holiday in Dorset about 4 years ago, long before my blogging began. It was one of our loveliest ever shepherd's hut adventures, and that's saying something as we've had a few! Details of Sam the shepherd's hut, available for holiday let, can be found at the glamping website Canopy & Stars.

 

This seems a fitting post with which to celebrate the first anniversary of this blog Kiki & the Gypsy, which started life simply as a wardrobe of old clothes, a love of nature, and a photograph from our stay in a gypsy carriage to use as the header.

  Enormous thanks to all of you who read and comment on this blog, I feel very lucky to have found this welcoming and inspiring community, you're amazing and have brought such pleasure to my life.

 Here's to the next year of blogging!

 

 

 I am delighted to be a part of the next Visible Monday, hosted by Patti from Not Dead Yet Style, click on the website link to see her outfit and those of many others.

It's also a great pleasure to be joining Ariane at her Show Me Your Style link up at Style Sud-Est.

I'm also popping by Jane from The Flight Platform for her link-up, themed this week Behind The Bike Sheds (hope these hot pants are rebellious enough for you Jane!).

Gypsy Carriage

Let me show you where we stayed earlier this year.

 

An old railway carriage, converted into a tiny home.

Painted in bright colours, like a gypsy caravan.

 

But more special, more unique.

 

It had a double bed up close to the ceiling.

 

 

 

And a chair to stand on to help you clamber in.

 

A roll topped bath.

 

Hand painted wood, the Somerset hills.

 

A recently planted orchard in the garden. 

 

 

 

Young trees pushing their spindly branches up towards the sky.

 

 

 

Everywhere, green life reaching out, striving to extend itself.

 

 

 

Strengthening itself against the oncoming blows of the wind and the rain.

 

 

  

Over time to bud and flower, to wither, to renew itself or to die.

 

 

 

 

 When we stayed there, I wondered what the railway carriage might have seen in its hundred years.

 

 

 

As it moved through the changing natural landscape, and changing human landscape too.

 

 

 

Who were the people who travelled within it

 

 

 

to their many destinations,

 

 

 

 

carrying the weight of their disappointments and losses behind them.

 

 

 

Driven forward by hope, and the light of the present moment.

 

 

 

 Those flashes of joy.

 

 

 

 

Driven, too, by their dreams of what might happen next in their lives.

 

 

 

I wondered, of those who found what they'd wanted, how many felt it to be enough? 

Perhaps some. Certainly not all.

 

 

 

And those who felt they hadn't enough, did they keep moving on with the propulsion of the railway carriage, forward forward forward until grinding to a halt, hoping finally to be restored?

 

 

 

 

 

 

These photographs were taken at the gorgeous Orchard Carriage near Frome, Somerset UK.

The carriage is available for holiday let, and you can contact the owners and make a booking at:

http://www.canopyandstars.co.uk/britain/england/somerset/strap-lane/orchard-carriage