Amor Milagre Cottage Garden Design. Respect your neighbours and their property.
Setting, and keeping, healthy boundaries is a vital way to survive this strange modern world. Boundaries have always been important to realize for every individual. This is especially so in transitional times when war, violence, illness, AI, climate change, pollution, mental health neglect, and random storms of negative energy spin across the world causing devastation. In the heat of all of this, it’s crucial to teach children about perspective and peace as you go about your daily life lessons.
Only yesterday, we had such a lesson thrown at us as young neighbours were presented with a choice of becoming ‘hoodlums’ or being creative people who can peacefully entertain themselves on their own property. I was folding laundry and looked out at our flowers. Watching the group of children choose to be negative was disheartening and created more unsafe conditions for the world. The eldest was the leader and responsible for the care of several young ones. This is why being a follower is not a good idea. Think for yourself. (Ironically, their family runs a daycare.) Vandalism and rule breaking are misguided ways of asking for external acceptance. Why seek it at all, in any form, if you lovingly accept yourself? There are positive ways to be a part of a community if you feel excluded in your life. Helping others by volunteering is one way.
Children thrive in a gentle structure. Saying a simple ‘no’ to dangerous ideas shows that you care about their safety, their effects, and their evolving character. Although illegal, the neighbour children’s mistake was the least of the day’s stress, and their source of inspiration was obvious. What is that strange phrase, “Like father, like son”? Children absorb. Be careful what you send out. Talk with children calmly about issues instead of yelling. Suggesting alternative scenarios helps to prevent similar issues. Emotional health requires daily attention. Boredom is often the thing that comes before trouble. The only thing I’m ever bored of is violence. I wish it wasn’t so predictable. I don’t know how anyone can be truly bored for want of fun. Use your endless imagination. At the very least, be neutral. The word ‘sorry’ has lost all meaning from a history of insincere use. Live peace. Prevent ripples of negativity by not sending them out. Plant seeds of goodness instead.
Where does it all begin? It is often said that everything is generational, but you don’t have to be the product of your environment. Babies are not born violent. They are love energy. Every generation is responsible for replacing ‘inherited’ negativity with healthy, peaceful lifestyles. Even if those who surround you are violent, you can choose not to be. Hate breeds hate. Violence creates more. Wars ensue. But if you choose peace each moment, and teach peace, you can inspire more positive mindsets and actions with yours. It’s sad to watch young ones follow engrained paths of negativity. Hop off of that path. Everyone can choose for themselves, at any point. Be free of other people’s cloaks of anger and denial. They are not yours.
You were born from the universe. You are love. Think big. Zoom out. How do your thoughts, words, and actions affect your entire life? How do they affect your family and neighbours? Your children? How do you affect the earth? Track the patterns. Respond, don’t react. You have the choice of setting healthy boundaries to keep yourself safe. Don’t be threatened. Say no. Stand up for yourself. Report abuse. The world needs to be a bully-free zone. Peace is possible through self-exploration, health education, and the teachings and practices of neutral communication. Respect and empathy are a relief to our world, an often cowardly world who lashes out before thinking. Be brave and confront reality. Inspect your mind. Trace the threads of negativity. Where are they coming from? Cut the cords of violence. Communicate new paths for your brain to learn and use first…and always.
You choose. You are responsible for yourself. Heal. Let go. Be free.
It’s been a week, and a lifetime, of forming healthy boundaries. Making exceptions doesn’t put you in a place that you want to be. Explore your development of healthy boundaries, and let them keep you safe.
Live Peace. Imagine a respectful world. We can use our time and energy for goodness.
We choose…Love, ~Amor Milagre
(These journal posts are excerpts from my self-health books.)
On hot summer days, we make simply refreshing flavoured ice.
Sometimes mint or rosemary, often wild berry, and today…lavender!
Amor Milagre Organic Garden Lavender Ice
Homeschool is lovely in the summer. Explore all things botanical in the garden, come in for a cold drink, and let the mind soak up beautiful latin names, fascinating plant uses, and charming origin stories. Nature is the best teacher.
A few fresh books will be finished this month, and then it’s off to the printers!
Stay cool. Love, ~ Amor Milagre
A Gentle Life Collection
Coming Up: New Audiobooks & An Ethical Paperback Option
A table of earthy lavender feels real and full. So much of our modern world is fake, in denial, distressing, and all about the intended facade, but plants are usually pretty honest. I relish in the green air of my garden. The buds, the stems, the scents, the textures, and the flavours…
Bundles of twine-tied and dried bedroom bouquets, petals for dollhouse and wardrobe sachets, and savoured preserves for kitchen teatime potions adorn our Rose Cottage rooms this last week of June. Many blooms are left growing for the pollinators.
This spell is a simple one…scatter some seeds…rain…wait…and enjoy as your plants grow more lush every year! New blooms will come back soon after this trim. Our flowers bolted early from spring’s heat waves caused by climate change, and I am learning their new rhythms. Weeks of rain follow none at all, and I am glad we designed a drought-tolerant garden. The wildlife and pollinators adore the various intermingling plants. Glistening wings hover over large patches of colourful petals in a sparkling, humming cloud. Bliss! This is the ‘reality’ we love the most.
Roaming our rambling minty hills, we find inspiration. A handful of mint makes for a refreshing vegan shake. You can also mix the lavender and mint together in a fresh tea infusion to brew up a calming enchantment. Sit in the moment…feel that you are real and full of life! Grow goodness!
*New Green Witch books are coming soon. Check out my Lavender art pieces and books for more fresh air. Be truly you! Love, ~Amor Milagre
Amor Milagre Cottage Garden Design, Apricot Foxgloves, Planted to Match the Blush of Baby’s Cheek
This is the week of the foxglove, buttercup, peony, iris, pollinator-loving wildflowers, lavender, and the first rose bloom. The soft, pillowy petals are beloved by all wildlife. It rains, bathing fuzzy stems in shining dew. We visit each bloom as it unfurls. The flowers are helped by glistening insect friends and greet the clouded sun, “Good morning!” This is an especially magical time to study and write about the poetry of nature… and of the self. Our lessons are taken into the garden with a cup of tea and an umbrella.
Sense all around your lovely being. How do you feel? What kind of messages are whispering to you?
balance in the dance
Happy Last Days of June! Love, ~The Botanists at Rose Cottage, Amor Milagre
Amor Milagre Cottage Garden Design, Plant drought-tolerant wildflowers for pollinators
With each season, our garden renovation design grows in fuller than the last. We replaced lawns with perennial flowers and edible organic plant foods. We made fun pathways to explore under arches of towering stems and sweet blooms. The low buzzing hum increases, and new winged friends stay a while.
Scatter seeds and wait for your gorgeous surprise! Life awaits…
Amor Milagre Cottage Garden Design, Peonies
Let other flowers hold up earlier bloomers…they help as they grow…no prop sticks or twine needed!
Our first sense of the new flowering trees’ beautiful blooms! Stars! (Kousa Dogwood)
Amor Milagre Cottage Garden Design, David Austin English Rose
Sweet as June, an English Rose…heavenly scent…
Amor Milagre Cottage Garden Design, Plant for Pollinators
Planting beds of flowering, fragrant thyme with many pollinator-loving flowers in between is a sustainable way to replace lawns, enjoy your garden, encourage wildlife, and always have healthy organic herbs for the kitchen! July blooms are coming soon…but we’ll sit and hum with these first…
Visit my nature photography and artwork collections to browse more inspiration from our garden.
How can one separate time when it is all at once? My memory is an ancient one, and I love to get lost in my earliest, most natural memories. I close my eyes and see green, sparkling green. My art translates a sliver of these images. My book characters also dwell here, some in mossy hillside homes, cosy in the Earth, and covered in wildflowers. Antonia’s Bakery is a such a children’s book. My Leona novels are from another series that bridges old and new days. An enchanting new book, featuring more illustrations of natural earthen homes, is coming soon! In my stories, many ideas for preserving and appreciating nature are shared.
Below is a video about bushcraft and loving nature that feels grounding for the viewer. I came across it this week while doing some research for our woods and cottage garden. These building techniques remind me of my family now, which is my ancient soul family. We lived with the Earth and we try every day to get back to that peace. Remember when building your homes, it is important to use the most natural, non-toxic, and sustainable materials and systems. This is not only healthy for you now, but for all of the universe in all time periods. Prevent pollution and heal the Earth. Grow goodness! Love, Amor Milagre
Here is another video by a talented woman who made a similar house. I’m not into the lights, but her techniques are wonderful to learn!
Enchanted Garden Nursery Decor for a magical childhood faerieland.
This morning, an idea came to life. Magical vines danced in the blossom-scented breeze. Ribbons twirled around a wooden ring. Dreamy nappers smile up at the rose garden growing above their sweet, inventive minds.
Love to you, from Rose Cottage
Different textures, shades, colours, sheens, sizes, and shapes make for an overall pleasing effect just as in Nature.
Old souls love to reconnect to past loved practices such as hand-making lovely things for the dwelling.
We replaced our long, white canopy fabric with this airy ribbon mobile.
*To order your custom mobile, please contact me with size, colour, and theme details.
Pinks, Greens, Lavenders, & Creams: Various Flowers, Garlands, Lace, And Soft Ribbons
These rose wedding decor supplies are also beautiful when viewed from below. We wrapped the wires around the frame snuggly and pointed the rose blooms downward to inspire magical dreams.
A balanced aesthetic looks natural.
Pretty view from snuggleland.
Leftover decor loves to adorn new spaces in the home.
Don’t Forget! Tippets for Mice, Dollhouse Pixies, and Borrowers.
Contact me for all custom orders. We wish you a magical Spring!
Silky pink tulips are lovely, romantic, and cheerful for all ages and spaces. Ever so softly, the petals were beginning to fall as I painted them. This spring-inspired piece is a part of the Tulip Series and the Fine Art Flowers Collection. Gorgeous anywhere, especially in a nursery. I priced them to be very affordable for relaxed decorating. Happy Spring! Love, Amor Milagre
Choose: Original Art Piece, Art Print 8X10″, and Greeting Cards