From our new home in Portugal

Its been a bit of a whirlwind until we landed here and were invited to slow down to the rhythm of the land.

As you read this we invite you to slow down, drop and receive the frequency download of this land and place and the energy that is transmitted from here from the ancient keepers of the peace.

We are now writing from the Portuguese Mountains of the Stars (Serra Estrella) from where we are receiving and co-creating the Dreaming of the Future;

… From our windows we overlook a valley full of olive groves growing in smallholding plots or quintas as well as some woodland and the nearby hills and mountains. There are certain times of day that bring light qualities highlighting the many silken threads being woven by spiders and insects as though playing trapeze from one to the other.

Sitting out amongst the olive trees on the granite rocks in the stillness – mostly with just the sound of the birds – we are becoming more keenly aware of the vibration of the land, the rock, the air … Now and then a car passes, it could be the daily padaria, or baker, as he toots his horn in warning that he can stop and deliver pastel, bolo or fresh bread or it may be a machine noise such as a tractor. There are very few sound ‘disturbances’ and we are much removed from the ever present psychic din of more populated areas of our recent years.

Living here on the edge of a village and slowly being welcomed by more and more of the villagers is one of incredible abundance and generosity…

There is a large fig tree planted by one of the public water taps just next to our house. It provides a community meeting space in the summer months with the locals meeting up at cooler times of the day to chat and exchange greetings and news. The tree carries the very essence of abundance and community as it so generously gifts its delicious green fruit from early August until the very end of October. Everyone knows that the tree belongs to no-one and everyone. It is cared for by all and maintained by the municipal as a tree that bears fruit for visitors and residents alike. A few weeks ago the eldest of the village told us that he planted this tree when he was a little boy.

Wow! We were struck with the loving impact of their shared longevity, vitality and generosity. . . touched and so grateful to him for this legacy of abundance. He is now 94 and still working his farm, his quinta daily, with chickens, large vegetable plot, olive and fruit groves… Sometimes walking by on foot with a hoe over his shoulder and other times driving up and down the road on his little orange tractor accompanied by his beautiful black and white dog. Last week he stopped by to hand us a bag of freshly harvested persimmons, or caqui fruit and a few days ago he left a whole bucket of potatoes, onions and eggs freshly laid on our front doorstep.

Most of the villagers have their plots and gardens around the village and work in them nearly every day at a slow easy pace in tune with the seasons. One family has a mother goat with many young ones born a couple of months ago. Just last week we received our first batch of goats milk as the young ones no longer need as much and our first batch of queijo de cabra fresco was ready within hours of the warm milk being freshly delivered! Some has been given to our kefir and we have held onto a little just for drinking …  It’s so incredibly delicious – light, creamy, and gifted…

We are in the region of the chestnut and after several years in which there was no harvest due to immense fires, we were able to join in and help with the harvest a few weeks ago. This is a really special festival where the castagna shows itself as a master food ingredient! One day of  harvesting ended with a three course feast and a samhain night walk for the children to follow! We were totally exhausted and exhilarated at the same time … It’s quite something to learn what a gift this mighty tree is. For many years the chestnut was the staple carbohydrate of the region … no patates …

And now we are being lured and lulled and called and beckoned by our awareness of the olive coming into its fullness. Harvest has been gently swinging for the past few  weeks. The olive is an incredible tree, like a life pulse and agent of peace it surrounds us on all sides. The constancy of stillness and light and essential well being that emanates through these groves is an enormous contribution to us both … to our being. Experiments with the first jars of curing olives have begun and this week we delivered a small sack of aceitanas to the local cold pressing mill ‘lagar!’ Dos litros (two litres) of the finest local liquid gold will be extracted over the next couple of days!

For weeks It seemed that every few days someone from the village arrived at our door to deliver or share some of their produce and harvest with us…  as if they are just happy to share…the very basis of being and having is that there is plenty to share. We have landed in an environment that knows the abundance of Earth.

Although our language skills are very elementary we are warmed by an intrinsic naturalness in the sense of community, as though it is a known template and from where we can regenerate and seed new realities…

Our search to find a rental house back in July brought us to this village – on the slope between the higher plateaux and the river valley. We chose this old granite house on the edge of this small mountain village as it seems to provide us with much that we have been asking for – beautiful views to all sides on the edge of the village, a walled courtyard with an area for some garden along with a roofed space for the forge, a small piece of land across the road with some olive trees and space for vegetable beds and a possible sound space in the lower cellar that is partially hewn into the bedrock. We call it the sound cave … our very own caverna da som!  With a little bit of conversion and insulation we will have a space where sound is co-created with the granite rock of these mountains – amplified by the crystals within the rock which seem to come alive and awake and contribute hugely to whatever is created and broadcast from here.

The forge has its space in the courtyard barn and many new bells and bowls have been asking to be created from here.
The new instruments that are coming in seem to be bringing new vibrational qualities … more easily accessed perhaps with this incredible energetic support from Nature, Earth, Rock, People and Stars. Each of the new instruments carry the vibration of a Future of Thrival and Abundance with the sense of being able to accelerate and facilitate a new alignment for us humans with our Source and Essence as so much is being stripped away in the outer world. With much of what we knew to be our known reality crumbling, dismantling and changing before our eyes and behind the scenes it’s a joy to be having access to these high and finer frequencies through the transformation of metal

Some of the new commissioned bowls that have been created during these months are incredible beings of transformation and potency. They seem to tap into the energies of change currently available in the field – directing potent swirling energy with the awakening tones that wish to
allow a sonic contribution as a recognition of our infinite potential and potency to co-create with Earth in a totally new way.

Chestnuts on the fire or Singing Bells on the Forge?

The new instruments awaken the Dreamer within us, the Dreamer who can Dream the world into a new way of being in harmony with all that is.
They awaken the Sovereign within us who is vibrating at the level of the gold frequency, where we live, think and act from the space of We, the knowing of togetherness, interconnectedness and Wholeness.
They awaken us into who we truly are in our Essence and full Potency – sounding and creating from our true tone and its expression in the world –creating a Future timeline that allows a thriving Earth beyond our wildest Dreams …. which we can now nurture so that it exists as a young shoot emerging from the rubble of what is now crumbling.

If you’d like to see and hear the new bells and bowls you can do it here in our Peace-Trails shop and more here.

In the summer we had a window of one month to co-create our live singing bowl workshops in the UK with four different beautiful groups. Each person brought so much depth to their alchemical journeys – many of them having come out of solitary lockdown journeys. The bowl forging allowed them to alchemise their experiences into new sound instruments of great potency. We were honoured to be midwives.
 
Moving our lives to a new country has been a very big step and is still unfolding. It is a time when we are all in the midst of creating as though every moment is new … tender new tendrils emerging into the soil of our new becoming. When we really allow ourselves to be enfolded and as one with the frequencies of the immense gift that life with Earth brings us to we are closer to the source of our essence, each one of us here with gifts and capacities that shine and allow a unique cell to coalesce within the multidimensional space of infinite possibilities.

We are going to be able to offer individual and small group bespoke experiences and deeper immersion retreats to those who are keen to be here with us … a path of sound alchemy through the forge, the granite, the wider lands and the fields that are emerging here in the valley of the Muxagata River, Sobral Pichorro, Fornos de Algodres.

And as we bring this letter of gratitude for all that is to a close, we ask …

What invitation can we, on this land of the ancient path keepers of peace and essential wellbeing be, to you, as we open up the portals of the forge in co-creation with what is uniquely available here, in beautiful, warm hearted and generous Portugal?
And what frequency/ vibration can the sounds and transmissions from these lands create and awaken in you to assist everyone to be and sound the tone of your true being, creating a symphony that allows the reality around us to reshape beyond chaos and mayhem into its next highest harmonic expression?

Before leaving the UK we managed to spend five magical days on our beloved island of Iona. We both sensed a rounding and acknowledging of the past two decades of sound work that has been so richly inspired by Iona. Through a sweet, short and quiet period we came to an equinox  turning of the wheel,  a moment where we actively turned ourselves towards our next phase and invited the highest frequencies for the next phase of life on this planet… for ourselves and for the Earth herself.

From those days of the turning came forth this sound weaving gift. Recorded in the tiny chapel of Oran, a stone building that resounds every breath and tone and seems to enhance whatever we bring toward it. It is short – just ten minutes in real time. . . it brings us to the very essence of what allows us to remember who we are and possibly even why we came to Earth. It is illogical, without rhyme or reason really but it allows us, Gabriella and Heather, to pick ourselves up when we fall and falter and lift us to a greater and higher part of ourselves …. where we are once again at home with an inception point or a source connection.

We offer it here to allow it to wash away anything that dulls your light … and feel free to download it if it works for you as a refresher, a wand or ray of something that you desire right now. . .

Nature has our backs.
Nature is completely with us.
Our invitation to you is to know and live from that same ultimate truth of being.
Nature has our backs.
Nature is completely with us.
We are of Nature … let us each come to Know that and may we meet her there as partners and co-creators.