Bird of a Feather, They Flock Together

The Soul Food Cafe Ravens

The Soul Food Cafe, founded and built by Heather Blakey, is an international. intergenerational group of writers and artists whose global mission is to promote writing and art-making as a daily practice through the use of interactive web-based technologies such as blogging and e-mail groups.

Deep within the Cafe there is a special group. This group is known as the Ravens and these Ravens live within the Rookery that was featured in the founded and built by Heather Blakey. The 2008 AdventURE Calendar features the Ravens in a choir, led by Sibyl Riversleigh, one of Heather Blakey's alter egos. This very special Alleluia choir is made up of gifted women with beautiful, unique voices. There are natural storytellers, fine artists and natural creators. They are the life blood of Soul Food and are the driving force behind the collaborative blogs that form a magnificent constellation. Make sure to listen to their melodies. This lens acts a directory and home base for the Soul Food Ravens. To learn more about this the resources Soul Food offers, please visit: The Soul Food Cafe.

This Week in The Rookery

Packing bags and heading off to Rainbow Beach

Upon arriving Wyrd Spirit wrote "I stood transfixed by the beauty of the landscape that appeared before me. I decided to stay here awhile and let the serenity of the scene seep into my spirit before turning to face the mayhem of the market and docks that lay several hundred yards behind me."

Lemuria is the realm of le Enchanteur. Back on the 12th Night, 2008, travellers stepped through portals, all over the world, and arrived at Rainbow Beach, Lemuria. Rainbow Beach lies across the bay from the City of Ladies and beyond it lie the wilds of Lemuria. Tours to these wilder, largely unexplored regions leave from Rainbow Beach.

In 2009, on the 12th Night, travellers will join Enchanteur on an old style cruise ship and cruise the Seven Lemurian seas in search of places to grow Wild Lemurian gardens. Their journey will take them to new and different parts of Lemuria and will provide the material for features during 2009.

The Raven

Soul Food's Spirit Bird

The Raven is the spirit bird of Heather Blakey and the Soul Food Cafe. Adventurers, who who have found their way in to the centre of this quirky cafe, invariably come to understand the influence of this bird who carries their messages through cyber space.

Soul Food has had a long history of encouraging artists and writers to share their work and help build the site. The Patrons Page and the Artist's Loft are just two old directories that provide links to the work of those who have walked the corridors of Soul Food. The Pizza Banquet is another place to meet some of the people who have partaken of Soul Food's very special food for the soul.

Many long standing members of Soul Food, members who have travelled within Lemuria and actively participated on Soul Food blogs, become Ravens, flock together and live in the The Rookery This lens celebrates these individuals who have made Soul Food and the Rookery, home.

To be accepted at Soul Food all you need is an authentic voice and the courage to use it.

Spend Christmas and the New Year at Riversleigh Manor

Christmas at Riversleigh Manor

When you step through the magic portal and enter Lemuria you will see Riversleigh Manor in the distance. Riversleigh Manor is the central hub of the Lemurian colony, a new world being populated by artists and writers from all around the globe. Each...

AdventURE Calendar 2008

AdvenTURE at Riversleigh Manor

You are invited to join everyone at Riversleigh Manor where the 2008 AdvenTURE Calendar is being created. This virtual Advent Calendar will be launched on December 1 and will live at the Soul Food Cafe. For the duration of this calendar Soul Food Co...

Soul Food Cafe - Advent Calendars

There is a tradition at the Soul Food Cafe. Each December, for the past five years, Heather Blakey has launched an Advent Calendar on the first day of December. Advent calendars have long helped build excitement and anticipation on the countdown to C...

Christmas at Riversleigh

is the key arena for Ravens and community members.

The Soul Food Cafe is effectively providing an online writing/art group. Soul Food Cafe members work within a group and respond to prompts that are provided within the Cafe and on lenses linked here.Christmas at Riversleigh is currently providing a key base for members of the Soul Food Cafe to rest and relax in the period leading up to and following Christmas.

Here you will find links to the most recent posts at Riversleigh

These days Riversleigh Manor is the first port of call for those seeking an audience. It is the place where everyone can meet and work with those who have helped to make the site the place it is today.

Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

More Collaborative Forums at Soul Food Cafe

There are a host of collaborative blogs that the inner circle at Soul Food engage in. Hopefully this section will help you locate them.

Christmas at Riversleigh: Word has reached the faithful housekeeper, Ebony Wilder, that her mistress, Sibyl Riversleigh is returning to Riversleigh Manor for December this year. Sibyl has sent Ebony word that she is inviting a crowd to join her to experience the true spirit of Christmas companionship. So staff have been engaged and the old house is being aired and prepared in readiness for the arrival of a troupe of colourful artists, musicians and writers.You would be very silly to miss out on a season of fun at Riversleigh.
City of Ladies: Residents seem to enjoy going on le Enchanteur's Walking Tour which takes in things like Dame Washalot's Bath House, the Mouseion, Beggar's Quarter, the Marina and much more.
Beyond the City Walls: Beyond the walls of the City of Ladies lies Rainbow Beach. Beyond Rainbow Beach are wilder parts of Lemuria.
The Late Show: There must be a place, or a picture, a song or a face that inspires you to feel Halloween in your bones then this is the place to share those tales, those images, a place to sing those songs Halloween.
Taverna di Muse: The Taverna di Muse, operated by Lori Gloyd, provides a Salon atmosphere for community members at Soul Food.
Rose and Swan Theatre: This Rose and Swan Theatre is the place Heather Blakey brings community members, after a torchlight procession through the streets of the Lemurian City of Ladies, to present their first fruits to Demeter.
Mrs Parson's House: In 2007 Soul Food Community members celebrated Halloween in Mrs Parson's House.
Arte Culinaria: Arte Culinaria is a recipe archive specifically for the writers and artists of the Soul Food Cafe and is the off-spring of the Taverna di Muse, a literary and arts e-zine.
Murmuring Woods: Explore the haunting, mystical woods that lie beyond Riversleigh Manor.
Soul Food Cafe Art Room: This blog is all about the visual arts side of blogging and in particular, the creation of visual arts that have been inspired by your journey's into the magic of Lemuria.

Lori Gloyd

Lori Gloyd is a fourth-generation Californian and grew up in the Los Angeles area where the multicultural diversity and eclectic sensibilities of the area influenced her development as a photographer, writer, and artist. Her specialty is "recasting reality" by using her photographs as foundations for digital montages and mandalas. Lori was educated in the Humanities and sums up her creative identity as "a historian by schooling, an observer of the natural realm by inclination, and a voyager through the world of spirit by compulsion." She explores the convergence of history, place, and culture in her creative works, often infusing her pieces with a spirit of otherworldliness. Her short stories, photographs, and digital artwork appear regularly at the Soul Food Cafe. Lori currently resides atop an ancient sand dune near Los Angeles.

Lori's Blogs

Lori's blogs include Into the Blue, a portal to all her works on the web, and Return to the Garden, resources for growth and change.

Into The Blue: "Into the Blue" is the portal to tbe creative works of Lori Gloyd.
Return to the Garden: Return to the Garden, is a resource for growth and change that was inspired by the Wild Garden project.

If Stranded on A Desert Island

Lori would have a copy of this book

Lori checked this book out over and over as a kid and when she found it re-issued as an adult, she snapped it up.

D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths

by: Ingri d'Aulaire, Edgar Parin d'Aulaire

Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 12/30/2009)

Meet Imogen Crest

Seeking balance from the busy corporate world, Monika Roleff became Imogen Crest, the Hermit, under the influence of Heather Blakey, Enchanteur extraordinaire and webmistress of Soul Food Cafe. Soul Food Cafe is a global online writing and art group that practices art/writing on a daily basis. Monika Roleff is a qualified writer, advanced practitioner in vibrational healing, consultant, and nature photographer, interested in writing, nature, healing, wholeness, sustainability and personal development.

Imogen's Work Online

Sustainability City: Sustainability City" is part of a Soul Food Cafe initiative called "Wild Gardeners". The intention of this lens is to provide information on urban sustainability, how it is possible, and how it is working every day, often without any fanfare or fuss. Nature just does the work, and the living things of the plant kingdom thrive to their natural pace of evolution with the seasons. It's easy in busy lifestyles to forget that Nature endures, that all life has its place, even in heavily populated urban environments. Possibly these are the places that need nature the most?
Creative Nature: Accept Evolution...

Nature is an ever changing process, and without it, the planet would be continually suffering. Trees protect and make homes for small creatures, shelter people and provide shade. Some people believe they have soul, and can attract you to them. Whatever you believe, they are beautiful to look at, as are most things in nature. Take a look at some beautiful images, and think of the diversity in nature...

All images copyright and remain the property of Monika Roleff(nature pics) and Heather Blakey (archetypal sketches)...
Reading Lounge: olitude at the Lemurian Hermitage can be found in the reading room, to enjoy the benefits of contemplation though reading. Put on some relaxing music and choose from the range of soulful reading materials available here.
Crest Hermitage: Crest Hermitage is a place where Nature and its colour and healing quality take centre stage. Through daily working with the surprising quirks and patterns of nature over a year at Soul Food Cafe, under the position of resident hermit, Imogen Crest, I was inspired to create the world as I saw it, through Nature and colour. The store is hosted by Cafepress and the products give back the connection to Nature that is often lacking in busy lives of modern people. What you surround yourself with, becomes your reality. This lens applies interesting information on Nature,colour and healing, and is linked to the store, where it can also be accessed. Products are shown below, which are periodically changed, created as original photographic art by Imogen Crest . Feel free to leave a comment in the box below, and explore the links to learn more about Nature, and the way it works for us, and around us.
Soul Food Store: Nature provides endless inspiration for the Abbess when she takes solitude for creating art at the Hermitage. Autumn has arrived, bringing beautiful changes of colour to the leaves of trees, walks in the cool breeze by the sea, and thoughts of abundance at the Hermitage. Imogen Crest and the Abbess often turn to gardening for creativity, working with the changes that Autumn brings, in the vast grounds of this place of solitude.

Imogen's Essential Book

"This book is the best in its class, a really amazing resource for women. Unbeatable reading anywhere."

The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image (Compass)

by: Jules Cashford, Anne Baring

Amazon Price: $17.82 (as of 12/30/2009)

Meet Jill Sullivan

Jill Sullivan is a visual artist who works in various media including textiles, paint, print, book arts and who has also, since joining the Soul Food Café at the beginning of 2008, started to experiment with the written form.

She is inspired by nature in all her glorious guises and the 'inner' worlds she has inhabited and
inhabits, with maybe those of other wanderers she may meet along the way.

Like a magpie bright things attract her so her use of colour can be bold, an expression of energy, life-force and joy!

For the past few years she has been working predominantly in group projects but is now concentrating on much more personal work.

She loves to work in what she terms free-form which consists of random drawing, doodling, writing - letting the subconscious take over as in free-associative, stream-of-consciousness writing, sometimes with a definite theme in mind, sometimes not, the better to make those inner connections with self, spirit and the natural world.

Jill's Blog's

Meandering Muse: "let the beauty of what you love, be what you do" Rumi
Wyrd Spirit: This is where I will chart my travels with L'Enchanteur into the realms of Lemuria and beyond. All of the pieces relating to those journeys and the feelings that are evoked will be recorded here. Please enjoy.
The Waiting Game: It is a matter of waiting to see how this blog will evolve and take shape.

Alice Walker

is Jill's Desert Island Companion

The Temple of My Familiar

by: Alice Walker

Amazon Price: (as of 12/30/2009)

Meet Barbara Banta

Barbara follows the trail of life's wanderings with enthusiam and
curiosity. Recently retired from 20 years in her local public library,
she now looks forward to returning to art, her first love. She may
dabble in water colors, but generally she favors the dry mediums,
pencil, charcoal and pastels. Portraiture is her favorite subject.

Packed away carefully in the back of her closet are three novels, one
a completed manuscript and two others in the preliminary stages of
development. She is secretly praying NANOWRIMO will not beckon again
come November lest another rough draft be added to the pile.

Striving to perceive life with clarity but also with a sense of
optimism she studies her Christian faith and investigates the wisdom
of other faiths. She may often be found meditating or engaged in
on-line spiritual courses.

With interests as varied as: art, reading, religion, writing,
computer, languages, cooking, world affairs, charities, the UN, and
ecology, Barbara is grateful to the age of technology and all the
opportunities it provides. Several years ago she found her way to
Heather Blakey's Soul Food Cafe, settled into the Lemurian Abbey and
has never left. There she will continue to spread her creative wings
and stretch her boundaries into lands as yet unexplored.

Barbara Banta's Blogs

Porchsitter: Connecting my dots... the truth and fiction of a lifetime and beyond.
Beautiful Path: Faith, Spirituality, Gratitude, Joy, Creativity, Writing
Believer: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." Psalm 19:14
Good News Cafe: Ever find yourself depressed or overwhelmed by world and national problems that seem insurmountable? You're not alone. The serious issues confronting us today are unprecedented.

This lens will focus on creative solutions, compassionate people, unusual ideas and programs from the USA and around the globe.

Providing Comfort and Companionship

for Barbara

The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary

by: Robert Alter

Amazon Price: $23.10 (as of 12/30/2009)

Meet Gail Kavanagh

Gail Kavanagh has been writing and drawing ever since she could hold a pen. Writing and art are both an escape, and a way of making sense of the world, of seeking out the truth. Born an Irish traveler, Gail now lives in Queensland, Australia. Her family is her greatest joy, and often her inspiration for digital art, painting, poetry and even blog creation.

Gail's motto is, ``I am the curve of the bow; my strength is the bowstring; my will is the arrow." To make the arrow fly straight and true is her only ambition.

Gail's Work Online

Creative Fire: We do not know how, why or even when life began. We do not know how, why or when human life began, or how it evolved from its earliest ancestors to the forms we wear today. We guess at reasons for brown, blue, round and almond eyes - flat, straight or large noses - different hair colours, mouth and lip shapes, ears, languages.

But one thing seems clear. The same creative fire that infused a dead planet with life burns in us. From the earliest times, the desire to create has been a driving force.
Gail Kavanagh: I was born in Cobh, Ireland in 1946, into a traveller family. I travelled with fairs, circuses and shows until the early 70s, when I married and settled down to raise seven beautiful Aussie children. Today I live on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, and spend my time doing crafts, art and occasional paid writing gigs. The slower life (after having to make a living as a journalist) is lovely, and suits me to a T.

I have been a member of Heather Blakey's Soul Food Cafe for some time now, and have set up a Gypsy Camp within its boundaries. Soul Food, and Heather Blakey's beautiful world of Lemuria, have been an inspiration to me, helping me create poetry out of my chaotic life.
Traveller Rose: It may seem like the height of arrogance for someone unknown to write her story and publish it on the web - but it is precisely these memories of unknown, everyday people that are lost in the passage of time. What we would give for some insight into the lives lived by those whose stories were never told - history records the deeds of the great and the infamous, but some of us yearn to know how the baker, the candlestick maker, and perhaps even the unremembered entertainer, the traveller who passed by and didn't leave a name or a forwarding address, lived their days.

Traveller Rose is the pen name of one of those who passed by - maybe it was your town. Maybe you will recall a skinny traveller child - or `chavvie' in the palari, the language of the travellels - who moved on as quickly as she arrived - there may have been a visit from the circus, a variety show at the local theatre, or a noisy fairgound. These are the stories, of those events, those places, that child and the world she knew, the people, the performers, the laughter and the adventures. This is for her children or grandchildren, really - but also for anyone who wants to sit a while in the caravan, with a mug of hot,strong tea, and hear the tales.

*Traveller Rose is Gail Kavanagh, a writer living in Queensland, Australia. Born a traveller in Cobh, Ireland, in 1946, Gail is writing this blog so that her memories of a world long vanished, so the memories don't vanish along with it.
Lemurian Star Gazers: Gather here on starry nights to discuss astrology.
Lemurian Gypsy Camp: The theories of Romany Origins have been many; they are the lost tribe of Israel, they were Egyptian (hence `gypsies') - they have even been suggested to be interstellar wanderers from another planet. But it seems that genetic scientists have finally nailed it - the Romany come from India.

Right here in Oz, at the University of Western Australia, Professor Luba Kalaydjieva and her team discovered the origin of the Rom by studying the DNA of up to 10 million European Gypsies.

The study has been going on for 10 years, and is the best evidence yet of the true origin of the Gypsies.

Desert Island Essentials

in the mind of Gail Kavanagh

I would take the one book I have owned as long as I can remember in various editions and which I definitely could not live without - my Roget's Thesaurus - and I'd sneak a large supply of notebooks and pencils in there somewhere! But that goes without saying in a foodie.

Roget's International Thesaurus, 6th Edition

by: Barbara Ann Kipfer

Amazon Price: $13.22 (as of 12/30/2009)

Meet Fran Sbrocchi

Soul Food's Crone

A Canadian octogenarian, Fran grew up on the edge of the far north, went to a tiny country school, became a teacher, her childhood ambition for she had counted her teacher's thirteen pairs of shoes. She taught in small schools for a few years and left for the west coast of Canada the year the snow fell higher than telephone poles.

In British Columbia, Fran went to a northern island city where she met her husband, a teacher too. During the next forty years she had two children, taught, went to university almost every summer, gained a couple of degrees, administered large high school libraries, taught summers and nights for UBC, worked in Australia and, on her retirement returned to UBC to study creative writing.

Widowed, writing became her doorway to friendship, and a new life on the edge of the most western city in the world with a new love who shared her interest in poetry. Fran has long been interested in computer communication and found a home base on the internet with the Soul Food Cafe when Heather Blakey and she began a correspondence some years ago.

Fran Sbrocchi's Blog

Cronelogical: Visit and you will find Frans poems and digital paintings.

Our Crone

would sit lost in the world of her origins

History of England

by: G M Trevelyan

Amazon Price: (as of 12/30/2009)

Meet Anita Marie Moscoso

Anita Marie Moscoso is a true votary of Soul Food and she has turned writing, on a daily basis, into a life style. Her blogs are constantly updated and at Christmas she produced a story a day at Riversleigh.

Cold Storage is Anita Marie's Soul Food Workbook, the place which she calls her own little cyber morgue. The only thing is, Cold Storage is very much alive, as indeed, are all the dead that A.M.M. so capably breathes life into.

It is hard to know just what use people do make of the creative stimuli at Soul Food but there is no doubt that Anita Marie has taken the prompts offered and given them a very special take. She always manages to surprise webmaster, Heather Blakey, who regularly asks if she 'is trying to frighten' the residents. However, the residents just keep asking for more so there is no saving them. They all conspire and Mrs Parson's House was a much visited property over Halloween.

Work of Anita Marie Moscoso

Cold Storage: My family comes from The Cold and The Quiet and The Dark I am from a regrettable garden that is in the center of a green field where grey stones and granite leave it's mark above forever.

My family's tree is leafless and bent and it casts shadows across tables where no one feasts and everyone weeps.
Anita's Owl Creek: A blog filled with the work of Anita Marie Moscoso.
Irregular Bones: Irregular Bones is Anita Marie's Writer's Journal.
The Twilight Zone: In 1923, J.C. Henneberger began Weird Tales--The Unique Magazine. Throughout its 30-year history, the obscure pulp published some of the most outré fiction ever issued. The stories were odd, macabre, and completely unique. Weird Tales existed in a void, and the stories published therein reached pinnacles of strangeness never equalled.

Anita Marie Moscoso, who presides over the Twilight Zone in Lemuria and at the Soul Food Cafe writes about the odd and the macabre. Her weird tales are a delight and, not surprisingly, Anita Marie has a growing fan club at the site and beyond. Her stories have been translated in to Japanese and Chinese and bring delight to those with wicked imaginations all over the world.

Forever Bound Together

This book is always with me. I keep it along side my notebooks and pens that I always carry with me in my bookbag.

And inside of my copy I keep this poem- it's exactly how I feel about my stories. They are my 'Enduring Bones'

The Immortal Part
A. E. Housman

When I meet the morning beam,
Or lay me down at night to dream,
I hear my bones within me say,
"Another night, another day.

"When shall this slough of sense be cast,
This dust of thoughts be laid at last,
The man of flesh and soul be slain
And the man of bone remain?

"This tongue that talks, these lungs that shout,
These thews that hustle us about,
This brain that fills the skull with schemes,
And its humming hive of dreams,-

"These to-day are proud in power
And lord it in their little hour:
The immortal bones obey control
Of dying flesh and dying soul.

"'Tis long till eve and morn are gone:
Slow the endless night comes on,
And late to fulness grows the birth
That shall last as long as earth.

"Wanderers eastward, wanderers west,
Know you why you cannot rest?
'Tis that every mother's son
Travails with a skeleton.

"Lie down in the bed of dust;
Bear the fruit that bear you must;
Bring the eternal seed to light,
And morn is all the same as night.

"Rest you so from trouble sore,
Fear the heat o' the sun no more,
Nor the snowing winter wild,
Now you labour not with child.

"Empty vessel, garment cast,
We that wore you long shall last.
-Another night, another day."
So my bones within me say.

Therefore they shall do my will
To-day while I am master still,
And flesh and soul, now both are strong,
Shall hale the sullen slaves along,

Before this fire of sense decay,
This smoke of thought blow clean away,
And leave with ancient night alone
The stedfast and enduring bone.

Online text � 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From A Shropshire Lad | 1896

Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories (Penguin Classics)

by: Algernon Blackwood

Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 12/30/2009)

Meet She Wolf

She Wolf - aka Jane Wolfinbarger - lives in the Rocky Mountain region of the western United States. Blessed (or cursed) with a vivid imagination, she has always taken great pleasure in all sorts of creative pursuits. Visual arts, embroidery and sewing, paper crafts, a little bit of stained glass, knitting and spinning, reading, digital photography and above all writing have all played important roles in her life.

She Wolf likes to garden and go for walks or hikes in the spring and summer. She curls up with quieter things during the long winters. Dragons and gargoyles and other sorts of strange creatures are frequently her companions along with the more mundane dogs and birds that populate her household.
Married for 29 years, She Wolf is the mother of four mostly grown children.

She Wolf's Blogs

Wolf Dreams: These are the tales told as part of a dream.
The Wandering Path: Welcome to the wandering path through my garden. I find it to be a place full of magic and wonder. Feel free to join me for a while in a quiet nook and enjoy my stories.
Wolf Dreaming: This is the companion blog to my main blog, Wolf Dreams, where I share my stories (mostly fantasy) and The Wandering Path, which contains mostly photos of nature and flowers (it is hibernating for the winter.) I wanted to have a place where I could record my thoughts on things as well as my personal memories and those of my mother, who loves to tell stories about her childhood in the Depression. Thank you for coming to visit.
Wooly She Wolf: I know, I can hear it now. "She Wolf, don't you think you have enough blogs already?" Well, yes, I did. Then someone I know suggested that I start one for my knitting and spinning. Since I do not write about these on any of my other blogs, I thought that perhaps this was not a bad idea. So this blog was born. It is for my knitting, spinning, and dyeing, and other needlecraft and fiber arts as well. Thank you for visiting, and please feel free to leave a comment.

Jane Wolfinbarger would find comfort

in Shakespeare

The Tempest: Side by Side

by: William Shakespeare

Amazon Price: $6.95 (as of 12/30/2009)

World of Shakespeare: The Complete Plays and Sonnets of William Shakespeare (38 Volume Library)

by: William Shakespeare

Amazon Price: $284.23 (as of 12/30/2009)

Meet Vi Jones

Vi is a transplanted Welsh woman living now with her life partner in Arizona. She is proud of having been born and raised in Wales, the daughter of a tall and handsome father and a strict mother.

Vi is an author and a poet. She is deeply involved in photography and is excited by the possibilities presented by the digital age. She has recently taken up digital painting. Several years ago, she discovered the Soul Food Cafe and through it has added several new creative dimensions to her life.

At eighty years of age and a cancer survivor, she feels she has much to look forward to, and is taking full advantage of the learning possibilities coming her way.

Her advice is to never allow the brain to atrophy...to keep moving forward both physically and mentally. Do that, and you'll do okay.

Vi's Blog

Paths of Time: A collection of art and writing by Vi Jones.

On the Desert Isle Vi Jones will have

her copy of the complete works of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare: The Complete Works, Deluxe Edition

by: William Shakespeare

Amazon Price: (as of 12/30/2009)

Meet Lois Daley

"I sit at my kitchen table and look through double glass doors to a tree that grows to the right of my back garden only a few metres from where I am. It is not an oak but a lemon tree, not tall but wide with worn limbs, green lucious leaves heavy with fruit and sweet smelling blossom after the rain we have just had. It is a joyous tree with a history known to all the family."

Where I belong is my Lemuria
Where ancestors have placed
their feet,toiled and shaped
that which is my heritage
On the soil they left for me is
where my strength is gained
I do not travel far
I seek no distant visions,
It is all at my doorstep
It is where the lemon tree stands
Lusty ,unbending in all its strength
My Muse and I see Lemuria as our
North,our South, our East our West

Lois has been a part of " The Soul Food Cafe" in all its journey .. in every way possible .. starting out writing in journals (I have hundreds of them) then being taught to use a computer by Heather Blakey.

During her time here she has met many men and women over the years who have walked the Soul Food road with Heather and feels she, perhaps, has the honour of being the " Antique" of the group, a title I own proudly and gratefully.....

Lois Daley's Work Online

Work at Soul Food Cafe: Lois has a collection of work that appears at the Soul Food Cafe.

Meet Kerry Vincent

Kerry E. Vincent is a lifelong student of the creative process. She has been hooked on creative writing since the first grade, when her teacher enthused, "Kerry has talent - and a very big imagination!" She has been writing ever since:poetry, fairy tales, novels, trade magazine stories, newspaper articles, journal entries, responses to Soul Food Café's Pythian Games Mad Challenges prompts.(Sometimes she even gets published, on paper and/or online, though she hasn't quite figured out how to make a living out of doing what she loves the most.) Kerry is happiest when lost in a fictive dream.

Kerry tries to do something creative every day, for at least 15 minutes a day. Like Michelangelo, her credo is, "Ancoro imparo!" ("I am still learning!") In the last few years she has tried new creative challenges, working in stained glass and handcrafting beaded jewelry. Inspired and encouraged by Soul Food Café friends, she is now experimenting with digital photography, attempting her first artist trading cards, and playing with computer created collages. She also enjoys firing up her HotHead blow torch to work in the flame making glass beads from scratch. (Kerry admits to being a bit of a pyro-maniac, but stresses she always observes recommended safety precautions.) She posted something about working with glass almost
every day of April 2008.

Coyote is Kerry's spirit animal - a combination of trickster, joker, shaman, and shapeshifter. She has always loved fairies and is proud to be pixie-led. She dwells at the edges, at the fringes, in the
twilight time, when magic happens. She believes we can apply our creativity to transform our pain into art to help ourselves heal and become whole.

Since Kerry can't (won't?) focus on one area of creativity, she named her blog "Creative Kaleidoscope."

Kerry's Work Online

Creative Kaleidoscope: Creative Kaleidoscope houses the work of Kerry Vincent.
Lemurian Line: Kerry's travels on the City of Ladies Walking Tour 2008

Kerry Vincent's Desert Island

Companion

I think for island reading I'd take Ursula K. LeGuin's "A Wizard of Earthsea" (a Hugo & Nebula award winner for those who care about such things) about a young wizard, way before Harry Potter, and dragons, hawks, goats, otaks, mage winds, blue balls of were light, summoning spells, shadows and gebbeths, true and false friends, and learning how we are our own best friends and worst enemies sometimes...

A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1)

by: Ursula K. Le Guin

Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 12/30/2009)

Stacey Anne Cole

Stacey-Ann Cole (aka Soultide) left full time work to care for her baby son and subsequently re-discovered her creativity whilst staying at home with him. She says re-discovered because Art was once her favourite subject in high school but she left it by the wayside to pursue a 'real' job. Now her son is in primary school but she's kept up with her art and writing with huge amounts of help from the Soul Food Cafe community, which allows her to be creative with no strict rules but only gentle guidance.

Recently her art is what is inspiring her the most, in particular watercolour painting and she is enjoying going to her local painting class once a week and practising at home the rest of the time. Slowly, she is overcoming her creative fears and doubts and creates straight from her heart, hoping that her work will be received into the universe, touching a few hearts along the way.

Soul Tide's Work Online

Creativesque: A collection of the art and poetry of Stacey Anne Cole.
Discovering Soultide: Stacey Anne Cole's journey's with le Enchanteur

Stacey Anne's Desert Island Selection

Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy

by: Sarah Ban Breathnach

Amazon Price: (as of 12/30/2009)

Cheshire D. Smith

Cheshire D. Smith joined Soul Food Café at the end of 2006. She immediately settled in at Riversleigh Manor and began participating in the broad array of opportunities that are available to Riversleigh residents. During 2007, some of her favorite places to be included Riversleigh Manor, Taverna di Muse, Lemurian Hermitage, The Murmuring Woods, and The Open Studio. (Establishing an expressive arts studio has been an important step for Cheshire and she would like to thank Lady Sibyl and the Riversleigh Foundation for their support of The Open Studio.) In the summer of 2007, Cheshire's twin sister, D.Q. Jones, visited Riversleigh. One of her first observations were-quote-"I know a good thing when I see it. And this is good!"-unquote. In January of 2008, both sisters joined an expedition which is currently exploring the lands of Lemuria.

Cheshire D. Smith has begun a second career as an expressive artist and D.Q. Jones is an independent journalist/writer/traveler. Common interests include art, music, reading/writing, theater, science fiction, nature, cats, psychology, cultural studies, and anything else which piques their curiosity or their sense of humor.

Cheshire D. Smith and D.Q. Jones are pen names of a Pacific Northwest writer/artist who stumbled across Soul Food Café while browsing the web one day and later jumped down the rabbit-hole of blogging. As in all good fiction, her characters soon took charge of the story and she has been following them around ever since. As to any similarities between author and characters-let's simply say it's coincidental, serendipitous, inevitable, and deliberately accidental.

Cheshire's Work Can Be Found

Lemurian Hermitage: The Lemurian Hermitage is one of the places Cheshire has posted at.
Taverna di Muse: Check the Taverna di Muse for more of Cheshire's writing.

Cheshire's Book To Have On The Desert Island

Life, Paint and Passion

by: Michele Cassou, Stewart Cubley

Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 12/30/2009)

Meet Soul Food's Traveler

Traveller, British by birth but living in continental Europe, is in her mid fifties. She recently opted for early retirement and dreams of creating full time. She describes herself more as a craftswoman than artist and dabbles in digital photography, makes mixed media collages using rubber stamps, found papers, etc, etc, has made jewellry, has knitted (machine and(hand), sewn, made mosaics and sculpture. Currently struggling to learn her 5th foreign language. Seeks and sees beauty in all things and is happiest in a natural environment, including her beloved garden, the source of many of her digital photos. Enjoys travelling and is a keen observer of life around her when on such travels.She started being interested in creative writing a couple of years ago and likes to combine words with images.

Traveler's Blogs

Travellers: Just where will this traveler go. Here at Soul Food we just know it will be somewhere very exotic and that our traveler will capture it all brilliantly.
Hortusmirabilis: A very special wild garden.
Horus Litterarum: A special Wild Garden project.

Shakespeare Travels With Traveler

The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition

by: William Shakespeare

Amazon Price: $26.40 (as of 12/30/2009)

Meet June Perkins

aka Gumboot Pearlz

June Perkins- otherwise known as Gumbootspearlz recently joined Soulfood and is enjoying the fine company of the artists, travellers and writers gathered in all its havens and creative places. She lives in the Northern part of Queensland close to the rainforest on the coast and not too far from the mountains and some awesome curtain fig trees.

She is mother to three inspirational kids, who like their Mum enjoy writing, music and photography. Many rainy days in her present home have given her even more need of creativity, to write of rain, and find lots of creative things for the children to do indoors when it is too wet to go outdoors- let's build a world in the lounge room and inhabit that world. Gumbootspearlz enjoys collaborative projects, and working across art forms and currently enjoys working to motivate and inspire others to write in a primary school and local community setting as well as photographing nature walks.

June Perkin's Work Online

World Citizen Dreaming: A collection of poetry and photography
Pearlzo Art: An exhibition space, with previous exhibitions of photographs and texts being Archives in the Land and Childhood Dreamings. This space changes and evolves. More exhibitions of images and words forthcoming.
Gumboot Pearlz: A place to share samples of work, projects and reflections on a writing and photographing life.
Pearlz Dreaming: A journal and collection of thoughts about education, artistic, spiritual and storytelling. Lesson plans, reflections, and lots of writers links included. It is an eclectic space.
Celebrate Dad: A celebration of fathers, and a space where I create poetic responses to other peoples photographs, and ask for their permission to blog their photos with those words.
Ripple Wall Poetry: A blog of the ripple poetry wall created for Cardwell shire in 2007. Will there be a continuation of this project and another poetry wall? Time will tell if there is more rippling of poetry into another creative project .

June's Desert Island Read

The Secret Garden

by: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Amazon Price: $3.95 (as of 12/30/2009)

Meet Joanne Austin

Joanne Austin is a writer and editor who won her first literary prize-a giant, stuffed Mickey Mouse through an FAO Schwarz essay contest-at the age of seven. Since then, she's gone on to write for two extremes: the financial services industry and a magazine that features the weirder variety of urban legends, folklore and Forteana. At the latter, she's edited a special edition of the magazine and interviewed a wide range of weirdly interesting people, from famous mentalists to infamous vampires. She also compiled and edited Weird Hauntings: True Tales of Ghostly Places, which has won two awards: Best Paranormal Book of 2006 at the Ghostworld Convention held in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Best Book about Ghost Hunting (Non-Fiction) in 2006 by Hollow Hill/ISPGH. She is currently working on a second anthology of ghost stories from around the United States, and lives in a dark, wooded corner of northwestern New Jersey.

Joanne's Work Online

I Should Be Writing Now: This is where I pretty much go on about any old thing that interests me.
The Black Thumb: This is a Wild Garden blog that I confine to things I find in nature or while gardening.

Stranded on a Desert Island

Joanne Austin would

minimize feeling bad by reading about someone else who was stranded.

Life of Pi: Deluxe Illustrated Edition

by: Yann Martel

Amazon Price: $21.56 (as of 12/30/2009)

Meet Thalia - aka Valerie Lima

Thalia - aka Valerie Lima - found that her multi-cultural/multi-religious background in the early years, provided the backdrop/environment in which an artist father made available art supplies and love of books while a nurturing mother bestowed unconditional love and listening to set the stage. Her natural interests in spirituality and nature, family and loved ones, reading and writing, gardening while watching worms and gazing at the stars, crafts and cooking, history and science, provided the outlets and impetus for processing the many facets of herself.

After being married 33 years, having 2 grown children with families of their own, she realized the time had come for divorce and moving on to a new life even while continuing to honor those years. Now she is with a soulmate who shares and encourages her spiritual and creative growth. This led to contact with various groups fanning the writing and art creativity fire. Soul Food Café, with its beautiful WordPress sites and the associated blogs of its talented members has been a bellows for that fire, further melding creativity with computer technology.

Being influenced by hospice patients and ideas while working for hospice, she found that she could use compassion and creativity in teaching volunteers in training, inservices and monthly newsletters while giving meaningful, and usually surprising presentations, to the community on the usually avoided-like-the-plague topic of death and dying. She is fortunate to have received the many and rich rewards of hospice: awareness of what is really important, acknowledgement of appreciation of every moment of the day (whether large or small), the transformative power available for both hospice workers and patients/families in embracing the inevitability of death. These experiences reaffirm the goal of truly "living until you die."

Thalia's Healing Garden

Healing Haven: A place of healing using gardening and creativity

Meet Samantha Menzies

With a youth work, disability work and nursing background, Samm is a self-taught mixed media narrative artisan, inspired by all things "family" and "collection".

Currently Samm teaches mixed media type classes on the Mornington Peninsula and is focussing her goals on becoming a travelling teaching artist and art therapist. Her artwork reflects her love of found objects and their previous owners and Samm takes commission work for people wanting to gather personal belongings and ephemera for special occasions or genealogical purpose. These pieces generally take the form of narrative mixed media jewellery and altered books.

Samm's artwork and personal life are documented on her blog

Samantha's Work Online

The Hoarder's Daughter: Daily musings on life, being an artisan and living in this crazy world we live in
Textile Artistry: Weekly musings straight from the shop door

My Favourite Place to Roost in Lemuria

calling all Ravens

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Quick Glance - Raven Blogs

Heather Blakey: Baba Yaga's Wild Garden is the place where Heather Blakey expresses her wilder self.
Winnie Rose Reyes: Home of Winnie Rose Reyes who says she is a "vegetarian, chromophyliac, visual artist, teacher, friend, cook, lover of movies, chocolate, coffee, books, cake and shoes whose committed to being happy and living life to the full, even if it kills me!"
Leslie Sharples: The Winding Stair is the home of the work of Leslie Sharples.
Patricia Stewart: In Pale Blue is the work of Patricia Stewart who has had a long association with Soul Food. She says that "Soul Food Cafe reminds me of an ancient tree at the end of a very long path and the lenses are on the path that lead you to the old tree. It is a beautiful concept."
Mon Petit Coin: mon petit côté artiste qui s'exprime ici Blogue bilingue, selon le sujet abordé, sur ma vie, mes loisirs et ma créativité - bilingual blog (depending on the subject) on my life, my hobbies and my creativity
Chefleur's Caprice: Cle's ecclectic blog documenting her daily life, not necessarily on a daily basis.

Words That Guide Ravens

in their creative endeavours

Here are quotes that Ravens live and work by, words that guide their pens and artistic tools each day

Bird of a Feather, They Flock Together

The Soul Food Cafe Ravens

Contents at a Glance

This Week in The Rookery

Packing bags and heading off to Rainbow Beach

The Raven

Soul Food's Spirit Bird

Spend Christmas and the New Year at Riversleigh Manor

AdventURE Calendar 2008

Christmas at Riversleigh

is the key arena for Ravens and community members.

More Collaborative Forums at Soul Food Cafe

Lori Gloyd

Lori's Blogs

If Stranded on A Desert Island

Lori would have a copy of this book

Meet Imogen Crest

Imogen's Work Online

Imogen's Essential Book

Meet Jill Sullivan

Jill's Blog's

Alice Walker

is Jill's Desert Island Companion

Meet Barbara Banta

Barbara Banta's Blogs

Providing Comfort and Companionship

for Barbara

Meet Gail Kavanagh

Gail's Work Online

Desert Island Essentials

in the mind of Gail Kavanagh

Meet Fran Sbrocchi

Soul Food's Crone

Fran Sbrocchi's Blog

Our Crone

would sit lost in the world of her origins

Meet Anita Marie Moscoso

Work of Anita Marie Moscoso

Forever Bound Together

This book is always with me. I keep it along side my notebooks and pens that I always carry with me in my bookbag.

Meet She Wolf

She Wolf's Blogs

Jane Wolfinbarger would find comfort

in Shakespeare

Meet Vi Jones

Vi's Blog

On the Desert Isle Vi Jones will have

her copy of the complete works of William Shakespeare

Meet Lois Daley

Lois Daley's Work Online

Meet Kerry Vincent

Kerry's Work Online

Kerry Vincent's Desert Island

Companion

Stacey Anne Cole

Soul Tide's Work Online

Stacey Anne's Desert Island Selection

Cheshire D. Smith

Cheshire's Work Can Be Found

Cheshire's Book To Have On The Desert Island

Meet Soul Food's Traveler

Traveler's Blogs

Shakespeare Travels With Traveler

Meet June Perkins

aka Gumboot Pearlz

June Perkin's Work Online

June's Desert Island Read

Meet Joanne Austin

Joanne's Work Online

Stranded on a Desert Island

Joanne Austin would

Meet Thalia - aka Valerie Lima

Thalia's Healing Garden

Meet Samantha Menzies

Samantha's Work Online

My Favourite Place to Roost in Lemuria

calling all Ravens

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Quick Glance - Raven Blogs

Words That Guide Ravens