Diva Challenge 241 - Stones and Ceremony Guest blogger, Paula Bramante

I was very excited by this week's guest post over on I am the Diva's blog. It was a particularly interesting post for me because I have recently been fascinated by the image of balancing rocks.

I'd been trying my hand at balancing stones on the beach when we visited during the summer. But we'd reached September before a really special thing happened. My family and I spent a beautiful day at the beach making our own stacks of stones. It was both meditative and theraputic. The link to my blogpost about it is here and it includes the lovely photos I managed to capture that day.

It was the day we collected my husband as he returned from a very difficult and emotional week with his parents having found out that his father has terminal cancer. We went straight down to the beach to spend an afternoon focusing on things that are important to us....and family is pretty much number one, followed very closely by good health. It was also the week when the terrible images of Syrian children being found on the beaches of Greece and Turkey were shared around the world - children and families drowning just a short distance from the coast and in dreadful, unimaginable circumstances. Parents feeling that taking to the sea was a better alternative for their children than staying on dry land.

So, we were in thoughtful and mindful mood. It was possibly one of the most precious afternoons I can remember.

My original photograph
- taken as the sun was beginning to set

And so it was without hesitation that I turned to this post for inspiration for this week's challenge. As it seemed we were not to be limited by tile size or shape, I printed out one of my photographs of balanced stones in black and white and set to work in tangling it.














And my tangled version - I LOVE it!!

Tangles - from the bottom up: 'Cloudfall' by Lily Moon, 'Sand' - Adele Bruno's new tangle,
Japanese Leaves, Purk, Printemps, an official Zentangle pattern whose name I can't remember
and Sand Swirl.

Thank you so much Laura and Paula for making my week with this wonderful challenge that I feel so perfectly captures my feelings about stones, ceremonies and the importance of being mindful.

Axxx