After the storm...

Well Irene did a number on us, but thankfully we got away pretty good compared to lots of places. So many other states got hit so very hard, and I feel just awful about them. We’re on day 4 with no power…and don’t tell my family , but I’m kind of having fun living in the dark….considering my work has power, as well as my father and step mother, we’re much better off than a lot of people.  We’ve been able to shower and get fed by them for the last few days, and I can charge all the electronic devices while at work.  We run on propane at the house, so we still can cook, but no showers or flushing…unless we dump buckets of water in the toilet tank and get “things” to slide down via gravity LOL Given that we didn’t have the money at the time to stock up on food, we managed to not lose anything in the freezer besides some waffles that my daughter said tasted funny anyway.  Whew! But that’s another thing I’ll be keeping in mind as any more storms get closer.

My poor city boy, Warcraft addicted husband is having problems coping with this…he’s also out of work….we came home the other day to find him doing puzzles at the kitchen table. Daughter has been coming to work with me, and is getting very bored sitting behind me in the world’s smallest office all day. My mother and her husband decided to hole up at the local casino, having enough wampum points for 2 free nights…unfortunately they are on the list as not getting power back until the 4^th of September.

I also think the bit of tea-light magic I did throughout the storm really helped out.  We had very few downed branches in the yard, just one tree lost its top but it stayed hanging, waiting to be pulled down by us and be hauled off, and one branch that fell on the fence, but we were able to roll it off to the woods and straighten the fence before the dog even noticed he could have escaped.  When it was all over with, I also made sure I lit a candle of thanks also…considering the amount of trees that surround us, the Goddess was definitely listening to me this weekend.

One of the things that is making me angry is the outpouring of hatred towards the electric company in this neck of the woods…why can’t they get it on faster, etc etc….I do think it’s an east coast thing, we’re miserable and cynical (some of us anyway) and we always want something done yesterday and tend to whine and moan and blame the government when we’re effected by anything.  Good grief, I can’t imagine if these people had to go through something of a Katrina like crisis…strange though, they are managing to get themselves on the news paper website to complain about their lack of power.  These men and women of the electric company, as well as the tree trimmers, etc…really are out there working hard, handling large trees that could crush them, or wires that could electrocute them, and they’re doing it to help us out.  Sending them positive energy and good vibes for a safe time with things.  Next times, those complainers should be more prepared.

Speaking of prepared…anyone else hear that Tropical Storm Katia is on the way next? LOL!  This weekend I’ll be making a trip to the Dollar Tree to get some fall decorations for my altar and house…I’ll also need some more tea lights!  I’m definitely going to get the D batteries ahead of time (that particular lantern only crapped out last night) and another case of water before we need it…just in case. 

At least Mabon season is approaching…I could always use another power outage to start seasonal crafting LOL

Come on Irene!

I'm a weather nut..I love it, I obsess over it...it keeps me amused.  I come by it naturally, my mother has the same problem and so did her father...he practically floated away during the big one of 1938 up here.  So we'll be spending the next few days hunkering down and locking up everything that isn't nailed down in the yard..just in case. 

There will be a garden gnome rescue mission..they shall be evacuated to reside on the sun porch to ride things out.  Candles are ever present in my house and I'm taking the opportunity to work a little tea lite magic and made up a weather protection spell in the hope of any damage that we might get stays minimal. 

Should things go really bad, there are bottles filled with water so we can flush and I still have the old fashioned hurricane oil lanterns that my grandmother had, complete with bottles of oil and extra wicks...the best thing about moving into a grandmother's house is that there is always something you don't know you're going to need, sitting on a shelf somewhere waiting for you to need it LOL

I'm also starting to gear up for Mabon.  I'll be putting out my new fall altar cloth soon. I trimmed up the edges with crimping shears (left by Nana of course) and am starting to make lists of what I want and need for decorating.  Amethyst stones and gnomes are two of the things that will go out on the big and little altars and eventually I'll hit the dollar store for mini gourds and pumpkins, leaves and flowers for my seasonal wreath. I still have to decide which tarot card "speaks" to me for this holiday...I'm sure it will come eventually.  I love fall and I'm really psyched that the season is almost upon us!

Oh..just a bunch of stuff....

I’m having one of those times where I’m getting really tired of the people I know…they’re become a handful and I’m about ready to climb back in the hermitage to avoid all contact with the outside world.  Anyone else feel that way?  My husband calls himself antisocial and from time to time I give him crap about it, but I’m really starting to think he’s got a point.  The outside world is just full of crazy people who seem to think they can do no wrong. How does this happen? Were these people raised by wolves, or just by assholes that didn’t bother to teach them how to function like normal people?  I’m trying to be a good person and have been doing a lot of thinking and talking to the Goddess about this and I’m still not sure what to do.  I’m sure the answer will come eventually, or should I be forced to confront things before I’m ready, I think I can handle it the right way. For now, I’ve bombed my house with sage and did a lot of cleansing, mental, physical, spiritual and my sanctuary is back to normal, thank the Gods…as for the rest, time will tell I guess. 

In other, better news, daughter and I went to our first Pagan Pride Day this weekend…it was very neat.  There were so many things, and people, to look at. We were kind of on sensory over load, so we didn’t stay for any of the lectures and unfortunately didn’t get to hear any music either…I think we just hit it at the wrong time. But the people were awesome and I bought the coolest wall plaque, a large concrete pentacle with a goddess symbol in the center…its now hung over my seasonal altar on the porch and looks like it was made specifically for that spot.

The plaque was made by a guy named Gargoyle Pete of Cornerstone Creations of Sturbridge MA…check here for more info on his Ebay store etc etc.  http://www.psdirectory.com/stores/sculptures/corner-stone-creations.com  Everything he made was reasonably priced and absolutely awesome…I also picked up some silver and gold candles for God and Goddess representation on the altar, which was convenient because the last ones I had were almost burned down.

This weekend my daughter also turned 13...feeling a little old now, but knowing I’m not. I guess it’s hard for everyone to see their babies get older. There are no longer any toys to buy and the birthdays are more low key now instead of bunches of screaming kids running around tossing cake and ripping open goody bags.  It’s weird and nice at the same time….she’s been self limiting birthday activities for a few years now, but this was by far the most relaxed type of day. It was nice for everyone…hopefully this is a sign of a turning point, where the everlasting terrible 2’s have finally ended (LOL no really, I was starting to worry) and the very cool little person I always knew was in there will finally come out to play.

Yesterday we went for a long hike through the woods with the fat dog…3 miles and I’m pretty sure at one point he swore at me, but it was nice to be out in nature...we somehow had avoided this most of the summer, and I haven’t a clue why.  Too hot maybe…or too lazy…or too much Little House on the Prairie LOL Regardless, we picked up pine cones, looked for lady slippers, found a covered bridge we didn’t know was there and checked out fallen trees…a great day that ended with a feast and a good night sleep. Now, if only all days could be that good!  J 

Titleless Tuesday....

I’m getting tired of all the rain this week…..allllll day yesterday, its coming back this afternoon and then Friday, Saturday and Sunday….argh! I’m sure the plants are loving it and maybe even my grass will grow some more, but its daughter’s birthday this weekend and I’d really like to do something outside with her.  I guess we’ll see what we see when it happens.  As of right now, I’ve just planning on indoor things…Harry Potter 7 at the Imax, a ghost tour at one of the Newport mansions…aaaand, well after that I got nothing LOL  If I’m feeling really feisty, we could go into Boston to the science museum….who knows! 

Saturday is Pagan Pride Day at the war memorial park….I’d love to check that out…but not in the pouring rain and lightening.  Apparently its rained on them for the past few years, which also coincides with my daughter saying most of her birthdays have been rained out the past few years as well….poor  kid….poor Pagans too!

In other news, I’m really trying to motivate myself to sewing up the altar clothes that I bought last weekend.  I seem to be having a huge bout of laziness and can’t get my mental act together…we’ll chalk it up to mercury in retrograde and maybe I’ll just sit on things until that passes. 

I have managed to get myself together and light a candle for Isis on Friday, spent some time at my Hecate altar on Saturday and then spent the full moon feasting and dancing with rowdy relatives at my uncle’s wedding where I came home with a bruised foot from jitterbugging with my adorable oaf of a favorite cousin and a cherished memory of him to file away. Sometimes the Goddess she works in mysterious and amusing ways LOL

I’ve also been working on a daily prayer to say during the whole DC40 debacle that’s coming up. I’m a little weirded out by the whole thing as are many people, so this is my own way of doing something about it….a solitary, quiet something but a something none the less.  I’m awfully tempted to head over to the state house on my lunch break on the day they’re going to be here just to see what, if anything is going on there, but a part of me just wants to stay under a rock LOL So I’ll just put my energy to good use and hope it helps deflect and diffuse whatever it is they will be putting out. I just hope everyone behaves and nothing bad comes out of this. 

I asked a “real” catholic what their take on it is, and they know nothing about it…which I actually think is fantastic. Her son, a former political aid, is at seminary school in Rome, so she’s my connection to information of all things (normal) christian and political…and has reassured me (for now anyway) that these shenanigans won’t fly and the political realm will more than likely not be jumping on this bandwagon.  Whew!

Well its wednesday....

Wednesday...hump day....and the week is almost over....I love long weekends because the next week goes by so fast.  We have a wedding this weekend, so that makes things exciting.  But what I'm really looking forward to is the darn sourdough starting finally maturing. I started it last Thursday and it's kinda like a pet...you have to "feed" the sucker every 12 hours, which was fun at first and now I'm just tired of it.  But I believe its worked properly and I should be able to store it in the fridge very soon...then its just a feeding when you use it and or every few weeks when you're not using it.  I'm hoping to use is this Sunday...I think the recipe i have makes two loafs, so I'll start freezing the extras I make. I'm hoping to get a winter stock pile going of both bread and meat.  I decided to get a membership to the local wholesale club and go bananas on bulk meat products.  I'm hoping this will temporarily appease my strange need to be ready in case the government collapses and the world falls to shit for a while LOL

The other night I also started my garlic and apple cider vinegar health tincture...my little squeeze top bottles are on their way in the mail.  With all the different properties that both things have...blood pressure, cholesterol, antibacterial and antibiotic as well as a host of other things, I'm hoping to keep myself a little extra healthy during this cold and flu season.  My cousin the health nut has agreed to try it with me. I added in a little magical enchantment to it as well, emphasizing the protective qualities too...every little bit helps!

The calendulas are coming along quite nicely, every other day it seems I get about 5 blossoms to clip.  Right now I have almost half a pint jar filled with the petals.  I'm getting really anxious to do something with them! Last week I placed an order with Mountain Rose Herbs, getting tins, jars and oils...I think I'll be infusing sunflower oil with the calendula petals. Its supposed to be "deeply nourishing and conditioning for the skin" and also easily absorbed, and I'm a big fan of anything easily absorbable LOL Hopefully I'll be patient and survive the wait for all the flowers to finish blooming!

Tonight I need to go out and trim the mints...I had been hoping to get enough of them to infuse another oil, but I'm not sure that's going to happen...I'm just winging it for now and I'll see what happens. I swear I'm the only person who can kill mint! It may just end up going in some potpourri for the winter..I really love mixing lavender and mint together, it smells good and really gives the house a happy vibe.  During those long winter months, we need all the happy vibes we can get!

Before they wake up....

I'm up...and alllll alone!  Today is my pretend Sunday morning...we're the only state left who has VJ off and right now, i think that is just fantastic! Its been a great long weekend....yesterday the child and I went on a few missions...stopped at my mothers and picked up a baker's rack and if I'm lucky the husband will put it together for me today.  This is where my plants will live for the winter...theres more room than just the little TV stand that's there now.  Then off to the dollar tree where I snagged some more plain tea lites (16 for a buck) and made the awesome discovery that they no longer sell tubes of 10 incense cones, and have replaced them with boxes of 40 cones! I also scored some lavender floor cleaner, which I used to completely douche out my basement yesterday afternoon. 

We're prone to collecting mold from the humidity and we're also slobs...so sometimes things get away from us lol...moving on, we ended up at a fabric mill and I got fabric for three new altar cloths for the seasonal altar I decorate....a pattern in some nice fall colors for September and November, some really cool spider webs for October and a green with red and white holly kinda things for December. Now, I just have to sew the edges and make em pretty. 

For a bit of humor, I got to watch my father and step mother eye the altar as they picked up and dropped off the child on Saturday...nothing said, just the looks...which is par for the course with them.  They were told a long time ago about my thoughts on religion and being a pagan, but I think they just thought it was a phase...ah well, what are you going to do.  Now my mother on the other hand, the flowers on the altar came from her yard...shes very cool and spiritual in her own way, without a specific path.

But I digress....the child went with my parents shopping for the day on Saturday, which is a huge thing as recently shes been trying to climb back into my womb lol and the husband and I got to have a little lunch date at a very nice restaurant we had a gift certificate for. That was really nice...sometimes we have to practice at remembering how to be grown ups out in public and hold conversations with each other.  I assume lots of parents go through that...and especially so since neither one of us are very chatty to begin with lol
I finally got to mow the front yard and trimmed a hedge while i was out there too....today, maybe, I'd like to weed the back herb garden a little bit...I'm sure the demon weeds are creeping back in there. 

Saturday we also hit up the local farmers market and discovered a neighbor selling plants there...I've walked to her house and bought stuff she had on the side of the road before...so it was nice to put a face to the plants.  She gave me a peppermint plant because the one I got last year didn't really come back, which was awesome...and I ended up buying an artemesia and some Egyptian walking onions...which I may try to grow now because they are kinda cool looking.

Well that's my weekend babbled wrap up....I think we'll be ending up going swimming somewhere today since its only 9 am and already seems hotter than the back side of satan's balls! LOL

New books and some really low tech pictures!

I got new books yesterday....how exciting! Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen, The Pagan Book of Days by Nigel Pennick and The Encyclopedia of Magickal Ingredients by Lexa Rosean.  The kitchen books I had been wanting for a while now...so much easier to have all kitchen information in one convenient spot to reference quickly.  I had just recently learned about the Pagan Book of Days and decided to check it out...as they say, theres always a reason to party....so its nice to have a reference of reason to party pagan style LOL  No really, I think it will be good to know more about what goes on on what days, and it will help me research into more events that I wasnt aware of before now.  Nothing beats a reason to learn more, right?

I took a few cell phone pictures of some Lammas stuff Monday night...and now I will share them, mostly so I can see how this whole picture attachment option works on the blog...bear with me! LOL

Oh look...here's some bread. I attempted to carve a pentacle on the top of it before I cooked it, but the effect was slightly lack luster....but the intent was there...that's what matters. It  was absolutely awesome and the three of us killed all but four pieces of it during dinner lol

Ah...well it seems my computer only wants me to put one picture in this blog....y'all will have to wait for the blueberry slump picture, my seasonal altar and the Indian in full ceremonial regalia.  

All in all, it was a great night, a great dinner and the little ritual I held in honor of the season was quite nice.  I always love how my bedroom smells like sage when I'm done too...it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to smell it, like a magical/spiritual hangover to go to sleep too! Here's hoping that everyone had a nice Lammas!

Happy Lammas!

I kind of feel like I started celebrating Lammas starting Friday night....quite accidentally! I had planned on hitting up the farmers market Saturday to pick up whatever looked good and use it in a feast at some point this weekend.  Then Friday night, my husband decided to make meatballs and yells from across the house....did you plant parsley??  Why, yes...yes I did...and that turned into, let me pick some oregano and basil for those meatballs as well...I was just tickled pink to have herbs I grew myself used in something he was making.  And they were fantastic!

Saturday we did get to the farmer's market....getting fresh corn, a cucumber, garlic, blueberries and a sun flower.  I try to keep a small bit of seasonal decoration on my kitchen table, so that's where the sun flower went...it looks quite happy there.  Luckily I had a vase big enough to keep it from falling over!  We spent the rest of the day at the Northern Narragansett Indian powwow, which was very interesting!  It was nice to zone out and hear the drums and chanting.  We also felt very spiritually cleansed since they had sage burning all day long and it was wafting over the whole field.  I ended up buying some from one of the Indians...I'm looking forward to burning it in the house. We had quite the feast again for dinner when we got home, the fresh corn, red potatoes and a "good" steak with some summer ale.

Last night I set bread dough to rise...the fantastic brain bread that takes 18 hours or so to rise...for dinner tonight, along with cucumbers in vinegar, fresh summer squash from my mothers garden...and hot dogs probably, unless the husband thinks to take the chicken out of the freezer!  I'm also going to make a blueberry slump...warm blueberries in their own sauce over biscuits/dumpling type things and topped with whipped cream for dessert...mmmm! Later on, I'll do a quiet candle ritual to honor the season and reflect on the past season, and my daughter and I will make new corn dollies with the husks left from the corn the previous night. They will sit on the shelf of random pagany paraphernalia in my kitchen and watch over us until the spring.
A Happy Lammas to all...may all your harvests be plentiful!