Thoughts from the garden

Today is a beautiful day, sandwiched between several days of cold rainy weather.  Tomorrow is supposed to be unpleasant again but today is fantastic.

Look at that!!  The sky is clear and such a pretty blue.  Don't see that much any more between the unpleasant weather and the airplanes spewing their garbage.

 The Woad I started last spring is blooming this spring.  Nice!

 Clary sage....one of the three sages I use in some of my specialty herb teas.  This was also started last spring in pots and is doing well after transplanting this spring.

 The strawberry plants are covered with blooms and the bees are busy collecting pollen and spreading it around.  Without bees, there would not be many berries.  If you look close you can see the bee at work.

The white bleeding heart seems quite happy. 

What you see here is a wheel barrow full of goat manure with spent hay and grain mixed in for good measure. Most people see this as a pile of....shall we be polite and say...poo! They would be correct, that is exactly what it is. As a matter of fact I have about 20 of these to move today.....by myself!

However, abundance is where you find it, no? While most people see this as a pile of poo, and are correct, others see this as abundance of future growth. This pile and the other 19 are all heading for compost bins and raised beds in my garden to break down into soil enriching nutrients. Then coming from this will be nourishing food my myself, friends, family and perhaps even for others to purchase with the knowledge that this food is grown as Mother Nature intends, with the help of the garden fae.

 So...that's my day....how about yours?

I saw the Grinch at WalMart

I guess it isn't really much of a stretch to think that one would find a grinch at WalMart.  No, not the Dr. Seuss variety.  So here is what happened:

I was pushing the cart around with grandson #3 in the seat.  We had looked at the holiday yard blow-up things, went to the other side of the store to pick up the few groceries I wanted, then back to the holiday blow-ups.  Finally, he was satisfied that he had seen all he wanted to see so we headed to the check-out.  I was not in any particular hurry, we have a whole day so no need to rush.

I think that store is famous for having 15+ lanes but only two or three open at a time.  This was the case this morning.  As I was approaching the aisle, a woman came barreling towards the aisle and swung in real quick just before I got there.  As I pulled in behind her, she was throwing her items on the conveyor practically shoving the man in front of her.   She reminded me of my hens in the barn when they have their feathers all up in a dander.

When the cashier finally got to her pile of loot, she greeted this crabby nicely and asked her "how are you today?"  The crabby answered...."don't ask if you don't want to know the answer!!"  I sort of did a double take on that one.  Meanwhile, in the aisle was another worker organizing the gift cards.  I started putting my items on the conveyor talking to grandson and trying to send good psychic vibes to this grinch.  Those vibes bounced right off her!!  The cashier didn't say anything else to this woman.  As she was throwing her bags into her cart I had stepped in front of the ATM machine.  I noticed that the woman hadn't paid yet so I backed up.  Good thing too because her look at me...well, if looks could kill, I was at least injured!  Finally, she completed her transaction.  The cashier said, "have a good rest of your day"  The response?  "well, now I have to walk ALL THE WAY TO THE OTHER END TO LEAVE THIS PLACE!  This is total bullshit!!!!"

 She stormed off and I just looked at the cashier and said "Wow.  Well, I am in a good mood so you can ask me how I am doing, I will not snap your head off."  The cashier laughed and relaxed immediately.  The service manager that was standing nearby smiled and the gift card lady also smiled.

All those bad energies bouncing all over that aisle!!  We all chatted while the cashier rang me out.  I asked her if she gets that very often.  She told me that it is all the time.  You would be surprised how many rude and crabby people come through the aisles on a given day. 

I get having a bad day and being in a rush.  What I don't get is being mean to total strangers who have nothing at all to do with whatever has you angry.

I hope that the good vibes that bounced off miss crabby grinch landed on the rest of the people who were around her and made their day better at least.

Need help - Hiding places

"Tis the season for gift giving.  The grandkids are all getting old enough to notice toys and pictures on boxes but are all young enough for Santa.  The house is pretty full of stuff with two families basically living here right now.  The gifts are starting to roll in from online shopping.  So here is the problem...where to hide the gifts?  I am going to work on one storage closet and rearrange some things to make room.  The kids never go there.  I am thinking maybe I could empty out a cedar chest of quilts and put presents in there, but then what do I do with the quilts in the meantime?  The car is out of the question.  The garage may work for some things.  Perhaps on top of the hay in the barn?

I would like any ideas anyone has to offer.

Blessed Smahain, Happy Halloween

Welcome to my home and the bit of Halloween decor I do, especially for my grands.

And then visits from dark angels, ninjas, cowboys and indians!!

After festivities are over, time to spend on the Samhain aspect of the day.

This is last year's altar, but his years will be similar. 

"The" question

"Are you a full blown............Nah, you are not."

Yup, that is the question.  The answer...a slight smile and coy look.

A friend was reading my bumper sticker today.  You know the one...



And then he looked at me and said, "Are you a full blown...."  At this point I gave him that slight smile and coy look that says, "maybe, what do you think".  Upon which he gave me a pat on the shoulder and said, "Nah, you're not."

I guess the question is, "a full blown" - what?  Yes, the bumper sticker may indicate I am a full blown fan of the theater musical "Wicked", which I am.  That particular adaptation of The Wizard of Oz confirmed my hunch that maybe the wicked witch is just misunderstood.

Or perhaps the sticker is a clue to my occasional "Don't mess with me" attitude.  I am usually a mild mannered person, but once in a while I am looking for those flying monkeys to send after someone.

Or maybe, just maybe, the sticker is one of my hide-in-plain-sight things that indicate there is a part of me which stays in the broom closet to most people. 

My friends, (Hi Don and Jan, if you are reading this) are great people and certainly open-minded.  They wouldn't be offended nor especially appalled if I were to say "Yes" to what I think the question really was.  But the pat on the shoulder and the "Nah, you're not" is also a pretty good indication that I am also not fitting into the stereotype of a practitioner of what we refer to as witchcraft.  I don't wear the pointy hat, I don't have the clothing style that many think of as witchy, I don't go around with a big ol' pentacle hanging on my neck.  Not that there is anything wrong with any of that, it just isn't me.  I am a pretty normal mid-west farm gal.  My daily outfit consists of blue jeans, or black denim if I am going 'dressy', and t-shirts. I wear a Raven necklace that was gifted to me by my bestest online friend.  (Yes, there is a reason for that which is maybe a story another day).  Before that I did have a dainty little necklace that was a pentacle hidden in hearts which I had worn for years until it broke and got lost. My bestest online friend told me a few days ago that she thinks I am going to be tumbling out of the broom closet before I know it.  Perhaps, but I still doubt that.  My own family doesn't know even though they walk past my craft room daily and see what others 'in the know' would see right off.  I don't feel compelled to come bursting out of the broom closet and send people into a tailspin. However, I don't deny what I am to those who are perceptive enough to see what is before them and I know that they are not going to freak out.  I often use the slight coy smile and say "sure" to the question to those folks.  Most of the time they think I am just playing even though I am telling the truth.

The first person that walked into my booth at the fall festival a couple weeks ago took one quick look at the items I had on display.  This young lady looked at me knowingly and after a glance to see if there was anyone around she whispered to me,"I am a Pagan."  I didn't hear her and asked her to repeat herself which she did.  We talked briefly about not saying that too loudly here in the Bible belt.  We had a nice visit, she purchased some of my witchy herbs and incense and went to her family's booth.

Later that day another older woman came into my booth and looked around.  She said to me "Isn't it wonderful what God has given us in His creation to use to keep us healthy?"  In the following brief discussion about the medicinal value of herbs she invoked the name of Jesus a couple of times.

Funny how people can look at the same things but get completely different things from what they see based on their own perspectives.

Woo Woo Wednesday

Here I am, screeching back to my blog after seriously neglecting it this summer.  I could list the excuses but eh, by-gones are by-gones and all we can do is move forward. I have been keeping up, almost, on reading the blogs I regularly follow so I don't feel too out of the loop.

To celebrate my return...hahahahaha...I am doing a "Woo-Woo Wednesday" thing.  I put it on my facebook page to my pagan-friendly list and am going to put it here too.

Today I am doing free, one-card Angel readings.  I am specifically working with the angel themed oracle cards this week.  If any of you want a one card reading, just let me know and I will work you in.  I have done three so far this afternoon and it has been a pretty good success.  Only one of them said she is going to have to meditate on it because she isn't quite sure if it fits.  I suspect it does but maybe not right now. 

If you would like a one card reading, just leave me a comment with a way to contact you privately.  You can ask a question or just get a message of the day.  I have the grandson so I might not get to you until later tonight, but I will get to you.