July 9th, 2016

Well, you know what they say about a road paved with good intentions... It seems like every time I think it might be calming down enough that I could update this blog regularly, life decides to have a laugh at my expense. June was very, very busy between a vacation, bridal shower, and almost every conceivable sort of family issue. Anyway, I am back. I have some pictures from our trip that I will share (I'd been hoping to liveblog it, but the hotels we stayed in usually didn't have wifi), at least to start things off.

Mussel shell on a lake shore in Albert Lea, MN.

The Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD.

The Badlands National Park, SD.

Big horned sheep (with a baby!) in the Badlands, SD.

Mt. Rushmore in SD.

Devil's Tower National Park in SD.

Little Bighorn National Cemetery, SD.

Lakota prayer cloths tied to a bush in Little Bighorn, SD.

Sunset over Colombia Falls, MT.

Glacier National Park, MT.

McDonald Falls in Glacier, MT.

Rocks on the riverbank in Glacier, MT.

Mountains on Going to the Sun Rd. in Glacier, MT.

Snow melting into a waterfall in Glacier, MT.

Mammoth Hot Springs at Yellowstone National Park, WY.

An enormous chunk of Aventurine next to my foot; apparently it's a fairly rare stone, but happens to occur in a small town in Montana.

The Paint Pots in Yellowstone, WY.

Blue Star Spring in Yellowstone, WY.

Old Faithful Geyser erupting in Yellowstone, WY.

Grand Tetons National Park, WY.

Overall, it was a really cool trip. There was a lot of driving, but we got to see lots of amazing scenery and wildlife. I brought home some stones, of course, and a book, which I will eventually get to writing about, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy the photos, and I apologize for the long break from posting.

March 6th, 2013

Winter Storm Saturn hit us yesterday, snowing about 9", and closing school. I nearly had a heart attack when my mom woke me up at 5:00 yesterday morning, but it was nice to get to sleep in. After finishing my homework, I spent something like 10 hours crocheting a little Totoro plushie (see the picture) - he's really cute! Totoro is a nature spirit from Miyazaki's animated film, My Neighbor Totoro; he's pretty fantastic. I'll have to put up pictures later though, as I ran out of time to take one this morning. In other news, my AP Environmental Science class is going to the zoo tomorrow, which should be a lot of fun. What exciting things have you done recently to celebrate nature?

February 11th, 2012

Today is a beautiful day. We had some snow yesterday afternoon, and now the sun is shining off it and making everything seem brighter than usual. I redecorated for Ostara, and found some great cloth place-mats we never use. They have two bunnies on each and a few irises. I've dusted them off, and now they're making lovely replacements for my pink altar cloth, which was really just a scrap of torn fabric. I've also cleaned up a bit, as things were getting out of place, and was throwing off the energy of my room. It's attuned very specifically to me, and I can always tell when something is wrong. Even now, things don't seem quite right, and I suspect it is due to my reading corner. I've had my Amaryllis and Nick's Paperwhites there, and for some reason, they started acting up the other day. I suspect too much water is the cause, and I've tried to rehabilitate them properly, but so far there hasn't been any improvement. The Amaryllis in particular is doing poorly; some of the leaves have started to yellow and turn droopy. I moved her out into the kitchen where the light is better, and I'm trying to regulate her water more carefully, so hopefully she'll feel better. I don't have too much (successful) experience growing plants, so if anyone has any idea what to do for a sick Amaryllis, please let me know! Even having made these changes, I think the area has gotten over-cluttered, so I'm going to do some work today getting things straightened out physically. Astrally speaking, I really need to redo an energy-cleansing spell I came up with a while ago, and clean the atmosphere through the whole room. I've had kind of a rough two weeks, and some of that negative energy has seeped into my surroundings. Anyway, here's my Ostara altar (video to come later):

January 20th, 2012

Yikes, finals week. As far as I can tell so far, my magick/study combo has paid off, and of all the finals that have been graded thus far, I've gotten an A. I didn't do anything too fancy magickally, but I've been wearing yellow and doing affirmations for memory at night. Good luck to everyone still testing, and Goddess bless. In other news, my brother's Paperwhites began blooming Wednesday night, and by now the two largest stalks are in full flower.


Here they are Thursday night (you'll notice my Amaryllis has grown too).


A close up of the flowers. Aren't they gorgeous?! They're very fragrant. When I got home from school yesterday, I walked into my room and spent a full five minutes trying to figure out what this very floral scent was, before realizing it was the Paperwhites.
The flowers may be blooming indoors, but outside, it's as cold as ever. We're getting a snow storm now, and it's just beginning to pile up. While I'm very pleased that the weather has gotten itself back into its normal pattern, I'm quite happy enjoying the winter wonderland from indoors, thank you. No need to actually go out in the cold, is there? ;)

January 14th, 2012

What an interesting two days it has been! Yesterday, while waiting for rehearsal for the musical to begin, I was listening to my iPod, after putting 600 MB of Pagan music on it the other night. As I was sitting, my choir teacher/musical-director walked up and asked what I was listening to. He knows that I'm Pagan, so I said "Pagan music," and handed him an ear bud. He listened for a few minutes, and gave me kind of an odd look before saying "I had no idea that even existed. You'll have to burn me a CD, as this is clearly a topic I haven't explored deeply enough." Then later, as he was telling the rest of the cast off for not attending set-building days like they're supposed to, he thanked me for going, saying "God bless you", and then correcting himself, saying instead "May the Goddess watch over you". I was rather flattered that he cared enough to be so nice about it, and I did end up burning a CD for him, giving it to him at set-build this morning. When I got home, I found that these crazy-awesome plants of mine have grown again. Here they are now:


Compare that to the picture I took on Tuesday, when they were barely two inches high. I love their enthusiasm, and they seem quite pleased with themselves. In other news, Mother Nature may be back on track now, as we had another sprinkling of snow this morning, to add to our four or five inches. Huzzah!

Snow Blessing

This seemed appropriate, given the weather today. Have a safe, blessed winter season, friends.

January 12th, 2012

I am quite excited today, for a number of reasons. First of all, I was able to burn myself a CD last night of over 6 hours of Pagan music, which I then transferred to my iPod. Since we did a lot of quiet in-class work today, I got to spend some time listening to it. Then, for the first time this winter since perhaps November, it snowed today! Not only that, but we have something like 4 inches. I can do nothing but thank Goddess for this fantastic blessing, as not only is it more than a little strange-feeling to have no snow in January, but the plants need all the water that the snow provides to nourish them throughout spring and early summer. I got a bunch of new things recorded in my BOS, and finally, I have all my homework done, leaving me free to enjoy the evening!

December 17th, 2011

Today, I want to summarize all the little things I've been meaning to post all week, but haven't gotten around to. I finished my painting of the moon, inspired by a beautiful sunset the night before Esbat:


I made some of my teachers Yule/Christmas/Hanukkah/whatever clipboards:





I finished my Yule gifts for Hazelnut and Raincloud:


And finally, I woke up this morning to see this outside: SNOW!


In other news this week, my English class adopted a family from the Giving Tree: a single mom with six kids. We were able to raise over $1000 in cash alone, and got them everything on their wishlist: clothes, bikes, food, toys, electronics; it was really amazing what people donated. Later this afternoon, my mom and I are going with our Community Choir to carol for the people in a nearby nursing home, and might bake some cookies or fudge when we get back! :)