May 15th, 2017

I am home for a fraction of the summer, but at the end of this month I am heading out of state for an internship! It's hard to say how much I will get on here when I'm working full time, but there's lots of natural area around there that I would like to explore and share with my readers.

And now for an assortment of updates...

Last year, I acquired a prickly pear cactus at a native plant giveaway that was happening at school. I re-potted it, but was concerned that perhaps I had done something wrong because of how little it was growing. However, my worries were assuaged by coming home to find this:

It's got the tiniest little cactus pad growing out of the top of it! I'm so happy!

Also, the peonies are blooming, which for me is the surest sign that it's summer.

I did run into a bit of a snag on my way back from school - my pentacle and triquetra ring, which I've been wearing every day since I bought it over a year ago, fell and got irretrievably stuck in the moving van. I must have tried to pry it out for over an hour, but no such luck. To me, that meant that either it was just that ring's time to go, or that it had gotten too overloaded as a protective talisman.

Either way, I knew I needed a new one, but I did not have a lot to spend on a relatively "frivolous" item. I ordered the ring pictured above from New Frescos; I'd never ordered anything from there before, so I was not sure what the quality would be like, but it's a sterling silver piece and it's really nice! I think I overestimated the size just a tad, as it's a bit loose, but that was my own fault.

Otherwise, I've been getting a lot of yard work done, mostly repainting things like the porch railings and trim, so that's been keeping me busy.

May 10th, 2016

I have my last final exam today, and then I can go home for the summer! I can't wait to be back in my own room (and I'm very excited about our vacation in June - more on that as events progress). I felt it was appropriate to wear what I think of as my Athena socks to class; they have owls on the tops, and say "WISE" on the bottoms.

July 14th, 2014

This may be about to qualify as the worst week of the summer. It's that time of year again, ladies and gentlemen - the dreaded Vacation Bible School week.
Even when I was a cute little Christian girl who wore dresses to church every Sunday, I hated it: the campy songs, the pointless recreational games, and the (frankly bizarre) skits. Now that I've graduated the program itself to having to volunteer as a teen helper it's gotten marginally better, especially since I can just help in the arts and crafts room all morning, but the fact remains that there's overly-catchy VBS songs playing on a loop the whole three hours, and I have to stand there watching cute kids make cute crafts and then tell them that they're supposed to ruin what would otherwise be a nice project by plastering "I heart Jesus" on it.
Don't get me wrong: I wholeheartedly support religious freedom in this country and likewise understand that Christian parents feel it is important to see their kids brought up in the church. On the other hand, my mom is well aware of the fact that I don't do the whole Christianity thing, and I still have to do VBS in the summer and teach Sunday School during the school year. I do my best to humor her, but after fifteen years, it's gotten a little old.
Usually, I can sort of muscle my way past the gag reflex because often the crafts are at least fun and can be made in such a way that you don't have to glue the pink glittery crucifixes all over them. In the past, I've ended up taking the VBS crafts and making things like a divination cloth, a hanging lantern for an electric candle, an offering basket for my Mabon altar, and the like.
This year, on the other hand, all the items in question look like they're going to be kitschy projects that are fun for six-year-olds for the five minutes after they get home before they get abandoned in the closet for the next evolutionary age. There's one thing that looks suspiciously like a prayer bead bracelet that may be redeemable, but after an entire morning of foam monkeys saying, "God's love is GIVING!!!", I'm about ready to hand in the towel.

Litha Altar

It's a bit late now for pictures, I suppose, but I did want to share some insight into my Litha altar from earlier this month because it highlights a couple of new design elements.

If you're familiar with how I usually lay out my altar, it's pretty immediately obvious what one of those changes is - I've got my BOS moved over to the left side instead of centered. I actually don't like that as much, because it feels a little off-balance to me, but I just bought the navy blue altar cloth at Kinkakuji in Kyoto, and I didn't want my binder covering up the design. Naturally, it got covered up anyway. Go figure.

I also bought this little guy in Japan - he's my new (read: only) crystal ball. In actuality, I'm reasonably sure the ball is glass, but it works as a focus point, and it's being held by a precious little bunny, so how could I refuse?

And then there's this. I mentioned it a few posts ago, but this is a (bad) picture of my new chalice from Aunt C. It's hard to tell with the poor lighting, but it has a purple triple moon symbol on it with a triquetra in the middle.

Finally, this little guy is a Daruma doll. I'll probably blog more extensively about them later (especially if and when I use it), but in essence, one paints a single eye black and makes a wish, and then paints the other eye when the wish is fulfilled.

June 6th, 2012

Summer vacation officially began the afternoon of the 4th. Since then, my brothers and I have been kicking back, enjoying the weather. On Sunday, mom thought it would be nice to go out for a while, so we drove to a heritage farm about 20 minutes from our house. We saw their new calves (a few months old, I believe) and a horde of baby piglets that were born on the 29th. They were really tiny, maybe the size of your hand. We hiked through the surrounding nature preserve, and saw wild turtles and frogs, plus several enterprising chipmunks. Indeed, we had just arrived at the preserve's visitor's center when one chipmunk, in search of food, was tackled by a second chipmunk that lept from the trees like a crazed Tarzan. Nick spotted a Baltimore Oriole, a bird species of high interest to him, and I purchased an arrowhead at the visitor's center. I don't believe it was particularly old, but cool nevertheless. In other news, I got my Litha altar set up, and will theoretically be making a video soon.

May 21st, 2012

What with all that planting yesterday, the first sunburn of the summer is setting in... My shoulders have been a little too warm for comfort all day. Ah well. In any event, some interesting developments today. I woke up and looked through the window to see a great big opossum trundling thorough the back yard. Now, not everyone likes opossums, but personally I think they're alright, and seeing one always seems to have positive connotations. Indeed, other than the sunburn, today was actually the best weekday I've had in a while. The opossum is also said to represent emotional and mental stability, which I will take as a good omen. Recently, I've been a little too stressed for comfort, and if the opossum represents a reprieve from that, I'll certainly take what I can get! Plus, my video that I had to make for English actually played on the old school computers, which was an untold relief (those things are seriously ancient).

With all said and done, I'm looking forward to a nice, quiet evening with the family tonight. Mom says we're having chef salad for dinner: various greens, cheese, peppers, ham or turkey, tomatoes, carrots, and croutons. A salad makes a great meal or side dish this time of year - so many veggies are just coming into season! Buy locally if you can, and make sure to rinse everything before you eat it to get rid of any pesticides or dirt. Try eating greens with dark leaves, like spinach (which, by the way, goes very well with some feta cheese and strawberries). Vegetables not your thing? Fruit salads taste equally awesome. Any combination of tropical fruits (bananas, mango, pineapple, papaya, star fruit, etc.) and more temperate fruits (grapes, apples, strawberries, blueberries, etc.), plus a sweet, unifying dressing contains valuable nutrients as well as citric acid and a great summer flavor. One could even make a refreshing snack, if one were to blend together some ice, orange juice, bananas, and mangoes. Are fruit smoothies awesome? I think so. The moral of the story? Enjoy the turn of the Wheel to the summer months by enjoying the fresh produce of the season!