It's hibernating time!

Which means, I have been working my tookas off. That's alright, because I need the money, but I will be losing 27 hours a week, come New Year's.

Honestly, I am ready for the time off. Time to turn in. Time to hibernate. Time to curl up in my cave and my blankets and fire up the crock pot. Time for soup. Time to add the fresh nettles and chard that I froze over the summer. Time to READ. Time to watch movies. Time to slurp up extra echinacea and elderberry, just in case.

I have the Llewellyn's Witch's calendar and this month has a piece by...somebody; I didn't mark the name before I sat down at the computer to write this.It's a short but excellent piece about the dark season. Why many people get seasonal affective disorder and why people are so unhappy this time of year-- because we (collectively) live the same way year 'round now, and don't embrace the season, the dark, the turning-in.

I don't get affected by that-- I love the dark season, but this year I am paying special attention to the turning-in, to the hibernatiing. With all the strife that is going on in the world, in my own country, I need the resting time, the healing time. Outwardly, I am giving more to others, when I can. In my heart, I am keeping the dark season. Getting ready to welcome the Sun.

Blessed Solstice!

My Birthday Kicks Off the Holiday Season

So, I am going to be 55 on Monday, in two days. We are celebrating this weekend, because I have a pretty brutal work week coming up and won't have the time for birthdaying.
I am wearing my tiara! Black (plastic, but who cares) with lots and lots of sparkly bling.

True Love stayed overnight last night, and of course we celebrated in, well, rather our own fashion, and then this morning with a pot of steaming coffee-- "Foo" (International Delight Hazelnut, BLECHBLECHBLECH) for him and heavy cream for me. I made him breakfast, as I am dieting, and yes, I will be dieting through my birthday, but it's worth it because I won't be dieting over Thanksgiving, and I am having drooly dreams of turkey. Porn dreams of turkey. With the crispy skin and the buttery, oily goodness only an all-day roasted turkey can bring. Mmm....turkey. Butter. Green beans. NOT casserole. Just fresh sauteed green beans with lots of butter. Oh, and butter!

My birthday is November 17th, always about a week before Thanksgiving. I always hated when it was, when I was a child, because November tends to be so drear, but after living in Syracuse, NY, for 10 years, I got used to "bad" weather and it is my favorite now.
I love my birthday.
And, it kicks off the Winter holiday season.

Birthday, Thanksgiving, St. Lucia's Day, my mom's birthday, True Love's birthday, Yule, Christmas, and tucked away in all of that are other ones, like Boxing Day, Hogmanay, New Year's, Valentine's Day, my son's birthday, Frau Holle, and more.

LOVE the Winter. Love. It.
Crock pots and sweaters and mittens, oh my! 
It's hibernating time! 

I am so ready. Are you? What are your plans?

It's November!

It's November, and wow, busy. Ain't gonna let up soon, either. Because my birthday is November 17th and in my book, it kicks off the Winter holiday season. I made, and am still making, a bunch of homemade stuff for people for Yule and Christmas gifts, and I am hoping to get lots of that done by my birthday.

Last night was the return to Eastern Standard Time. I have to say, I loathe, and I mean loathe, Daylight Savings Time. I think Mom Nature does a fine job all by her lone, making the light shorter in the Winter and longer in the Summer. Why do we meddling humans have to mess with it? And then mess with it more, by pushing back the shoulders by a week or two on either end? GRR!

So, we shall see how my body reacts to it this time. It often kicks my butt for a week.

And I was right about the peak leaves...I think the very peak day was the day after I wrote my last post, October 17th. It's drear out there for sure, since, and especially now, and is getting drearer, if that's a word ;)

I hear Asheville got a couple of inches of snow! Even here in MA we did not get any. We got a hella rain yesterday, but not cold enough for snow. That's alright...there'll be plenty soon enough.

But-- soup weather! Stew weather! Crock pot weather! Hibernating weather, oh, yay! You? Favorite season? Which? And why?

AIR

It has been a whole season of Air, for me. Last post, I mentioned that my father was an airline pilot, and I put things of Air next to him on my Samhain altar...the bird's wing, the feather, the crow.

I keep getting Air messages and images...breezes, and you know, the other day I was marking the breeze and it felt like I got my whole brain aired out. WHOOSHED out. Hush about, any of you who want to say there's nothing in there anyway *glares at you*!

Today, we had a rain storm, all day long. The leaves are in full glory now, but by Sunday, when it's supposed to be pretty and sunny and 50* tops, I bet most of them will be blown down.

Air...it seems so benign, yet is so powerful.

I've been thinking lots about words, lately, and whether they have power or not, and how much power...they're an Air thing, I do believe. And yes, power indeed. That old children's rhyme SHOULD have been "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words, YES, they will hurt me". Words will cut for years and years and decades, where physical hurts only leave scars for a short time, by comparison.

It's a thing to do, I think, to become aware of how one uses one's words. I've been trying to, if not delete swear words from my vocabulary, at least use them in a discretionary manner...be able to modify what I say in which company. I have realized there is a very split second of time in which I have the power to say or not say, and in that very split second, I do make the decision. It is very conscious, though tiny. See for yourself if that's not true. Pay attention to when you are about to say something hurtful, and see if you can stop yourself. I bet you can.

I know there was more I wanted to say about Air....my ADHD brain has made it go POOF. Like, well, a breath of...yeah, Air.

On the way to work today, the leaves were falling like snowflakes across my path, portending the not-so-long-from-now real snowflakes that fall so prodigiously up here in MA.

North Carolina...oh, the lovely mountains...NC rather stopped getting the kind of snow and ice storms that it did when I first moved to the mountains back in '03.

I don't mind the snow. Not this early in the game. NC used to be seasonally appropriate. Then it got warmer, in general. I had to move to MA to once again get seasonally appropriate weather.

I have been here for a whole turn of the wheel, and then some. The trees are just about in full colored glory. Somehow, this year, they seem dead on the branches, which, I suppose they are, but they seem...dry. Wispy. Fly-away.

I've always known that the glorious leaf-coloring is the trees dying...I wonder if human death is so glorious, for the one that is dying. I wish it were so, for those of us left, when a loved one passes beyond the veil. How cool would it be if we went out in a blaze of multi-colored glory?

It's Samhain-tide. It's Ancestor time. I have made my altar and this year it only has my father and my grandmother (his mother, at about age 18) on there. I haven't even put my grandmother's hair thingy there yet. I will still wear it to the Samhain rite, as I do every year. It's funny how my dad was an airline pilot, and instinctively, I put next to him on the altar symbols of flight, of Air-- most of a whole bird's wing that I found in the back yard, a larger feather, a picture of a crow. I don't think it was accidental at all.

I feel them. Do you? Do you feel the pull of your ancestors? What are you doing this year to honor them?

It's OCTOBER!

I forgot to say Rabbit, Rabbit yesterday. When I remembered, I said it to the cat...oh, well.

The season is definitely turning. Now, "hot" is in the 60s. That's alright. It needs to be. Yesterday and today is rainy and raw. Must be I'm the only one that likes this kind of weather. Everybody else complains. I think I hate the complaining more than any kind of weather the universe can throw at me.
I am trying not to be a complainer anymore. Gawd, it wears on a person.

Long, long work day today-- nearly 9 hours. I'm not complaining! I'm loving it, actually. I'm grateful for the work. I like the person I'm working for. We get to watch old British TV shows on DVD sometimes, and today I get to bring my laptop (who knew they had wifi?) and cut up some of the 3 bags of apples I bought the other day.

I don't know what's got into me-- must be the season-- I bought a metric ton of local apples and I am going to make applesauce and apple butter in the canner that I also bought, as soon as I get some jars.

One day I am going to make jam the way my mother did-- with the wax seals. I just wish I knew people that ate jam, 'cause I don't, and my son doesn't, and True Love does, but it takes him months and months to go through a jar. Maybe I'll have them just to have them, and think of my childhood and my mom. Who, thank all the gods, is still very much alive and whatever the reason I have this pull to talk to her All.The.Time. and it is driving her crazy.

I think of my dad's mom a lot. I'm told I resemble her in more ways than just looks, her eclectic personality too, and that's OK. Tis the season of ancestors and she's on my altar, as is my dad.

Blessed Samhain. Let them in, let them in.

Blessed Mabon!

The temperature has finally changed. I was a little worried because I finally put the flannel sheets on-- my very favorite day of the year!-- and it turned hot. That day. Ugh.

When we lived in Asheville, I would do that, change the sheets out to flannel ones, and it would turn hot for a week solid, I kid you not, and I would put the air conditioner on rather than change the sheets back and then change them back again.
But here, now, this was just Saturday last, two days ago, and on the same day, we took out the window unit air conditioners and then flipped the mattress (side to side, if anyone wants to remind me for next time I need to flip it, which way I want to go) and put the flannel sheets on.
Then, Sunday, yesterday, it went to like 70+ degrees AND was humid as all heck. I had to stay out of the living room.

So we went out to Cauldron Farm for their Equinox ritual-- 3rd time there, 3rd time excellent time. LOVED it. Love those people. I am thinking about joining them, as a member. I miss Mother Grove a LOT-- but these are the coolest people, and I'm not going to be living in NC again anytime soon. I do really like them lots. They are real and true and they put on good ritual and you can't ask for better than that. Plus, it's a real farm, with goats and chickens and things. And a fire pit!

I am still dieting and did not partake of the potluck-- go me! But I still am stuck right at about the same weight for about a week or two, now. I'm not trying to maintain, dang it, I am trying to lose. Maintaining is for after I lose all I want to lose, and I want to lose 5 more pounds and I want them off last week and I want to eat. NOW. I'm getting off this next week no matter what. I'm hoping against hope that I can at least get three more pounds off before I do. I'm sick of the yo-yo.

My Mabon will be just a tad late, but I am having pork ribs in the crock pot and maybe apples and onions and mushrooms. Ideas? Is that good? It sounds YUMMY....happy Mabon, all. I wish you balance.