beginning of fall

Camden and I really enjoyed our first weekend of Autumn. Saturday was really like any Saturday, but Sunday was spectacular.

Camden managed to drag me out of the house and to the park (I didn't want to go, because it was still chilly). By the time we got there, however, the temperature was feeling quite nice. So we spent some time playing on the equipment: throwing toys up and down the slides to each other and me chasing him around a bit. Then he wanted to go down the hill and check out the cannons (there is a veteran memorial type thing at this park). So we went down the hill and over the bridge and made it as far as a walnut tree, where Camden decided it would be more fun to pick up walnuts and throw them at the trunk. ... I agreed. ^_^

Then we went back across the bridge, and as we did so, the wind picked up and the leaves started dropping. So Camden and I decided to spend some time chasing leaves. We took off our jackets and shoes and ran around like the heathens we are, jumping, and spinning, and laughing as we tried to catch leaves out of the air. After a wee bit of that, we just lay in the grass, watching the sky and the trees and the gently falling leaves. After a bit, Camden decided it was time to go home.

As we walked up a hill that was (thankfully) more grass than rocks, Camden decided he wanted to roll down it. So he did. Eventually we made our way home. In the field of grass next to our house, I just happened to catch a grasshopper.

And this grasshopper just happened to meet his end, thanks to a spider Camden and I have been feeding moths and other bugs to. Should I feel bad for feeding the grasshopper to the spider? Perhaps. But Camden enjoyed it, and afterwards we looked at pictures of spiders (and other bugs) on the interwebs and learned a bit about them. Teaching opportunities, I say!

why i love...

the fall

-Beautiful colours. The leaves are changing, turning a green summery world into a riot of oranges, yellows, and red. What's not to love?

-Cool weather. Temperatures are bearable again!! We can play outside without sweating through our T-shirts. And the cool weather also makes good hoodie and sweater weather.

-New beginnings. Who would have thought a witch, of all people, would see the Fall as a time for new beginnings? Well, I think a witch who has been in school for the majority of her life would. New teachers, new classes, new friends. And we are reminded of future new beginnings, as the year and wheel are reaching their "end."

-The food. I love fall (and winter) food. Stews, heavy casseroles, soups. Things which I make throughout the year, but as with the weather sentiment, I can enjoy these things in the fall without sweating through my clothes. Oh, and apple pie!

-The holidays. Mabon. Samhain. Thanksgiving. All are wonderful reasons to celebrate the fall.

-The bugs die! So this is near the end of the fall season, but it still counts. Cam is allergic to bug bites (mosquito bites swell at the source, and tick bites swell at the source and all about it), so to be able to go outside without worrying about "what's going to get him this time" is a huge relief.

-Miscellaneous: hay rides, scare crows, pumpkins and pumpkin pies and jack-o-lanterns, marching band, hot cocoa, crisp mornings, the first frost. And on and on and on.

What a summery day!

Today was the BEST. Mostly because I finally got to play in the dirtplant my garden. And... What a garden! It's probably going to look terrible and all half-hazard, because, well, because I had a 4.5 year old helping me. I'm okay with that though.

What I planted:
tomatoes
bell peppers (six of these puppies, WAAY too many but I'm really only expecting one to make it, so it'll be okay)
cabbage
bush beans
carrots
cucumbers (for Camden; I think they taste terrible)
yellow squash
zucchini
watermelon
sunflower house
flowers (marigold, zinnia, and... something colourful; I gave these to Cam to plant)

I don't know what I'm going to do with all that produce... Eat a lot of green beans with zucchini, I guess.

Camden and I also walked across town (really, about a mile from the house) to return a textbook I'd rented for the semester. And we went to the park a couple different times. To top it all off, we grilled some hotdogs and ate a junk-food dinner. (Once those veggies ripen, we'll be eating healthy enough, I think.) All in all, a fun filled, action-packed summery day. But mostly, I can tell it's summer because of the terrible sunburn I got over the course of the day. Ugh!

This is a very scattered post, and for that, I am sorry. I'm terribly exhausted (6+ hours in the sun will do that to you!) and I really just wanted to gush about my garden.

Summer Skies

Today, I started dreaming of summer. After school, Camden and I went to play at the park. It was around 60 degrees, the sun was shining, the wind was blowing. It was cool without being cold. The grass is just beginning to really turn green. Oh, and there were clouds. Great, beautiful, puffy, white cumulus clouds. I spread out a blanket and just lay there watching them for about five minutes (before Camden was able to get me to get up and play). Watching clouds always reminds me of when I was a kid, during the summer I would watch clouds from the roof of an old milk barn that had been lost in a hillside forest. (Just recently, the owner of that hillside forest has cleared out all the trees, so it's just a hillside of scrub and cows and ruins of a house and milk barn. Such a shame, to lose all those trees.) Anyway, the sky reminded me of summer and I had/have a longing for a lazy summer afternoon, where nothing is due for class and I have nowhere to go and nowhere to be. Where time can be spent doing something as simple as lying in the grass watching the clouds go by as they morph from shape to shape. It takes me away, staring into the clouds, so that I am also a cloud, floating in the endless sea of blue skies with children running to stay in my shadow or to stay out of my shadow.

Alas, it is only just spring. We're still waiting for the soil to warm enough to plant our garden. (Which I am very excited about. I absolutely can't wait!) And waiting for it to be consistently warm enough to play outside. Ah, summer. Why must you be so far away?

Winter's End (almost)

(Photo by thanq)

At this time of the year, we are solidly in Winter's grasp. It's as though she knows her time is growing short, so she begins to throw everything she can at us. Imbolc is just around the corner, which is the beginning of the end of winter. This is the time of the year when the natural world is quietly slumbering and slowly gathering its strength to awaken in a few short weeks in a riot of color and life and breath. A time where I begin to get Spring fever and crave green and warm sunshine and gentle rains. It's as though I can feel the energy gathering in the world around me, and I can feel its affect on me.

I've been cleaning and organising my house almost nonstop for two weeks now. Not to say that it is any cleaner or more organised than when I began, but well, I've been trying. ;) Of course, this has probably been helped by having out of town visitors and new furniture (a "junior" loft bed for Camden) which facilitated a whirl of furniture moving (SFMA, anyone?) and other organisation. But I'm still ascribing most of the fault to the building energy I feel every time I step outside.

I've also been channeling some of this energy into more creative outlets. As I said in an earlier post, my senior recital is coming up this Spring. And I've been spending lots of time in the practice room preparing and learning the pieces I've chosen. I feel like I've gotten a lot of work done in the short time since the semester started.

I can also sense some of the effects it's having on Camden. We are slowly making strides to clearer speech. He's still not as vocal as a "typical" 4.5 year old, but he is more vocal than he was a year ago. But more than that, he's beginning to add end sounds (previously missing without prompting) to his words. Sometimes it's the wrong sound (rote or roke as opposed to rope), but any attempt is a step in the right direction.

I want to buy some crocuses. And, uh, let them "escape" into my (rented) yard. Crocuses are my favorite part of Spring, because they are its heralds. I smile every time I see them, especially when I see them poking up through the snow. Anyway. I hope you all are enjoying this time of quiet energy. I am!

Beginning of the End

What is it about transitional holidays that lead us to thinking about the season they usher in. Imbolc brought wishes of Summer heat and bounty. Dreams of fishing, swimming, and sunburns. Okay, maybe not sunburns. But zucchini, grilled hamburgers, summer storms. Summer road trips, lazy days, beautiful flower gardens.

And now Lammas has graced us with its presence. The first of the harvest festivals. The beginning of the end of Summer. Now new dreams are dancing through our heads. Pumpkin pies, crisp fall mornings, leaves to crunch. Brilliant gold, yellow, and red trees, the start of school and classes, the darkening days. Stews and casseroles, quilts on the bed, thinking of Winter before us.

Is it coincidence that these two holidays fall at the height of the season? Imbolc when Winter is at its coldest and Lammas when Summer is at its hottest? The seasons know their end is near, which seems to make them fight all the harder. And the harder they fight, the more we dream about the coming Spring/Summer or Fall/Winter.

And after all that philosophical stuff, I just have to say... I'm ready for Fall, even if I'm not looking forward to another NEMO Winter.

a clean home is a happy home

I have been pretty bummed out lately. Not sure if it's just seasonal depression setting in because I want so badly for it to be Spring/Summer or if I'm just so stressed out by school and life in general. However, this weekend was a turning point for me, I think. I'm not feeling nearly as "woe-is-me," which I think I can credit to a few different sources...

The first is that Cam and I went sledding. Physical activity in winter? What?! Who ever heard of such a thing?! Well, I have to say, that it was fantastic. As a kid I spent almost as much time out-of-doors in the Winter as I did in the warmer months. My brothers and sisters and I would go sledding or play tracking games. Often, I would go adventuring by myself just for the novelty of seeing the woods that I knew so well in a new light, under a blanket of snow. This winter, however, my time spent outside has been limited to running from my car to a building or running from one building to another. I'm glad I finally got the chance to enjoy the winter; I'm glad I finally took the chance to enjoy the winter. And now, while everyone else is cursing this new six(or so) inches of snow, I'm thinking only of the fun Cam and I will have sledding next weekend.


The second is that I cleaned my house Friday afternoon/night and Saturday. Living room, kitchen, and I even ventured into the bedroom a bit. The only room I haven't touched is the bathroom because A)I didn't want to do laundry and B) it's a lost cause, especially if I'm refusing to do laundry. In the living room, I put away the toys, vacuumed, and folded/put away about 5 blankets that Cam's dragged out at some point or another. In the kitchen, I cleaned out the fridge, did dishes, swept/scrubbed the floor, and scrubbed the table. I also rotated the table to make getting to my plants in the window(salads and catnip) a bit easier. And in the bedroom, I had the fun task of figuring out which clothes strewn across the floor were clean and which were dirty. I love how having a clean(er) house can make me feel. I really don't realise how much the clutter and mess can impact my psyche until it's gone. But for now, the apartment is clean.

In a perfect world, I would be a kitchen witch, working magic as I clean... But in this not-so-perfect world I have issues memorizing the words to chants and creating/sticking to simple daily rituals of thanks-giving and praise to the gods. Which brings me to something I found that I'd like to share: A Witch's Ball. It's something I hadn't seen or heard of before, but I like the idea and may have to try it... one of these days.



A Witch's Ball is usually a clear or coloured glass sphere which is hung in the window to ward off evil spirits/negative energy. Or, conversely, it attracts the evil spirits with its pretty colours and traps them. These are hung in the windows, as I've stated, or they can be hung from the ceiling or placed on top of a vase. Traditionally, Witch's Balls are blue or green and made from glass, but can also be made from wood, grass, or twigs.

Another take on the Witch's Ball I found was to fill the ball with magically charged herbs. The suggested balls for this are clear tree ornaments, which are fairly easy to put stuff into. One could also paint the ornaments with corresponding colours and the like. Mayhaps this will be a fun project for Cam and me once we have herbs growing.

Snow Day Adventures

While not technically a "snow day," there is snow on the ground and it was daytime. Close enough for me.

I decided earlier this week I wanted to take Cam sledding. But to do that, we had to buy a sled! Who would have thought it would be that difficult? We checked in at least six different stores before finding what is probably the last stash of sleds in NEMO at the hardware store. We bought a saucer-type sled, which was a new experience for me, as I've only ever used toboggan-type sleds or the ones with runners.

At the sledding hill (as there's only one hill in the area; luckily for us it's on public property!) we joined another family who was out sledding. Funny story and small world story: the oldest son of the other family was named Camden. I was shocked! It's not really one of those names you expect to find multiples of.

I hadn't been sledding for years upon years. Maybe seven years? I'd forgotten what fun it can be! Even with the snow sneaking up the back of my coat and into my not-so-water/snowproof boots. We even built a snowman! Which was kicked over about 5 minutes later by a little girl.

Perhaps the best part is that Camden's monster friends came with us. They've been gone since a few days after the post I made about them, but they showed up this morning (plus one, so now there are three) before we went grocery shopping/sled hunting. He put them in my purse to keep them safe during the grocery shopping, although they escaped in the middle of Walmart and Cam had to run about trying to catch them! While sledding, he held them in his hands, except the first time he went by himself, when they sat on the sled with him. And then I sat on them. :( Oops! I think they were okay, though.

I failed to get pictures, which makes me pretty sad. But we'll be going back tomorrow if the weather stays good, so hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures then.

Icy

I wish I had had my camera last night. I was filling out the FAFSA and remembered I needed something out of my car, so I slipped on my boots and coat and ran out to get it. As I stepped out of the doorway to the building, I turned and through the light mist, I saw a tree, covered in ice, lit from behind by a street light. It seemed to glow in that cold, orange light, while the stoplights behind me left the street gleaming red, then dark, then red.

Although much of the effect was a construct of man, I felt the Goddess in that moment. For is she not within everything? Is she not All That Is, including the flashing red lights and glowing street lamps?

This morning as I got to campus, I heard the wind through the trees, which were still icy. It sounded like snow falling. Have you ever sat in a snow covered field at night, lit only by the glowing moon above, and listened to the snow fall? The first (and probably only) time I did this, it was before I was Pagan, before I even knew what a Pagan or Wiccan was. Probably before I knew that there was a choice. But even lacking that knowledge, I felt the magic. I felt the connection. Now, when I'm lucky enough to actually hear the snow fall (not often, living in town), I still feel that connection and peace that I associate with that first time.

As the day moved on, it warmed a little, and the ice began falling off the limbs whenever the wind blew, so by the afternoon most of the trees had faerie circles of ice around them.

Wow, this has been a random post! Well, suffice it to say, that although I find winter to be a very magical time, I would much prefer it to be spring or summer! Bring it on!