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.

Easter Weekend

After having spent last weekend with my parents at my place, I can't say I was too terribly excited to go visit them at their place this weekend. (Not that I don't love my parents, but seeing too much of them just annoys the hell out of me.) But it was Easter, and I haven't been home since before it was too cold to do any outside stuff. So off we went. And I have to say, it's much more springy in Southern MO. There are more dogwoods, which from 20+ years of exposure to during the beginnings of spring, just shout "Spring is here!!!" And there is a decided lack of dogwoods here in the north, for whatever reason. (Maybe if I went to a more wooded area than the actual town of Kirksville, I would see some.)

Of course, thunder storms also come with spring, and there was an average of 3 a day all weekend. Luckily, Camden had his rain boots (and it was warm enough for me to go without shoes!) so we got to splash around in the mud and puddles and grass. We caught two toads, which were put into the toad house we made last spring; one left fairly quickly, the other stayed for most of the afternoon. (We tried to feed the second one some earthworms, but I think he was rather pissed off with us and not interested in eating.)

All in all, it wasn't a bad weekend. My dad made Camden a slingshot from a hickory stick, inner tube, and a piece cut from a leather work glove (whose partner is MIA). I also heard some news about my brother, although I think I would have rather not heard. (He called the parentals and was telling them that "it's just like the movies. You're running and you can see the bullets hitting the ground around your feet." Uh, no, I don't want to hear about people shooting at him. Four months and he's home for good, though.) And while Easter was cold and rainy, Camden still got an egg hunt (inside, in the living room) and a TON of candy, along with a Transformers backpack.

My week is AWESOME

This week has been surprisingly good. I think I owe it to the wish bottle I made on Tuesday. In it is a little feather and a flying seed. (Ever since it got warm, Cam and I have been picking up these seeds, telling them our wishes, then sending them off.) I didn't make any specific wish, just made this be a focal point for growing happiness, love, etc. So maybe it isn't a wish bottle, per se, but, eh, whatever.



And the same night I made the wish bottle, Camden decided it would be fun to help me with dishes. So I let him rinse. I tried letting him actually washing stuff (he wanted to), but he wasn't doing so well with that.

And today, I passed my prelim! My senior percussion recital is this semester (in three weeks, actually) and I had to play through everything today for three faculty, who then told me that I was free to continue on to my recital! I have no idea what would have happened if I hadn't passed, but it doesn't really matter now! This has been a big cause of stress for me this week, and I'm just happy that I did well and passed. I still have some stuff to work on before my recital, so I'm not quite out of the woods yet, but I'm closer.

(I also had a good week at the thrift store... Finding two tee-shirts, a dress shirt, dress slacks, skirt, ACORN earrings (these are just amazing!), and a dainty little bird necklace. Usually my finds are not this great, or as plentiful.)

Of course, the week hasn't been all great. On Ostara, it was close to 80 degrees outside. It was beautiful. Last night, it snowed. And the snow stuck! Well, it stuck to trees and grass and bushes and cars. Okay, it was actually kinda pretty and I wish I'd gotten a picture of it. Hopefully this taste of winter won't last too long and we'll be back to the beautiful spring weather.

October?

Yesterday, we had a high of ~75 degrees. No, I'm not kidding. It was FANTASTIC! And somewhat disconcerting. LOL (At some point last night, I woke up FREEZING and had to get up and dig a blanket out of the closet.) It is so odd to think that one moment we are in the depths of summer, then the next we are receiving this fall-like weather. Unfortunately, the cold front didn't hang around for long. We'll be back in the 90's by tomorrow.

This "cold snap" has not helped my longing for Fall and its cooler weather, and (insert list of lovely things about fall here). Ah, well. We must all play the waiting game at some point or another.

Rained out

Yesterday morning at a bright and cheery 7.45 in the morning, I left my apartment for school in high spirits. My professor had left some music out for me to pick up, and I was going to work on some arranging. As I sat down in the computer lab and opened Finale (music program) in walks a fellow student with an umbrella? "Is it raining?" I asked him in ABSOLUTE HORROR. Because, you see, I live about a mile away from school -- and I walked. He said no, it's not raining, but it will be. I figured there was nothing to do except finish up my work as quickly as possible and hope to the gods I made it home before it started pouring.

I step out of the music building to a very pleasant cool breeze. Uh oh. I look to the eastern skies -- cloudy, but not too much. My gaze swings over to the western skies, and I kid you not, my reaction was to say (loudly) "Holy shit!" and start running. It was black. Black! At nine o'clock in the morning! Not only that, but it was already sprinkling! "Please, please, please let me make it home!" I begged to whoever would listen.

I'm not quite in shape enough to run all the way home. I think I made it about three blocks before I gave up on the running and settled for a quick walk. Every time I crossed a street, I would look to the west, trying to gauge how fast the storm was coming. And every time I crossed the street, I would pick up my pace and usually utter some expletive or another. lol

Luckily, the gods/weather spirits heard my pleas. It actually stopped sprinkling during my walk home. And the rain didn't hit until I'd been home for about five minutes. And then it stormed. And it stopped. And come nightfall, it stormed some more.

This morning in class, everyone was talking about how they'd stayed up all night because of the storms, listening to the thunder and reports on tornado warnings.

And I slept through it all! As did my mother (who's visiting for a day) and Camden.

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!