~and relax~

well swampy and i had to go and venture into Southampton today to get a final few gifts for my family and we were dreading it, imagining the hoards of people we would have to battle through.

amazingly it was no more busy than a regular saturday and so the whole thing was quite relaxed.

As usual i went into waterstones and swampy bought me the most perfect gift...

 

i have always adored everything moomin related and first read the books back in the early seventies when i first learnt to read and even now i read mooninland midwinter every yule (i have a few pages left of this years re-read and plan on reading it tomorrow evening at bedtime)

this morning my beautiful magpie had to sit for a cuddle before we went out...

 

i gave my shaman drum a bit of loving care yesterday, damping down the skin a little as i had planned on using it for a yule pathworking i was doing with my soul systers in the evening. unfortunately i was feeling so tired and unwell i couldn't drum but was able to do the pathworking.

unfortunately swampy made a bit of distracting noise as well so i am planning another pathworking tomorrow morning when he is out with flynt. this gives me a good hour to sit in front of my altar and start my pathworking with some drumming.

my yule altar...

we have things looking festive here, paper chains and fairy lights in the hallway

candles and fairy lights in our living room

i spent one happy afternoon watching White Christmas

working on my festive yule blanket of classic granny squares...

and i love my tree...

~ravens~

i woke this morning to my mobile telling me it was -10, the heating had yet to click on and as i sleep with the curtains open the bedroom was so cold...i just about managed to reach out an arm to turn on my local radio to find out how cold it had been across the south.
generally it was between -13 and my own -10.

it is now -1 and the blue sky been replaced by the cloud that has drifted from the north, and swampy and i are sitting here wondering if it will start snowing as expected.

~*~*~*~

so ravens!

i have been doing pathworkings for a good 7 years now but they are not regular as i only do them when i get the 'pull' to do one. i find if i just do one it is never successful.

since the beginning i had always hoped to have some hint of my totem animal but mostly any messages relating to this have been very vague.
it took some time before Brigid became apparent and even then it took lots of signs, mostly in the form of rowan's to make me sure~the same was with Cernunnos, it took forever but i got there.

i have to say i was quite frustrated with the slowness of my animal totem.

finally i had a pathworking that gave me some clue~a generic 'black' bird and deer, but i needed more.
so of course i kept myself alert to external hints~was it a blackbird or a member of the crow family i kept asking myself.
it had to be specific.

i have a collection of antlers here at home.
 i just had this feeling i had to have them~a single 6 pointer on my alter, a full set 6 pointer with the front of the skull hanging on the back wall of our garden and another single 6 pointer just hanging in my nook (writing this i am now pondering the number 6! and i will say the set with the skull was from an animal found dead in the woods by the forestry people)

well the 'deer' soon revealed itself
we went for a walk in the forest and one day a small herd crossed the pathway in front of us, lead by a large stag...
then a solitary stag walked within feet of the camper when we were going to get our yule tree...
then finally when we were driving from our village out of the forest i was looking out of the window into the trees and had the fleeting glimpse of the largest (and only one i have ever seen in the forest) red stag with massive antlers.

this pleased me for i finally had the link with Cernunnos and the stag, not the deer as i first suspected.


so i was left with this generic 'black bird'
i went through all the birds i encounter everyday and discounted black birds and jackdaws.
it left me with rooks~now i love rooks, i have ever since i can remember and they make me smile for they always look as if they are wearing some kind of black dress (much like the Hemulen...).
but i wasn't convinced, it just didn't 'feel' right.

well one day last summer we were driving down a lane that leads to a hidden campsite and a small parking spot, so we could walk flynt at our favourite spot. as usual i was looking out of the window only to find us passing a raven at the side of the lane and he looked at us as we drove slowly by.
now i have lived here in the forest for 40 years and had never, ever seen a raven...ever.
it was one sighting but one that excited me, was this a sign?
maybe.
two weeks ago we were driving over to lymington, taking our 'sceainc' out of the way route, rather than the main route. what did we pass but a raven...

finally yesterday i accepted the raven as my other totem animal...

we had a parcel to post in the village so decided to walk flynt at the same time and then walk him to the area of the forest that we have always called 'the common' before walking home again (no Pretty Pagan still) while swampy was in the post office i walked flynt down to the bottom of the village and sat on the bench by the ford.
i heard a noise in the tree above me and looking up saw a 'black' bird i initially thought was a jackdaw...it looked down at me then a few moments later flew down in front of me and i nearly fell off the bench for it was a young raven!
it walked around for a moment before a car came through the ford and it flew back up into the tree above me.
at this point swampy came down the road so i walked under the tree to meet him the other side of the road...i looked up and what does the raven do but look down at me again.

do i need any more signs that that i ask myself?

~*~*~*~



•

read: The Desperate Romantics by Franny Moyle
taste: Lemon Tea
see: Rugby Union
hear: cheering
smell: lemons
touch: Flynt
think: when is it going to snow?
feel: cold...very cold

~herbs, sticks & stuff~

today is another fine day here in this ancient forest~more shoots are pushing up through the earth in the garden, although it is still too water-logged to walk on and really do anything constructive.

but seeing some blue sky and sunshine has lifted the spirits.

yesterday was a day for random photos~

i wear these two necklaces everyday~the triskele was a gift from swampy.

the other is one i made from beads and a pewter green goddess i bought on one of my trips to Tahoe.

silver bear and turquoise bracelet and another gift from swampy, a bear paw ring~again from our travels to Tahoe...looking at the amount of bear related things around our home is making me wonder if i am being told something~maybe its time for some meditation and inner journeying.

my kitchen windowsill~i love my pot of basil, i often ruffle the leaves just to have that wonderful smell, there are two small bits in a glass pot which i hope will produce some roots.

yes, that's two sticks you can see~if i find a particularly nice one i always bring it home, the thinner one is a piece of windfall from one of several holly trees which grows around the longslade view bronze age barrow where we often walk flynt down the hill to the long disused railway track that linked our village to burley and ringwood.

you can see my mini propagator there too~i am awaiting my first batch of micro /baby salad leaves.

between the rooting basil and propagator is a jar containing my home grown lavender. i have had two large bunches of it drying in brown bags in our airing cupboard~one for two years (!!!) the other for a year and i have to say the two year batch is much better...

i shall be making some lavender bags with this at some point for a giveaway.

my little Portuguese chicken sitting next to his bigger brother.

 i bought on the cruise and we stopped at Madeira~oh i so love this gorgeous little island and hope to return again one day. if you click here there are some great photos of the island and you will see why i fell in love.

i have been feeling the need to introduce some new recipes into my cooking so down came my much loved cookbook...

there are some great and unusual salads and salad dressings here and an omelet that is on my menu for the coming week~i shall keep you posted.

*have a great day everyone!*

Happy Birthday Swampy!!!

merry meet!

yes its swampys big day...'whispers' 41 today!
although we actually started on the organic carrot cake two days ago!
and i have to say that expression is not one he usually walks around with thank goddess...camera shy like myself!

also...and i meant to do this a few days ago...welcome to Chandrala who posted on my guest map and whose blog is now listed at my blogging roundhouse!

i was awake early this morning as swampy had set his alarm to be awake for the grand prix, but couldnt sleep anyway and was up making me lemon tea at 4am.

its funny how thoughts can come to you at the oddest times...i have noticed this more since starting my studies. i will wake up at stupid o'clock and have some revelation over something i have read or how to word a paragraph, or something i have not been able to grasp will suddenly pop into my head making total sense. i love the way our subconscious works things out for us then gives us a gentle reminder.

during this mornings early ponder i was thinking of my meditation/trance/pathworkings; i have been planning for ages to get out my clay and produce something to aid me in focusing, then out of the blue i realised i had something. a handmade object i bought a few years ago on my last trip to Lake Tahoe for no particular reason other than as soon as i saw it i knew i had to buy it.
since then it has been absolutely everywhere with me but never out of the package it came in. now the pieces have fallen into place and i know now it drew my attention to eventually aid my meditation/trance/pathworkings.

i am having the same thing with my totem animal...images and the real thing keep appearing out of the blue so i am convinced that all will be revealed shortly.