About Me
I’m a somewhat obsessive-compulsive, very short, tree-hugging dirt-worshiper living in Colorado, USA with my husband, Firehand, and two neurotic, special-needs cats.
I’m a voracious reader, avid crocheter, wanna-be herb gardener and I dabble in many creative endeavors. Most days I’m pretty darn content with my own company, but there’s always room for kindred spirits.
Music
Josh Groban, Sarah Brightman, Steve Perry & Journey, Sting & The Police, John Mayer, Loreena McKinnett, belly dancing music and most things Celtic
Movies
The Shawshank Redemption, Tess, All That Jazz, Splendor in the Grass, Fight Club, Sex Lies & Videotape, Copycat, Frailty
TV
CSI:LV, Law & Order:SVU, Criminal Minds, Ghosthunters, Dexter
Books
I love reading historical fiction, especially about the Tudor period. Plus, stuff like:
Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, Philippa Gregory's Wideacre trilogy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Mayor of Castorbridge, The Far Pavilions, The Sunne in Splendor, The Robber Bride, The Thorn Birds, The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Hobbies
Crochet, reading, gardening, drumming, tarot, yoga, photography, and my latest addiction: polymer clay
Heroes
my mom, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Helen Keller, Anne Boleyn, Boudica, Rhiannon, Blodeuwedd
Happy Spring Equinox! Today was an absolutely lovely spring day here. Sun, breeze and even a sprinkle of rain. My chives are twice as long as they were a week ago, and my pink and purple hyacinths are in bloom. At least 8 of the 12 grape hyacinth bulbs Firehand and I planted last fall have sprouted, too.
I treated myself to a trip to the local greenhouse today. I was hoping to get an aloe vera plant to put on the window sill in my kitchen, but they didn’t have any small plants. So instead I just browsed around the greenhouse, basking in the presence of all the green and blooming plants that were there.
I did end up getting some seeds to start for the vegetable garden this year. Here is what I chose (not too much different from last year):
salad mix lettuce (red and green)
Little Finger carrots
Roma tomatoes
Early Snowball cauliflower
Peaches & Cream bi-color sweet corn
Blue Lake stringless green beans (pole)
edible pod sugar snap peas
ornamental birdhouse gourds
dipper gourds
The gourds are something new for this year, I am hoping to grow some that will work for making rattles. Cauliflower is new and I’m looking forward to that. I am trying carrots again this year, even though I’ve not been successful with them for some reason. Plus, I’ll be sharing seeds with my Tribemates, and they have onions, broccoli, spinach and much more. I hope I’m not being overly ambitious, considering the size of my garden plot. We may have to enlarge it– again!– and we just did that last year.
When I got home from the greenhouse, the Goddess Garden was calling me. I decided to go see if any of my green friends were coming up yet. The neighbor’s pussy willow tree, which shades the Goddess Garden, was already a riot of fuzzy blooms over my head. I cleared out all the old dead leaves and branches from around my herbs and was happy to see that my green friends are doing quite well, already! My lavender plants survived the winter, my hyssop is almost double in size, lemon thyme looks good and of course the sage, yarrow and lemon balm are thriving, as usual. It felt good to be grubbing around in the earth and the herbs smelled so good!
I plan to continue my spring equinox celebrations tomorrow by plotting out my garden, figuring out when to start my seeds and redecorating my altar. Welcome spring!
Weeping willows are my favorite trees. When I was a child, we had a beautiful weeping willow that grew in our backyard. My first experience of sacred space was beneath that willow tree.
I always think of weeping willows as Willow Tree Ladies; graceful, gentle, Goddess-like trees. Recently, when I was researching herbs and trees on the ‘net, I found this story about a Willow Tree Lady:
Japanese culture, tells of a young handsome bachelor who loved the Willow tree that grew near to his hut. His name was Heitaro and the tree was his temple, his treasure and his company. To him, each year it grew more beautiful than the last.
One day, the villagers came to cut down the Willow for wood to build a bridge. Heitaro protested and scoured the country to find adequate wood for their needs. This they accepted. That night, he stood beneath the Willow and gave thanks to the gods that the tree had been spared. Something moved in the moonlight.
Heitaro peered into the shadows. There, stood a beautiful young woman. He bowed and apologised for disturbing her, and left. But after that, she joined him under the tree every night and the happy couple fell in love and were married. They had a child, and prayed thanks for the happiness each night at the Willow temple.
One day the villagers returned, requiring to cut the old tree down again to build a temple to the goddess Kwan-Yin. This time Heitaro relented, he would miss it, but he had his wife and his child. The villagers began to cut down the tree. The Willow wife cried out inside the house to her husband saying the room was becoming dark. She fell to the ground and covered her face with her hands. She twisted and turned as though avoiding blows. Heitaro could do nothing but watch. When the last blow struck the Willow tree, he was alone with his daughter.
Personal Ceremonies If you were to plan your own Wedding or Funeral ceremony, would you create two separate ceremonies for pagan and non-pagan folk, or would you just plan a ceremony around your beliefs. How would you feel if any non-pagan friends or family did not wish to attend such a ceremony?
Well, I don’t plan on getting married again anytime soon since my current husband wouldn’t be too happy about that…
BUT, should circumstances arise, things would first of all depend on my partner’s spiritual practice as well as my own. But even if we were both out-of-the-closet pagans, I don’t know that I’d do a whole lot different than what I originally did for my wedding. I would *not* plan two different ceremonies– planning one is enough work. I would plan something that everyone, regardless of religious beliefs, would be comfortable attending. At least, that would be my hope.
Since neither Firehand nor I were very religious/spiritual at the time of our wedding, we chose a pretty non-religious ceremony and no one seemed to notice. I would still want the ceremony outside, not in a church. I’d love to have a madrigal choir again, but I suppose that would only work if I did a Renaissance theme again.
Maybe this time I’d get to have the bagpipes play me down the aisle (Firehand adamantly refused that idea for our wedding). I would love to do the handfasting where the bride and groom’s hands are bound with ribbons, I think thats a lovely and symbolic gesture; if I’d known about it back when I was married, I probably would have had that be part of our ceremony. But I don’t think I’d feel the need to have the ceremony done in circle, or need to have an altar set up. What could be more sacred than to be married with all of Nature watching?
As for funeral plans, well… I would not want a viewing. Besides, I want to be cremated. And I would not want people wearing black (not even the witches!) I don’t want any kind of church service, I’d rather have a memorial– outside somewhere if possible. Let people laugh and cry and tell stories. Let everyone pray in their own way, if they feel the need. Plant a tree in my memory. And do some shamanic drumming to send me on my way.
How would I feel if non-pagan friends/relatives refused to attend? Well, hopefully, I would be able to have a wedding/funeral that was all-inclusive, no matter what anyone’s belief. That would be the goal. If someone refused to come to my wedding, well, I’d try to talk to them about it at a later time. And if they didn’t come to my memorial, well, I wouldn’t be around to know it…
I seem to be having a hard time here at Covenspace. My biggest difficulty is the font size used here. I feel like I have to press my nose against the computer screen just to read it. It is so small, I find myself squinting to read blogs and forums (and I already have my screen resolution set so that things are pretty large-- drives my husband nuts). After 10 minutes or so of squinting, I just give up trying to read. It gives me a headache. And trying to read white small font on a bright colored background is a killer, too.
Anyone else having these difficulties? Or am I just getting way too old? Wait... don't answer that...
I just found out today that I have something in common with one of my heroes, Laura Ingalls Wilder– crochet! Evidently, she was quite an accomplished crocheter and even made up her own patterns. Here is a beautiful filet crochet doily pattern that she designed.
This is definitely on my TO DO list of doily patterns.
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