Over the Hump

Well, I'm on day 5 of my fast. I'm over the hump, so to speak, and have made it through the day of water only. I had moments when I thought I would give up, but I bulled through, thanks to family support, and now I'm coming out the other side.

Today is fluids only, but I can have a bit of broth soup later, and I'm back to drinking grapefruit juice and tea with Splenda. I'm feeling a lot more energetic today, than I did yesterday. I just wish it wasn't so darn wet outside, so I could go do some gardening.

Doing this fast has made me really think about food, and what it means to me. I noticed yesterday that it was not easy to come up with something to do with Farnham, when we were between his doctor appointments. Normally we'd go and have lunch, or sit and nosh on nachos at Armadillo Burritos. Even my television shows, when I sat to watch them, had people eating all through them. Food touches our lives in so many ways, sometimes even in ways we don't think about.

Fasting has made me face up to some of my personal food addictions. Craving food on a fast isn't wrong, per se, but I was craving all manner of things that were bad for me: chocolate, pizza, burgers, fried foods... I have a garden full of fresh veg outside, and I craved carb load. Bleh. Now that I'm out the other side of this thing, I'm looking at the fresh peas and bib lettuce and the second batch of radishes coming up, and thinking OOH YUM!

Don't get me wrong. I'm not giving up my occasional burger. I just need to get back to a place where a burger is a treat, not a daily occurance. I've pretty much had the dessert monster tamed for a while now, and it's not something I want or expect every night. Once a week or so, it's nice to have a sweet something after supper, but not every day. I just need to extend that so that the bad things become treats again, rather than staples.

Cleansing

People talk about beauty being a state of mind, and to some extent that is very true. If you don't believe you are beautiful, you probably aren't. However, there are many physical parts to being beautiful, and many emotional ones, too.

I am currently on the second day of a week long fast. It's not a terribly difficult fast, and as long as you keep drinking it doesn't feel too bad, but it's definitely changed some perceptions for me.

The fast itself is simple. Day one you give up sweets, caffeine, highly processed items like white bread (whole wheat is fine), etc. On day two you give up meat (but fish is okay), dairy, all bread and pasta and rice. On the third day you switch to fluds, but can drink broth, non-caffinated tea, juices, and the like. The fourth day is just water. Then you reverse the process.

I'm finding that today I was very tired. Not exhausted, or without energy, but just plain old tired. I felt like I needed to spend most of the day doing indoor things that didn't take a lot of energy. In a way, it feels as if I'm changing my focus from outside to inside, from physical chores to mental and emotional ones. It's a nice change, to be honest.

Tomorrow will be difficult, I expect, because there will be no solid food of any kind. Today I got to eat fruit, tofu, shrimp... tomorrow it'll be just chicken broth and water and juice. I am glad to be doing this, though.

I am noticing a lot of interesting physical things. My face is breaking out, and I have felt "greasy" pretty much all over. I'm hoping this means my body is expelling whatever toxins it can. I have a few aches and pains that seem to be at the forefront right now, claiming more attention than I want to give to them. While I'm not feeling run down, I am feeling like I need a good night's sleep or four.

Mentally, I find I'm drifting a lot. Keeping my mind focused on a particular task has been difficult today. I seem to pop off into daydreams or internal conversations. When I was out earlier with Farnham, I found that I was feeling very "high", as if I'd taken some drug, even though I had not. It was a pleasant sensation, but I'm glad I wasn't driving or doing anything important.

I'll try and write more about the fast tomorrow. :)

A Church?

This past Sunday, sis and I joined a church together. Yep, a church. :) It's a local congregationalist group, made up of the original three congregations that were in the area in the 1800s: the United Church of Christ, the Methodist Church, and the Unitarian Universalist Church. It's a very interesting blend.

I find myself interested in how comfortable it feels within the walls. Some of it definitely has to do with Rev. Alison, who is the pastor there. She's very open-minded (barely blinked at our being poly and didn't blink at all when I said I was a Hellenic Polytheist), friendly, loving, supportive, and kind. I like the fact that she, like me, sees the word "minister" as a verb, not a noun. It isn't a title to be worn, but a job to be done. I appreciate that in someone I am turning to as clergy.

The church is much more Christian than I am normally happy with. The UCC part seems to be the most dominant of the three branches, and that's reflected in the style of sermons, the Bible readings, and the hyms sung. However, there is an air of humility, a feeling that they don't know it all, and that they have no claim on god(s). There was a long discussion last week on the idea that god doesn't fit well into human made boxes. :)

I will be "preaching" there on July 19th. I offered to help out if Rev. Alison was busy, and she happens to be going to a family reunion that weekend, and needed a replacement. So I'll be at the pulpit, with the formal glass of water, with all the "gear" on. It's exciting, and it really stretches my understanding and my spirituality, in good ways.

It's interesting, finding a place where sis and I can meet and worship together. She's so very Christian, and I'm so very NOT, that it's unusual to find a spiritual home that feels welcome to us both. This is, in my opinion, a very special place.

Shrine video

Enjoy!

NA's Artistic Agon 2009

Well, I didn't win this year, but there was good reason for that. The other entries were stunning. I'm not shy about voting for myself if I think my writing is better than someone else's, but I could not in good conscience vote for my own work. The other entries outshone me by a mile!

I'm proud to be a part of Neos Alexandria's agons. I love that it helps keep alive not just our community, but the traditions of times gone past, when excellence was rewarded richly. The sense of friendly but stiff competition that used to underlie American society has died off in this era of "everyone wins" (*cough* bullshit *cough*). I was sorely disappointed when I realized I wasn't even in the running, but the flames of competition burn inside me now, and next year I'll be doing something much more worthy of the contest!

Frightened of Witches?

Urine, Fingernail-Filled 'Witch Bottle' Found
by Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

June 4, 2009 -- During the 17th century in England, someone urinated in a jar, added nail clippings, hair and pins, and buried it upside-down in Greenwich, where it was recently unearthed and identified by scientists as being the world's most complete known "witch bottle."

This spell device, often meant to attract and trap negative energy, was particularly common from the 16th to the 17th centuries, so the discovery provides a unique insight into witchcraft beliefs of that period, according to a report published in the latest British Archaeology.

I'm not sure whether to cheer or cry. Every time someone unearths something like this, it turns into a hue and cry over whether witches really existed in the 1600s. This brings out the people who claim to have "Wiccan family lines going back to the middle ages," which drives me nuts because the term Wiccan did not come into use until the mid 1930s or later.

I do believe that something outside of the usual was practiced in Britain during the Middle Ages. There are enough folk stories around and archaeological evidence to show that something was going on. I do not, however, believe there's some kind of unbroken line of women dating back to pre-history who practiced Wicca, etc etc. We won't even go into how the common people of the Middle Ages couldn't read or write, as a rule, and therefore couldn't have kept a "Book of Shadows" or anything else of that sort.

That said, this bottle doesn't even have anything to do with witchcraft, except to prove that the common people believed it existed and they needed protection from it. It was meant to protect you from witches, and was not made or used by witches.

Ah well.

More on Values

Another one for International Pagan Blogging Values Month.

In my book, I talk about the various Delphic Maxims. These are the moral guides that defined "the Greek," or "the Hellene" in ancient times. All Greeks were, throughout the Hellenic time period, aware of and conversant with the Maxims. Most scholars now believe that the Maxims were not only used as a moral code, but as a way of teaching foreigners both the language and the way of thought espoused by the Greeks.

With that knowledge in hand, it's exciting to look at the various Maxims, and examine them in the light of both history and modern times. I think it's vastly important (hence, writing the book!) to look at the Maxims with extreme care in light of our modern times. They give us a deep and abiding look into the way our ancestors thought. They also show us how little has changed over thousands of years. Humans invariably think relatively similar to one another.

There are so many excellent choices to work from:

• Restrain the tongue.
• Keep yourself from insolence.
• Accuse one who is present.
• Live without sorrow.
• Deal kindly with everyone.
• Struggle with glory.
• Control the eye.
• Pursue harmony.

We have discovered a total of 147 of these Maxims, so far. Some of them seem contradictory, perhaps to remind us that no one set of rules is right for all moments. These are not "commandments" as in the Abrahamic faiths. They are not meant to be the answer to every situation. They were meant, and ARE meant, to stimulate thought in a certain pattern.

I find the best ones for me are the ones that make me struggle. I have the Maxims written up on little cards, on a ring. When I'm having moments of doubt about myself or my life, or I need something to think about, I will flip to a Maxim randomly, and worry it to death. I'll study it, think about what it meant 2000 years ago, and what it means today. Sometimes, I write about my thoughts. Other times, I keep it all to myself. Regardless, I spend time actually working on my personal morals and ethics.

International Pagan Blogging Values Month

International Pagan Blogging Values Month was started by Pax over at Chrysalis. I've been reading his blog on and off for several months, and find much of what he has to say interesting or thought provoking. Having seen many of my online friends participate in this particular bit of blogging fun, I have decided to throw my lot in with this, and do some writing of my own. The idea is to write about pagan values, morals, ethics, etc.

I have written about neo-pagan morals and ethics on several occasions. I've mentioned that a lot of neo-pagans seem to shy away from the idea that they might posess morals and ethics, seeing them as some sort of property of the Abrahamic faiths. I believe that this idea is thoroughly wrong.

In order to live a fulfilling life, one must have morals and ethics. They don't have to be codified rules like the Ten Commandments, but you should be aware of them.

The "big ones" are easiest, of course. Don't mess around sexually with little kids. Don't kill people without provocation. Don't steal things. Don't lie unnecessarily. Most people will agree these are "No Brainers", things that are just correct.

The little things are what trip us up, along with moments of extenuating circumstances. If your child is starving, is it okay to steal food? If someone is threatening your life, is it okay to kill them? Is it wrong to lie about your beliefs if it's going to cause pain and suffering for yourself and/or others?

There are things I consider absolutes. Don't lie. Don't cheat. Never break promises. Live up to your responsibilities. There are more lax morals. Don't steal if you can avoid it. Pay your bills on time. Don't spend tomorrow's money today. Then there are the things which are ethical sticky points in my current society, but which I have no comments on, such as public nudity, marriage between same gender partners or multiple partners, and the casual use of marijuana as a social drug (like alcohol). I follow the public rules when I'm in public, because I've chosen to live in an area that doesn't support public nudity or multi-partner marriages, etc, but that doesn't stop my beliefs.

Honestly, the state motto for New Hampshire is one of my favorites: Live free or die. I do believe that. We must live free, in the heart, in the mind, or we'll die. So I engage in nudity in the privacy of my home, or deep in the hills that we own. I live with my poly family of five, and love it. And I show my support for the legalization of pot (though I don't smoke it anymore, for a variety of reasons).

I'm rambling... the toddlers are demanding attention, and so I need to go. I'll try and blog more about ethics and morals another time.

Corporal Punishment

What a load of horse puckies. Good freaking grief! No wonder our teachers can't control or teach their students - we don't allow them to do so! Argh!


Teacher Resists a Charge of Corporal Punishment
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ

When Glenn Storman, a guidance counselor at Public School 212 in Gravesend, Brooklyn, came across an unruly student cursing at a substitute teacher in 2004, he ordered the boy to “zip it” and brandished a rolled-up piece of paper, thinking that would be the last he heard of the encounter.

Finish reading this article.

Sigh.

Interesting video

Have a watch. I was intrigued. I got this from the Cage Free Family's site, and wanted to spread it around. I'm not sure how scared this makes me. It says a lot of things I've known, but making it into popular media implies that it's a bigger issue than I originally thought. Disturbing... Think about it.

More on my shrine, and the kids

Welcome to the walk up to our "camp home," to the area where my shrines are, and to the place where my temenos will eventually be. Welcome to my home, both spiritual and physical. This was taken Saturday afternoon, when Gray and I went up to do some work and water my grape plants. It's so beautiful it's almost painful. I find it difficult to explain how I feel when I begin the journey up this hill, along this dirt road, up into areas that feel so sacred and so silent. I love that, up there, the only sound is the occasional far-off train. The noise of the cars disappears almost completely, leaving you with a silence filled with birds, scolding squirrels, and the occasional startled deer.

On the way up, the girltwin spent most of the trip collecting an assortment of wild flowers, tiny pine cones, pretty ferns, and acorns. These she solemnly carried up to the stump we use as an offering place for the Nymphae, and she put them there so seriously. It was heart rending to watch how excited she was, and yet how she controlled it, not wanting to scare off any Nymphs that she might get to see. :) She even libated some of my grape juice, and spoke prayers to the Nymphs. She's such an amazing little kid, y'know? At three, she seems to have a natural grasp of things that we adults struggle to understand. I'm so proud of her!

Here, you can see the reason for my trip up the mountain yesterday. Grapes! Well, not grapes, not yet. The fruit will be another couple of years in coming. But those are leaf buds on that plant in the picture, buds that will come out into huge, gorgeous grape leaves in a few short days. Every single one of the five grapes I planted up there has either buds or leaves starting. They seem to love it there, near the stream, near the Nymphs. I'm excited, and happy. I'm hungry to see what happens next, to see how long the vines grow this summer. I can't wait!

Hecate as Mother

You don't see a lot of information out there, about Hecate as a mothering or nurturing sort. Yet, there's historical writing showing she was worshiped as a fertility and grain goddess in Thrace, and possibly as a goddess of the hearth. She certainly is a protector of women in labor, and of young children. People spend most of their time focusing on the "croneish" aspects, though, and forget these venerable qualities.

Yesterday, I sat down to do some writing, and found myself typing out something that's been building inside for a while. I want to share it here.

Maternal Hecate

I was but a child of seven or eight years,
Terrified in the night.
I knew not what I called to, so desperately,
And yet I knew instinctively to call.

The mother of my body lay,
Dark and brooding elsewhere,
Never heeding my fears,
Ignoring the stiffled sobs in the night.

The gods, they hear our pleas,
Even when screamed silently.
They hear, and they answer us,
In their own mysterious ways.

I was but a child of seven or eight years,
Terrified in the night.
I called out to god, ignorant and desperate,
Innocent, and hungry for comfort.

The mother of my soul answered,
Bright and warm and full of love,
Wrapping incomprehensiblly large arms
Around my trembling being.

I didn't know her name, then.
I simply called her "god."
She heard me crying, and took pity
On a child who had no one to nurture her.

I was but a child of seven or eight years,
Terrified in the night,
When she first touched my yearning mind
And made me her own, unknowing.

The mother of mothers,
Hecate, saffron robed and beauteous,
You have never left me,
Through all the tribulations of my life.

Io Hecate!

Shrines

Dionysos Shrine, May 11th, 2009

It's just a beginning, but it felt awfully good to put up these three trellises and plant the grapes at their feet. There will eventually be a loose weaving of light branches over the tops of these wooden structures, over which I will train the grapes as they grow. The idea is to create a small area within the shade of the grape vines which will house a small piece of statuary, a small stone altar, and a waterproof container with incense, candles, and matches. It will also have a small wooden bench, eventually, so that it's possible to sit within the opening of the shrine for prayer and meditation.

I'm so excited to finally get this going. Wow, it's started! There are several shrines that I want to put up on the property, but expedience called for this one to be put up first. The grapes arrived on Saturday afternoon, and had to go into the ground. I had a vague idea about where I wanted to put this shrine, but nothing exact. Farnham and I went up in the tractor this afternoon and I found the place within a few minutes of arriving. It was immediately obvious.

I knew it was the right place - it was a small glade, off the dirt roadway but viewable from the road, and I happen to know that the spot where the shrine is happens to have a lot of sunlight during the day. When we arrived, the very spot was bathed in dappled sunlight, as if the gods were marking it out for us.

I think it took about a half hour to plant the grapes. Farnham dug the holes, but I put up the trellises, and also did the actual planting. We watered all five grape plants, to make sure they were well soaked after being put into the ground. I picked hardy stock, to weather the harsh New England climate, and I chose seeded grapes so that they would (hopefully) replicate themselves, a blessing to Dionysos with every grape seed dropped.

Around the shrine there are a zillion ferns, still quite young and tiny, and some other climbing type plants. The stream is just a skip, hop and jump away (both pretty and nice to listen to, and also close enough to make watering easy). The place where I leave my offerings to the Nymphae is also just a few strides away, which felt right to me, since it was the Nymphae who cared for the infant Dionysos. Having their place near his, or vice versa, made sense.

One of the other shrines I plan on making, is one to Hecate. In the picture to the right, you can see the two headstones for the graves on our property, behind a pile of stones. The stones are ones pulled (by hand, I might add) from our orchard, which we tilled up a couple of weeks ago. These stones will eventually become a stone wall surrounding the graves, with room on either side for the members of our family when our times come.

Mr. Timothy Parker and his wife Miss Sarah Parker were the original owners of this land, in 1812 or so. We're not sure yet exactly when they got the land, but it is our understanding that our house (built in 1812) was the first structure on this tract of land. Mr. Timothy and Miss Sarah are buried under the headstones which bear their names. Unfortunately, time and exposure have done some sad work on Mr. Timothy's headstone, but I am seeking help from the local historical society on how to fix at least some of the damage.

We'll be planting a crab apple tree just outside the stone wall, but angled so that it hangs (safely) over the graveyard itself. The stone wall will go around all four sides, and be about knee high when finished. There will be an opening on the low side of the gravesite (to the right of the above picture, btw), with no gate or other blocking. It will just be open.

Behind the graves, built into the wall itself, and made out of stones, will be my shrine to Hecate. I am going to try and make it into something like a cross between this and this. I want it to be covered over, to keep the contents reasonably dry during most of the year. Like with the Dionysos shrine, I plan on keeping a waterproof container close by, containing candles, incense, and matches.

The main difference between the Dionysos shrine and this one, is that this one will be viewable from the road. We live on a semi-major roadway in New England. While it isn't going to be all that obvious from the road, people going by will be able to see the graveyard once the wall is up (currently, most of the area is covered by overgrowth of ground cover). I need to keep the shrine for Hecate somewhat circumspect, in order to make certain it isn't vandalized. I'm not certain people in our area would do such a thing, but I know I don't want to tempt fate, either.

I also have plans for formalizing the shrine for the Nymphae, which includes several gnome statuettes I got from friends. They're not the bright colored stupid gnomes, but ones that look rather... well, almost frightening in their realism. I like them, and they disturb the heck out of everyone else in the family except the twins. *grin* The 'altar' for the Nymphae will continue to be the cut off stump right by the stream, which we've been using for almost a year now.

The last shrine that I have any real plans for, is for Artemis. There's a story behind that one, but if you want to read it, you'll have to pick up a copy of Bibliotheca Alexandrina 's 7th book, Unbound. In it, there is an article that I wrote about how we found the place where my Artemis shrine will be erected. Right now, I'm not certain at all what I'm going to do. I'm not really a devotee of Artemis. I just know that I'm supposed to do this.

I'd love to put up shrines for Pan, Zeus and Hera, Aesclepios, Nyx, and a few others, but it'll be a while. I suspect that the two main ones outlined above will take up all of my spare time over the next year or so. What I AM planning on doing this year, along with the two main shrines, is to create a temenos. I have two separate areas picked out. One is very easy to get to, but also might end up being a place we walk through a lot, which would make it unsuitable as a temenos. The other is more difficult to get to, as you have to go down a fairly steep hill, but once you're there it stretches out beautiful and flat, quite suitable to be a house of the gods. We also have a natural ampitheater in our woods, an area where there's a deep "dip" in the ground, the edges of which are lined in tierd natural stone, almost like stadium seating. At the bottom of this half circle is a wide open space with a HUGE tree in the center. I'll have to try and get pictures of it sometime soon.

Just had to share

One of my family members sent me this, and it's too much of a chuckle to keep to myself. Enjoy!

Helping Others

I've been following the Cage Free Family for some time now. They've been fun, happy, exciting, sad, and always entertaining. Now they've hit a very rough patch, and they've asked for help.

If you think you can help, please look at their recent blog entry and see what you can do.

Thanks...

Farming Pictures!

Finally, I have the pictures! Here are some images of our Victory Garden:



These are the tires that will eventually become potatoes. We need many, MANY more tires. If you can see the tiny white thing at the far end of the field on the right of the picture, that's technically the space we've allotted to tires for potatoes (and sweet potatoes). We want them to eventually be three high, but you start with two, fill them with manure or dirt or compost, and plant the potatoes one to a tire. When they start to get tall green tops, add another tire, fill with more dirt (yes, you can bury some of the leaves, provided a few are left out to get sunshine), and you're done. They rarely need weeding, if at all, and there is NO DIGGING with this method. Just kick over the tire tower, pull the tires out of the way, and there are your taters, winking at you.



This is a view from part way down the garden, looking back toward the house. I took it to give you an idea of size... Those are the tires, down there to the right. The small red girl is our toddler, and she's only 3 and quite petite. The part of the garden you're seeing is about one fifth of the entire garden. Maybe one sixth. Huzzah!



Here we have an image of the beautiful row of peas I did. We have three types of peas: Tall Telephone (pictured here), Sugar Snap, and Provider. We have (drum roll please) about 500 FEET of peas! There's at least 250 feet down the way, and we have double rows. Wow... Some of our peas may actually make it past the garden boundaries this year! (Normally, children and sometimes naughty adults eat the peas before they make it into the house.)



This is an image looking at the garden from the wood lot beside the house. The tires are in the middle of the image, and mark the start of the garden itself. It goes alllllll the way down that field, almost to the barn you see in the way back, there.



Beautiful garden. This is just the "early crop" plot: spinach, lettuce, parsnips, turnips, beets, onions (both yellow and red), and radishes. Nothing is yet peeping out, as we only planted on Sunday. I keep hoping, though! The rain we're having is excellent stuff, and is likely working its magic on our seeds as I type.

We also have several plants in flats, some of which are still under grow lights and some of which are out on the porch being "shocked" before we put them in the ground. I'm very excited about the garden this year. I look forward to having a row of zucchini that I actually can't eat all of! :) Our family easily goes through the produce of a 50 foot row of zucchini plants. Yum!

I'll plant more pictures as things come up.

Busy days planting!

Well, I'm sitting down. :) This morning started early, for me at least. We were up and moving by 8am. Breakfast was over and done with by 8:30am, and most of us were out the door before 9am. We have a Victory Garden that covers a bit over a half acre, being about 400 feet long by approximately 60 feet wide. My goodness.

We strung out what was supposed to be the onion and parsnip bed today, but once we got a row and a half of onions done, we realized that we needed more onions and we had a dang huge garden. I believe our onion bed is 50 feet long and 20 feet wide. We ended up (after a quick trip to Agway for more onions!) with approximately 250 feet of yellow onions and 30 feet of red onions, and 20 feet of garlic.

Then there was one 50 foot row of parsnips, one 50 foot row of turnips, and then about 30 feet of lettuce, 30 feet of spinach, and another 50 feet of swiss chard. And then we did the peas. Oh. My. Gods. We ended up with something like 400 feet of peas! We did a third of it in sugar snap peas, a third of it in tall telephone peas, and the last third in a shell pea called provider or provender or something like that. Wow.

We put out our tires, and realized we need a lot more. They'll be filled with dirt, and then they'll get their potato cuttings in them. As they grow, we add tires, building it up with dirt and manure. When the green tops die off, we just kick over the stack of tires, and reveal lovely globes of delicious potatoes. No digging necessary. Hot damn! lol...

After I was done with all the planting, I went to the upper field which is currently being tilled under to become our orchard. We've taken 2 of the 15 cleared acres for our orchard, an area protected on three sides by tall, well established trees such as pines and maples. Most of the 15 acres will be devoted to widely spaced trees surrounded by red clover. The very end of the orchard will host our trailer, which will get put on either a pad, or on leveled stones. In any case, I didn't go up to watch Amo, even though it's fascinating. He's been driving the tiller over the 2 acres for about 14 hours total now, and he's still not done. 2 acres is a LOT of land to till over with a tiny little John Deere. We're managing, though! Anyhow, I was there to dig up stones. The big tiller used by the farmers who've been planting corn on this land is huge enough that it doesn't notice the big stones. It ignores them. Our little wee tractor is almost bowled over by some of these behemoths. So sis and I spent our afternoon plucking out stones. Anything larger than a softball came out, and was piled along the edge of the field. Aha, a lesson in how to make field stone walls! LOL...

Tomorrow, provided it isn't raining cats and dogs, we'll ALL be up in the orchard, plucking stones and filling the tractor box with them. Then those stones will be taken over to the pile near the gravestones, and I will slowly turn them into a lovely field stone wall protecting the graves and a small area to either side of them. My shrine to Hecate will be there, too. :)

And now... now I'm going to take my nightly pills and pass out. I'll try and get some pics for you soon!

The Tides of Spring

I am happy to be living on land that has four seasons again. I admit, I never thought I'd like it, but I do. It's a great feeling to have real spring, not just a couple of weeks of rain that turn into summer. I'm excited to look out and see the bright, warm sun, and feel it on my skin, but still have snow on the ground with green things peeping through. It just feels right.

On Saturday, we celebrated our Spring Rites. I chose to use a Hellenic style of ritual, and we made offerings of meat, bone, and fat, wine and barley, bitter herbs and sweet fruit to Persephone, Haides, Demeter, and Hecate, as well as to the other gods as a whole. The weather was perfect: the sun was high in the sky, and the temperature was warm enough that my Roman style robes were not overly chilly to wear. The snow was there, which allowed us to have a full bonfire, even if it didn't blaze up quite as excitingly as I had hoped it would. We had six or seven adults, three teens, and the twins there, and everyone was very involved in things. We blessed eggs, as well - hard boiled ones for eating, and raw ones to go at the corners of our garden for protection purposes.

The best part (for me) of the day was the Pomp, the procession from our home to the ritual area. I don't yet have a full temenos set up, but I had set aside the first log landing on our hill as the temporary one. We all walked up, slowly, to the beat of two drums. It was measured, paced, stately... I was amazed at the difference it made for me in ritual. I felt much more focused, more THERE. I will be very pleased, from now on, to have that long walk to my ritual spot. That ten minutes or so gave me a great insight into why the Greeks did it.

The text of our ritual is available here:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcrsnhds_189dgkdnfdg

Enjoy!

We've done it!

The Victory Garden movement has been ongoing for some time now. I've been an avid supporter, and we've been working on planning out our garden for the year. It's going to be huge, and tasty, and enough for food, seeds, and over-winter storage. And now, it seems that President and Mrs. Obama will be doing the same!

White House to Plant Organic Vegetable Garden

ABC news’ Brian Hartman has reported what many have been wishfully waiting to hear for months: the Obamas will soon plant an organic vegetable garden on the White House South grounds.

Following a 60 Minutes interview with Chez Panisse chef, renowned slow foodist and activist for improved national eating habits in the US, Alice Waters, on Sunday March 15th, wherein she called with continued clarion for an organic garden at the White House, First lady Michelle Obama talked of her plans for the garden in an interview for Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine that will feature in its April issue.

Mrs. Obama spoke, also, about the importance of healthy eating in that article, and what she hopes the garden will do to send that message to the nation:

We want to use it as a point of education, to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet. You know, the tomato that’s from your garden tastes very different from one that isn’t. And peas - what is it like to eat peas in seasons? So we want the White House to be a place of education and awareness. And hopefully kids will be interested because there are kids living here.

Amazing! The small voice of the internet, and the large voice of the public, have helped to create this wonderful, amazing thing!

Pictures of planting

The hope of spring is in what may grow when snow howls outdoors.

The hope of spring is in what may grow when snow howls outdoors. Inside, it's warm if you're near the wood stove, and chilly elsewhere. But bread is baking, soup is bubbling on the stove, and plants are sprouting in their little mock greenhouses by the window!

Look how tiny the seeds are! It's hard to see the marigold seeds, although they aren't as tiny as some of the others on the shelf. Carefully, the girltwin learns that one must plant the marigolds with the dark end down, the white end up, so that they sprout well. The holes for the seeds must be just the right depth, or it will be too hard for the sprouts to find their way up to the light. We make marks on a pencil to show how deep it should be, then carefully put two holes in each little cell.

Light end up, that's right. They look like little fans, almost, all poufy and pale colored. Girltwin's little fingers are well suited to handling the tiny, delicate seeds. She does a fantastic job placing them into each little hole. Then we tuck them in under a thin layer of dirt, making sure they're moist and warm.

Our little garden girl is dying to get out into the fields and do some REAL planting. She's going to plant sunflowers around the edge of our fields this year. I'm not sure if she realizes just how many sunflowers it takes to surround a field that is 0.6 acres in size. Hehe!