Just spray and hose!

Today I have felt like I have wasted a lot of time.. I woke this morning with the best of intentions.. scrub the newly acquired but more than a little grimy barbecue, mow the lawn and sort out the accumulated *stuff* that had collected in the lounge buffet.. but with one thing and another, more the other than anything.. 1pm came around and I thought it might be a good time to at least complete one *must do* task I had set myself.. silly me picked the barbecue - I had to relent and invest in a not so organic cleaner.. perhaps the penance for this, was my fool hardly belief in the label.. spray on a warm surface, leave for 15 to 30 minutes then hose.. uh huh.. hose with what? a Karcher or the local fire brigades hire pressure fire hoses? because two pairs of protective gloves, one container of Baking soda, one metal scrapper, a jumbo scrubbing brush, a wire wool ball, 4 scoops of laundry powder, several buckets of boiling water and 3 hours later, with penance duly paid, it now resembles something I would possibly think about cooking on! Tomorrow the lawn.. although with all the spring growth, I wonder where I can get a combine harvester from.
Blessings

Blessed Be The Butt

We live in a 70 year old cottage.. there is old and there is 'Just Old' we full into the latter..Once upon a time it used to be an old shop with the living quarters at the back, the shop front is now a huge storage unit and very cluttered with the owners things.. very hard at times to keep the energy nice with that clutter attached to your living area however.I digress though. This wee cottage is small... wee small..very small. Two bedrooms, with the lounge, dining and kitchen area all in one room, the kitchen is closed off by a half wall, so when your creating in the kitchen you can still be part of the family in the other area. We took it sight unseen as we had no desire to live on the Navy Base, and we were and are very Blessed to have been offered it..
However, due to it's smallness finding an area to set up my Sacred space and working Altar was a bit of a challenge, our bedroom was not practical, the little room we use as a computer room wasn't either, so with a little rearranging I commandeered an area beside the hearth, it felt perfect.. I can sit before my Altar feeling the warmth of the fire, and look out the window and watch the clouds, I can see the wind running her fingers through the leaves of the huge gum trees, watch the birds. Myvanwy (my beautiful ceramic witch)and the dragon sit perfectly under the window and my besom sits snugly between Altar and hearth.. everyone knows it is not somewhere you put your coffee mug, you don't mess with the broom, or fiddle with anything you find on the Altar top, it is a respected place .. There is a good 6 feet from "our" chairs and this little area.. so now the scene is set..
Have there ever been times in your life when you have watched a scenario unfold in what seems to be slow motion? Well I have had a few and last night was one of those times.. It had been a busy sort of day, we had gone to a huge hardware place and Sarah bought a cute little outdoor table and chairs for her balcony, I had potted up some house plants for Sarah to take home, during the week I pre pack and freeze a few meals for her to take home 'Mums Red Cross parcels' she calls them, so they needed to be put in a cooler bag for the trip, so once this was all done we packed up the car and drove her back to the city, it is about a 3 hour round trip depending on traffic, and after the AFL final on Saturday afternoon, most of the fans where driving home on the Sunday afternoon.. my man was getting a little frazzled on the journey home and it rubbed off.. so when we got home, I decided to have a glass of wine and him a beer.. and just sit for awhile and unwind.. 30 minutes later I went off to the kitchen to my pots and pans.. Now, mind I did say a glass.. one, uno, singular.. 4.5% alcohol.. not much! So what transpired next was certainly not expected.. I watched dumb struck, as my well read, smart, intelligent, handsome, loving and usually co ordinated man tripped over his shadow and half toppled the 6 feet from his chair into my Sacred space, tried to stop himself falling completely, put out his arm got tangled up in my Besoms bristles, at this point I wanted to close my eyes as I envisioned him getting swept out the closed window on the broom.. there was a crash and tinkling as my chalice hit Myvanwy on the head and broke, next thing there is my beloved sitting in the middle of my Altar looking very sheepish!
I was speechless, I scrapped by jaw up of the kitchen floor and went over to him, once having ascertained he was in fact alright, the first thing out of my mouth was " what on earth are you doing" at this point one would find it hard to believe I was in fact an empath.. I picked up my broken, un-fixable chalice and put it on the kitchen bench, and not a lot more was said.. I was still speechless and couldn't absorb the pantomime that had just unfolded..
My Dh had apologised a hundred times and said he felt a little stupid.. In the middle of dinner, a wave of mirth bubbled up as I played the scenario through my head again, I looked at him across the table and said.." You know it is a media myth that Witches sacrifice men on their Altars" I laughed till tears where streaming down my face as he smiled that smile that always melts my heart and said.. " I know, but Blessed Be the Butt"

Ebay Orphan

We have had another eBay Saturday today.. So my daughter who has been coming home from the city on the weekends to spend as much time with me as she can before I leave, has become what is affectionately known as the eBay orphan.. although we do try to go early while she is still sleeping.. it's funny she hits the outter limits of the city and her snooze button kicks in..Bless her, I shall miss her so much.
As some of you may or may not know, we are moving to another house, in another state nearly 3.000km away from Melbourne, in what is now just a short few weeks away.... with no furniture except a lounge suite, a TV and a new mattress, 3 book cases and my altar and several boxes of kitchen stuff..oh and the computer..lol..
You see we have been house sitting.. and we have not really needed anything.. I have always been of the opinion people are more important than *things* and have walked away from all material items in my life a couple of times, and have never bothered to get new stuff.. when I migrated to this country from New Zealand, I arrived with a suitcase, $2.800 and no job..not the usual sort of thing you do at 40, it was a little hard but quiet liberating.. however it did not solve the dilemma of ridding a house of an echo, the kind that only comes when it is empty... we did not have resources to go wild and buy new, and really why would I want to? Pay thousands of dollars for furniture made out of wood from forests that were best left to house the indigenous species that dwelt there.. and to make others rich exploiting workers who should be treated far better... Years ago it would not have mattered to me, but how things change when you see things through blessed Pagan eyes..
So we turned to pre loved treasures.. oh I love second hand goodies.. shabby Chic..
So with a few weeks of haggling and swapping on Ebay and Freecyclers I have furnished a whole house for $305, I'm talking 3 beds, fridge, dining table and 6 chairs, 2 beautiful old 'curl up and read in me chairs', Buffet/hutch and a TV cabinet..
I also managed to re home through Freecyclers, all my outdoor container plants as the house owners don't want them, they are not gardners and I can't take them across the border due to Quarantine regulations so it was nice to see them go to someone who was over the moon to have them.. I even managed to find a home for the gold fish.
Blessings.

Finding the Divine

During the course of my life, I have never really been to far away from those people who walked the path of the Ancient Ones, although for the most I never fully realised it. My best friend back in New Zealand, my mothers family, who due to geographical distance I never met, but they to had practised the Craft, perhaps this is the reason why I to have finally chosen this path - the Teutonic blood of my ancestors running through my veins..
While I was drawn to this path, I was also apprehensive at first as much of the information I found was quiet seriously influenced by Gardnerian Wicca I did not feel comfortable with some of it, and in some way it did not feel right to me, also because of my previous religious leaning's. Really I had no choice but to keep looking for different ideas and approaches to things through books and numerous websites.
It is a life choice. I didn't one morning wake up and go.. "Oh today I think I will be a Witch" it is an on going lesson of life - not all hocus-pocus and abracadabra as so many people misguidedly think. For me being a Witch is not just about casting spells and 'doing' Magick, it is a very personal journey about finding the Divine within me and with out. It took a long time to learn this lesson, for without having a relationship with the Goddess, my Craft would be empty.
I used to think that anything Divine was something found in a Patriarchal church.. something or someone I could not touch, whose rules had to be obeyed.. I was so excited when I finally started to get it.. that the Divine was everything, was everywhere, was in everything, within me even. I could go on for ages about this, but my train of thought has come back full circle (no pun intended) to the reason I wanted to post on this topic..
About a week ago, a friend and fellow tagger/stationary maker, made me a wonderful present. It was a beautiful tag with a quote on it by Frank Lloyd Wright it said simply "She put the N in nature and called it her Church" this simple quote so moved me - as did the gesture of the tag.. when I asked her about it, she said that quote Was you, Is you. You see Nature is my Divine, is my "church" Nearly every morning I get up and I go outdoors.. I thank and welcome the Spirits and Guardians of the East, North, West and South into my day. I take in several deep breaths of the fresh morning air. Every sense of my beinging tingles as I breath in the Divine and exhale the Sacred.. This to me - is Magick.

Good Bye Winter

Our lives turn as the earth turns.. We tend to mark the changes in our personal lives with the flow of the seasons. The wonderful cold solitude of winter that then gives way to the birth of the first buds of spring, and on to the sun filled days of summer, before the final harvest and wonderful colours of autumn. For my friends in the Northern Hemisphere it excites me to know that you are feeling the fingers of Autumn, the quietness and rest it will soon bring, The Crone .... Where I am in the Southern Hemisphere we are celebrating Oestra, yes spring is here - as is the new beginnings she brings.. the bee's I heard for the first time this season, as they swarmed in the blossoms of the plum tree, the Daffodil bulbs that I have been watching have finally this week opened dazzling us all with the yellow of creamy butter.... and for the new beginnings in my own life.. and in a funny little way I am sad because of it - The Goddess knows I am ready for this change in my life, she has been grooming me for this, in the quietness I have felt this winter, and I know in my heart it will all be fine, but there are still tiny fingers of fear.. Fear of the unknown, the acronym of fear.. False Evidence Appearing Real.. it is slightly ironic how the cycle of the rebirth of the land coincides with a huge personal change happening in my life over the next several weeks..I want to hang onto the winter in my heart, to the Crone.. to all that I am learning.. however it is time to put some of my new spiritual growth into practice.. How do I know it is all so right? After the days were arranged to move, I checked the lunar calender, even if this witch put the cart before the horse!.... Our house is packed up on the day of the new moon, the removals come and take our stuff to our new home 3.000km away on the first day of the waxing moon.. we leave to follow on the second day.. as the moon grows so to does our new future get closer.. There are busy days ahead..Blessed Be..