September 23, 2011



Still we have the pull of Equinox around us. Equinox seems to spread further each year. Some celebrate on 21st, some 22nd and quite a lot today:) Thank you BW.
We have a painting of a Rumi quote executed by a very talented  friend of mine Pixie Sue. Her website is Inspired by Script. I saw a similar piece at Sue's house when we visited and fell in love with it. She very kindly made one for us



 Not sure if you can see but there are subtle sparkles on it that glisten as you move near. I have this hung in the bedroom with a hare hanging underneath. This was one of Karen's pieces at Moonlight and Hares
Let the moving waters calm down reflects a large part of my inner journeying . To calm the busy mind, to let MY self free. We all have internal chatter. Our minds try to fill any blank moments with inconsequentialities. Shopping lists, "do I need this, that ?What about?" 
When we sit and meditate or even just quieten the chatter for a moment it feels so different.

It is very hard to do.
We have to work on it. Each time we manage a little longer with a silent mind. Many meditation teachers tell us to simply acknowledge the thought that rises to the surface  and then let it go.
Eventually our busy mind knows  that at certain times it has to stay silent. This inner peace, inner space allows us time to just be.
No agenda often, but just a period of calm and inner reflection in a busy life.
It helps so much. I find it renews, it also empties the dross allowing room for beauty, for the place I am on the wheel or path of the year.

The morning pages I do are another way of emptying the mind when I wake each day.
Letting out the worries or even quite often creating pages that lead to a blog post. It is a discipline I enjoy. I don't write everyday but when I do I am glad I've done so.

I will leave you with this quote one of my friends posted today. Seems apt for Autumn Equinox and my ramblings this past week.

Honour the past. Live in the present. Look to the future.

Wollmeise /Alpaca giveaway Winners

So many lovely comments and ideas on my giveaway. I decided to frog the shawl and thereby give 2 people a full skein of Wollmeise rather than both skeins to one.
With no further ado the winners are:-
Pink Wollmeise Shortstix
Blue Wollmeise Bex
Alpaca washed fleece Claire.

Can you all message me your addresses please and I can send these off. Keep an eye out there will be another giveaway soon and yes it may involve WM:)

September 22, 2011

Equinox

Equinox already and the year is flying by fast.
Seems only yesterday it was Spring Equinox and now Autumn is here

 Everywhere I look the colours have changed. The food available on the market has also changed.there is far more home grown fruit and veg to be seen. It is far easier to eat locally not globally. There are lots of different apples and plums.
 The last of the summer's tomatoes at a bargain price. We have turned 12 pounds of local tomatoes into soup this past week and frozen it to give us a taste of Summer throughout Winter's dark days.
 An easy recipe that doesn't tax brain or strength. Roast tomatoes with garlic cloves still in the skin. Add a drizzle of balsamic vinegar or syrup and a slug of oil. When they start to caramelise and release their juice they are ready. Gently cook a diced onion, stick of celery and a carrot with a little oil or butter. When they are softened combine everything in a liquidiser with a couple of jar peppers from Lidl and a handful of basil leaves.Removing the garlic skin first. When cool freeze. The peppers from Lidl have a sweet/sour taste and lift the soup.
We also have blackberries sitting in the freezer ready to turn into fools or crumble. Will they fool us when we are eating Autumn harvest at midwinter? Probably not but sweet none the less.
At times like these I am glad that I am pagan. Not witch or shaman or heathen even.
But Pagan. Pagan for me means living the wheel of the year.Its highs and lows and  turns from dark to light and back once more. Not just giving it lip service.
I am glad of the moons influence on my moods and emotions, the suns also.
Some people seem to play at Paganism. I'm a witch, a shaman or this that and the other. They love the trappings, the spells, the rituals.the candles and incense. The trappings are all to them.
But, Know thyself. This is part of my belief, my creed if you like.
My path is a journey through who and what I am. Making sense of it, working with my strengths and weaknesses.
Yes there is ritual, candles and smells. But as part of honouring the wheel, the Lord and Lady in all their aspects. It isn't something I can pick up and drop as the mood takes me.
It is who and what I am every day, all day.
The first time I realised the path I was on I didn't think of where it would take me or that it is a lifetimes work. Even beyond.
When I accepted this road I accepted all of it. Not snippets or moments of it.
I can't turn off the path I chose and most of the time I wouldn't want to.
But we are human after all and sometimes I rail at what befalls.
Sometimes I think there is no easy answer.
We can't pick and chose the bits to enjoy or to live. A spell here, a potion there.
Its all or nothing, warts and all.
And I am glad for all its meanderings.
It is who and what I am, who I want to be.
I do this for me, not to make friends or influence people.
Not to get rich or any such foolishness
But to be me

September 21, 2011

Equinox greetings


Blessings of Mabon to you, may your harvest be a good one and may the things you let go bring space for new.

Autumn is well and truly on us now, cold damp mornings and the light nights are gone. Last night we needed lights on at 7pm.

at one time the thought of Winter used to fill me with despair. The loss of the light and the warmth.
Eventually I realised how beneficial the dark half of the year was. A time to take stock, to appreciate the harvest received from the years efforts. We need the dark half of the year for balance.
There are days mind when I long for the sun and the heat of summer. When everything aches and even standing is wearisome there are thoughts of summer days.
There are several Autumn poems I love.
This first from William Blake:-
To Autumn

O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stained
With the blood of the grape, pass not,
but sit
Beneath my shady roof, there thou may'st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe;
And all the daughters of the year shall dance,
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.
 
and the well known one from John Keats:-

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
                                 

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.


Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
 

After Apple Picking

by Robert Frost

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still.
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples; I am drowsing off.
I cannot shake the shimmer from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the water-trough,
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and reappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
And I keep hearing from the cellar-bin
That rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking; I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall,
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised, or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.
An Autumn Greeting
"Come," said the Wind to the Leaves one day.
"Come over the meadow and we will play.
Put on your dresses of red and gold.
For summer is gone and the days grow cold
The colour and mood of the garden is changing now also. The Acer's leaves glow red in the sunshine and even at dusk have an otherworldly look to them
I have a ritual for Autumn Equinox. I use it as a time to let go of unwanted stuff. Not just physical but spiritually. I let go and send it on its way.

This is a mixed harvest this year, not all good but even the bad or negative things will have a positive side. We learn from and progress from all aspects of our life. Sometimes we wonder why it happens but there has to be a reason.
As part of my ritual I send out positive energy to the world to be used where the Goddess sees fit.
I wish you all you wish yourself. Remember if you send out positivity you receive it back. But the balance of life states that this applies to negativity also. Be careful what you wish for.

September 17, 2011

There are winners, soon

Lots of comments on my giveaway and there are winners just need to get my act together and draw them. I decided to split the wollmeise and that way 2 people will get a skein each to play with. There is also the alpaca. I've been very busy photographing lots of yarn, fibre, spindles and a wheel. Having a major destash, we both are. Haven't done any spinning for a few weeks now due to very painful joints and have a lot of stash that could do to go to new homes. Also a Frank herring spinning wheel, not the smaller wheel the larger model. There are also several spindles including IST and wildcrafts. If you are on ravelry do take a look, there may be something you need:) Ive also got lots of Lornas Laces sock yarn on there and some wollmeise lace and Bugga. Part of this is going for fundraising for macmillan nurses, a worthy cause and one I try to support alongside the air ambulance and hospice. I think I've raised almost £200 so far for Macmillans Today has been rain most of the day and very cold. Hard to believe that a few days ago I went out with bare arms. Thursday morning there was ground frost.

September 14, 2011

Woolmisery (Wollmeise) and alpaca fleece giveaway

I am giving away the above yarn. There is over 300gm in the 2 skeins of Wollmeise you see before you.
I've started a shawl, pattern is faraway so close, and I don't like it:( I don't want to frog it and make something else so I'm offering it to you. Leave a comment on the blog if you would like the yarn. I will post world wide. I'll draw a winner Friday morning. If you haven't tried Wollmeise this is your chance. I've made several shawls with it and socks but this just isn't working for me:(

I also have a giveaway for the spinners or felters, a pillowcase of washed white alpaca fleece. All ready to spin. Again just comment if you would like this.
I have also mentioned the giveaway on Ravelry and I know some of you are members there as well.

Today was brought to you by giveaway Wednesday:)

On a side note, very observant BW to notice the new colour:)

September 13, 2011

Thoughts on an Autumn morning

The rituals of the day play out before our eyes.
Of some we are a part, of some merely an observer.








The sun will rise without our aid. We all believe it will and like a well oiled machine it appears above the horizon each day.

Some rituals we lead. The getting out of bed, the daily ablutions. Do we do them consciously or on automatic pilot?
 
We take part in a lot of the day as mere automatons.
Do we remember the first breath of the day?
The first view of morning.
Do we practice mindfulness as we go about our daily life?

Or do we just exist in these moments?


I find myself stopping, taking time to be in the moment.
To smell the faint aroma of Winter's arrival.
It wasn't too many days ago that the first breath of the day was warm. It smelt and tasted of a hot Summer.

Granted not many of those this year. But still, where did it go?
How come Autumn arrived so fast this year? How did the wheel change as it did?

The world looks different now. From the greens and yellows of Spring we now have golds and ambers and firey reds, turning before our eyes to brown.

Fruit on the hedgerows begging to be made into jams and pies or cordials.
My apple tree has proper fruit this year. The first since we moved in almost five years ago. I don't know its age but this years fruit is mature and lush. Not many but a crop none the less.

I will make a pie of them and give thanks to the Goddess for her harvest gifts.

The shawl I've just finished. I named it pumpkin field as it reminded me of the fields of pumpkins around this time. The yarn is Zauberball and crazy Zauberball.

We are ok chez Moggie, trying to enjoy each day to the full and not think of things we can not change. Not always easy but we try.
And you?



September 08, 2011

A little sojourn in Cheshire

We have had a short break in Cheshire . Both Mr Mog and I love Chester and Ellesmere Port. As we had such good news at the hospital we decided a little break was in order. This time of year when the schools have gone back is ideal. Not too busy to get around. We always use the park and ride by the zoo, leave the car there then go in on the bus. It saves trying to fight our way round the one way system and trying to find a car park near enough town. Chester also has a brilliant shopmobility scheme. Saves having to take your own wheelchair in and is very reasonable. You can either pay for the day or for the sum of £15 use a scooter when ever you wish for 12 months. Guess which I chose? We have been to Chester many times but never done the tourist bus ride. This time we did and what a good way to spend an hour. A very informative soundtrack to describe events and buildings as you drove by. Quite often they have a live guide also. He was just finishing as we went on the bus but the recording was fine. Not too much information to overwhelm, not too little. We had lunch in Patisserie Valerie croque Monsieur and coffee for me, Darjeeling for Mr Mog. So many gateaux but we resisted. This was a relaxation after all the building works and hospital stress. BW I will post pictures soon of the refurbishment , better still you could come and visit and see them:) What I did notice on our way to Cheshire and around town is the autumn foliage. So many colours to see and absolutely loads of leaves on the ground under trees. A veritable carpet of russet and gold. There is a definite chill to the mornings now and autumn equinox is knocking at the door. I am pleased to have all the busyness over before the wheel turns inward once more. I have been browsing my books, wondering what aspect of my faith to study. Will it be more on the tarot? Perhaps it is time to do more work on the different pantheons. All of this attracts but I need to start slowly after the break from study. I don't want to overwhelm my senses with too much information at one go. I noticed that our stock of incense is getting low, time to get the incense cupboard open and the pestle and mortar in use. I fancy a change for our house incense and our home oils. Frankincense beckons, so does oak moss. I will have to see what to add to both, or either, for our home this winter. I like to change the aroma, I sometimes find that we get used to the same smell and to change it helps inspire and changes the atmosphere of the home. D you ever do that?

September 07, 2011

Thank you

Thank you for all the positive thoughts sent this way. Mr Mogs appointment at oncology went well. He has to go back in 6 weeks. There is no need to start any trials yet as he is holding his own:) as you can imagine we are extremely pleased. We have nearly finished with the house tidying etc. Our friend A is coming back next Monday to paint the kitchen and the hallway. Then it is just the craft room to do and we are all finished. We have just been getting her to emulsion each room and have used the same colour throughout .( winter mist) form those interested. It lightens the place up and it shows off the artwork much better than the previous colours. This house is the first we havent decorated before moving in. As we have now been here going on for 5 years it is time to brighten it up. We are enjoying each day we have. All are bonuses after all

September 04, 2011

I was reminded

I was reminded by a friend that I havent posted in a while. Sorry. It has been a little frantic here , we have had builders in and that can be a little fraught even with excellent builders such as we had. The wheel seems to have moved on suddenly and it is now most definitely autumn in a morning. Where has the summer gone? although saying that today has been delightfully warm and sunny. In other news our friend has been decorating for us this past week. Sadly something I am unable to do now and too much for Mr Mog to tackle on his own. Fortunately our friend loves decorating and she was glad to do it. On a totally different note it is oncology tomorrow and a chance to see how Mr Mog is doing. He had blood tests last week and the results should be at the hospital for the morning. He seems well enough in himself but as you know we have thought that all along. If I hadn't seen the bone scans and MRI results with my own eyes I would have thought it a particularly unpleasant jest. But seeing the cancer spread throughout his spine, pelvis etc I had to believe. So what does tomorrow bring? Watch this space. I do know that the positive thinking helps. I had a phone call from a friend of ours the other day who asked how things were going. He is not pagan, doesn't really follow any path that I know of, but informed me that every time Mr Mog comes into his thoughts it is with the same scenario. The Scenario being that Elvis wants to meet Mr Mog and by this friend thinking of Mr M it delays this meeting ever taking place. A great way to send positive energy dont you think? There is a hope from things such as this, and hope performs great miracles My health has been indifferent, so much pain that it keeps me awake of a night and when that happens the next day is long and tiresome. But in the scheme of things I would wish this pain for me kept the cancer for mr m at bay. I haven't spun much with all that is going on but have managed to keep knitting, shawls of course :) Pictures may follow shortly. I am sorry if my absence worried, thank you for thinking of me.

Poetry for Brigid Imbolc

  The Lake Isle of Innisfree BY  WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay a...