just becuase it's wednesday, doesn't mean this isn't a tuesday blog thought

not even may, & the humidity is high enough for late june. *extreme dislike*! haven't put the garden in yet as early spring weather in new england can be a gamble. however, earthenwitch has got her stuff together! she even includes her usual fantastic photos :)

hunting cats

or, in this case, *a* cat. kirschbits, a lovely etsy blog full of handbags & recipes is having a giveaway to celebrate her 1st year anniversary.  in order to be entered in one of 3 drawings you need to scroll through photos in her etsy shop to find a hidden cat. now, having feline companions, i know how well cats can hide, but, dammit, i've been looking for 2 days!
also, kirschbits is doing something very smart as part of the entry in this drawing: you must send where you saw the cat *in an email*, not merely submit a comment others can hitchhike on!
*sigh* back to the photos i go. i am determined that the cat shall not triumph.

time to take notes....

there are precious few blogs i take notes off of, excluding 4 i occasionally copy recipes out of.  chaos magic is an awesome blog. i have 3 entries worth of notes to take....'apocalypse timeshares' & 'OAT' have a few pages worth of notes each.  which is what i am now going to do...as soon as i put the grandkids to bed....

tuesday blog thought: more snow!

one of the wonderful things about the british blogs i follow is that the gardens green up so much quicker than does my wee patch in the connecticut valley. victoria's backyard is just one shining example. i shall be scrolling through her lovely photographs & sighing deeply this thursday when more snow falls this first week of spring!

on seasonal celebrations...

an (as usual) excellent post on chaos magic tripped a pet peeve of mine. that pet peeve  being the peculiar insistence of many of many pagans/wiccans tying celebration to an agricultural calender.  i haven't read dawn of sex & so can't argue for/against the idea of agriculture as enemy.  however, i can argue that the marketing of wheel of the year as a necessary part of pagan practice has more to do with selling an easily grasped concept which lends itself well to the peddling  of various patterns, decorations, books, etc. than it does with the idea of magical practice.
harvest home in the face of technology  which allows many of us to buy strawberries in december makes no sense. nor does assigning spiritual significance to an agricultural occasion which precious few people have any direct experience with.
for those of us with gardens, or even with farms, who want to celebrate a good harvest by inviting friends over --that's all well & good-- but hanging out with friends & family hasn't a damn thing to do with my spiritual or magical practices. to claim that it must merely adds an extra layer of fluff which takes too much of my time to shove aside.

tuesday blog thought: my father & chickpeas

the other day this luscious soup was posted in one of my favorite cooking blogs, the wednesday chef  
it features one of my favorite beans, chickpeas (a/k/a: garbanzo beans), plus the crunch of croutons. yum! this is one soup which can't go wrong.  the recipe also brings back a father-memory: whenever my dad goes up to a salad bar there are certain things which are always on his plate. one of which is chickpeas.  not too many, just enough for a small mouthful. every time,the same amount of chickpeas remain on his plate, to be scrapped off into the trash at the end of the meal.  i asked once why he takes something he knows he doesn't like & he replied "because i might like them this time.".  i didn't ask how he would know if he liked the chickpeas this time if he hadn't eaten at least one of them...

where am i heading?

the kitchen sink collective has a lovely post involving chicks & necromancy (it takes a Writer to be able to combine the two legibly).  it gives to me to think about my relationship with the dead. i don't particularly have one, nor do i feel called to develop one.
my mother has a lovely round table filled with framed wedding photographs of our family. as they die, she places their photo near the back. newer weddings go in the front. my auntie (moms' sister) has a collection of family histories & many photographs.  i have a few things that my grandmother (mothers' mother) has made me, & a clock my mom has embroidered for me. also i cross-stitched an animal totem for my maternal & paternal grandmothers. haven't figured out what to do for my mother as she isn't a fan of animals.  and that's it.
i don't feel a need to converse with them, & they don't feel the need to speak with me. i don't feel a loss over it all. i rather wish i did. more emotion is generated by the show 'ghost hunters', even if it's an intense dislike over the rude premise the show is based around. i.e., these ghost aren't bothering the 'hunters' so why are they bothering the ghosts?!  what i feel called towards are trees & stone, & the Spirit of Place. perhaps this is due to my moving so often as a child.....