A Sparrow Tale

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, but that is a different tale.(*) Actually it was feeding time. (be sure to click on photos for a good look)

Here is little Junior, head protruding from the right side of this two-family home. Mouth wide open and squeakily chirping up a storm.  "FEED ME!"  Sitting on a perch in the lower right of this photo is Mama. She is studiously ignoring the plaintive mewling of her offspring.

Observing from a safe distance are two older ladies. They are not-too-discretely discussing their shock at the behavior of Mama. "I would never let my baby holler like that!" says the lady on the left. The lady on the right agrees. "Well, I never!! A terrible mother! She should be ashamed."

Ah! Who do we have here? It's Papa. Resting for just a moment, as Mama (extreme left) carries on a non-stop critique of her husband's poor work ethic. "That child has been squawking for at least 5 minutes. Where have you been? Off with Fred and Charlie? Staring at those young chicks that fledged last week? You should be ashamed of yourself. Get back to work and feed our baby!"

"Yes, dear," Papa says meekly. "Okay, Junior, open wide." Papa sighs, as his wife flies off to meet the girls for bunco.

"Chow down, kid," Papa says. "NomNomNomNom," Junior chirps. The ladies on the fence ruffle their feathers and shake their heads in unison.  "The poor man," one says.

And so ends this tale.


(*) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

Monday Medley--Merry May Monday

Happy Victoria Day to all those Canadian friends and relatives "up there". Hope you are enjoying the three-day weekend, and getting the cobwebs out of all your caravans!

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Hurray for us! First fire of the season in our backyard fire pit. It was serene and beautiful and even better, no mosquitos! We burned sage and sweetgrass, honored Hecate and star-gazed. My husband had grilled burgers for dinner and then prepared the fire. Thanks, honey!

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Sad news over the weekend. Two icons of the music world gone. Donna Summer and now, Robin Gibb. Did you dance to their music back in the day?

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Summer seems to be well on its way. What a weekend of warm temps, sunny skies and panting dogs! Keep those water bowls full.  (you notice how dogs smell funny after being outside sometimes? and by funny I mean stinky.)

On that note, bye for now!!!

A Lupine Tale

The lupines in my garden are very special to me. In 2005, I gathered seeds from these lupines from my mother's property in Quebec, where she had a little house (called "Chalet Bosquet", or house in the woods). My mom was born and grew up in Quebec, and her family still has property in a little French-Canadian town north of Quebec City. Almost 40 years ago, my mom threw a handful of lupine seeds around the side of her house, and left them alone. All these years later, the lupines have profusely and joyfully taken over a large part of the land around her place. It is a wonderful sight in late spring when the many-colored lupines stand tall, blooming and beaming at everyone. It looks like a fairy village.

So, I gathered some seeds in the autumn when my husband and I were up there, placed them in an envelope and stuck them in the glove compartment of our van. We made the trip back home. Life went on. Four years later, my son now owned the van. He was away at college, and one day he was looking through the glove compartment and found the envelope with the lupine seeds.

Nick brought them home to me and I was so thrilled. Having forgotten about these seeds (and feeling a little badly about forgetting) I immediately made plans to pot them up and see if they would sprout. After spending four years in the van through hot weather and freezing weather, it was anybody's guess if these seeds were still viable.

About ten days after potting them, little sprouts starting popping up. Soon there were taller plantlings. When they were stronger, my brother and I planted these amazing little wonders into our garden. I saved two pots of lupine plants to take down to Virginia to my mom who was living with my oldest brother. He planted them in the garden by his front entrance. When I presented these pots to my mom and brother, I told the story of where they came from. My mother was so happy and touched, and amazed that the lupine seeds had survived. They thrived there, and my mom so enjoyed seeing them whenever she left the house.

Now that my mom is gone, the blooming of these lupines is even more special. There were lots of different colors of lupines; red, pink, yellow, purply-blue and white. The purply-blue ones were my mom's favorite. The only lupines blooming now are the purply-blue ones. You know what? I don't think that is a coincidence.

I took these two photos yesterday. They are beautiful and flourishing. (click on the photos for a closer look)

Scott Cunningham, book and video

The foundation of my Wiccan path was laid by reading many books. The most profound of these books, for me, are written by Scott Cunningham. I believe I have most of the books he wrote, some of which I have read so many times that they are dog-eared and worn. The words are as fresh today as when I began reading them years ago. Scott Cunningham wrote in a simple but passionate style, bringing alive the world of herbal magick, as well as other aspects of Wicca.

My son Nicarus gifted me with Cunningham's Book of Shadows recently. This is a recently published book. The book was not completed before the author's death in 1993. The publisher has done a wonderful job of bringing this book to us. As I read through the first few pages, I found myself becoming rather emotional, eyes welling up. Hard to explain. Cunningham's words move me.

Yesterday my son and I sat down together to watch a video. Another purchase by my son. It was produced in 1986 and as far as I know the only video Scott Cunningham made. A rather low-budget, low-tech production filmed in San Diego. The quality is not the best and Scott seems at times uncomfortable, a little out of his element. But he soldiers on. What I found exceptional about this video was watching Scott talk about magickal herbalism, seeing him harvest herbs, crush herbs and make blends for  incense, charms and oils. It was truly a pleasure, informative and amazing. We chuckled a few times as Scott stumbled over a few words here and there, made attempts at humor and looked at the camera through very large glasses. I think the intention of this video was to try to show how simple but sacred gathering herbs, learning about their properties and using herbs in magick can be. Scott's knowledge was well-rounded and researched meticulously. He wanted to show that magick is not a complicated undertaking. With intention and energy, using common tools, magick happens naturally.

The bottom line: practice magick. If you can, grow your own herbs, work with them, feel their energies; Scott shows you how do that in this video. The more you do it, the more confident you will become, the more you will learn and the stronger your passion for this Path will become.

Watching this video was a little surreal. Seeing Scott Cunningham talking about magick was so wonderfully amazing. Having only read his words, to see him speaking about all these magickal things was an interesting, moving experience for me.  A little funny due to its age and low-key production, but still a joy and privilege to view. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in herbal magick, and definitely for those who have read and love Scott Cunningham.

Bright Blessings. Robin.

Cunningham's Book of Shadows; The Path of an American Traditionalist by Scott Cunningham. copyright 2009 by Scott Cunningham. published by Llewellyn Publications, 2143 Wooddale Drive, Woodbury, Minnesota 55125-2989 (www.llewellyn.com)

Scott Cunningham's Herb Magic (video), copyright 1989, 2010, Llewellyn Worldwide.

Ackk! Off-On-Off

Quickly I type. My laptop is having trouble. Dropping off line for five minutes or 20 minutes or all night. The two other laptops in the house stay stubbornly on-line, so it is not our internet connection. My poor laptop, is this the beginning of the end? How dreadful to be cutoff right in the middle of an interesting blog post or reading an email, or worst of all, in the middle of a fab game!!

The lupines in my garden are blooming, the irises are getting ready to bloom. I purchsed a lot of seed packets at the garden store. Ready to roll.  Hopefully I will have photos soon, if I can get back online. Fingers crossed.

My brother's surgery went well yesterday. Hopefully we will know more in a week or so.

Hmm, I have been on here for a few minutes.....uh-oh, I feel like I am about to fall off-li

Family, Swans and Addictions

Finally, a sunny day with seasonable temperatures. A super day to get out in the garden. Boy, do we need to get out in the garden. Weeds are spectacular!! We could win an award for these weeds!!

Here's a few random bits of odds and ends:

Family Updates: My husband is doing great these days after recovering from his sudden and severe illness. He has been back to work for about a month now and does not appear to be suffering any after-affects.
My brother continues to deal with his many health issues. He will be having another surgery this coming Monday for a kidney-related problem. We just need to take things one day at a time.

Swan Update: It appears that Manny and Faye, the Manlius, NY swans I talked about Here are expecting a new family. Faye has started laying eggs and the security cameras have been set up. Also a large group of volunteer citizens will be keeping an around-the-clock watch on the nest. I personally think it was a mistake for the newspaper to report, not only that more swan eggs have been seen, but the location of the nest was revealed. Hopefully, though with the video surveillance and the volunteer watchers there will not be a repeat of the senseless destruction of eggs that occurred previously. I will keep you posted.

Reading: Over the last three weeks I have been reading a lot of gardening books, magickal books and several fiction novels. Perhaps I have been reading a bit too much, instead of working on the aforementioned weedy garden. I am never without two or three books in progress, though, and the gardening books are essential for my skillful dealings with the task required. (!!)

A few of the books I have read recently

A confession: I have an addiction, and truly there is no cure. I am a magazine fanatic. Love the glossy things. Every month, I furtively make my way to my favorite book store to satisfy the need. I can't explain it or deny it. Mostly gardening mags, country-style decorating mags, flea market and antiques and collectible mags. There is no stopping me.

The latest examples of my addiction

Current family addiction: Speaking of addictions: My son brought home a game a few days ago and it has become legendary in a very short time. It's an electronic game and has caused us so much hilarity and family fun. Catchphrase is it's name. The game gives you a common phrase or name and the object is to get your partner to guess this phrase. You can say pretty much anything you like, sentences or descriptions. Hand gestures are fine. The game has an electronic beeping that gets faster as time runs out. You should not be the person holding the device when the timer goes off, sort of like the kid's game "Hot Potato". You pass the game back and forth. What a riot! We laugh so hard at some of things people say to get their partner to guess the phrase. Huge recommendation from me if you are looking for a fun game!!!

CatchPhrase...fast and furious guessing game

That's all the updates for now. Have a splendid weekend! Bright Blessings.  Robin.

Beltane Moon Giveaway WINNER

Beltane Full Moon

The above photo was taken on the night of the Super Moon, April 30th. Naturally, I used the wrong setting. Really nice shot of my neighborhood streetlights. But that is the Moon, where all that brightness is. See it?

Anyway. I am here to announce the winner of my Beltane Moon Giveaway!!!

The table is all set. The Giveaway gifts on the left. In the center, the names are all ready to be folded and popped into my cauldron. I can really feel the excitement building!!

With my wand, I stir and twirl and whirl around all the names of the lovely people who entered the drawing. Then I close my eyes, and think good thoughts about everyone, and draw a name!

Oh my stars! It is Danni!! Danni is the winner of my Giveaway. Three cheers for Danni, everyone clap and hug all around!!! Danni has a wonderful blog, which you can see here:  The Whimsical Cottage

Thank you everyone for all your wonderful comments, and for participating in my Giveaway. This is my fifth giveaway, and I really enjoyed it. There will be another giveaway in a couple of months, give or take! With LOTS of winners! Can you stand it!!??? LOL!!

Bright Blessings!    Robin.