General catching up

Blessings Darlings!

On top of the attention that I've been giving that latest 'list', life has been busy around here.  A lot of extra money came IN for a change, instead of going OUT, which is always nice.    I've been spending lots of time dealing with the garden - I'm being buried in yellow crookneck squash, and the beans are coming in from the first planting.  The second planting is being eaten, probably by voles, so I'm going to have to vole-treat the garden again.  Bacterial wilt has hit the grey zucchini and the volunteer spaghetti squash.  The potatoes are about ready to be harvested.  The Swiss  Chard is now at the point where it can handle all our sandwich 'lettuce' needs, and maybe an occasional salad as well.  Tomatoes are still all green, tho, and I fear that they are all determinant and will all ripen at virtually the same time. 

I need to plant the fall crops of beets, radishes, turnips, and rutabagas.  But it's really hard clearing nasty weeds when it's so hot and humid, and too much of my useful time is spent watering the other veggies. 

At dusk and near midnight (after the nightly offerings) I sit outside as much as I can, discussing things with the various Spirits/Gods/ancestors/etc.  Great stuff, but the pollen I'm exposed to then along with the pollen from the garden work has been killing my eyes.  I might be driven to allergy eye drops, but washing my eyes every few hours seems to at least make it less bad.

I'm seeing odd stuff in the skies.  One was probably just a satellite reflecting sunlight.  The more unusual was a 'fleet' ... well, 6 ... planes, not in formation, but 'in a row' over a few minutes around 11:30 pm, all flying west or west/southwest.  That's not normal, especially now with less air traffic.  It's not like I'm living on a flight path in and out of O'Hare any more.  It's not a normal thing here - and as I said, I'm out there every night watching the skies now. 

Why am I watching the sky?  Because we're in the summer meteor time.  Not peak Perseids yet, but it's time to start watching for them.

Life  in these unusual times keeps going on.  Statistics on cases and deaths from covid 19 are no longer being published by the CDC, and no one trusts where the data is now going to.  States are admitting to new highs in cases and deaths, but HHS (does it stand for the dept of Health and Human Services or Happy Horse Shit?) claims that both are not increasing.  Okay, Boomer.



Most jobs lost due to Coronavirus shut downs are not coming back.  This is the last week when unemployment is being supplemented with Coronavirus stimulus money of $600 a week.  That's been making a huge difference in my financial life, since I only get $170 a week from unemployment.  Since the Chubby Hubby is over 70, he's getting social security retirement money, but that doesn't pay all our bills.  With the 'regular' unemployment, there will be a gap between income and what we have to spend each month.  We have the savings to cover that for rather a while at this time, fortunately.  I really do NOT want to work again until it's actually safe to do so.  That isn't going to happen for ... quite a while, I fear.  I'm sure we don't have that much money saved.

There are still protests daily over the police killings.  The police have responded by calls for them to stop being abusive by increasing their abuse of citizens.  And teaming up with Federal hired hands to dole out even more toxic gasses and 'non lethal' weaponry.  It's a shit show.  Mayors who aren't reforming their police force complaining that the Feds are attacking protesters ... when the feds are doing exactly the same things that their own police have been doing. 

While all this is going on, and I'm writing e-mails and calling congresscritters, I'm still sitting in my back yard, watching the skies.  It's totally surreal.  Wars and rumors of wars, but not where I am.  Mind you, the next city over, Martinsburg WV, has had monthly protests for YEARS now, over the police shooting of a schizophrenic black man there.  So it's not FAR away from me.  Links to the story below - the courts have finally done a little (the ending of qualified immunity is BIG).  But it took over 7 years of protests to get this far.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/family-of-man-fatally-shot-by-police-reaches-35-million-settlement/2020/07/21/da918e9a-cb6c-11ea-bc6a-6841b28d9093_story.html

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/u-s-appeals-court-rejects-qualified-immunity-in-police-shooting-writes-this-has-to-stop/2331918/  

I wish I felt that things would improve soon.  That a safe and effective immunization would be found fast for the pandemic.  That institutionalized racism would be dealt with.  That the police would be reformed and get the KKK out of their ranks.  That we'd get a sane and honorable president.  That people would get science savvy and not be dickheads.  I just don't see an end to this shit show.

Welp. that's it for now.

Frondly, Fern

It's adorable.

Blessings Darlings!

It's 10:50 am, and 94 degrees.  Rah.

I've been as busy as I could be in this heat and humidity.  Garden, housework, having folks block me on FaceBook, the usual. 

Altho' no one has asked, here's my view of the 'witches on TikTok are cursing the Fae, and the Moon, and the Sun" thing.  And my view is "Whatever".  It has the same vibe as that thing the 4th of July - "Antifa is going to Gettysburg to desecrate the cemetery!"  The vibe is 'some one is trolling for reaction." 

If some witches try it - shrug.  All beginners try to do stuff they can't pull off.  That's normal.

Maybe I'll do a blog on 'how to appease beings you've pissed the fuck off' sometime soon.  Not just because of that, but because ... anyone doing magic is more 'visible' to the spirits, and more likely to step over a line with one or more of them, AND GET NOTICED doing it.  It's nice to know what to do in such cases. 

But this WitchTok stuff is ... kinda like putting on masks and crashing a party in Verona, given by a family your family is feuding with.  Normal white kid stuff.  The police will drive them home, no charges filed. 

Frondly, Fern

Living the Vida Boring

Blessings Darlings!

Welp, the grey squash, which I love, is very very very susceptible to bacterial wilt spread by squash bugs. The yellow crookneck squash is both a bit less attractive to squash bugs AND doesn't seem to give much of a care about bacterial wilt.  The one plant I put in is producing very heavily, too.  The volunteer squash (which I suspect is also  yellow crookneck) looks like it will also start producing in a week or so.  Some of the peppers are beginning to bloom, but I fear that the only ones that survived are the cayenne peppers.  They are useful, but ... I just used up the last of the sweet peppers that I froze from last year, and would like to freeze a batch of THEM.  I need to check to see if I have more of them that I dried still available.

Humidity is not my friend today. 

I don't feel like I have much to blog right now.  Not that most of my blogs are particularly wonderful, but blogging how life goes on during relatively awful times is ... pretty mundane and boring itself.  And I'm not blogging about things that are HEADLINES and GOING ON IN MY YARD.  We have small Black Lives Matter protests in our area, and because I'm isolating I don't go to most of them. I don't go to the weekly Rockwool protests.  I'm not about to list groups/amounts/times I give money, or every single other 'good deed'/virtue signalling type thing.  I'm not going to bore you or me with the details on my little exercise program, or how I felt exercising this day, and whine about ... exercising.  Because I do that a lot in my life, and no one else should have THAT imposed on them.

So you get lists of what I got done, and details on the garden.  And some other nature notes about birds and fireflies. And squash bugs.

I can't see some future Ken Burns using this for some amazing documentary on the year 2020, or CoronaVirus: The Mini Series, and no one's going to look to an old white woman's blog for Black Lives Matter stuff. 

Welp, that's it for today.

Frondly. Fern

Midnight Music?

Blessings Darlings! 

I forgot to blog yesterday! 

It WAS a busy day, with eyeglass stuff for the Chubby Hubby, appointment with nurse practitioner for me then I went to the hardware store and the pharmacy (which didn't have the drug I needed), and with doing all the usual stuff in the garden, cleaning, cooking, etc.

We will all survive the fact that I missed a day.

I've been hearing music in the middle of the night.  Hard rock, with an emphasis on electric guitars - I hear them, not any base.  It's soft, not very close ... but I hear it just as loud in the house with the windows closed as I do outside.  I have NOT NOT NOT gone wandering to seek the source of it.  Sure, most likely it's a human neighbor.  But ... sigh ... the Good Neighbors could have some hard rock interests.   It's not at all clear how they'd be powering electric guitars, of course.  What IS clear is that I am NOT following strange music in the middle of the night.

The hot weather, bugs, dry weather, and clay soil is doing a number on my newly planted and transplanted Swiss Chard.  I'm going to have to transplant more, and give all of it special attention.  I'm already giving the summer squash bug egg checks two times a day, I'll have to water and bug check the chard at the same times. 

Now, a lot of us are attending meetings via Zoom now, and have been watching/making podcasts for ... years.  Wouldn't you like transcripts?  You can get them, easily.  And free/cheap.  The Otter App does it.  I just whined about no transcripts for podcasts, and ... realized that we have this tool as part of our business.  I didn't PLAN on posting it here, but I'm about it.  We are not an affiliate of theirs, but I DO think that if a lot of folks get the paid version we get some gift.  That said, we use the free version and have never needed the paid version.
Here's the link :  https://otter.ai/referrals/UL62OMEZ

A free account gives them 600 audio minutes per month. 

If they need a transcript of a video, they can upload the video file, and Otter will extract the audio from that.
If they need a transcript of audio, they need to upload an audio file:

Otter lets you import existing recordings in the following formats:

    audio: mp3, aac, wav, m4a, wma
    video: mp4, avi, mov, wmv, mpg


If they need more info, the Chubby Hubby can help.

 Damn, it's hot and humid today.  I should plant a new batch of green beans, but instead I'm hiding indoors with the air conditioning on.

We bought a little table top portable grill.  The guys have finally put it together.  We finally figured out how to light it.  It is now on the 15 minutes 'burn off toxic shit' stage.  I don't know if this has enough BTU power for my purposes. 
Update - it takes at least 4 minutes per side for yellow crook neck squash slices.
Now I have pans of chicken in it.  Because I didn't have time to marinade the chicken and I want them immersed in flavor.  Maybe tomorrow I'll throw drumsticks on = because I don't think I'll have to worry about burning them using direct heat.  Tonight is boneless chicken.

Tonight was also the first evening I heard the screams of the cicadas.  They were the musical accompaniment to the beginning of the firefly show, but they didn't  scream for very long.

Until tomorrow ...

Frondly, Fern

I put my back into today.

Blessings Darlings!

I'm more functional today than I was yesterday.  I suppose that isn't saying much.  But it's well before noon, I've gotten almost all my minimum level of exercise in, done dishes, and am about to hang laundry.  I've eaten enough to take my meds.  

We got an unexpected downpour last night.  Chubby Hubby was awake during it, but didn't notice it, tho' I talked with him about the local lightning hits.  He was surprised to find water in the basement this morning.  At least I don't have to water the garden today, and maybe there will be more fireflies tonight.  They've been scarce the last few nights.

Mashed a lot of squash bug eggs, and one squash bug.  Cut down a lot of crap growing on the garden fence line.  Did tomato bondage.  Removed the grew squash plant that was rapidly dying of bacterial wilt, will bag it later.

Hot and steamy out.  Want to cool off before thinning the swiss chard and clearing area for next green bean planting.

There certainly were more fireflies tonight. 

Worked a lot in the garden today.  Did a lot with weights.  My back is not thrilled.  I'm going to bed. Or to do dishes then go to bed.  And do evening offerings sometime before bed as well. 

Good night.

Frondly, Fern

Well, fuck, I guess I'm an adult.

Blessings Darlings!

I still don't want to do anything.  I'm still doing things.  Just ... slowly.  It doesn't help that one of today's chores is the weekly cleaning of the fridge, which I hate doing.  But since I AM doing it - I'm defrosting the dorm sized fridge, too.  It needs it.

Did the garden work, did the dishes (well, the sink is now full again since I dumped old stuff from the fridge), planned today's and tomorrow's meal, been finishing up the Walmart pick up order, been working out with weights ... basically, going thru' the stuff on my 'to do' list.  Inventoried our batteries, to see which size to order from Walmart.  Ordered a small, portable propane grill, because charcoal puts too much carbon and particulates in the air, but I want to be able to grill chicken and veggies outside so I don't heat the house.

Welp - I may FEEL like I'm moving in slow motion, but, wow, I'm getting a lot done.  I'm happy with the results.  Defrosting!  Vacuuming!  Clean fridge!  Great weight workout!  Maybe I'll get on the exercise bike!  Okay, I didn't get on the exercise bike. 

That's today's update.

Frondly, Fern

May tonight be quieter than last night was.

Blessings Darlings!

Dang, there was a lot of fire works action by individuals last night.  For HOURS, like from 8 pm till midnight or beyond.  It's been going on for two weeks now, with last night being the biggest night and June 20 - the celebration of West Virginia statehood - the second biggest.  But there were fireworks every day between the two.  I don't expect that they will come to an almost complete end for another week or so.  Since all the 'official' fireworks displays in the area were cancelled due to Coronavirus, and folks are isolating and bored, I guess it's to be expected.  OTOH, they had to interact with people to buy the fireworks.  As for me, I'd rather watch the fireflies and maybe see a meteor.  But since last night was the full moon (and a lunar eclipse, other the other side of the globe), it wouldn't have been a good night for seeing meteors.

Trump, of course, had fireworks and rallies both of the last two nights.  The first on Native American land (what is now called Mt. Rushmore) and last night in DC.  No masks or distancing Friday night.  Little last night.  Those folks are certainly free to risk their own lives, but they are SO likely to infect others, and likely to max out hospital ICU beds and ventilators.  That bothers me greatly.

We of course continue to self-quarantine as much as possible.  Masks when in public.  Only going in public once or twice a week, for shopping and occasionally for walks in parks and such.  We're spending as little money as possible, because at the end of this month the 'coronavirus stimulus' money added to unemployment ends, and my unemployment checks don't cover our bills.  This is why garden production matters so much, and finding ways to enjoy eating what's easy to grow lots of matters.  Turnips are easy to grow.  They are NOT everybody's favorite to eat.  Tomatoes are so easy to grow that we always have too many of them.  Green beans, again, easy to grow.  Last year we had too many of them, and I couldn't keep up with harvesting them.  Bad combination.  At least the tomatoes I could give to folks at work.  I'm growing half the summer squash and half the tomatoes I grew last year, and diversifying the garden more.  I've added potatoes, dry beans, chard, beets, turnips, radishes. garlic.  Have had NO luck with lettuce and spinach. Have replaced spinach with wild lambsquarters at some meals.
And, yes, I did my part of the garden work for today already - watered, and mashed bugs/bug eggs/pulled thorny hogweed.  Spawn has not gone out and weeded anything yet.  It's now 12:20, it's 93 degrees, and it feels like it's 103 degrees. 
BTW - since Wednesday I harvested 3 grey squash.  Three more will be ready for this coming Wednesday.  I harvested 7 turnips this week, and used the 3 biggest ones.  So I still have 4 to use, and a bunch more in the garden still. 

Oh, wow - 7:00 pm, and the wind just picked way the heck up.  Temperaturee\ currently 95. 

I have dinner to make and things to do. Laters!

Frondly, Fern

F'ing Reflux

Blessings Darlings!

Oh, the humdity and heat were BAD last night when I did the night offerings. 
Then during my sleep I had Revenge of the Fried Chicken, eaten too late and too much - horribly reflux at 5 am. 

Today would have been my mother's 101st birthday.  No coincidentally, it would have been her twin brother's birthday, too.  My moon child mother was not ... um ... a good match for her Sagittarius daughter.  I was never willing to 'suffer to be beautiful', nor to hurt enough to be entitled to love.
And my cousins assure me that she was 'the good parent' in the family.

Harvested 7 turnips and one zuc today.  Will do stir fry for dinner tomorrow featuring the zucs and some cabbage and carrots.  Will roast the turnips with some other roots tomorrow, and use for all sorts of things.

I slept much of today, having lost a bunch of sleep last night.

That's it.

Frondly, Fern

Bugs. I got 'em.

Blessings Darlings!

Yesterday evening I noticed the squash bugs are back.  Leaf damage, some wilting, lots of eggs, some nymphs, and two of them mating - the bastards.  And the beans are being attacked by bean beetles.  I'm going to have to treat them all.  Because eating matters.  I went out and finally found one lone bottle of spray-on bug killer - and it was Sevin, not my favorite.  But at least I have some pesticide for them.  And, yeah, I harvested the squash early today, and will treat the plants now, so at least there will be some gap between treatment and the next harvest.  Spawn has agreed to help, and we'll removed detritus and spray when the garden is in the shade later this afternoon.

Sitting in the twilight last night, I heard a catbird, greater horned owl, the wrens, and the swallows.  The swallows didn't put on the nice air show last night, tho'.  The Saharan dust must have eased for last night, because the moon was way less obscured.

I'm making kahlua this afternoon as well.  The Chubby Hubby didn't tell me when he finished the last bottle.  But he likes it to 'age' before he starts drinking it - so when he opens the back up bottle, he really needs to let me know so I can start the new batch.  This batch will barely have enough time to age.  Aging, in this case, means the vanilla bean in it flavors it.





Spawn and I cleared some detritus, smashed some egg clusters and two pairs of mating squash bugs, as well as sprayed the squash and the beans and the cucs and the unknown volunteer plant that's clearly in that family.  Garden is desperate for more water, but it will have to wait for tomorrow.



Anthony Fauci spoke before a congressional committee.  His message is, pretty much, we're screwed. Since there is no actual national plan to handle the coronavirus, we will soon hit 100,000 new cases a day.  I hope Bob and I somehow avoid getting it. 


Time to make the dinner type stuff. 

Frondly, Fern

Ecentric Energies.

Fuck, I had most of a post written, and was finishing up with some shit about the Mercury Retrograde screwing up communication, and fucking Blogger erased my entire post.  Irony is some bullshit.

Blessings Darlings!

I guess I'll just have to start this post again.  After I drink some water, because I am also over due on that.  You get yourself some water, too.  I'll be right back.  And, no, my husband has NOT yet made me that little every-half-hour pop-up for my computer, reminding me to drink some water.  It's still my own responsibility, and I'm not doing well at it.

I've been getting lots done in the garden since my last post.  The phone has been ringing a lot. Laundry washed and hung.  The landscape plastic is down.  Replacement tomato plants in.  Many big ass weeds pulled.  Garlic harvested.  12 heads of garlic, and not huge ones at that.  Enough to last us 3 months, IF I didn't want to save some to plant this fall. I discovered that my cucs aren't sprouting because the seeds are 6 years old.  So I went out and bought a few cucumber plants.  Not ideal, but the cucs will still be better than store bought

The internets are full of people going on about new moon, and eclipse, and summer solstice.  And retrogrades.  Retrogrades aren't a thing I worry about - I use their occurrence as a cue to back up computers and check status of insurances and such.  Do the maintenance that you know you should do.  It's not a big deal. 

But, sure, there are a lot of different energies out there, and folks are aware of them.  They also think that they can control them.  Or 'harness' them.  On the whole - they can't.  And add to the not great ability to control or harness the rare assortment of cosmic energy, even I admit that with both Venus and Merc retrograde that communication is more difficult ... you're not going to be clear in your statements of intent.  Being unclear in THAT means your magic is going to be more inclined to fail to begin with.  So my magical focus this weekend is very very very ... grounded.  I'm clearing ground.  I'm putting in seeds.  I'm harvesting what I've sown.  I'm eating what I produced.  I'm sharing it with others.  I'm trying to perfect a recipe for Strawberry Lemonade.

Maybe I just don't have the spoons - or the loom - to weave with these energies.  Maybe as an old white woman it's my time to step the hell back from doing to weaving and let the next generation of weavers take it on, with my support.  Yes, of course I'm struggling, like everyone else, with depression with all the coronavirus disruption and the evidence of failure in progress that my generation produced, as well as my 'usual' depression.

For now, tho', I'm planting cucs and beans and whispering encouragement to my potatoes and beets.  While Florida has just had over 4000 new cases of coronavirus in one day.

It is what it is.

Oh, we're in Fly Season here on the cattle farm.  At this point it's the middle sized slow flies.  I smashed at least 18 of them so far today, and there is at least one more left.  We had the big horse flies two weeks ago.  In about a month, it will be the somewhat smaller but VERY much faster flies.  And there must be some big wasps nests around, too - there were 6 paper wasps eating the clothes pins on my clothes line as I tried to hang clothes today.  I wish that the swallows would do something about them ... except that the wasps eat other bugs. 

Frondly, Fern

It's Juneteenth!

Blessings Darlings!

Welcome to Juneteenth!  While THIS year more of you than ever before know what it is/celebrates, if you're not clear on it, here is a link - https://www.oprahmag.com/life/a32893726/what-is-juneteenth/.  What I'm going to point out is that while Texas likes to claim that it wasn't part of the Old South ... in fact it totally WAS part of it. 

Juneteenth is going to be celebrated somewhat differently this year, due to Coronavirus.  Which is, of course, hitting Black people hard BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT ALL HEALTH PROBLEMS DO - THEY HIT THE ALREADY OPPRESSED HARD.  Alternet has an article blaming it on Black churches continuing to meet.  The article doesn't go into the historic role of the Black Church, the services it provides, the distrust in the Black community of the government and if the govt is for or against them (Tuskegee study, anyone?), and that churches are where many folks ORGANIZE to survive/resist racism ... and that racism is even more of a problem than Coronavirus. As epidemiologists have been pointing out for the last few weeks. 

Coronavirus isn't acting in a racism-free environment.

I have a bunch of solstice and eclipse things to work on - so this is the whole of today's post.

Frondly, Fern

Wednesday is for Wandering.S

Blessings Darlings!

Got most of the stuff I set out to do done today.  Except ... I forgot to drop off bottles for recycling.  I can do it next week.  Or, since it looks as if I'll have to go shopping again before the end of Sunday (the Chubby Hubby wants rib steaks for Fathers Day.  All I found out today is that HOLY FUCK THEY ARE EXPENSIVE THIS YEAR), so I need to track them down still.  So that might take me to Martinsburg, where the glass recycling drop off is.  I could have gotten him a TON of ribs inexpensively for Fathers Day, but noooooooo.  He wants steaks. 

Not many folks in masks.  One guy removed his mask to cough.  Others leaving their noses exposed. 

I did remember to eat my fruit and yogurt before I started running around, and took coffee with me.  Chubby Hubby ate my peanut butter sandwich and orange for HIS breakfast.  I didn't get hungry crabby, and I took my meds, so that worked out good for both of us.  BUT - he didn't bother calling me when the pharmacy called to say that my monthly meds refill was ready.  AND I WAS GOING TO THAT STORE TODAY.  So I'll have to go out for them later, too.  Grumble.

A friend of mine who was in Florida as it geared up and opened and spread Coronavirus is now at a family reunion in Myrtle Beach - where another outbreak is happening.  And she keeps telling OTHERS to 'make good choices'. 

Love you Peyton.  But keep your germs to your own self for at least 2 weeks after you get back up here.

The dealership has the part for the Spawn's car, so he's going in there tomorrow.  And probably to Costco for shelves we need ... and to look for steaks for Fathers Day.

Since I was on the road from 11 am till about 3 pm, that's all I got done today.  Well, that and putting away groceries, and making dinner, and doing dishes. Now for reading and bed.

Frondly, Fern

Busy day. Busier tomorrow.

Blessings Darlings!

They ... mowed the lawn today.  But isn't today Tuesday?  They have been mowing on Wednesdays this year.  As if I wasn't already confused about what day of the week it is, THIS happens.

Did lots of dishes today, pulled more weeds before the lawn folks got here.  Lots of online meetings today as well.

Tomorrow - WEDNESDAY - I do the weekly shopping.  Along with the usual Walmart pick up, I'm going to have to hit Lowes for a bunch of stuff, and do a bottle recycling drop off.  And, no doubt, hit Aldi's for stuff Walmart doesn't have.  And hit the food bank to drop off food.  Etc.

This one day different than the rest has been ... no ... I have screwed up my schedule every Wednesday for the last .... most of quarantine.  I haven't been eating before leaving, I try to do too much on one trip, my blood sugar goes wonky and I crash, etc.  I need to do better tomorrow.  So I'm planning on doing this in two trips.  And tonight I'll prep a peanut butter sandwich and some yogurt and fruit, so I can gobble a quick breakfast in the morning - and take the meds I need to take with my breakfast, instead of forgetting them and missing a day.

Meanwhile three states are reporting over 2000 new cases of coronavirus a day. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/world/coronavirus-live-updates.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR3tI949B4tyF04iAOw7x6WDeNzTw8UjyhdpFtCtsVutwRZ9qndxNwl2AsQ&fbclid=IwAR3UxhoQwyYespaApXXK3UWS3_8HPo5eqJMus_1DkSXnlI0lMVgJXWhjN7c&fbclid=IwAR2JuJ1yx3MgKzDkGsNyBSesjxPu4RgJDqhhTqICpyvyJc2lQ2DXgJijLW4&fbclid=IwAR2aOvRpOr7i8Aw_zTbit-qPwxXzJjk4rDViwxRFM_yZCoA8ALLEa_8lc-Y&fbclid=IwAR1xD618UokW49MCtl_tA1tkV34I05P7Iep0j4e2rIMD_zNG0iW45GLtXf8  Apparently I'll be wearing a mask in public until I reach official retirement age, some 3 years from now.  And this is NOT the 'second wave'.  We're still fucking up the FIRST wave.

Welp, I have to go dice fruit and slather bread with PB&J.

Frondly, Fern

Fireflies still MIA

Blessings Darlings!

My research into vinegar based weed killer shows that it's not going to work for me. So I've been working on removing Satan's Scrotum Hair by hand.  When my back is less unhappy, I'll cover it with black plastic to try to finish the job.  I got about 1/3 of the area that I need to work on done today.  It was a GREAT day to work in the garden, not too warm and only partly sunny. 

If this was an emergency food situation, I'd have run to what ever food store was open (because who knows WHAT would be closed in an emergency now) - let's say the local grocery store, 3 miles from here.  I'd get every single cardboard box they had, and ask them to let me raid the dumpster that they have cardboard in.  I'd take all that home.  I'd cover this area two layers thick in cardboard, using anything I had to hold it down.  Lawn furniture?  Sure!  The bricks I have saved to make a rocket stove?  Yup!  Jugs of oil for the car?  Yes - ANYTHING.  And I'd be taking Advil and keeping at it.

But at this point, I'm only 'concerned' about our food supply, not terrified. 

I used the garlic snapes that I harvested the other day in bi bim bap today, along with lambs quarters, zucchini, black fungus, spinach, and bean sprouts.  It's wonderful.  And we're going to have lots of veggies and meat left over, so it will be lunches or another dinner later this week.  But damn the soaking and harvesting and de-leafing and steaming and marinading took forever, and dirtied a shitload of stuff. 

In Coronavirus news, Florida alone keeps having 2000 new cases a day.  Some church in my county started having in-church services and now has a cluster fuck of cases, but no one will say which church.  And POTUS says that the problem is that we test for it. 

Such bullshit.

Still not many fireflies.

Frondly, Fern

Today Gardening is overwhelming

Blessings Darlings!

Dishes washed, laundry going.  Ground coffee beans for the next week.  Just another quarantine Sunday.  Going to have pancakes for dinner, might also make crepes while doing it, and use them for dinner another night.

It's really cool today, 68 degrees at noon.  I'll be out in the garden working in a few minutes.  It is SO DRY here, tho.  Whoops - that 10% chance of rain is a very cold drizzle that started the damn instant I started out the door.  Just enough to stop my from gardening and prevent hanging the laundry.  I sure hope it passes before the laundry is ready to go on the line.  And the temperature has dropped to 60.

1 hour later ... still very very cool out.  Rain stopped, laundry on line.  An hour later yet ... warmer.  I had my cup of coffee outside, and transplanted all of the herbs into proper enough spaces.  "Proper enough" because I found poison ivy growing where I wanted to put some, and I must put effort into eradicating that before some go into their forever spaces.  But they are all in the ground now, so won't be as susceptible to me forgetting to water them.

All the beans planted so far are sprouting.  Need to plant more for dry beans, but not today, says my back.  Also need to harvest the garlic ... some other day.  Should buy a tomato plant or two ... the ones I planted have died, but two volunteers are going in another part of the garden.  So I only need to replace 2 of the 4.  Oh, need to plant cucs, too.  And still need to try to kill off the zoysia grass.

Holy fuck, there's a shit load of stuff to do.

Frondly, Fern

I'm awake!

Blessings Darling!

So I slept most of yesterday.  Then I slept all night.  Today I'm back at work.  Worked in the garden. weeding and watering.  Worked cleaning house, scrubbing the shower stall.  Always loads of fun, that.  Did the exercise bike thing  Have researched 'how to bake bread in a slow cooker', but I fear that the product will mold as quickly as bread baked in a breadmaker molds.  Oh, I'll try it, but I will be looking at it carefully.

I've had almost all of my 5 servings of produce today, and it's still early.  Go me!

Basically, got a lot done, but ... it doesn't feel like I made any progress anywhere.

 Would like to be organizing monthly Pagan/witch meetings at the coffee shop in Books A Million, but that has to wait for Coronavirus to like, drop.  Which it isn't.  I don't know what I'm going to do when things open up.  I've got 3 different 'high risk' issues going - and while I'm working on the weight and high blood pressure, I can't reverse my age. 

Well, that's that for today.

Frondly, Fern

Pampering is not self care.

Blessings Darlings!

Still working on getting the car repaired.  It has to go back in tomorrow, AGAIN.  That will be a full week.  And since June 4 - one week ago - the number of coronavirus deaths IN MY AREA have gone up 300%.  You bet your sweet ass that MY pasty white ass is still in deep social isolation.

Given how much I LOVE my carbs, it's really hard for me to work on my self care with English Muffins and hash browns around the house.  Which brings up a discussion we have had before, but from what I've seen in FB pagan groups (um, specifically in one that I've now been booted and banned from) it needs to be stated again.

Self care and pampering yourself are two different things.  Self care is always a good thing.  Pampering isn't always a good thing, depending on what you are doing, and how.

Self care is ... work.  It's eating right, and the right amounts.  It's making sure you get the sleep you need, the exercise you need, the shadow work you need to do (and that shit can be hard AND terrifying and you will need to push yourself HARD), the counseling you need, the learning to say no - and to say yes - that you need to learn, exercising, etc.  Breaking old patterns, that served you in the past but don't serve you now.

Pampering yourself is a pedicure, the English muffin or dessert or whatever once a week or so, a fancy restaurant, a fancy vacation.

Good knives are self care.  They will hold an edge and make your kitchen work faster and easier.  They will hold a sharp edge, and you are WAY less likely to cut yourself due to that fact.  A knife set that is very pretty but doesn't hold an edge and the pretty shit peels off is NOT self care.  It is pampering.  I'm not trying to sell it to you, but I want to show you this set that a friend bought, and it SUCKS DONKEY DONGS.  https://chefsvisionknives.com/products/cosmos?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5Kbs-8T66QIVlIrICh3SSgz-EAQYBiABEgICPPD_BwE  

Showering and doing a spiritual/emotional cleanse - you doing the work - is 2 minutes deep self care. Four minutes if you're also washing and conditioning your hair. Bath bombs are pampering.  I admit to some attitude towards this one, because I also find that cleaning the damn bathtub after doing on is a pain in the ass and not worth having done the bath bomb. 

Cleaning the house is self care.  Even if  you only have the spoons to do 10 minutes of it.  Learning to ground and center is self care, because then you can do it anywhere, any time, at a moment's notice and IN a moment.  Having to have the right crystal around to be able to ground ... at best that's training wheels.  Having to be outside barefoot on an organic plot of forest to be able to ground is pampering. 

[pardon me while I go do some research - we are suddenly having a discussion about whether crystals of quartz are igneous.  They are, but are a precipitate.  It's very strange to me.]

Things that make your life easier (in the short or long term) are self care.  Buying that 1 pound container of Organic Spring Salad Mix is self care, if that means you'll actually eat salad, while if you buy a head of lettuce that you need to wash and chop means you won't eat salad.  Frozen corn instead of corn on the cob, since you don't have to clean the silk and husks off the cob?  Self care.  Boneless chicken breasts or thighs instead of cheaper chicken leg quarters?  Yup.

It's not that milk shakes, and lots of chocolate, and big bowls of pasta slathered with butter pedicures or fancy vacations or going to Ruth's Chris Steak House are evil.  You just shouldn't mistake them for self care.  Pampering yourself isn't evil (unless you are enslaving someone else to do it, but prison labor, slave labor, etc are issues for another day). 

I'm just saying to not confuse the two.

Frondly, Fern

June Land Base.

Blessings Darlings!

It's Mid June (or close enough) - what's going on in your land base?
Here we are having occasional HOT days, right now we're on the second of two days in the 90's in a row.  Hay has started to be harvested, the corn is pretty much all planted, wheat harvest has not started yet.
Poison Hemlock is at peak bloom, daisies are blooming nicely, the first of the mullein flowers have been sighted.  And the first thistles are blooming.  Grape leaves are big enough to harvest to make dolmades (and I did harvest them today, on the vines growing wild near Aldi's.  But I had to be careful due to all the poison ivy that likes the same locations.) 
And the cool hours are FULL of the scent of honeysuckle.  Swoon.  One whiff and you know why it's used in love spells!
But it's SO DRY here right now.  I have to water the garden at least every other day.

Atlanta (home of the CDC...) and Arizona are still being ravaged by coronavirus.  I'm still wearing masks when in public, and going out in public rarely.  Being unemployed ... I have that option right now.  Only place I saw that was hiring is the A&W/Long John Silver fast food place, for that matter.  I live in a college town where there won't be students spending money until sometime next year.  Damn right no one is hiring here.

Second U.S. Virus Wave Emerges After State Reopenings

 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-10/second-u-s-virus-wave-emerges-after-state-reopenings?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tv&cmpid=socialflow-facebook-tv&fbclid=IwAR1dILU_kgDtG2vCzjxkNVc7GviqrxIkCUNJu-a0tBkCNippi4I60YcEnY0

And if you missed the stories - the US went into recession in February.  Before Covid affected the economy.

Oh! Oh! Oh!  A baby fox just trotted/danced around the cow pastures.

Today was shopping day, so I'm behind on most things in my life.  I'm going to end today's blog here, and go do more dishes.  At least we were able to finish off the leftovers for dinner tonight, instead of them going to waste.

Frondly, Fern

Summer Cooking Issues.

Blessings Darlings!

Summer weather is fully here.  The air conditioning has been turned on.  Do you fully understand the impact of this?  THIS MEANS IT'S CHEAPER FOR ME TO BUY BREAD THAN TO BAKE IT.   Yes, that loaf that would only cost me 25 cents to bake in the winter now costs over $1 to bake ... since the air conditioning would have to handle the extra load of heat from the oven baking it.

This does not affect our baking of cookies or biscuits, done in our usual small batches.  For them, we use the toaster oven, and we can move THAT outside for baking, eliminating adding heat to the house.

I'm also baking pieces of chicken for dinner outside in that handy dandy toaster oven.  And any other meals I can bake that fit into it. 

What about grilling, you ask?  We don't have a propane grill, so we'd be using charcoal.  And while that has the advantage of not heating the house when we use it, charcoal grilling gives off a shitload of greenhouse gases.  FAR FAR FAR more than using propane does.  There are times we grill still, but it's really rare.  Typically only for smoking pork shoulders, so only 3 times a year.  And when we do that, I measure out the number of charcoal chunks out VERY judiciously.

I WOULD like a propane grill some day.  One with a side burner for one pot of something.  But they start at $250.  I don't anticipate buying one any time soon, since any extra $ we have is going to civil rights, election, and caring for folks in need. 

Meanwhile - South America seems to be the current world hot spot for Coronavirus, but, like in the US, the numbers are being hidden/testing isn't being done/etc, so various 'strong men' can look stronger than they are.

Bah.

Frondly, Fern

Magic for Justice.

Blessings, Darlings!


Today, in a FB group:  "Does anyone know any spells for justice?"
Responses: 1 - "Justice Candle" - that includes a burnable item of the target.
2 - Binding and banishment spells could also work
3 - Be swift, be just, thou who rules our lust. For time is with us, and with time all shall be dust.
4 - And then I took it, possibly places the OP didn't mean it to go ... AND added a focus on multiple layers of magic:
 "For all big workings like this - you're going to need a multilayered approach.
For the first spell, the MacroSpell, Put it under a God or Intelligence or Angel or other spirit that relates. Jupiter and Hecate are always good for this, but Themis or other spirit that relates is also good. Give offerings, tell them what you're after. REPEAT AT LEAST MONTHLY.

Then micro working for every 'little' action. Involve spirits/energies for stopping qualified immunity for police. Ending the school to jail pipeline. For ending the militarization of police. For promoting civilian oversight of police. For the various aspects of justice in the criminal court system. And in the jail system. Do workings to get good media coverage of your events aimed at systemic change. Do sweet jars on local officials whose help you want. Hot foot and use war water on the offices of candidates that are problematic.

And be prepared to do daily work - both spell work and mundane work - for decades. It's going to be a marathon." 

Oh, I later added "Oh, if you mean for a single person going to court - keep the first part. Then do sweetening spell on the judge, on investigators, get dirt from outside the courthouse to use in a spell on the entire building. Do a confusion spell on the prosecutor if you're the one on trial. Do a clarity spell on your lawyer if that's the defense lawyer.   Reverse those aims if you're not the defendant.  Do a glamour on yourself so you look particularly innocent or victimized or believable." 

Meanwhile, around the country - Corona virus still spreads.  Some areas hospitals are full up, or even at 125% of ICU capacity.  We're still self quarantining, and wearing masks in public.

Meanwhile, in my back yard - planted green beans.  It's hot and humid.  Dealing with car repairs.  Water pump on Prius is going, and the dealer didn't do a previous repair right on something else.   Need to get off my ass and exercise.  Which I hate to do even more than my usual hate to do when it's hot and humid.

It's one of those days in my household where we particularly wish ... that everything was better.  That the Spawn and I had jobs.  That everyone had justice.  That poverty and other lacks were being addressed. That ... we were young and fit and had most of our lives ahead of us, rather than going full tilt into inevitable and relatively rapid decline.  As a result - we're having a meal that's too fatty and high carb as  'comfort food'.  Oh, I did exercise.  No one else did. I don't even know if I'll get the guys to take a walk with me tomorrow.  But Fettuccini Alfredo they are willing to eat as a family.