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

Mid May Land Base.

Blessings, Darlings!

On the Coronavirus front -  JUST NOW the govt is requiring nursing homes to report cases.  They STILL don't REQUIRE nursing homes to report other infectious diseases being spread in their walls.

The farmer I share a driveway with is up to her ears with the haying right now.  She spent last week sharpening/replacing the hay mowing attachment to the tractor, and for the last two days has been hauling the huge round bales of hay back here, and putting them into storage.

Hay is cut here at about the same time that corn gets planted.  So that's going on as well.  And some fields have clearly been treated with toxins to kill the 'weeds' so soybeans can soon be planted in them.  Meanwhile, the winter wheat is going to be ready to harvest in a few weeks.

The Spawn picked up a leg of lamb when he went to Costco this week.  Thus we're having Jesus (the lamb of God) for dinner tonight.  Also I've made cole slaw and hummus today.


Apparently we got rain overnight - heavy rain.  I didn't hear it, but the Spawn did.  I guess I can go out and spray stuff vole/mole repellent in the garden!  Yay!  I wonder if my hose is long enough to reach that end of the garden.  Sigh.

That's pretty much it for today.

Frondly, Fern

Hard Won Gifts

Blessings Darlings!

As I noted a few days ago, we have a bit of a heat wave here.  Today will be another hot humid day, and we MAY have air pollution warnings - DC has warnings, but I don't know about the Blue Ridge.  But I digress ...

As a result of the heat wave, I was out working in the garden very early today, while the temperature was in the lower 70's.  Oh my goodness, it was sweet outside then.  The birds were chirping, no tractors were running yet (either mowing lawns of my neighbors or cutting hay), the breeze was NOT from the cattle barns, etc. 

I, of course, was sweating exactly the way a pig doesn't.  This is because to be more intimate with my immediate land base I work my garden by hand.  I worked the bean bed again today, with the days work being taking a spade (and not a shovel) and turning what would be topsoil (if I was still in Illinois).  Here in my little corner of Appalachia it is NOT topsoil - it is clay.  Heavy red clay.  I need to do another round with that now broken bed, and work compost into it so it is ready for the seeds.

Heavy Red Clay.  I looked at those first spadefuls, and a soft voice said, "You know those runes you want to make? They can be made of clay."  I went back to the garage and got a bucket.  And a lid.  By the time I had the bed turned I had 4 gallons of great red clay, 13 pieces of quartz .... and a blister.

Because the real gifts of the Gods are their quiet voices.  Not in them doing the work for us.

Frondly, Fern

Coven Rituals

Blessings Darlings!

As you  may know, for my PERSONAL practice I use my local climate/watershed/landmass for my cues.  So it's still a few weeks from Imbolc for my personal practice.

However, last night I celebrated Imbolc with my coven.  Because we set dates for celebrating High Days all at one time, once a year, so we are better able to arrange everyone's schedule.  And because the group members are spread over such a large geographical area that, say, hawthorn leaves are the size of a squirrel's ear at vastly different dates for some of us. 

If we were all in the same neighborhood, rather than spread across 3 states, we might better be able to see the local signs and then celebrate as a group 3 days later. But that's not our reality.  And even with everyone knowing the date in advance - had the celebration been on a night the Spawn was called in to work I'd not have been able to make it, and one coven member had to miss the ritual as it was.

That's life.

Frondly, Fern