Blessings Darlings!
Fall is an insanely busy time around here. The Chubby Hubby has caught up on work after the summer conference he teaches at and is involved in new projects, for one thing. For another, the weather has finally cooled off so I'm doing more things. Meanwhile, the garden hasn't really slowed down yet.
The first thing I did with the cooler weather was do the sewing I'd put off all summer. In late spring I'd taken all the clothes that needed patches and other repairs and gotten them ready to be worked on. Mostly that meant that I'd ironed or fabric-glued patches in place, intending to sew the the patches on more securely. Since the clothes were all long-sleeved shirts and long pants, they didn't need to be done immediately. But I discovered that during the 100 degree days of summer I was .... disinclined .... to sit with material covering me, doing the sewing in my lap (knee and elbow patches have to be sewn by hand here, I don't have a sewing machine with an long narrow plate to slip them over). So suddenly it was 'patch or die!' or at least "patch or everyone will have to wear their GOOD STUFF around the house, leading to them wearing out into no longer being the good stuff".
It took a few weeks, but the winter stuff is now caught up on. Which means I'm identifying summer stuff that needs work. Why do the underarms get holes in them? I understand the holes in the front of the shirts - we have cats. Cats have claws. Cats poke holes in things. Those holes I'm going to do some embroidery over. I'm thinking of doing protective runes.
I've also started the fall round of carpet shampooing, and all the rest of the fall cleaning. It's a constant battle against cobwebs here!
And I'm working on harvesting every wild herb that I can. I'm sure that this is embarrassing the Spawn, who is often with me when I suddenly stop and grab, say, a nice mullein plant, or cut some grape vines, or dig up some chickory roots. And then I have to clean them, dry them, store them.
And, as I type this, tomorrow in October 1. Which means Samhain is coming. With my 9-day personal prep for that (see this post), and coven ritual, and maybe Audience with the Ancestors with the larger tradition .... busy.
What's on your plate for Autumn? Are you preparing for the Cold Times, for Samhain? Clearing the way for introspection or study?
Frondly, Fern
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Monday, October 1, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Winter Nights
Blessings Darlings!
Back in the day - and I mean REALLY back in Europe, from the iron age until industrialization - winter was the time for learning history, poetry, culture, wisdom. After all, in summer the herds would be out in the fields being watched by the original cow boys from dawn till dusk. And dawn was really early, and dusk really late.
But in winter, the thinned herds were kept in the village so you could easily feed and water them. Dawn was late, dusk early, so you didn't crash as soon as the sun went down. And, in Ireland, even the Fianna bunked in towns during the winter. So after dinner you could head over to the neighbor's place and the elders would tell the stories, share the poetry and tales.
So I think I'll go there in this blog for a while. I'll start with the words of the Havamal and some of my own commentary on it, how it applies to MY life. I'm not going to pretend to be overly knowledgeable about the time it comes from, after all!
The Havamal is part of the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poetry. It is, fundamentally, common sense served up by Odhinn. Common sense being, well, awfully uncommon lately, it seems like a great place to start.
I'll be using the Auden & Taylor translation, which is all over the interwebs and appears to be public domain.
If any of y'all are knowledgeable about the times this comes from, or have other insights to add, PLEASE add comments as we go along! I'm no expert historian, nor am I Asatruar or anyone who has really studied this in context.
Frondly, Fern
Back in the day - and I mean REALLY back in Europe, from the iron age until industrialization - winter was the time for learning history, poetry, culture, wisdom. After all, in summer the herds would be out in the fields being watched by the original cow boys from dawn till dusk. And dawn was really early, and dusk really late.
But in winter, the thinned herds were kept in the village so you could easily feed and water them. Dawn was late, dusk early, so you didn't crash as soon as the sun went down. And, in Ireland, even the Fianna bunked in towns during the winter. So after dinner you could head over to the neighbor's place and the elders would tell the stories, share the poetry and tales.
So I think I'll go there in this blog for a while. I'll start with the words of the Havamal and some of my own commentary on it, how it applies to MY life. I'm not going to pretend to be overly knowledgeable about the time it comes from, after all!
The Havamal is part of the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poetry. It is, fundamentally, common sense served up by Odhinn. Common sense being, well, awfully uncommon lately, it seems like a great place to start.
I'll be using the Auden & Taylor translation, which is all over the interwebs and appears to be public domain.
If any of y'all are knowledgeable about the times this comes from, or have other insights to add, PLEASE add comments as we go along! I'm no expert historian, nor am I Asatruar or anyone who has really studied this in context.
Frondly, Fern
Monday, October 24, 2011
Life, The Universe, and Everything
Blessings Darlings!
It's been REALLY busy around here lately, but nothing worth blogging about! Switching the garden from summer to fall/winter. Switching my COOKING from summer to fall/winter (stews, soups, baking again now that I don't have to worry about heating the house in summer). Working out transportation issues now that the Spawn works and we still only have 1 car that we are sharing among the 3 of us. Trying to find time and money to visit my mother in the nursing home in Chicago. The hard work of feeding a family on what we'd get if we were on food stamps (which I can only do because I work at home and can make damn near everything from scratch while still working).
In fact, I'm going to go throw some bones into the oven, because roasted bones make better soup stock. Then I can bring them and saved carrot scrapings, etc, and water to a boil, and make more soup stock. I've been going thru' GALLONS of that this month, and am trying to get every particle of flavor out of every bone.
Business has been busy, but as you hardware and software geeks know - all development takes longer than you think it will. Which means we are behind on several client's projects, which means we haven't been paid for several client's projects.
And I'd prefer to be at OccupyDC than here. Partly because I'm still having hot flashes and camping in the cold sounds REALLY nice, but mostly because I'm fully behind forcing our congresscritters into making real campaign finance reform.
Frondly, Fern
It's been REALLY busy around here lately, but nothing worth blogging about! Switching the garden from summer to fall/winter. Switching my COOKING from summer to fall/winter (stews, soups, baking again now that I don't have to worry about heating the house in summer). Working out transportation issues now that the Spawn works and we still only have 1 car that we are sharing among the 3 of us. Trying to find time and money to visit my mother in the nursing home in Chicago. The hard work of feeding a family on what we'd get if we were on food stamps (which I can only do because I work at home and can make damn near everything from scratch while still working).
In fact, I'm going to go throw some bones into the oven, because roasted bones make better soup stock. Then I can bring them and saved carrot scrapings, etc, and water to a boil, and make more soup stock. I've been going thru' GALLONS of that this month, and am trying to get every particle of flavor out of every bone.
Business has been busy, but as you hardware and software geeks know - all development takes longer than you think it will. Which means we are behind on several client's projects, which means we haven't been paid for several client's projects.
And I'd prefer to be at OccupyDC than here. Partly because I'm still having hot flashes and camping in the cold sounds REALLY nice, but mostly because I'm fully behind forcing our congresscritters into making real campaign finance reform.
Frondly, Fern
Monday, January 24, 2011
Winter is Cold
Blessings, Darlings!
It's January. It is Winter. It is COLD OUT.
The last two nights the temperature has dropped to 12 degrees F. Certainly colder than THIS witch's tits!
Since I only run the heat a few hours morning and evening to conserve energy and resources (including money!), the house can get a bit ... nippy. Even when the heat is on, I keep the thermostats no warmer than 66 degrees. I have taken to wearing my 'lighter' winter coat in the house, and am actually wearing shoes. Hot flashes are now welcome.
How are things in your neck of the woods?
Frondly, Fern
It's January. It is Winter. It is COLD OUT.
The last two nights the temperature has dropped to 12 degrees F. Certainly colder than THIS witch's tits!
Since I only run the heat a few hours morning and evening to conserve energy and resources (including money!), the house can get a bit ... nippy. Even when the heat is on, I keep the thermostats no warmer than 66 degrees. I have taken to wearing my 'lighter' winter coat in the house, and am actually wearing shoes. Hot flashes are now welcome.
How are things in your neck of the woods?
Frondly, Fern
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