And there he was, gone

 Hello dear bots who cruise through and raise the stats on this blog, making it appear as though anyone still reads it.

And hello to any humans, too.

I've just popped in to let ya'll know that my beloved Paul (partner in crime, photographer for this blog and all around good guy) up and died in the wee hours of Thursday June 6. Poorly for a few months, he took a sudden turn downhill, was rushed to hospital and was gone before any of the several doctors whose hands he passed through could agree on a diagnosis. Me? I say he was tired. He was done. He was ready to move on to the next big adventure. 

Happy trails my love.

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The wild part of the garden.
Well .. one of the wild parts..

That's a blanket of Self-Heal, the blue you're seeing in the photo.

 I learned, in that moment, that it's true what they say about mosquitos being pollinators as well as bloodsuckers. I reached down to pluck a leaf and up from the blossoms came a cloud of thousands of them - and straight for my tender hide, of course. I was forced to flee the area. Ha! 

We're having the perfect spring. Granted, there's been some Weather, ie an ice storm that was, okay, a bit dramatic in terms of power outages from falling trees. But it came before the leaves were leafing or the crops were cropping so no losses there. And it has meant a plethora of material for those of us who make use of such things as downed branches. I've got jars and jars of aspen oil and a particularly fragrant pot of poplar buds. Yum.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day

 

I've been thinking about Time, recently. 

How much I appreciate Time, for one thing. 

I like how dependable it is, how it carries us along to, or away from, situations and people .. and how it dovetails with Law of Attraction so neatly that (providing we've got our vibrations sorted out), Time takes us where we want to be.

And if we don't have our vibrations sorted out? Well Time & Law of Attraction take us to some (seemingly) random places! And that can be fun & exciting. Or it can bring us to our knees in despair. 

In either case, Time always brings clarity. 

It was in one of those places of despair, a couple of years back, that I first felt the kind hand of Time on my shoulder and heard its gentle whisper saying, something like, "fret not, I can carry you through and beyond this. I am your Friend." And it was then I had the chance to look at my vibration and see the parts that needed sorting out, do so, and simply let my new Friend, Time, take me where I needed to go. 

There's a cute, yet slightly spooky story behind that. I was alone - pandemic was raging, lockdown in effect so friends & family unavailable to me, while Paul, who had lost the use of his legs due to a fast growing tumour on his spine, was in the hospital. There were surgeries. There were infections. There was a lot of touch and go .. Fucking crazy shit, man. 

One night I took it upon myself to move some furniture around in our little spare room. I was turning it into a meditation space - because when the world is FUCKING UP all around you, meditation is a life saver, believe me - and as I moved an antique clock that had not worked properly in all the years we'd had it (we didn't care, we just liked the look of the thing), it suddenly began to tick. "Huh", I thought, "I wonder .." Inserting the key to wind it, I found the previously stuck mechanism as smooth as can be. I set the time. It kept ticking. On the hour, it chimed! Beautiful Westminster chimes. I wound it weekly, and it worked like a charm. Because it was.

For the four ghastly months of that time, a couple of hours a day spent at Paul's bedside watching him fade & return, fade & return, the rest of my day and all of my nights spent locked down, alone, that clock was my companion. Tick-tock tick-tock, the sound of Time carrying me through and beyond.

A crackerjack surgeon removed the tumour from Paul's spine, fully restoring the use of his legs. The various and numerous infections didn't kill him. He was released - frail, weighing 100 lbs, ravaged with pressure sores and chemo side effects. He walked in the door, threw away his walker ("I don't need this fucking thing", he said) and although it didn't seem quite the version of reality Time had promised, yet, we were close.

And as I went to meditate that evening, the clocked was stopped. The mechanism jammed. It hasn't worked since.

Time, however, has kept its promise. We're through and - most importantly - beyond. We've gained clarity, and our vibrations are full of joy. 

So in case you've been wondering why this blog has been quiet for a while, now you know. 

And maybe it's Time to play here again. 

Medicine Chest: Prickly ash harvest, learning from the plant ..

I've already written a post (it's here) about my personal experiences using prickly ash for pain. Might be useful to read that first, then read this one.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I particularly like prickly or thorny plants. Hawthorn, rose, nettle. Motherwort with its scratchy 'crown of thorns' seed heads. And, of course, prickly ash. (Interestingly, all of these have pain relieving qualities - here we have the Doctrine of Signatures in action again ie what a plant can cause, it can treat.)

These plants also make us pay attention to where we are and what we're doing when we hang out with or harvest them. I like that singular focus required for the work. And I don't mind a bit when one of them pokes or scratches me back to the task at hand if my mind has wandered. In this world of multi-tasking as a way of life, it feels good to have hands and mind working together as one.

Medicine Chest - birch bark (saves the day)

Don't read this if you're squeamish about feet. 'Cause this is (partly) about feet stuff. Winter weary feet, to be precise. It's about hair, too. Winter weary hair.

But if you have feet, or hair, or even both, and they're troubling you at all, you might want to read on.

Shared air

I found this post waiting patiently in my draft file; it was written before "shared air" became something that we're all being taught to avoid .. these are strange days indeed.

But in looking it over I think it may be even more relevant now than when I wrote it.

Chakra work, er no, make that chakra play!

For anyone interested in Chakra work, I've just tripped over an excellent page to explore, it's here.

Really nice illustrations.

There's a forum connected to the site as well. You really can learn the most amazing things in forums tucked away in quiet corners of the internet!

Turns out, there's a chakra I've never heard about before, positioned between the heart chakra and the throat chakra. And my goodness, it seems to be the most important one of all! (she says with tongue in cheek)