Beltane Birthday Celebration

My birthday was on Saturday, and I mostly celebrated it by celebrating something else. Beltane (May Day) to be specific. The current core three members of Blue Moon Circle drove about 45 minutes to Robin's house to "get the band back together" for the day. (Robin was one of the original members and is still a part of the group, but lives far away enough and is so busy, it is hard for us all to get together often.) She and my goddess-daughter Sophie wrote and put on the ritual--I told them my gift was being able to just relax and take part, instead of having to organize and put it on. Then we had a wonderful feast, along with Robin's husband George and son Nate. I got a few cool gifts (gemstones! beer made by monks!) and Robin baked me a birthday honey cake topped with lavender and rose petals to go with Chris's home made ice cream. The rain even held off until we were done. It was a lovely day. (And then I come home and worked on revisions, of course.) Plus, we realized it was the 14 year anniversary of the first ritual we all did together, which was pretty amazing!

Some of my favorite people

Ellen with pal Bailey

Sophie and her new kitten, Chris and her knitting

The ritual by the firepit

Our crafty Beltane pots we made and blessed for each other

Birthday honey cake

Corn for the feast!

Yum!

Nate and Sophie!

Me and my favorite kids

Our traditional GRRRR picture

Presents and a cute card (inside is says something about gray hair making you cute)

Blue agate wind chimes

more gemstones

I also got lots of lovely birthday wishes on Facebook and Twitter--thank you!

Earth Day Everyday

I have to laugh when people ask me if I'm planning to do something special for Earth Day. Don't get me wrong--I think Earth Day is a great thing. It never hurts to remind people that the earth is our home and we should celebrate it instead of trashing it.

But Paganism is a nature-based spiritual path and Witchcraft, for most of us, is a nature-based religion. As far as I'm concerned, every day is Earth Day. I try to live my life in a way that is as kind to the earth as I can, although like everyone else, I don't always succeed. (All those packages from Amazon can't be good...even if I do recycle the cardboard boxes.)

My mantra is recycle/reuse or just plain keep the old one (of whatever it is) until it falls apart. I drive a car that gets good gas mileage, compost my kitchen waste, recycle everything that can be recycled, and never, ever litter. (Seriously. Do not let me catch you doing that shit. You will think the wrath of goddess had descended on you.) Plus I have a large garden and periodically plant new trees or shrubs.

So how am I going to celebrate today? For one thing, it is actually warm and sunny, so I'm going to go OUTSIDE. I'll probably take my first walk of the year down my road, and bring a plastic bag with me (and a glove) so I can pick up trash from along the side of the road as I go. Once the snow melts, you can suddenly see what crap people have been tossing out of their cars all winter long. I'll refill the bird feeders, stroll around the garden and start planning where I'll put what this year. But mostly I'll just be grateful for the gift of living in such a beautiful place.

What are you going to do to celebrate Earth Day?

Nature is stubborn.

Nature is abundance. And survival!

Sekrit Project Announce and Celebration Giveaway

So some of you may have seen me talking on Twitter about a sekrit project that was a possibility... Well, I'm THRILLED to announce that illustrator Elisabeth Alba and I have just signed a contract with Llewellyn to create the Everyday Witch Oracle Deck! Can  I get a woot? (And a bottle of champagne?)

Elisabeth and I had a great time when we worked together on the EVERYDAY WITCH TAROT
We had so much fun, in fact, that we've been looking for a project we could do together ever since--well, ever since we recovered, anyway. We finally had coinciding windows of time available and come up with the idea of doing an oracle deck along the same lines as the tarot deck. Oracle decks are smaller and simpler, and take no preparation or training to use. The deck will have 40 cards and a book that goes with it, written by yours truly.

Here's the sample card Elisabeth made up. Isn't it AMAZING?

Notice anything special about this witch?

 
 We are both incredibly excited to be able to announce this project. (And to get the band back together.) No release date yet, but probably some time in 2020.

To celebrate, I'm going to give away one copy of the Everyday Witch Tarot Deck! (Signed by me.)

 

Just fill in the Rafflecopter form below. And then you can join us in doing the happy dance to celebrate our good news. What do you think? Are you excited too?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

Sick Kitty Update

I had this crazy thought that once I lost Magic and Mystic, I wouldn't have insane vet bills anymore. New young healthy kittens, I thought. One check-up, and we won't have to go to the vet until they're due for their rabies shots. I even considered not doing the Patreon anymore, since the vet bills for Magic and Mystic were what motivated me to start it in the first place.

Yes, that IS the universe you hear laughing.

 

To begin with, their initial wellness check turned up roundworms (meds x 3) and an ear infection in Koshka (eardrops). Ka-ching! He had to go back the next week to check on the ears, and the drops hadn't worked, so then he had an antibiotic shot, and an appointment set for 3 weeks away. THEN poor Harry Dresden developed horrible liquid diarrhea (yeah, that was about as much fun to deal with as it sounds like), followed by Ember having the same thing plus throwing up and refusing to eat. So they both went off to the emergency vet last Saturday morning. (antibiotics and probiotics x 2, plus fluids, x-rays, and an anti-nausea shot for Ember). KA-CHING! 

The good news is that they're both feeling better. The bad news is that this Wednesday morning, Koshka had liquid diarrhea (don't you love coming to my page to read this stuff?) and wouldn't eat. So he had to go to the vet too. He is obviously dealing with the same thing, whatever it is, and also had to have fluids and an anti-nausea shot, plus his own antibiotics (metronidazole, which is specifically used for bowel issues). My vet says it could be a result of the roundworms (they can cause this kind of issue, but so can the die-off after the dewormer, so who knows), or it could be a virus, or some other thing that one or the other of them brought into the house from their previous situations. Basically, all we can do is treat the symptoms and hope that poor Angus doesn't come down with whatever it is! (Hopefully not--he's older and his system hasn't been under the kind of stress that theirs has.)

That's right, the new "healthy" kittens have now been to the vet 4 times in 2 1/2 weeks, with another trip scheduled for Koshka's ears next week. At least they all seem to be feeling better.

Thank goodness for my patreon peeps, because they're saving my butt. And a bunch of furry butts too.