Any Witches Here? Part 21

[speakout]

Just settling into the new place, plumping the cushions and opening the windows. Welcome to n everyone, newcomers, old friends, the curious.
Wiccans. or Pagans? Or anyone who is interested in a magical path or feels some magical stirrings.
A place for support, learning, swapping ideas and magical inspiration..

Hedjwitch oh wow, that looks amazing!! I love honey, are you planning to get a hive of your own?

The weather is quite spectacular here, everything is pushing forth in the garden. I need to get out with my secateurs to nip off a rampaging raspberries. Sunny weather, but still a crisp cool air. Just perfect.

I won't get hives yet. I need to understand more about the process and also understand the bees themselves better,so that I can work with them in partnership,not just raid their honey stores. In folklore bees were messengers between worlds and even today, many people still make a point of telling the bees any news. Fascinating creatures.
Yesterday I picked herbs for drying..mint lemon balm,sage,marjoram plantain,nettles..and today I am.goung fir a dip in one of the tidal pools. Its been a lovely weekend of connecting to nature.

I am so glad nature is nurturing you Hedjwitch.

I live near a rural college that runs apiary courses, we have many honey bees in the flowering season. I know there is controversy surrounding bee keeping, especially as a hobby. Domestic honey bees can use up local food resources and reduce numbers of native species, especially those that have specific food sources.
So although keeping bees feels a nice bee friendly thing to do, the situation is complex.

However I buy and eat honey, so no criticism here !

My friend runs a farm near me, organic rapeseed mostly, and she allows local beekeepers to place hives in her fields. Although an "artificial" arrangement, the bee keepers benefit from a long season of flowers- and therefore honey, and my friend benefits with higher crop yields from increased fertilisation.
One of the spots where the hives are placed is against a wall, backed by a ruined church and churchyard, the wall formed the old county line. Remains of women burned and murdered in my town were taken by cart and dumped over the wall, couldn't be placed in "sacred" ground, and over the wall meant it was in another jurisdiction. No doubt the minister of that church was paid well for disposing of such unholy remains. I was on a fact finding ramble at the time and thought it was incredibly poignant that this final resting place was accidentally marked by a dozen bee hives.
I didn't realise at the time that those fields were owned by my friend, and she didn't know that her property contained the remains of murdered witches.
There just feels some beautiful- if very sad connections.

Oh,that is sad. I hope the bees bring blessings.

I think bees are very magical creatures. I often rescue bees that are caught inside, sometimes barely alive. I take them outside and place a couple of drops of sugar water beside them, it's wonderful to watch them drink then find the energy to fly off. I just read this mornng that there are over 100 different species of bee in the UK- quite incredible!
Just back from a shopping trip, bought some nice storage baskets in a sale at Dunelm Mill- I love the smell of new wicker.

I know temperatures are set to soar today, I hope those of us in warmer regions are surviving the heat. It's 17 degrees here, so very comfortable, and the clouds have gathered, sounds like a recipe for thunder-fingers crossed. x

One of my moggies has had a personality change in recent months- it's so weird.
Cinder developed a foot infection as a result of a deep thorn embedded under his pad.Despite initial vet treatment it became badly infected, and eventually needed surgery to clean it out. It was gruesome, but he came home with a collar- which he wore for two weeks. Cinder is a rescue cat, spent a good while of his early life living in the goods yard of a brewery, and when I adopted him he was nervous, skittish and didn't like human contact.
He didn't enjoy affection much, and was not a lap cat at all.
He found the cone difficult, I helped him as much as I could, removing it to clean twice a day, and giving him wet warm flannel washes after eating, as he couldn't use his paw. I would sit with him while he groomed himself as much as he could, then replace the collar when he turned attention to his stitched foot.
The injury healed really well, stitches removed, and collar taken off.

But I now have a cat that has changed. He follows me around constantly, when I sit down he jumps up purring, slooting his chest into mine, nestling his face into the crook of my neck. He stares into my eyes, kneads my clothes, then burrows next to my body to sleep.
It's like having a different cat!
The attention is sweet, often too much if I am honest, especially if I am trying to work.
I am not sure what has happened in his moggie brain!

I'm loving all the bee talk. We have lots of both honeybees and bumblebees in our garden at the moment. We think we have another bumblebee nest in the roof. Lots of bumblebees enjoying the flowers.

It sounds as if you have re-domesticated your cats @speakout.

Aw, it’s gratitude for all your love and care.

I am feeling out of sorts these last couple of weeks. I've had Tribunal paperwork (yet again) to sort on a deadline, I met up with my brother - who's lovely, but we're both caught up in the middle of family shit, it's summer which is all giving me flashbacks to 2 years ago when dd2 was in crisis. I just found out when of my university friends, who I thought had stopped being in touch had actually died suddenly over a year ago. It's making me feel a bit jangly and ungrounded. I've re-applied for therapy, as I found it helpful last time and am leaning into yoga, meditation and spending time outside.

That's a lot to deal with quirkychick. Life can throw us off track, scattered, thin as paper when waves crash.
I know that ungrounded feeling, we are trying to resolve things, our thoughts darting around trying to find solutions and fixes.
I think a lot of that is part of being human, life can be tough, uncomfortable feelings will always come along.
I find it really hard to come back to myself sometimes, but in times of stress and challenge it becomes even more crucial that we try.
There will always be things we cannot fix, unpleasant happenings, situations needing attention. We don't have to carry them all, we can put down our burdens.
When we do find grounding then life becomes so much easier to deal with.

I have a woman's circle tomorrow evening, I haven't been to this one before, but I find sharing circle time with other women so deeply healing, and I am sure this one will be no exception. I am always so blown away by events like this on my doorstep, this new circle is only a mile from me. I don't live in a city, just a fairly unremarkable spot of ruralish Scotland.

Thank you for your kind words, @speakout . That is exactly how I feel, I felt like this 2 years ago, but am probably better equipped to deal with it. My university friend, was a big part of my life when I was younger and we had some wild times together - I'm trying to focus on the good memories and feel I need to have some kind of ritual to say goodbye, as I missed the funeral.

Oh @quirkychick I'm sorry, that's a lot to be dealing with. Perhaps something you and your friend used to do together, or something she enjoyed or was important to her.

@speakout I love the bee talk. I have lots of bee hotels and feel elation when I notice the circular holes in the leaves from solitary bees! I save a small bee last weekend, it had fallen into a plant pot with no holes in the bottom that had collected rain in it. I scooped it out assuming it was dead, but she started moving a leg. I brought her inside and warmed her up, then brought in some flowers and offered sugar water - she spent about 10 mins on the flowers then took a small drink before going back to the flowers. It was quite blustery that day and she seemed reluctant to fly off, probably exhausted from her ordeal, so I let her sit on me while she cleaned herself and dried off and eventually she started to buzz off my hand a small bit so I encouraged her onto some ragwort flowers where she practiced flying from flower to flower before eventually flying off. It was really magical

Thank you @CailleachGhlas that's a lovely idea. I've been journalling down some memories too, which have been helpful.

I love your bee rescue - we rescued a bee in the yoga studio last weekend and felt it embodied ahimsa or non-violence.

Well done on saving the bee. I love being able to do that and actually wrote a piece for my daughter about this. I've never shown it to her but might one day.

A sad,restless day but a sea swim helped clear the head.
I am very excited for the moon tonight. More so than usual. Crystals are outside to charge and I am wearing a pendant of moldavite. I feel something big is going to happen.

I keep seeing repeated numbers, for the last week or so. I make a wish when I see them, I might look up their meanings.

I love a sea swim but havent done one in years, I must get back into that when my health is a little better

@Hedjwitch I'm also feeling sad and restless, but feel I've got a lot going on at the moment, so understandable. The sea swim sounds perfect.

@CailleachGhlas that sounds interesting.

Today I did the most uplifting and empowering thing I've ever done. At 6am I joined over 100 others for first of all yoga on the beach,greeting the sun. And then, to the skirl of the pipes,we ditched every stitch of clothing and ran naked into the sea! The Noody Dook was absolutely life affirming,joyful and the best fun I've had naked in a long time!