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..

quirkychick thankyou - it feels good to be understood- thanks.

I feel in need of a magical boost right now, I want to pay more attention to my living environment.
When my mother moves I want to make some changes, and I want to come out of the broom cupboard and reclaim my space. That will mean no regular visits from clergy or church members.

I have been making a style board on pinterest, part of my healing journey has been to get to know myself more authentically, and explore my tastes. A living space that reflects who I am. A living room altar, floor sofas, artwork that inspires me and ties in with my interests, corners to read and be comfy.
To reclaim my self.

Good evening sisters and brothers 😊This is a long post and I ask your indulgence but I just need to vent ...

Yesterday was a difficult day. When we bought our old bungalow about seven years ago, we inherited the most magnificent double pink camellia in our garden. It was incredibly floriferous, just covered in blooms, over the last two springs. We knew that it was too close to the house and would have to be removed when we demolish and rebuild later this year and into next year. But it started flowering at the beginning of January and the last few flowers were still on the 10ft bush ... until yesterday. I asked hubby to leave it for another couple of months so that I could take cuttings from the new growth. Even if we don't have space for a new plant, I can give them to others to grow in their gardens.

But he was determined to take it out and shrugged off my requests. So he spent most of the day digging it out, removing the wall in front and using a car jack and ratchet straps to almost pull it from the ground. He called me to see his work. I stepped out of the kitchen door, onto the steps looking down onto the garden and there was a huge hole where the camellia had stood. He was triumphant. I was shocked and stunned, going back indoors immediately. I hadn't expected to be SO heartbroken and devastated by the loss of the camellia. I shut myself in the bedroom and howled in grief, bereft and gutted.

He came in and found me, utterly shocked that my reaction was SO strong (in truth, it surprised me as well!). A difficult hour followed, accompanied by at least two mugs of tea, and it finally dawned on him that he should have listened to me and not taken it out right now. The trunk is thicker than a man's thigh and it's very heavy so his attempts to return its rootball to the hole only half worked. He's roped it into a 45 degree angle, piled soil around the rootball, watered it well and shrouded it in plastic to keep in moist. Not only had he uprooted it but he'd also sawed all ALL the top growth - more than a dozen branches about 4ft long. So the trunk only has a few wispy six inch sprouts left. The rest is lying on the grass.

I did take some cuttings but they are from older harder greyer wood rather than the more suitable pliable reddish brown wood of new growth. They're in a terracotta pot, about eight of them, in a shady place and I keep spraying them with water to keep them moist. I'm desperately hoping that one will strike and the camellia won't be completely lost. It may be that the old trunk produces some suitable new growth but I'm not holding my breath.

I know hubby did it because he believed that friends would take the camellia and its rootball, severely pruned, and plant it in their lovely woodland valley garden. But the camellia was just TOO big and heavy and it would have been virtually impossible to move, transport and replant. Our friends said that there was very little chance it would survive.

I've calmed down now and am resigned to whatever happens in the next three months. I'm not confident that the camellia will produce any new growth, neither am I confident that any of my cuttings will take. Hubby has promised to buy me any new camellia that I want ... but it won't be this special, unnamed and probably twenty or thirty year old camellia. I feel I'm being unreasonable because I knew full well that the camellia had to go, and I accepted that, but I am angry and resentful that he didn't give it that extra six to eight weeks of life that would have enabled me to take some better cuttings. I just feel bereft and exhausted by the whole process .....

Thank you for reading. I just needed to get my feelings down and let them out.

MistyDryad I hear you!

My OH did something similar two years ago, I was so upset.

I will reply later, but I have had good success rooting woody cuttings in water, I use water with some sugar in it, and rooting powder too if I have it. There are also natural alternatives too.
If you can take more cuttings, and try some different methods.

@MistyDryad rant away, you wanted to come to terms with it in your own time. We had a beautiful hydrangea (lace cap?) next to our front door, it died suddenly a couple of years ago. I think it may have been planted with the house 1850s so was probably it's time. I still miss it.

@speakout absolutely make the space your own! I have really loved being able to put things on the mantlepiece without a risk of dd2 swiping them off in distress. I have so enjoyed expressing myself again. My firepit has arrived, but I'll wait till better weather to set it up in the garden (would have been far too dangerous with dd2).

That's some age for a shrub quirkychick!

I would love a firepit, but the power companies were making some repairs to the underground cables last year, which included digging up part of my garden. There is a very thick cable which runs part of the way under my lawn, and maybe two feet deep. I would be a little nervous about making a firepit in case I blow up the power line!
My OH has been banned from using secateurs, he becomes snip happy!
I asked him to trim back a boisterous buddleia a little two years ago and when I returned he had simply carried on " tidying up" everything he could see.
There was a beautiful huge old climbing rose which produced hundreds of blooms all summer and I could see when I was at the sink. I loved it. Sadly after the hacking ( from 12 foot high to 15 foot wide) it was reduced to a knee high tangled woody stump.
It makes an effort, but has never regained its vitality. Still makes me sad!

The boss of the electric company team doing the repair work was a woman- great to see in that position, and we had a long chat about tree roots. She was monitoring the work carefully ( I could see it was the goddess in disguise!) because she wished to minimise the damage to roots. I was very grateful for that, and the engineers worked carefully around the larger roots rather than chop through them.
She knew every species in my garden, and we talked about the wood wide web.
Such an amazing topic, magic beneath our feet, I have been wormholing in and out of the topic for a while, but came across this good video yesterday which explains some of the ways trees communicate underground.

I intend to make dds tiny bedroom into.my special space now she has finally moved out. It needs to be decorated first though but I haven't the energy.
I really should get round to it.

Thanks sisters. I don't think the cuttings I took will strike but I've taken some more branches, trimmed them and put them in water in a shady place. Maybe they will carry on growing just long enough for me to take another batch. Today hubby is making at least three trips to the recycling centre with all the branches he cut off. I'm resigned to it and my emotions have subsided now.

@speakout hubbies and secateurs are bad news, aren't they? Mine pruned a beautiful pale yellow broom almost to a trunk and it never recovered, having flowered beautifully in previous years. He also managed to pull out a big clump of 'grass' and throw it on the compost heap. How he didn't realise that it was chives, I have no idea!!! Surely the smell of the bruised leaves would have alerted him? Fortunately we managed to salvage that, replant it, water it and the chives survived to tell the tale. You were definitely protected by the goddess in the unusual guise of a lady electricity team foreman. What a lovely interaction you had with her and the conversation about the tree roots, plants and wood wide web. I don't have time to watch the 45 minute video this morning but I have bookmarked it for future watching 🙂

I'm currently loving going into my greenhouse where the hippeastrums (amaryllis) are growing well. Soon I will enjoy their spectacular flowers which are always a real treat. Of course, there's a host of seedlings and cuttings to be potted on into bigger pots .... The self sown clumps of tall quaking grass in the garden are just producing their lovely nodding heads so I will save some seed this year ready to replant. I love the way they 'quake'. The intoxicatingly delicious Rosa Rugosa Rosarie de la Hay is also on the point of opening its first bud. I cannot pass it without burying my nose in a bloom, the scent is divine (I do make sure there isn't a bee in it though!).

Sending blessings for a lovely weekend

Hedjwitch I think finding enthusiasm for projects like that sometimes take their own time. Waiting will often produce ideas with no effort.

It does seem men can be snip happy. My OH has zero interest in gardening, which is odd, but very common I think. My late father was a country boy, born in the 1920s in a poor rural area. Food was foraged or grown, meat would be sourced from woodland and rivers, fish, rabbit, pheasant, grouse. It was a necessity to know how to grow vegetables and recognise signs in nature and when he had his own family he passed on his knowledge. And I am grateful for that.
I am just back from a shopping trip and uncharacteristically bought myself some new clothes. I rarely buy clothes new, most of my wardrobe comes from charity shops, and I love that.
But Matalan had a lovely collection of linen clothes, so I bought a few pairs of trousers, t shirts, shirts, a jacket and a dress. All in comfortable soft cotton, neutral light colours. all fit perfectly together colour wise.
I may not keep everything, they need another try on at home.

I have a few things coming up in the next month or two, a yoga workshop, a yoga retreat, lunch with friends, so the new clothes will be very useful.

I have come home to housework, but I will race through it so I can have some chill time and tea in the garden later.

Ooh,I bought a couple of things in Matalan too. Ankle grazer cotton trousers and a striped linen top. I should have got a bigger size top tho. Bit tight across the boobs

@MistyDryad would a cutting work if you tried grafting it to something else? Though I have worked with and around plants my whole adult life I generally tend to the 'try it and see' method!

I have been absent from here, and just spent some time catching up on all the posts. I have just been hermitting and resting as I am in some kind of transition right now and listening to my inner self.
I am under a neurosurgery team at a big hospital for investigations into a lump that unexpectedly showed up in an MRI for something else. It's in my spinal column (at L1 if you understand that) and I have to go back for a full spinal and brain MRI later this month. My Consultant wants to be sure it doesn't have any friends before he takes it to Multi Disciplinary to discuss next steps. He is certain it is benign, but unsure of its actual make-up/cause.
It does however appear to be the cause of some pain/neuropathy/mobility issues which have blithely been put down to perimenopause and hormonal changes.

I stepped out of my comfort zone and attended a Beltane Circle. It was very small, and I met some amazing women. It's the first time I have done anything like that. I did have to travel but it has made me eager to find likeminded people in my own area.

Well it's glorious sunshine here, I am off to the gym in a little while and hope the sun holds so I can get in the garden later.

queenrollo sorry to hear of your health issues, but hopefully now that a problem has been identified that some resolution will be found and improve your overall well being.

Well done for attending the women's group, it is sometimes a challenge to try new things like this, but I never regret it.

I am just back from meeting a friend for lunch, it was so good. We sat outside in a small courtyard, in the grounds of a centuries old country house, surrounded by woodland, looking out at a 200 year old orangery.

It is so soul nurturing to spend time with other women, very uplifting, whether meeting with a friend, a women's circle or online chat.
It was very warm, but my new outfit was comfortable and cool.

@queenrollo sending good wishes for your results. As @speakout says, test results only tell you what is already there.

My firepit is in the garden and looks like a big, flat cauldron 😀. Some fire wood has arrived, so I'm going to give it a go tonight. I feel like I'm reclaiming my garden (it used to be dd2's favourite space and any thing remotely dangerous was a no go).

I've been to Hatha Yoga this morning, I can feel like my strength is coming back and hopefully I will be back to Vinyasa soon. I'm very into trying to do new things that I couldn't do as dd2's carer. This week I've completed my TEFL level 5 training and started an extra online qualification, so I can start online tutoring.

@queenrollo I've taken a big bucket of branches which I've put in a cool relatively shady place so I'm hoping they might continue growing. The main tree with only a couple of spindly branches left is also putting on some new growth so I'm keeping my fingers tightly crossed.

Spines are tricky things and discovering a unexpected lump at L1 must have been a shock! Good luck for the full brain and spinal scan next month and fingers crossed that your Consultant and Multi Disciplinary team can determine the problem and work out some treatment. I had a full spine MRI last May (at 8pm on a Sunday evening, would you believe?) and it's revealed cervical and lumbar degeneration. I'm also experiencing pain/neuropathy/mobility issues, specifically 'drop foot' and walking causing real fatigue. There are also issues with vertigo/dizziness which make me unsteady and scared of falls. I was referred to MSK for the former and ENT for the latter, back in mid March, so no idea when I will be called up. There's no option apart from keeping going and trying to do the exercises from the physiotherapist (who saw me for three months and then discharged me without much improvement).

@quirkychick Two of my hubby's siblings did TEFL qualifications many years ago. One taught in Indonesia and the other in Turkey so online teaching sounds like a good option. Good luck with your studying.

This was a quiet weekend for us and I was glad to see some rain this morning to lay the dust and freshen up the garden. I may see if I can snag an appointment with the chiropractor before next weekend. We're off to a local golf club at the end of the week because hubby's table tennis team won their League and there is, apparently, a trophy to be collected 😃Food options are limited to a pasty and a cream tea (this is Cornwall, after all) both of which are carb heavy so I will have to smile and 'enjoy'. Then we're going up to Devon by train to attend an evening candlelit concert of Radiohead music performed by a concert orchestra in a cathedral. We stay overnight in the city and then return by train on Sunday lunchtime which will be fun. Radiohead is hubby's favourite band and we travelled to Florence in Italy several years ago at midsummer to attend one of their European gigs at which we were just two of thirty five thousand attendees 😮It was also extremely hot and I don't do heat very well but I managed OK. He was over the moon and thrilled by the whole experience.

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend

I hope the full moon earlier this week has brought good things.
This full moon was powerfully aspected so may have brought about changes at a very deep level.
I have woken up to a cool morning, it's overcast, a heavy dew , and 9 degrees.
This unseasonally warm weather is strange, and a little disconcerting for some reason. I love all weather, except very strong wind, and welcome warm sunny days, but this dry spell feels out of kilter.
My friend owns a farm near here, I know she will be concerned about this dry spell, low rainfall in May can impact later crop yield.
This week has brought a lot to deal with, some good things, some worrying things, lots that want my attention.
I am pleased that I have ( mostly) held onto my safe core, and I am running a filter through stuff and requests to decide If I need to deal with, ignore or delegate. My mother has finally signed tenancy agreement for sheltered housing and has keys, so we are starting to get her new place in order.

I am so looking forward to renewing my magical practice, I have plans to energize and deepen my rituals, spellcraft and deity work. Both my OH and DS totally support and respect my work, my odd projects, my need for space and privacy. No more skulking around, hiding stuff, I can be bold and proud!
Living with authenticity is so important, it is one of these things that allow us to heal and hold self worth.

Have a magical day sisters.

I joined a lovely group of ladies ( and one chap) for a dip in the sea this evening. I really had to battle with myself to get into the water but I did it,and it was actually lovely after the initial shock. Felt good to be in the water with the evening sun on my face.
Getting changed afterwards is always fun..most of us are at the age we don't give a damn about flashing our bits or trying to hide under towels. Had to laugh as one lady tutted and exclaimed " got seaweed down my boobs again" before fishing put the offending frond from her ample cleavage!

With pic this time

Puts the kettle on and wonders where everyone is...

Still here and thanks for the tea, @Hedjwitch 😊

We were away this weekend by train which was a pleasant experience, apart from every passenger being de-trained at Plymouth to walk across the platform and pile onto another train which caused massive problems with trying to find pre-booked seats. Fortunately we found ours relatively easily but there were people arguing all around us - not cool GWR 🤔We had a lovely weekend, enjoyed a great concert, lots of excellent food and walking. But today has been a different story ...

We have a much smaller bungalow about half a mile away where we're planning to live during the demolition and rebuild of our existing bungalow. The tenants left on Saturday and dropped one set of keys (there's another one they haven't returned yet) into the lettings agent. So we collected them and went over this morning to check it out (and work out how on earth we're going to fit all our stuff into a property only just over half the size of this one!).

Unfortunately, the tenants were a man the same age as us (late sixties) and his mother in her mid eighties. They came into the property six months ago and I swear they hadn't opened a single window in all that time, in order to keep the old lady warm because she couldn't go out due to disability. The black mould in every room (except, oddly enough, the bathroom) was unbelievable, all round doors and windows, on ceilings, on curtains and blinds. If we were planning to let it out again, it would be a nightmare 😮It was also filthy - the oven was plastered with burnt-on food, the tiled floors in the hall and living room were grubby and covered in crud, there was rubbish in bins and old crockery in cupboards. They did leave two quite nice bath towels though ...

We had been warned they'd reported a mould problem (which hadn't manifested at the six months of the previous tenant) and, unfortunately, a pipe burst under the sink in the kitchen a month ago, flooding the kitchen/dining/living area to a depth of two inches. The very efficient repair man took out 60 litres of water when he came to fix the problem that same day (bless emergency plumbers!). That just made the mould problem much MUCH worse. Fortunately we brought three dehumidifiers with us from our previous home, which was right by the sea with a humid maritime climate and we needed them to keep on top of possible damp problems during the winter. So we've set up two of the three to dry the place out. We've also used a whole bottle of spray mildew and mould remover on the walls, ceilings, windows and doors and had to spray lots of limescale/stain remover onto the (frankly disgusting) bath.

The tiny garden hasn't been tended at all and has been overrun with long grass, ragwort, sedge, dandelions and other assorted weeds. The curtains, which weren't terribly good but they were the ones that came with the bungalow when we bought it, will all have to be junked. The smaller of the two bedrooms, where the old lady obviously stayed, has mouldy peeling pink stripe wallpaper on one wall so that will have to be removed. There will be lots of painting to do and the carpet in there will either have to be cleaned or junked.

We are feeling a bit chastened today but grateful that we have a couple of months before we actually have to move in so we've got lots of time to put things right. Even better, hubby is an excellent handyman and home repairer, having done a lot of that over the last few decades, so he will just get stuck in. But it will be a LOT of work. We'll be going over tomorrow with a full panoply of cleaning equipment including vacuum, steam cleaner, lawnmower, rubber gloves, bin bags and scrubbers.

But it does dent your belief in people and we are now seriously considering whether it would be better to simply sell the bungalow when we move out. We know there is a great lack of rental properties in the area but this doesn't fill us with confidence. Neither of us fancy going through all this rigmarole again, although we do appreciate that short-let tenants are nearly always the most challenging. We were incredibly lucky with the couple with grown up daughter that had our bigger bungalow for five years. They repainted everything and even cleaned the carpets before they left!

Nevertheless, it is a lovely day and I'm going out into my greenhouse shortly to do some work there. Lots of plants need potting on and I really need to give some away as well. Hubby said there were reports that it might be another '1976' year and I remember the terrific heat during the summer that I sat my 'A' levels. I need to stock up on plant saucers so I can conserve as much water as possible when I water my plants and not waste any. There's no point growing vegetables so I'm limiting myself to a few pots of herbs this year. My succulents can survive on minimal watering as well but other plants like lilies, zantedeschia, a paeony and fuchsias will need more to drink. The greenhouse will also have to be moved to the smaller bungalow, along with all the plants, not something I'm looking forward to very much.

I hope everyone is quiet because they had a lovely weekend and kept busy. Blessings to all sisters and brothers XXX

Hedjwitch I am in complete admiration for your wild water swimming! I know it is popular and I know a few people who enjoy it, but I am a wimp when it comes to coldness, water or winter days.
I am sure it has beneficial aspects for mind and body.

MistyDryad I find moving hard work and quite unsettling! We bought our current home 11 years ago, but as my family shrinks we don't really need a huge amount of room.
My mother will be moving to sheltered housing soon, so will leave me, OH and DS in a 5 bedroomed property. We had envisioned moving at this point, buying a smaller place and having some equity to have fun with.
But we have grown to love this house, and I couldn't wish for a better area- so maybe we could re-purpose a bedroom or two into a workroom, snug or yoga room.

I had a wonderful day long yoga retreat on Saturday, it was very nurturing.
Nestled in hills in the Borders miles from anywhere- the day was calm and soothing. We did three yoga classes over the day- only one was physically challenging, an hour of Qigong, a herbal workshop,yoga walking, meditation then finishing with yoga nidra. The day was punctuated by teas, home made biscuits, a buddha bowl lunch then a tiffin meal. My dear friend was with me, we had a good long walk and chat during the lunch break. It was so good to set down my burdens for the day, I can still feel the benefit!

Good morning magical sisters.
I hope everyone is doing OK.
Just flying in because I am excited about a new phone app I have- it's called Merlin, for both iphone and android and it's free.
It listens to birdsong, identifies and pops up in real time with a library picture of the bird too. Maybe some of you already have the app, but it's new to me.
I have my phone propped up near an open window and glance to see which birds are singing. It is very sensitive too, and picks up faint bird song.
So far the app has picked up house sparrow, song thrush,blackcap,siskin,wood pigeon, blackbird, jackdaw, blue tit, magpie- all in 10 minutes!
I hope it will help me learn bird calls, I intend to take a walk in the woods later today to seek out more birds.

I love simple pleasures like this!

I downloaded the Merlin app a couple of days ago, and yesterday I sat in the garden and it identified ten different birds, some of them were a long way away. It was great for the more difficult ones like the warblers. I’ve listened to bird recordings before, but always forget what they are, but the is instant and more likely to stick in my ageing brain!

It's a wonderful app isn't it FizzingAda , glad you have found it too.

Good morning friends, I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.
We had some welcome rain yesterday and last night, plants and crops have been crying out for water.
Mercury moves into Gemini today, and is well aspected with Saturn which means a good day for thinking things through, making good decisions, and sound judgements.

I am making deliberate attempts to nurture my mindfulness at the moment. It feels like a hundred things I need to attend to- much of them for other people- and I have a tendency to become overwhelmed, but I am attending to things in a slow methodical way. I am not one for bullet journals, but I do keep a paper diary- an inspiring one!
Some things are time critical so need to be done in the next day or two, but others- although important -can wait a week or two. This drain of energy is annoying as it means my work gets much less attention and enthusiasm, but this stage won't last for ever.

I have been enjoying rock painting in the last couple of weeks, I bought some rock painting pens and they are really good.

Rock painting was always something I did with my children when they were young, the usual ladybirds, cars, goofy faces, but this time it's just for me, and I am exploring symbols. Celtic, magical, astrological, ancient. I have collected my rocks from my local river, so smooth and roundish, almost all slate grey in colour. The pens have a fine tip, and I have found that applying a coat of clear nail polish and allowing to dry first gives much sharper definition, reducing bleed of any fine lines.
It is such a calming activity, the feeling of the cool solid stone in my hand, the feeling of focus and flow leaves me feeling very grounded.
Any other rock painters out there?

Morning all! I’m feeling inspired to download the Merlin app now.

@speakout I don’t think I’ve ever painted rocks but it sounds so soothing and creative.

I’m away from home this weekend for a training event. We’re by the sea and I went for a long evening walk by myself and kept a shell from my beach wandering.

The Merlin App is fab. Wish I'd known about it sooner. I love sitting outside with people,hearing birdsong and secretly checking the app. Then I nod knowledgeably and say " don't you just love the song of the willow warbler?"
Magick!