Stone wall enchantment

I am in love with stone walls. I have taken loads of pictures of them, made art about them, made offerings to, on and under them.  I have tried to build my own stone walls with limited success and great humility.

Stonework Techniques and Projects.
 Charles Raven

I have gone on letterboxing hikes and found secret messages hidden in many stone walls.







I have a book about them.





I stop to look at the hand-picked stones on bank buildings, pay attention to the kind of stone used in different houses in different parts of this area. Some houses are make of red field stone pulled from farm fields and some from schist quarried in the Philadelphia area.  In Massachusetts  homes are not schist.  There they quarry granite.

I dream of standing near the wailing wall. Not to wail. Just to stand near it and connect with the ancient energy and effort of the builders, who were probably not the ones who planned the wall. That is so often the case with stone.  I would leave a note to give thanks for the cleverness and ingenuity man has to shape and stack stones.

Cape Cod cairn.

I stack stones into cairns whenever I have a chance to. They serve to hold a place on the earth for the memory of my son, for some delight that I am feeling that day or for a wish I make. A cairn is a good repository for a spell.

Bonsai training at Longwood Gardens in December 1012

Stones are everlasting and solid.

They can shape the world around them.

I lay my hand flat against chimneys.  I get thrown off of properties occasionally while taking pictures of bank barns and Swiss barns built of stone.

I think about the ballast stones (called Belgian block around here) in the street in Germantown, a historic part of Philadelphia where battles were fought in among the German homes.  These stones have known the feet of some real heroes and so many other people who came before me.  They are worn and wise and beautiful to see.

Mostly though, for me, its the standing walls. My Barbie dolls were all rock climbers when I was young.  We didn't need or want a pink camper, we made rooms for our dolls in the gaps and empty places in stone walls or rock faces in the woods.  Barbie can climb rocks in high heels and make a meal of acorns and furniture from moss.

.

Imbolc Par-tay follow-up

Gorgeous creativity poem to Brigid for over my loom from Kestril.

Beautiful yellow English primrose from Cat for the altar.

The ice bowl filled with holly twigs and leaves came out fantastic!  I have these little vintage silver stars originally intended for holding candles on Christmas trees.  I put one in the bottom of the ice bowl and placed the lovely green 8 hour candle on top of it. I love those darn emergency candles!

The reason I needed the star is because when I un molded the bowl/candle holder in the morning after it was outside all night to freeze it wasn't COMPLETELY frozen... It must have been just 32 for only part of the night.  The top 3 inches or so are frozen clear as glass- the inside and outside layers of the bowl are frozen in big crystals.  That indicates really slow freezing.  The water that remained in between the two shell bowl bottoms splooshed out into the sink.  Yay for me for unmolding this in the sink and not on the table!!

Big slow-formed crystals of water with gaps holding the star and candle.  So shiny.

The day began with good smells and presents!   We set ourselves up with Mimosas made with OJ and Prosecco and admired the altar and the day.  We spent plenty of the day catching up with family news and love life news too.  Kestril brought a wonderful mix-CD of songs about milk, creativity, growth... it was just great and everyone got one!

Our meal was a yummy 3 cheese quiche and these beautiful chicken pot pie muffins.  I made a bowl of sweet and sour cucumbers with dill and lavender using goldenrod vinegar I made in the summer.  I certainly need to get the recipe for those pot pie muffins!

Then we got raffia all over the place.

Traditional wheat crosses

 With instructions we shared a good time trying to weave wheat crosses for everyone.  The raffia went everywhere, but it cut easily with scissors so I was glad that was our choice.


Combinations of weaving, braiding and tying resulted in a bunch of awesome icons to hang over our doors at home.

 


No one was in any hurry to leave, and before we knew it the time was late.  What a good day!















The candle kept burning until I blew it out before dinner.

Imbolc Par-Tay Plans!

Brunch for Imbolc is the plan for 4 of my friends and I on Midwinter morning this year.  I have some white linen cloths in the moonlight to give each person a Bride's mantle tomorrow to take home and the sideboard is all set up with a 3 tiered altar and seasonal items.  We have a narcissus bulb just sprouting roots, green and yellow candles and a glass winter mandala sun made by my friend. The bowl of yellow candles and holly sprigs is waiting for ice cubes, I would put snow in it if we had some. It is our traditional reminder that the snow will melt and the Spring will thaw and grow green again.

Sprouting bulb and bowl of salt int he background.

Also on the side are the wine glasses and pitcher for the OJ and Prosecco mimosas, the plates and cutlery and napkins.  I am not always this well prepared for a party but I kinda like this.

Also slated for the tiers of the altar are seed packets to bless and some offerings from the guests. There are some little onyx bowls for the offerings, mine is filled with calendula petals.

I nested two BIG bowls and sandwiched more holly sprigs between them.  I weighted the inner bowl with some heavy glasswear I have and sat it on three ice cubes and some criss-crossed holly sticks in the bottom.
When its frozen I will warm it up a bit and unmold it and place a nice big candle inside.  I plan to have it on the front porch to greet the guests as they arrive.  I'm sure I will bring it in later and watch it melt just like the bowl of ice and holly.  I wonder if it will take all day.

Water and holly sandwiched between two bowls.
Outside freezing into a candle holder for the porch.

I plan to lay a small fire in the woodstove and keep a kettle on for pouring tea water.  I have lots of tea blends already in glass jars on a shelf in the kitchen.  A burl bowl made from our fallen ash tree holds oranges and sits on the brunch table with some lovely flowers Bearded Bob brought me this week.  He does that a lot.

Our menu includes cucumber salad and a 3 cheese quiche.  It's been so long since I made a pie crust...

I thought about it all day, and in the end it came together and was a snap!  I spent far too much time thinking about it.  The three handy cheeses were smoked Gouda  cheddar and parmasean, so along with onion and spinach it will be a hearty kind of quiche.

I addded calendula flower petals to the custard and cheese mixture and sprinkled more on top of the crust before it went into the oven.

Quiche takes only 35 minutes at 375F.  I know it will be a hit.

I put a two little snakes made of crust along the fluted rim of the quiche crust!

Brigid, Hecate and I are all fond of snakes.

My assistant chef Zambonie lost interest when she realized that I wasn't going to be dropping any cheese for her to supervise.

I just moved this rocking chair to the kitchen two days ago and  she has already figured out how to sit on the cushion- she never paid this rocker any attention while it was in the living room.  I thought it was too rocky for her to feel safe.

Location, location location!


See more Imbolc revelry at The Bewitching Home blog-party-winter-redux-edition.

Mirrored snowflake in place of the real thing.

Domino Day

I took a few of the topical articles I've written on another blog to kick off this blog, but because I'm impatient, the pictures either won't transfer or weren't saved. You might be better off, they were blurry webcam pics. Use the captions to imagine a big stratified pile of desk junk on all surfaces. originally posted 12/3/11. Enjoy.

Craft and journaling central. I'm leaving the picture dark,  as the room is. Lamps are part of the fix

Its messy in here. We have a domino day going on. Domino day is when I tackle one emergent task only to find that to do it well I have to fix something else. To do that well, another thing needs attention. You get it.

To make cookies, I have to clean up this counter. To clean up the counter, I have to put away the food dryer and the dry herbs inside it should be stored in jars on my shelf of healing and ritual supplies. I should put up that shelf. Right now ritual supplies are on a coffee table which began as my altar and has never seen a cup of coffee. Altars honor. This one honors untidyness (that wasn't the original intent).

The shelf belongs in my office at home, which is also my painting and writing studio, craft room and Craft room and home to my handmade 18th C reenacting clothing. That was a mistake, so I have been transitioning the clothing to another home, which has left them in three places at present. Also a mistake.

All of this makes me want to take a walk in the woods...

Bucket of colored pencils seemed smart, but it doesn't work. big bins for desk supplies also not working.

So to bake cookies for the upcoming Solstice party which will be enjoyed by my sister soon to arrive from TX, I will need to put up a shelf, clean up the kitchen, put things from the kitchen into my office and before any of that can happen I need to clean my office and unbury my desk. I should make decisions about what goes where- but I think I will put that off until everything is at least in the right zone of the house.

All of this makes me want to take a walk in the woods most urgently, which reminds me: I have greens in the dining room and on the porch waiting to be made into two Yule wreaths. The wreath assembly will set off another domino circle involving the dining room, living room and possibly my bedroom.

The fact that 60% or more of the people in America are having a similar day is not much comfort.