E- Ellen Dugan Garden Witch

Ellen Dugan's books are a great inspiration to me and they are beautiful and thoughtfully written.  If you haven't checked her out, then do!

She published the Witches Tarot through Llewellyn Worldwide.

Pretty and educational!










Her Garden Herbal is one of my favorite books, and her other garden witchcraft books are wonderful too!

Check out Ellen' site at: Ellen's pages and blog she is my E choice for the Pagan Blog Project.

D- Deer

Can you find two deer in this picture?

I see deer in my yard in the morning because I live in their bedroom.  The dogs look our the large glass doors in the back (through which these pictures were taken) and bark.  And bark and bark and bark.  Deer are smarter than dogs, they look up but soon go back to sleep or have a snack.

Left deer.

I love that they visit me and that they can sleep late because they can't be hunted here so near my house.

I have no objection to hunting though. I have some friends who are pagans AND hunters, and their approach to taking a deer is beautiful, sound and respectful.

Right deer. You can tell she is laughing at the dogs wigging out by my feet.

At least one of them makes offerings to Diana at his place of worship near a small spring. She is ever present with him as he hunts and his offerings of thanks to her this year were truly moving. My friend is a Longhunter, he hunts with a flintlock and so he has one shot and one charge of gunpowder to spend. His skill and patience have to do the rest. Longhunter feels that this deer gives up her life for the hunt to continue and to help keep the connection between the God and the Wood strong.  Some of his prize is returned to the ground before any is consumed.

I have found that I can be both proud and saddened when an animal gives its life for my use.

Here in PA, a lot of jobs depend on the hunting activities. Deer is good food and oh, a bunch of other things...  I'm not meaning to sell you on hunting- if it is not for you I respect your choice to steward the earth in a different way very much.

What I AM meaning to do is represent deer as a path to appreciating the natural world around us.

Deer represent so many good things- they are not my totem animal (so far...) but they are wonderful herbalists- said to lead Native Americans to healing plants and as we can see, they are creative and frugal and good at blending in when needed.  Deer are swift, fertile and live efficiently- all qualities I admire and don't mind being reminded of!  Spiritually, they are harmonious and balanced and interact well with others.  They represent the rut in the Midsummer fertility festivals- that is where we get the term Stag Party!  A deer-like man adorned with an antler crown and possessing some of these qualities would be a good choice to end your chase and mate with at Beltane!

I don't live in the middle of nowhere, my area is solid suburbs. These deer live in 20 foot wide by 600 foot long strips between backyards, occasional empty acres in our town and the wooded areas along the highway.  PEOPLE have crowded them until they have been squiched into that space.  A lot of them don't make it under these circumstances, but I am grateful for the ones who show up and share themselves with us.
I will need to fortify our garden beds around my circle garden with a fence if I want to grown anything other than herbs, because These Gals used my garden as a salad bar last summer.  They even ate the hot peppers!
Garden raiders or not, I look forward to them every morning.

Deer need salad too!

Zambonie (@Zambonieknows) the feathered white Dachshund  takes a break from barking at deer to
practice a  little sympathetic magic.  Her belief in this position is very strong.
  "I can roll up in a ball and the deer will come lay here with me. Please stop typing and take my picture."

Read about other notions and pagan practices that begin with the letter D at the Pagan Blog Project.

C- Calendula Comfrey oil

Wikipedia

The best thing about herbal folk medicine is how well it works when you really need something for healing skin.  Comfrey speeds skin cell regeneration, reduces inflammation and speeds the healing of bruises and sprains.  No matter how much I pull up in my yard there's more spreading slowly around the edges.  Each spring it comes up with it's wonderful blue flower stalks, softening my heart again and keeping me from pulling most of it up.  It's the impulsive kid in my garden with the charming smile that makes me forget how frustrating it was.

Nutritionist-World.com

Its crinkly fuzzy leaves yield their goodness to oil with just a little encouragement, and mixed into a salve or lotion it works wonders for my own and my friends' minor skin health needs (as always with any illness- take the pledge: If my condition worsens or anything new develops, I will consult a doctor or hospital AND inform them of the herbal preparation I have been using).

I have used jewel weed and comfrey before to make salves especially for swollen rashes, stings and eczema.  I also try to keep a jar or two of comfrey and calendula oil on hand.  Calendula is another astonishing herbal ally: in addition to reducing gastric  inflammation as a tea it yields it's excellent healing properties to skin in a poultice, wash or oil-based skin soothers.

Solid healing salve scented with clove and citrus for the fellas.

Left to Right: goldenseal tincture, comfrey calendua oil, clary sage/geranium/lavender oil, anointing oil.

To make an oil infused with comfrey and calendula- pick the comfrey leaves early and rinse them of dirt in cool water.  Pat them dry and lay them out to wilt on a sheet or screen.  This will remove lots of the water from them and help keep water out of your oil later, where it can breed mold.

Fill a jar half with dried calendula petals and half with very wilted comfrey leaves.  Add almond or olive oil with a few tablespoons full of jojoba for preserving.





Cap with a sterile cap and let steep in sunlight for two weeks in warm weather, or place loosely capped in a pan of hot water just below simmering for 2 hours.  Strain through fine muslin set in a funnel; label with the date and use in 6 months to a year.  Add to salves 1-2 tablespoons per 4 ounces of other oils and wax ingredients.

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.

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End of the Garden Pickles

It's the time of year when we appreciate the bounty we have had and begin to glean the half grown squash and tomatoes and things. These wont get any bigger since the evenings are growing so cool, and that means pickles!
I usually make lots of dilly beans in the heat of summer but I have never tried fermented vegetables before. It turns out that the same bacteria that give us yogurty goodness also give us pickley goodness. I had no idea it was so easy:
1. 2 gallon glass crock (under 10 bucks from Walmart)
2. About 4lbs of small garden vegetables, washed and blossom ends removed.
3. 1 onion, sliced, 1 head of garlic, peeled, 2 seed heads of dill, intact.
4. 1 gallon of boiled water with 3/4c off kosher or pickling salt dissolved in it.
5. Grape leaves. Mine are wild in the backyard. 10 is plenty. These add crispness from tannic acid. You could use 1 tsp black tea if you have no grape leaves, but the pickles may be tea stained by that.
6. Big jar full of water. Small plate or plastic lid.

This is by far the prettiest thing I've made lately.

Wash crock and big jar and plate with hot soapy water and sanitize by pouring a kettle of boiling water over it. Place cover on crock and let steam 5 minutes.
Pack layer of grape leaf, onion rings, garlic chunks and vegetables, until jar is full 1 inch from top. End with grape leaf layer.
Place plate or plastic lid into the mouth of the crock, as big as will fit. This is called the follower and it keeps everything below the brine. Vegetables are whole. I used peppers, green zebra tomatoes, zucchini and pattypan squashes. Cukes, radishes and garlic scapes would all work great.
Put the crock into the sink.
Put the big jar on top of the follower, fill it with water so it will hold down your pickles.
Pour the still warm gallon of brine over everything until the crock is full to the top edge. It will overflow into the sink.
Now carefully put the crock on the counter at room temperature. In 2 days you will see bubbles. You may want to put it in a pan because it may overflow a little bit as the pickles age. Taste daily day 3-7. When you like the taste, remove the big jar and place the crock with its lid into the fridge!
You made pickles!
The fermenting stops in the cold fridge, you have a month or so to enjoy your pickles.
These should be ready on the Equinox for our meal. Next I want to try making sauerkraut.