Pagan Blog Project

I'm excited to participate in the Pagan Blog Project for 2013. I followed many of the posts last year and was inspired by reading the many different takes on our pagan practice. I envision most of the things I can contribute will be about how I practice my craft, things I do, make or see.
I have been doing this for a l-o-n-g time and have evolved. I learned very basic practices from a Wise Woman in the northern Appalachian Mountains where I grew up.  I gleaned from the "odd traditions" my Irish female relatives had and my children gleaned the same way from me- by observing how we celebrate (however, I explained things too).  Lots study and formality of rituals followed (and has its place), and while I retain some ritual formality, this circle has come around to the basic practices as I grow more confident and older.

I held back, hoping to acquire more skills and become better at working this blog- frankly, without a regular post I find myself avoiding the discomfort of possibly embarrassing myself. We all know how this goes.

It looks like the best way to develop better blogging skills is to plunge in and go ahead and be bad at the blogging technicalities. I'm ready to do it wrong, break rules and later find out they exist (like- always attribute pictures- I KNOW! I wouldn't lift things in my print life, I never even thought about grabbing a pic I had filed and using it without saying where I took it from. Duh. I have no idea where some of these pics started, but I should have). So, borrowed pictures: my first embarrassment and a big one. How bad could the next one be, right? If I let mistakes keep me from blogging this year I'm never going to do it.

If you are unfamiliar, this is the Project:  It is a week by week opportunity for me to share, for you to learn from me. Conversely  I get to learn from everyone else who participates and also to grow from the interaction in the PBP forum and from your comments. Please comment (I would have loved someone to send me a gentle reminder about the pictures... that could have been you).
The schedule for posting follows the calender and the alphabet. One each Friday as follows:

January 4 and 11, topics beginning with A: apples, astral travel, agrimony...
January 18 and 25, topics for B: Brigid, basil, baneful herbs, boxwood, Bast...
52 Posts over a year's time. Or a year and a day, I like to think.

You get the idea. Nearly 200 blogs all contribuiting to this complex topic- its the biggest Book of Shadows ever undertaken. learn more about it here: Pagan Blog Project details

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.

The rhythm of the year

Mabon and harvest time bring the wheel of the year around for me. I've never lost that "New school year" feeling and even though early September is still the height of harvesting herbs and yard work season here in overwarm Pennsylvania I feel the urge to go out and buy a backpack and some pencils.
So, while my goal for this season is to shed and simplify by culling things from the former stages of my life- what I appear to be doing instead is making big lists of tasks that are ADDED to the already busy canning, drying and reclaiming the wild backyard tasks.
This is not simplifying. I need a better method, or a timeline. Or a professional planner. Maybe a few pencils.

Lists have taken over my coffee time and caused my photos to be all tilty! 

On Colorado and Covers

This past week the news gave us all whiplash. The tragic events in Colorado cause me to question our mental health care support systems, relive some personal grieving and ache with the urge to comfort the hurt and the damaged. The best I can do is offer up spiritual support.  In doing so I know that I am doing a lot and that no matter what I do it will not feel like enough.

We can't let that stop us from offering our blessings, though.  To give in to the feeling of being overwhelmed is to spread the damage.  Instead, let us make our offerings, practice supporting others and know that when the damage is nearer, we will be that much more ready to support then.

It is only by giving more than we receive that we know the bounty of our Goddess.

In other news, I read about the campaign to join in and support those women who chose to take the veil.  These are not the women forced to cover by an oppressive society, but women who choose to cover their hair as a symbol of faith or thanks... or for reasons which are their own personal ones. because this link does not work as it did yesterday   http://coveredinlight.org  I include this address http://www.facebook.com/pages/Covered-in-Light-International-Day/444797368874444  to lead you to the Facebook page and see the beautiful group of proud women and their many supporters.

It isn't often that I hear about something so meaningful to me just as it happens, but the background of last week's insults to three different women wearing veils really struck me. As I was feeling helpless to support one group, I found a way to support another. As a woman who covers her hair for certain special events and as a woman in a liberated land, I am delighted to join with my sisters on September 21, 2012 and appear for the entire day wearing a hair cover of my own choice.

I was so proud when I mentioned this event at dinner to a friend on Saturday and without hesitation she replied "I'm in." before I even requested her support.

I am eager to put veils on the street and change the look of the world. I am eager for personal adornment to someday again be personal and not fodder for public judgement.

Blog share: The Secret Life of the American Working Witch: Moonday Musings: 13 Things About Me

What a refreshing post! I just read Moonday Musings at
http://mypaganworld.blogspot.com/2012/07/moonday-musings-13-things-about-me.html
Thoughts that run through my head and splash around on Monday mornings never seemed to be cohesive enough for public consumption. Here, though, Kallan shares just that and it streams right alongside my own! I might have to muse aloud here one day and see what I get!
Not only do I feel enriched, I feel like I'm not the only one with a river of thoughts. Thanks a bunch!

Mid summer herb gathering

Spring is the time for wild cherry
bark, good for throats.

First, the Blackthorn and Hawthorn bloom, and I know its time to get into gear.  Time to begin collecting paper bags, stocking up on oil and visiting my carpenter friends for fine sawdust.  Herb collection season is long but I get a thrill every year and I want to share it with you.

I collect herbs in the sense that I go out and gather or wildcraft them from safe, unsprayed places in my Eastern Pennsylvania area.  Since I travel to camp in the 18th Century style a few times a month I try to keep my eyes peeled for alight differences in plants on the roadsides. sometimes rocky or sweeter soil makes a big difference in what I can find and bring home. I also collect herbs in the other sense of collecting: if I can trade or buy some classic herbs from an area I try to get 4oz. I use all of the herbs for folklore, spiritual and medicinal purposes.

"I need a storage system for these herbs that is beautiful, functional and easy to reference"

I find that after years of practicing, I've got quite a collection of materials for making beauty and healing products as well as healing and food teas, tonics and simples.  In addition to a good collection season this summer is dedicated to finding some kind of organisation  method that is beautiful, functional and easy to reference.

You can follow along with my attempts at developing a system for all of it. So far, I can tell that a few of the things I've begun will not be the best way to keep going.  'Easy to reference' seems to be the biggest hurdle! 

A sneezing Dachshund is hilarious.

"A dog can get a tan, let me bask here and come back later, you'll see."

It's time to meet Zambonie. In our house, my husband likes to say that I bring "the Interesting" to our lives.  He especially likes to say that when I feel that my contributions by way of paycheck or housecleaning are not impressive enough.  "I bring the Paycheck, you bring the Interesting and I could never do that" is what I hear.  Totally reassuring. He is a keeper, that one.  

If I bring the Interesting, Zambonie brings the imagination and entertainment. She is never at a loss for ideas to stay busy and she will take time out for you no matter how many delicious Post-it Notes she has arranged on the floor.  If ever there is a perfect dog for me, Zambonie is it. How we got her and how much I disagree that my husband is mainly a paycheck are for other days.  Today, meet Zambonie, the piebald Dachshund. She has Spring allergies today and is mighty surprised about the sneezes.

"How can I type when those birds are landing all over our deck and ruining it for everyone!?