One Crow, Joy: A Good and Quiet Weekend

...this last one was...

When I started this blog I had not intended the whole focus to be Danny, his decline and eventual passing, but rather a place to share the animal stories, kitchen witchery, my Avalonian and Druidic studies, herbalism and more that define my life. I had posted on Mallow and White pine for all the Rupert years, but since I'm still so torn up about that, I felt I couldn't just keep on with it.I mean, I open that blog and just cry and cry.... moving there was huge, leaving was devastating, and this is a new life. So, a new blog, right? In addition to being Dan's Mom, I also have 5 cats, an irrepressible parrot, and Zeke, who was always Alex's dog but lives fulltime with me now (as does Alex) and whom I adore. I live in a magical little corner of an oak, beech and hemlock forest, in a HUGE house - I occupy the main floor, Alex has the second, one huge man cave, really - and all our stuff from Rupert, the third. There is no garage or basement so that's meant we have to put all the "stuff" - mostly, ahem, Alex's - somewhere. It's a smaller living space or me with just the one floor, but a much better one than the house in Rupert; still, my heart yearns for the old days endlessly. After three years I should have made peace, but I close my eyes and it's all there - every magical walk, every misty morning, every starry winter night. I feel that the house we are in now, which I call Owlhaven (you have to love a place with so many owls) is an intermediate space, between the magic of Rupert and what I hope and intend will be my own land and final home. There are so many aspects here to love, and I really do, so I decided to blog this part of the journey in this new blog.

But, you know, Dan has been getting older and facing more challenges, so every moment I can grab to write, really he is mostly what is on my mind.

So that's what I'm led to write about, but hope to also start talking about some of the plants that surround me, we really have a beautiful array of wild plants and fungi - and the trees! I do seriously miss the silver maple (I actually bought Silver Maple china plates in memoriam, although the leaves aren't really right, I needed some china and I'm so intensely sentimental) and above all, the balsam poplars,but those idiots who occupied my house cut them all down before I moved out - I will never forget the pain of that day, inside listening to these chortling imbeciles hack down the sacred trees I loved so much, helpless, - it was awful). So no poplars but a gorgeous array of sugar maple, red oak, beech, hemlock, smatterings of hop hornbeam, paper birch and elm. And although we had no birds at all the summer we moved in, save a couple raucous blue jays and one very enthusiastic peewee, we are now graced with so many - goldfinches, three types of woodpecker, chickadees, nuthatches, various warblers, a veery, a couple of thrushes, an ovenbird, loons, ravens and crows,and of course, the owls (mostly Barred, but also a Barn Owl makes an appearance as does a Great Horned, from time to time)

and the plants! For me, the essence of what is called "Witchcraft" (or the Magical Path, or Druidry) is knowledge - well, let''s say knowledge is one cornerstone of it. All the pretty pictures in the world don't make you a Witch, all the great finds on etsy - it's knowledge as a core element that bestows a right to those titles. And the topics we need to know are vast -in this case, knowing the names and magical properties as well as all the healing aspects of the plants around you is a huge part of the Earth Path. And, there are many familiar friends here - St.John's wort, raspberry, goldenrod, ox eye daisy, plantain, shepherd's purse, mullein, coltsfoot, several types of fern, yarrow, ground ivy and many more...but there is also a huge array of mushrooms - reishi, ghost pipe, amanita - avens, corydalis, lady's thumb- and and sumac everywhere, some new allies for whom I feel a deep connection and am adding much more to my Materia Medica about.

The soil here is not great, so we are building raised beds for my mallows, hyssop, monarda, motherwort, elecampane and betony, lavender and spearmint and more. But whereas Rupert was farmland encircled by smaller patches of woodland, Owlhaven is a cheerful cul de sac with more houses around it than I am used to, but backs onto deeper and wilder forest...whose mysteries I have been so thrilled to start penetrating. The journey has not taken me exactly where I had been aiming... but as the expression goes " If you want to make the gods laugh, tell them your plans". Right now, with so much turmoil in the world, and the challenges of my own life - my back, and Danny for two of the bigger ones - I am so blessed by this sacred space, this piece of true wildness - this sanctuary.

I hope to add more on the flora and fauna, as well as the spiritual energy of this place, in the months ahead.