i made some elderberry syrup. i used this recipe for the most part. i used dried elderberries, so i let it simmer for a couple hours. it smelled so good in the house. mmmm. magic. witchy. it tastes so so SO good with the spices and honey. yikes. too bad i didn't add a little alcohol. i could sip it like a desert wine at night. it is so yummy and deep and full of magic. i'm pretty sure the elderberry plant is one of the most magical of plants. something a little eerie happened while i was brewing this up. a ghost was for sure in the house. a sweet ghost i'm assuming. that's me telling myself to not look down, basically. but if i need to clear the house of something not nice and friendly, i surely will. but this one was funny. messing with me. like a rascally fairy. i need those to keep me fresh and alert and clued into the important stuff. namely, being silly and looking for any opportunity to be silly. that will be goal, mantra, quest, for october. silly october. ha. ending with a great shabang on halloween. perfect.

so this photo below is totally silly. i want to remind myself that sometimes i really do cook. i make stuff from scratch in the kitchen. i do. sometimes. here, i can remind myself that i made homemade chicken stock, my first time. i bought a whole chicken. i can't kill my own. not sure if i will do that in this lifetime. i will if i have to, but i don't right now, so i'm not sure if that will happen. if i read animal vegetable miracle, will it make me feel like i must? i haven't read that yet.....we are currently, and have been for some time actually, reading books like the china study, and thinking a lot about getting further and further away from animal proteins in our diets. we started watching this forks over knives documentary the other night too. geez. how convincing are these researchers?

anyhoo, i made chicken stock, and then chicken soup. that was huge. we have an apple cobbler in there, that the girls made at the preschool's little harvest festival. and then i have my elderberry syrup. oh, and a jar of the nourishing traditions' fennel leek potato soup that i made too. (could nourishing traditions and the china study be more opposed?) what a predicament i am in. no. just a place of research and choice. and trial and error. and someone please just tell me the god damn answer!) i made it so so garlicky. we were needing some protection. i felt.



so. i'm sitting at the trident. the people next to me just leaned over their table and kissed. i was okay with that. completely. until i started hearing these squishy wet sounds from it. uuuuuuuuuugh. just a reminder that that is gross people. in public, only dry kisses please. ok? am i being an old fuddy dudd? whatever. i was playing around cleaning up some houseplants and freshening up some, starting some new ones from cuttings. this one turned into a little fairy superhero garden. love that. bridging worlds is a passion.


hi.

how's it going?

i hope it's well.

on this yellow october 1st.

i ate too many cookies.

he is really that cool.

that is from my bath the other day.

ha!

i was so so dirty.

no. i took a clay bath on purpose. i bought this amazing clay from wyoming. called pascalite. its healing properties have me spinning. i've eaten it, bathed in it, been rubbing on david's sore feet at night for him to sleep with, feeding it to plants, did a hair wash, and used it to clear spaces. neat. david's feet are feeling better. so far. he's hiking now.....that's improvement. i'm not sure what happened to his feet, they just got sore or something. we're always working on something. aren't you? we are anyways.

this article about how amorous we humans are for our apple products in the ny times cracked me up today.

so. to the thoughts.

do we do our best? maybe i want to speak for myself. do i do my best? do i look for art in every possible moment? does it save my life when i find it? or when i make it? what is more fun, finding it or making it? whatever. i am working on making myself an altar at home. i need a space, for my sacred work to be symbolized, for me to see, and be reminded of. to come back to again and again. to freshen and change up as needed. to clean and meditate with. to use as a tool to get closer to what is important to me. i will put something on it to remind me of my mantra for this month. something really silly. what is the silliest thing i could put on my altar? maybe some jokes. i need to start telling my kids jokes. my dad used to have jokes up his sleeves at all times. they would have loved that about him. i will try and carry that part of my paternal line on. my dad's dad was the same way. i remember pawpaw loving jokes so much. telling them, and getting my mawmaw to laugh in a way no one else, except my dad, could. she loved their jokes, even though they were sometimes a little, ummmmm, raunchy? she was a good sport. a prim and proper good sport. mmm mmmm. such a good role model for me. with little girls under foot, i am striving to keep an air of properness, and at the same time, an air of silly messiness.

mess. mess. mess. i have a friend who named her shadow, in a shadow workshop, as in shadow of the psyche, we did, missy, because her shadow was so messy. that always cracks me up. such a fun way to embrace that negative aspect of her messiness. finding creative ways to love the shadows we've got running around fucking things up, is a good thing to do. i recently dreamt about that friend three nights in a row. i called her after the third night. we hadn't talked in too long. i love that my subconscious made call that happen. LOVE that. here's to being guided more by the wisdom in the magical underworlds of our psyches. love. and to october.

oh. and here's a GREAT song to leave you with, as you go on, on your own journey into october.