New friends and flower heads,

I finally got out today. Hubby told me I needed to get out of the house (I really did. I've been a total pill lately, poor guy, heh.) and do my thing, so I did.

Checked up on one of the first spots I went to when we moved out here. The trail into the woods hasn't been walked on in a long while (I hope it stays that way!) everything was quiet and had been freshly rained on. The air was thick and smelled of sun cured blackberries, faint pine, loam and green - I want to bottle it! I saw a red flash in the distance and immediately knew what I was looking at, a rowan! In the woods! Not in someones yard! Or a park! But the woods! The find was only too perfect. I was a bit afraid that I wouldn't be able to get to the tree due to the insanity that is Oregon brambles, but I made it. To top it off, there was a bit of a clearing around the base of the tree, I'm really hoping this trail area and/or the base of the rowan can be a place that I work at, if they're willing to have me that is. The rowan looks a bit sickly, only had two berry bunches (was a fairly decent size too). I'm hoping to either find or create a blessing charm, and lavish her/him (I don't know yet!) with regular checkups and my attention.

I set out for what I was really after, yarrow flowers. There is a near by "protected by voters" nature area. Consists of an abandon bum camp and quite a large meadow and the creek runs along it. Yarrow was everywhere. Collected about a dozen or so heads. It'll be accompanying my dandelion root tea.

Left a peppermint honey offering at the nearby crossroads and made my way home. Spotted this little fellow though, singing quite a loud song for his tiny size! He was nice enough to let me get close and take his pictures before he took off.

I should not be doing this right now, very random:

I really need to be working, not blogging. The urge is taking me over.

Many of my quick posts have been on tumblr. Its more less a good quick dumping ground for dreams, and quick photos.

I've been busy as shit and worn, but good.

I was in a bit of an empty space for a little while. I wasn't feeling anything good. Drained, tired, headachy (for a week or two) and then I realized just about 20 minutes ago why I had been feeling that way: I made an offering to my surrounding forest recently (just moved out here, beginning to make acquaintances). It was well received I believe, cautious acceptance I think. A few days after the offering, I had been out to collect blackberries and yarrow I found, arranged almost too perfectly in a tunnel of grass right by my feet, a dead hare. Probably a few days dead. It was a gift and I didn't take it. I offended. I KNEW it. I knew it the moment I walked away from the little thing. I feel like a prick. Never again. Lesson learned.

I have lots of projects planned out. It is a matter of waiting for the right moon phase! I've been keeping TeuxDeux open in my browser at all times to keep notes on when I'd like to get projects done or started. I need organization, or I'll just forget everything, heh. Stoner memory here.

Dandelion root harvesting is the nearest project that I've got going on. Going to try it as part of a dream tea. Lots of the little buggers growing in the yard of course. I'll be weeding (they're in the future garden area) and making something useful at the same time, two birds, one stone!

Adorable little egg eh? It was a dud left in a nest that I happened to find sitting low in the raspberry bush. I had never noticed it before, the nest kind of seemed to come from nowhere, literally. I wasn't quite sure the nest was abandon, because I would often see a female bird hopping around in that general area. I left it for a few weeks and kept an eye on it, no mother bird. She would have been out there giving me a firm lecture if I had gotten close at all, and I never happened to see her. The egg was hollow, a small opening on the bottom, I assume from insects.

Also! I had a GREAT mail day a little while ago:

Goodies from Forest Grove and books I probably shouldn't have ordered because I have stacks I need to read my way though. Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits has jumped to the top of my list though!

Shy,

Earlier today:
I feel somewhat nervous going into the woods around here. Like I'll be unwelcome. Or that the unseen inhabitants will turn me away, or I'll unknowingly disrespect them. I'll take an offering, let them be aware of my intentions.

And then later, when I finally went out:
Tweeker camps. Figures. They weren't too bad, but it does make you feel a little uncomfortable being a lone young woman in the woods. Beer cans, toilet paper from where they wiped their ass, cans of chicken broth, fern bedding, extinguished camp fire, and the tree carving. Eventually I will head out there with a trash bag and clean it up. Still feeling my way around.

I left an offering next to the creek while I sat under a large red cedar. It was oatmeal and an apple, cut in half to reveal the small star on the inside, and the last bit of some of my favorite incense all together within the little circle of neatly arranged creek stones.

I tried to relax and listened to the little creek babble and waited, to see if I could receive any indication of acceptance or even a simple, "OK". It was questionable. Which I totally understand, I mean its like sitting in someones living room you've never even met before. Awkward silence. They (the land spirits, etc.) distrust humans, I think it goes without saying: I cannot blame them in the slightest. This felt confirmed by finding a wounded snake right beneath my bike when I had laid it in the grass to forage for berries. (NOTE: I had seriously thought I had hurt him, which wasn't the case thank fucking goodness. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a bird attack. One of his eyes were missing and there was multiple wounds on his body, poor poor little baby.) Later, I found a dead hare neatly arranged in a tall grass tunnel. I did want to collected the body and care for it properly, but I just simply don't have the means to begin doing so currently.

Blackberry picking commenced. I plan on bottling some up for Blackberry + cinnamon vodka (inspiration/idea via: Graveyard Dirt). Couple of wild raspberry bushes, but the berries were very small, I'll be harvesting my own next year anyway.

HAZELNUT TREES. I didn't even fucking know! Very, very special little trees! I know whats going on my ancestor altar this fall. Oh yes. Witchcraft Medicine has an excellent chunk on the magical uses of Hazelnut, very worth reading and I'm gunna have to re-read it now.




Finally got to use these little pans, I forgot the name of them. Personal cobblers. Topped them with vegan vanilla coffee creamer (we didn't have any ice cream).

Goodnight.