Wacky cake,

My mom used to make wacky cake all the time. She called me up a few days ago and was talking about how she had made it recently. I haven't made a cake, with frosting in AGES. It was oddly satisfying to make.

The ancestors have gotten their piece, along with copious amounts of coffee - their first offering request. I gave up coffee a while ago, so I purchased a small french press for offering purposes and to have an odd cup myself. I do miss the taste.

Quite pleased with how it turned out. I like the recipe, because it gets better a few days old and is pretty resilient. It was easy to ice and didn't crumb up too much after chilling it. I might add beets next time. A restaurant I used to work at made their devils food cake with beets, something I had never heard of before - makes it earthy and deepens the chocolate flavor. I sort of wish I had a torch on hand to gloss up the frosting for photos!

Starting with the moon,

I fine tuned my normal calender into lunar based months just a few nights ago. As it unfolded, it just made sense to me, like a smack up side the head ("where have you been?!"). I've been looking to establish routine and a system, or schedule if you will for ages, and finally, finally something I think will work for me.

Right off the bat? A formal Hekate's Deipnon. I've done a similar sort of supper for her before. Crossroads offerings - baking of a saffron honey cake in her honor, dandelion root tea and garlic cloves left at a handy spot I found along the nature trail that runs by our house.

(saffron honey cake, it is a variation of the recipe found in Hekate: Key to the crossroads. It's a vegan cake base and then made unvegan with the lemon and honey glaze poured over it)

I'll be creating a shrine to Hestia tonight, I have a decent sized ledge that hangs right over my stove that'll be perfect. This is something that I've actually been wanting to do for a while. And a few particularly perfect shrine items fell into my lap the past few days, giving me the nudge to get it done.

I get the nagging feeling that it is high time to put the books down and get the hands dirty. Or maybe that is just cabin fever? The rains are so persistent and I feel house bound! (I really need some going-out-in-rain gear) All I want is to sit in my backyard with plant friends and bask in the sun.

Which reminds me! I have datura seedlings, opium poppy seedlings (both doing particularly well) and newly sprouted henbane seedlings. The non poisons are currently all edible solanaceae: eggplants (ping tung, little fingers) tomatoes (black cherry, silvery fir tree) and peppers (Ozark giants, Bulgarian carrot, Italian bull horn, and another hot variety - cant remember the name). They're doing pretty good, they seem content under the grow light. I'll need to transplant them soon though.

The days are noticeably longer I know, I just want the sun to touch my chilly bones. Mmm, mid-summer.

Milking the non-dairy cow,

Made my hazelnut milk. I could not find my blasted nut milk bag. So I just used cheese cloth and double strained it. Turned out rather nice. Kind of "green" tasting, but good nontheless.

Gunna get my bake on. Busted out my old culinary school baking book, totally forgot what a treasure trove that book is!

Its also bright and sunny here today, very windy though. Another long, cold, wet spring? Argh I hope not! Last year was bad.

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.