A Gaggle o' Recipes

Well there is certainly a lot going on tomorrow (August 1st)!

First, there is a solar eclipse happening, which can only be viewed by those in Nunavut, Greenland, China, Russia, and Mongolia. There will also be a new moon tomorrow, which for many magical practitioners is a time for reflection, gaining clarity, and banishment work.

For Wiccans and other Pagans August 1st is the sabbat of Lammas, which is a celebration of the first harvest. For those who follow Irish traditions, the holiday is called Lugnasadh, which is often celebrated in honour of Lugh; others would argue that the holy day of funeral feasting and games was actually held by Lugh in honour of his foster mother Tailtiu .

Either way, it is certainly a day for eating! It's a great time of year to get food from your local producers too *winks* For those who celebrate this day, here are a few links to nifty recipes that you might want to try out:

Squash Salsa

Potato, Artichoke, and Leek Soup

Lammas Bannock

Lammas Bread

Roasted Garlic Corn

Vegan Raspberry Shortcake with Blueberries

Lavender Cookies

And to wash that all down, might I suggest a yummy beverage from one of these awesome companies:

Church-Key

Caduceus and Merkin

Wychwood

Sláinte!

Laurel

Kick Ass Books About How to Grow Your Own Food

Readers Digest Organic Gardening for the 21st Century: A Complete Guide to Growing Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs, and Flowers by John Fedor

Compost (Rodale Organic Gardening Basics) by the Editors of Organic Gardening Magazine

Composting: An Easy Household Guide by Nicky Scott

You Grow Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening by Gayla Trail

Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway

Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew

The New Organic Grower: A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener by Eliot Coleman

Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long by Eliot Coleman

Successful Cold Climate Gardening by Lewis Hill

The New Self-Sufficient Gardener by John Seymour

Organic Gardener’s Composting by Steve Solomon

Places I Have Loved: Apathy or Stupidity?

I am so lucky to live in a place where there is still beautiful and naturalized spaces that have not been desecrated by the hand of man in the name of 'progress'. I was so lucky in fact, that the view from my balcony was approximately three acres of what I call brush-woods, that had reclaimed the land that used to be a drive-in movie theatre decades ago.

I used to spend countless hours out there wildcrafting, taking photos, doing rituals, or just walking to clear my head. But, no longer.

In a place that was once teeming with wild ones and greenery, was sold off to be mowed over by machinery and man. I watched the guy who had the 'honours' of carrying out this massacre, and he certainly looked like he loves his work.

While in what looked like a mini-tank with jaws, he indiscriminately ran over and pulled out trees, without so much as a thought for all the birds nesting (as it is the height of the season), or any of the other wild ones that dwelt there.

In between breaks he would go talk to the one of the land owners, and I sat on the balcony listening to their conversations. Every time, he would have his chest puffed out, he would do his macho swagger on over to the land owner and point out 'all of the shit he got out of the way' (his words); the land owner was visibly pleased and thought it 'looked great' (her words).

So, what one might ask, is all of this 'shit' being taken out of the way for? Why, luxury condos and a car dealership of course! That sure makes a whole lot of sense with the current state of things.

A bad business move on the owners' parts, which will probably have them go broke. I suppose it's obvious that I won't cry for them.

I thought I'd share a few photos that I took there, to show what once was.

Laurel

Tesseography: Wisdom in a Teapot

Tessography/Tesseomancy, or as it is more commonly known as, tealeaf reading, is an age-old form of divination. Some think that it originated in ancient Greece, and others in ancient China.

Once a very popular practice to gather insight, it has seemed to have sadly fallen by the wayside. I personally use various forms of divination, and tealeaf reading is one of my favourites.

Contrary to what many others would claim, I believe that anyone can do divination readings for themselves or others, if they are at least somewhat tapped into the intuition that we all have access to. Also contrary to what many others would claim, I believe that divination is to be used as a form of guidance, and none of the information that might come up in a reading is written in stone. You have the power to change your course at any time, and readings are there to gather wisdom, and to see potential outcomes.

So, why not try and give yourself, or someone else a tealeaf reading? It doesn’t require anything fancy, and most of us have tea around our homes. If your tea is in bags, rip it open, as the tea will need to be free to float around your teacup. If you do not have tea, you can always use coffee grounds.

If you want to get a little fancy *winks* you can use a corresponding herb for whatever the subject matter of the reading is. You could use motherwort for issues surrounding motherhood, or if there is issues with Mom; lemon balm can be used for love, and mint for travel. Just make sure that before you ingest any herbs, that they are safe for you/the querent at the time (example: you shouldn’t drink mint while pregnant and want to stay that way), and that they will not affect any medication that you might be on. For an excellent correspondence of herbs and their meanings check out this Enchanted Oak.

Traditionally it is the querent who drinks the tea, but if you are doing a reading for someone far away, you can always drink the tea yourself take a photo of the tealeaves for whoever you are doing the reading for once you are done drinking it.

Once you get all that figured out, go to a nice quiet place, and get comfortable. There are many different methods that people use to tap into their own intuitive voice, so use whatever works for you.

If the querent is with you, get them to drink the tea, focusing on whatever the topic is; if the reading is for you, or the querent is far away, then you do it.

Once the tea is finished you can either read the leaves in the cup (make sure there is a little liquid left over if you choose to do it this way), or you can dump the leaves on a flat surface and read them.

Pay attention to whatever symbols come up. Maybe you will get numbers, letters, a picture, or many. I really encourage people to interpret symbols for themselves, but if that is not your thing, or you get stuck, a great website with a list of symbols and their meanings to check out Tealeaf.ca.

Happy teatime!
Laurel

A Little Ray of Sunshine for the Overwhelmed

With the whole 'green craze' that we have been seeing in the mainstream for the last year or two, many more people are paying attention to the negative impact that we as a species have on the Earth.

It's sometimes really hard to live with on a day to day basis for those of us who believe that we need to take more action than just buying a hybrid car or rechargeable batteries.

For those who want to see what others are doing, or if you are like me and need to see that others aren't just carrying out 'business as usual' while our planet goes down the shitter, I highly recommend watching Peak Moment. It's updated every week, and right now they have 123 episodes, and best of all it's free (!!!). Check it out on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/peakmoment

Also check out their webby to learn more about the wonderful ladies behind the show:

http://www.peakmoment.tv/

Happy watching!

Laurel

Howdy!

I don’t have much of a history of blogging, so I am not really up to date on introduction ‘etiquette’ for these things.

The blurb on our header pretty much sums up what this blog is for and who we are. There are two of us: Aymi (who will introduce herself when she gets a chance), and myself, Laurel.

To kick off this baby, I thought I would post an awesome piece of art I came across on Waterhawk Creations. It's called Lord of the Dancing Sky. Isn't it luverly?