Today is the first day of my Week of the Dead.......the week before Samhain.  I have my candle lit in honor of all the plants who have given their lives to bring food and comfort to me.  I think the Lady and the Lord for the bounty of the vegetables and grain that I love so much, for the paper that comes from the Standing People and gives me wonderful books to read.  I am thankful for the shade and the flowers and the herbs for medicine and pleasure.  Without death, there can not be life.  My thanks to all plant beings who have given their lives to provide for me.

 

Well, I am excited.  Tomorrow is my annual rock show at the elementary school.  As usual I have a huge selection of rocks to take with me and so much information that my head is spinning.  LOL.  It all started about three years ago.  I am a volunteer in the Ohio Reads program and that year, when I finished helping the child I was working with and took him back to class, they were in the middle of a science project with rocks.  I started talking and answering questions and the teacher invited me back to do a 15 minute presentation the next week.  I've been doing it ever since. I now do all four third grades and we have a blast.  This year, I am taking over the whole library for two hours.  I love to watch the faces on the little kids as they pick up all the strange rocks I bring and I love to answer their questions.  They are so enthusiastic and happy to learn it makes me feel good.  Who knows what future rock hounds I might inspire?   Well, enough about rocks and stones........I need to get to bed early so I can be there early.

 

 

Sunday, we took a family outing to the library book sale and I bought four boxes of books for a whole dollar!  I picked out this book to start reading called The Merlin at St. Gillies Well.  I confess I only picked it up because it had the word Merlin in the title cause I am a sucker for any twist in the Arthurian legends.  I had never heard of the author, so I was hoping to find someone new to read.

Anyhow, I started the book and really like it.  It's not about Merlin and Arthur at all, but about the time of Joan of Arc and is part one of a trilogy about her life and times.  The author is well versed in druidic lore (as far as I can tell) and probably a pagan.  She presents the people influencing Joan as pagans, practioners of the old ways and Joan as the sacrifice for the land.  I have to admit, this is something I never thought of.  Because I always heard of her as St. Jeanne d'Arc......I assumed she was a Christian martyr and didn't bother to learn much about her at all.  Anyhow, now I have to check at the library and see if they have the other two books in the trilogy.  I am hooked. 

I lost a good friend today.  He was a small black cat with a big loving heart and boundless curiosity.  He was half monkey, half cat and a foolish little guy who slept on my lap when I knitted, perched on my chair when I was on the computer, made noises with his toys when I was trying to record a podcast and a mighty hunter who attacked my pant legs about a hundred times a day.  He slept under the covers at night and woke me up in the morning by nuzzling my ear and purring.  He ran out of nowhere, probably running to greet me when I came home from work and got struck by a car passing by.  I'll miss him a lot, my Spooky little guy.

Does anyone know much about dogs......animal magics.......training?  I have a dog, half Lab, half pit bull, a year old female, spayed.  She is driving me NUTS!  I am ready to turn her into a TOAD!  She eats everything but most disturbing, she eats all my books and videos.  She will climb into the book case and drag out books that I think are out of her reach.  I buy her toys.  I buy her bones.  I give her empty peanut butter jars which she loves.  I have to pay for over 70 dollars worth of library books this week because she jumped up to the shelf where I had them in a bag, dragged them out of the bag and destroyed them!   I know labs are late bloomers and stay adolexcent longer than most dogs, but she is out of control!  She is not a stupid dog.  The minute I come in the door from work, I do not have to say one word.  I look at her and she runs and hids.  She knows this is wrong.  Any suggestions?