50 years ago today

when everyone was getting ready to celebrate the end of 1957, my poor mum had a back pain and was walking the hall way.... ready to give birth to her first child who was one week late... actually due on December 25 1957... that was me.
The ambulance was called when the pains became stronger and the ambulance officers suggested that they take her to hospital because New years eve is always busy for them, so off she went to Denistone House - Ryde Eastwood Hospital, not far from the city of Sydney.. and was welcomed by Dr. Keller and Sister Richmond who eagerly told her to try to hold off giving birth until midnight so that she would have the first baby born in 1958..... there was one other woman in a hospital not far away who was in labour as well. As 1958 rolled in, there was a flurry of activity.. 'come on, push she was told'.. (I can just imagine how impressed she was with this)... but like all babies, I came when I was ready... 5 hours later... yes, at 5am on January 1st, 1958, I came into the world (again). And the other woman? She gave birth to a baby boy a 4:57am - 3 mins earlier than my mum!!! beaten by a male. ha!

TOMORROW, this little girl turns 50!!

I am wishing you a wonderful New years Eve, wherever you are. And a peaceful 2008 .... I for one am not sorry to see the end of 2007 - losing Daisy has been hard and I want to put the year behind me...

please don't forget to join the faery party during January... the portal is opening tonight.. there are lots of fun things happening... see my previous post where you can sign up and choose a faery name!

the invitation to faery land continues..

I am taking a day or two away from my blog, not sure what is happening to me but I am really travelling on an inner journey right now.. - but I wanted to remind you all of my faery party that is happening all through January! .... thankyou to all of you who want to come and play, it will be fun! Your invitation will be emailed on December 31st... & there is still time to join if you already haven't. Please let your friends know about it, because I believe that we can all use magick in our lives and all are welcome to join in... I hope to come by your blogs and visit over the next few days xo
an invitation to Faery Land..the portal will open on January 1st 2008 ...
A sprinkling of faery magick to bestow upon you,
a faery name ~ tap your wand here on the faery glitter:



and be taken away to the Land of magickal Faery names....

once you have your name, let me know (either here in a comment or by email) & you will be given a key to the portal so that you may enter the Land of Mystic & Magick, and you may attend a faery party in honour of Misty-Dawn Silvery Spice, to celebrate her being in human form for 50 years as Miss*R ..... oh and you will need a faery costume of course!...

faery dolls and a wardrobe: belles of the ball ~ use these if you wish.

or design your own

OR let your inner child shine and don real faery wings for the day......

faery bread will be served ~ all washed down with Raspberry & Lovage cordial.. there will be little gift-aways throughout the month of January and lots of magick and fun things to do.... won't you join us?

a magick Litha, a blessed Yule and a Merry Christmas

to each of you, my friends across the Earth, whatever you celebrate ~ I wish you magick, much love and many blessings .....

my little faery corner full of light.... please don't forget to read the previous post and join in the fun.... On December 31st, invitatons will be sent out to those of you who tell me your faery name... of course, I will need your email address to invite you, so email me !!!

It has been madness in my life these past few days... I now have a rash all over my neck.. It seems to me that I am being told to do something about this throat chakra of mine! I sent half of my Christmas cards, the other half remain on my art room floor and parcels still have to be sent... I am way behind in commenting on blogs.... but in 24 hours or so, the silly season will be over for yet another year.. and life can get back to peace & still- ness and I for one, cannot wait..
kisses and hugs from me to you xoxo

Midsummer and an invitation to faery land.....

An Invocation for Summer

Fireflies and Summer Sun,
in circles round we become as one.
Singing songs at magic's hour
we bring the winds and timeless power.
Turning inward, hand to hand
we dance the hearth to heal our land.
Standing sacred beneath the Sky
We catch the fire from out it's eye
swaying breathless beside the sea
we call the Goddess, so Mote it be!
(Patricia Telesco)

Anciently, pagans and witches hallowed Midsummer. Some burned for their right to observe their rites; we need not. But we can remember the past. In solidarity with those burned, we can collect our herbs at midnight; we can burn our bonfires and hail the sun.

Midsummer has dawned here in Woodford, as a grey drizzling day. Midsummer is a time for rededication, healing, purification. I have decided not to attend my Midsummer ritual circle tonight as the cold air has been playing havoc with my chest & lungs... so instead, I will sit tonight with a candle and write my list of manifestation for the next 6 months ~ Put the wishes & dreams that live in your heart into motion & begin doing instead of just dreaming
..I have some spells and chants that I am going to do in my sacred space, under my pine tree where the faeries live and tonight I am going to colour in a faery picture because "Summer is the time to reward your inner child"

Midsummer is a time of pure magick, the night when Faeries come out to play! Here is an invitation to Faery Land..the portal will open on January 1st 2008 ...
A sprinkling of faery magick to bestow upon you,
a faery name ~ tap your wand here on the faery glitter:



and be taken away to the Land of magickal Faery names....

once you have your name let me know (either here in a comment or by email) & you will be given a key to the portal so that you may enter the Land of Mystic & Magick, and you may attend a faery party in honour of Misty-Dawn Silvery Spice, to celebrate her being in human form for 50 years as Miss*R ..... oh and you will need a faery costume of course!...

faery dolls and a wardrobe: belles of the ball ~ use these if you wish.

or design your own

OR let your inner child shine and don real faery wings for the day......

faery bread will be served ~ all washed down with Raspberry & Lovage cordial.. there will be little gift-aways throughout the month of January and lots of magick and fun things to do.... won't you join us?

not alot to say

can you believe it? I don't have alot to say..
the Full Moon is coming up and I am not sleeping.. I woke early this morning to this:

a thick blanket of fog over Woodford..... middle of December. Not quite normal but is anything really normal anymore? Can we rely on the seasons being as they should be?.... so we learn to take each day as it comes.... seems Mother Nature is wise in teaching us this lesson.

on days like this, something ancient, stirs in my soul... a memory that makes me feel very close to Spirit. That makes me happy & joyful.... my soul actually melts in the heat and humidity of summer.. so I am very grateful that I do experience misty cold days quite often, living in the mountains.

Remember a few days ago, when I told about Australian Christmas bells? Gorgeous flowers that bloom at this time of year?..... well, the other day, I took myself for walk down the end of my road... past Eric's home, past Marion's home.. to the dirt track where the tiger snakes live... I faced my fears of dogs biting my ankles so that I could take photos, to show you just how gorgeous these plants are. They are not prolific.... just a few here or there and it is illegal to pick them from the National Park but it is ok to pick them if you own the land.

each plant produces only one stem per year. When I was little my Uncle owned quite alot of bushland and we always had a bunch of these on our table at Christmas time - perfect, don't you think?

tomorrow, I am going to pick a huge bunch of white agapanthus from the vacant block up the road and then I will go down to Marions to pick a large bunch of hydrangea flowers to decorate my home for Christmas. I am off early tomorrow to buy the special treats for Christmas day - the cashew and macadamia nuts, the licorice allsorts & the other treats that my family love.

but I am wondering about .... when so many people are celebrating the birth of Jesus who was supposed to be LOVE incarnate ..... why is it at this time of year that many people suffer broken hearts & lonliness? why do so many people rush around buying gifts for Christmas.. spending money that they don't really have... to give to others who don't really need anything but love.... when most of them (and I don't say this in a judgemental way) don't believe what the whole season is really about. I admit, that I don't believe that Jesus is my saviour... that is a hard thing to say on this blog... I could be hunted down again..... but I do believe that Jesus existed and was a loving soul... I don't even know if I am explaining what I really want to say here.

why is it at this time of Love and Peace that so many need counselling more than any other time of year?

It just saddens my heart to know that some of my friends are hurting right now and I want to hug them and make them better ~ if you are one who is hurting - grab my hand, I won't let go... all we need is LOVE and I am giving it from my heart to yours xoxo

busy as a midsummers bee.

each year at this time, I become a demented desperate housewife - not like the housewives on the TV fame but a truly desperate housewife, trying to get my home spic n span so that when my family visit, they cannot find a thing wrong with my home. Why do I do it ? I don't know. It is not like my mother is perfect in her home... but I need to get my laundry 100% done and the laundry room shining like a new star in the sky.. so that when they go into the laundry (and I never know why they need to do that) they can't say 'your laundry is just like Nana's' (Nana was known for a completely messy laundry and she was happy!)
My fridge will be cleaned out and scrubbed, the growing penicillin will be tossed away, my stove and oven will be scrubbed within an inch of my poor fingers lives, the pantry will be cleaned out.. food past it's used by date will be tossed and even the tupperware shelf right up the top will be wiped clean and organised within an 'nth of its life. The pillows in the lounge will be plumped up and woe betide anyone who 'plumps them down'. Skirting boards will be wiped down, verandah tidied, lawns mowed and gardens weeded. I will be absolutely exhausted by the time christmas day comes...

and I will drink champagne and eggnog laced with plenty of brandy, to cope! Laughing hysterically, becoming someone I am not..... all this to cope with family. I remember my dad (when he was alive, bless him), saying once, when he found me scrubbing dementedly - 'good god, girl what the hell are you doing?' - Dad, I don't know.

'two turtle doves?' & a bah humbug 'christmas' tree

earlier this week, I was just about to walk out the door to drive my grandson Thomas to school, when two birds flew onto my deck and sat looking at me for quite awhile... I immediately thought of 'two turtle doves' but no, they weren't turtle doves they were brown cuckoo doves... a gorgeous pair of copper coloured birds come to say hello to me.

I am feeling much better although the cough is still hanging around. I was talking to a friend yesterday who has had the same thing for 3 months, apparently it is just a thing that won't go away for months. I think I might take up smoking so at least I have an excuse for constantly coughing (of course this is tongue in cheek)

ok, ok.. I 'must' have a christmas tree because that is what we do here at this time or year. For years I have gone out and bought a real pine tree from our local fire brigade or Lions club but this year, I refuse to do that. I refuse to have a huge tree in my loungeroom, having to vacuum all the needles that constantly drop, watering it trying to keep it alive in summer heat... so I decided to do my own thing.. a live tree, I thought. Joe and I trotted off last weekend to a nursery to find something suitable. At first I thought of buying a frangipani.. these are out in flower at the moment and are truly a summer type plant, but they won't live indoors for too long.. then I thought of the Wollomi pine, an ancient tree that was discovered a few years ago, deep in a hidden valley not far from where I live.. it is from the dinosaur age and has survived millions of years.. it has been cultivated and is now being sold in nurseries. However the biggest one was only about 14 ins high and a cost of $100.. I just could not bring myself to buy one. So we left empty handed. Well, not quite empty handed I bought 3 Echeverias to decorate my table on christmas day... will show them later.

While in the local hardware store yesterday, I spotted some palms and even though I am not a lover of these plants.. they are a summery kind of thing.. so I bought one for $10.. an odd choice I know but with a vintage sari wrapped around the base, some personalised baubles, a few lights and some vintage birds hiding in the branches or fronds.. it does the trick, I think. And after the silly season has gone as quickly as it comes... I can put the palm out on my deck.

it's trying to look a bit like christmas. . .

to start off with, I have decided to have a different kind of door wreath this year. Instead of the traditional 'faux pine' with apples & pine cones that I have had for nearly 20 years, I have chosen a live wreath made from native eucalypts. On Sunday, Joe and I went for a ride across the mountain, to Bilpin, the land of the mountain apples. To a gorgeous little barn called the Turpentine Tree, which is owned by a man who creates the most wonderful floral arrangements. He has wreaths made from gumnuts, from Banksias and from all kinds of native flowers as well as hydrangeas, lavender & roses.

I chose a beautiful wreath which he wrapped up all nice and tight in brown paper & string, so that I could transport it home on the bike. A feat in itself. It wouldn't fit in the saddle bags so I had to hold it in front of me while we rode back home over the mountain. The wreath is plain, no decoration which is how I wanted it, well it actually had a big red bow on it but I took it off. We also hung faery lights across our verandah, which twinkle sweetly in the dark... perfect for midsummer when my faery friends will be out having a lovely time

Julie has shown us some of her vintage christmas decorations and even though I am not using all mine to decorate my home this year, I thought I would take a photo of mine.. they are a motley lot.. some moth bitten, some looking every bit of their age, but I love them. They are kept in my storeroom in an old suitcase that I bought them in many years ago at Boorawa, in country New South Wales.

Litha (midsummer) & Christmas all mixed into one.. Australian style

so, to blend two entirely different celebrations what do I do or more to the point what can I do to make my very own wheel of the year?... first of all some thoughts on what this time of year is to me.... it is a time of the violet of agapanthus blooms together with the red of Australian Christmas bush... the time of Australian Christmas bells blooming in our bushland.... it is the time of heat, the time of fresh tropical fruits.... pineapple, rockmelon, passionfruit, nectarines and peaches

(I am the little girl in the red 'cozzie' with my back to the camera)

the time of a summer fruit smell that instantly takes me back to Christmas in the backyard with Nanna and Pa... a time when we wore our cozzies as we unwrapped our presents.... it is a time when I struggle with a pine tree .. decorating it with gorgeous bits that just don't seem right, because they are covered in snow... it is a time when all I hear is Bing singing 'let it snow, let it snow, let it snow'... when I know there is not a hope in hell that it will.. well not here anyhow.... it is a time of the gardenia in my garden, of salads and seafood, iced coffee and champagne (not together of course), frappes and iceblocks..... it is a time when I feel something stirring deep inside.... and I still cannot put my finger on it... it is a time when I want to light candles, a time when I want to hug everyone, a time that makes me cry... it is a time when fat men walk around in red santa suits, ringing bells and yelling 'ho, ho, ho' this all being done on hot days sometimes up to 40degrees celsius.... it is sitting out on my deck on christmas day.. eating a variety of fresh organic salads, seafood and the finest lamb... enjoying the moment, where somewhere deep in my soul memory.. I know that christmas time really should be in winter.... and it should really be called Yule.

stay tuned during December to see what I come up with for my very own celebration... could it be called Lithmas or chrislith?

Mother Nature is as confused as I am

is it any wonder that I am sick? with the weather the way it is.. it has been raining here for nearly three weeks.. or more. I am not complaining, mind you Our dams have gone from 38% capacity to over 60%!Temperature around 25C (80F)... then a sunny day that reaches in the mid 30'sC (90F).... then rain again but this time with fog where you can't see in front of you and temps dropping down to 5C (40F) - with me running for my cardigan and warm socks. The electrical storms have been absolutely amazing... sitting at the Three Sisters while Mother Nature puts on a lightning show .. an extraordinary sight.

The other day I had to drive to Leura to buy myself some herbal drops and it was eerie... the fog was so thick, I could hardly see a few feet in front of me... at this rate, I reckon I just may have a White midsummer !
I am feeling alot better today.. I slept all night without pain... thanks to copious amounts of garlic and other wonderful things (as well as the dreadful chemicals that I had to take). I have also been looked after by my nature friends... the other day, on the day my illness peaked.. I was sitting in my big pink chair feeling sorry for myself and just as I was looking out the window at the rain.. a little humming bird fluttered for a moment before flying off into the magnolia tree.... the humming bird is the totem animal for the throat chakra. a co-incidence? synchronicity? or just something that happened in the web of life?

my garden is OUT OF CONTROL! I haven't been able to get out into it for weeks due to the rain... of course, this rain means blackspot for my roses.. my potatoes have probably rotted in the ground and the snails have wreaked havoc on the rest of my vegies that I had planted. So I hereby give up trying to grow vegetables until next year. It is too late to be trying to start new summer cropping vegetables now. I hate snails, I really do. but then I wonder if I am hypocritical about animal welfare... I know that snails are living creatures .... is it ok to kill them? that sounds dreadful.. the word kill....... I need to think long and hard at this snail dilemma. The Buddhist monk across the road won't even walk on grass incase he treads on a living creature... I wonder what he would do if snails were desecrating his vegetable garden. But if I don't cull the snail population, I will have nothing left in my garden.
sometimes, I think I worry too much. Or maybe it is just all the chemicals I have taken over the past few days playing havoc with my mind.

miss Polly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick

just quickly as I am not supposed to be on the computer... but bed is beginning to become boring...
after wishing i was dead yesterday because i was in so much pain... Joe took me to the Drs again and my cough has progressed to strep throat as well as inflamed ear-drums.. so antibiotics have been prescribed... rest & lots water as well.. so wont' be visiting blogs for a few days.
damn, damn, damn... I hate being ill, but I am beginning to think that this maybe the Angels way of getting me to slow down.

a sick girl is me.....

I am sick. really sick. I have had this chest complaint thing that is going around at the moment - and I cannot shift it, it goes and comes back....and I feel absolutely awful. The Dr can't do much, just the normal throat lozenges and gargle with some kind of chemical that I am sure they use to strip paint..... and you know what I am like with chemical substances !.. Sometimes, it feels like I am being strangled, othertimes it feels like I am being stabbed in the throat and I can't breathe... throat chakra stuff it seems. I am taking everything that I possibly can to help but I think this needs some heavy energy work done on it. so I am taking time of again from posting here.... I will be visiting still though... please, please surround me in BLUE to help me heal

breaking point ~ bah humbug

I am back... sometimes, I've just got to take a day or two away. to let things settle in my soul. And that is what I have been doing... letting a few thoughts and feelings settle into where they belong
last Wednesday, the day I took my 'break', I finally lost it....- I had been to the Plaza to buy some wrapping paper for Christmas and the few gifts that I had to buy and I was in the $2 shop with a million other people. Damn carols tingling in the loudspeaker - telling us 'it is beginning to look alot like christmas'.. people with faces that were either red from frustration or angry from just having to be there. Stupid santa hats jumbled up with rudolph noses that blink oddly from under a pair of bent, felt antlers, cards covered with snow... fake snow in spray cans.. on and on it went. The final straw was when I had to carry the tubes of wrapping paper and they were hitting everything in my wake... and I just lost it. I thought I had protected myself very well from other peoples energies but apparently not. While other people were having the religious experience of what is commonly known as christmas shopping, I snapped. I felt drained, I felt ill.

I yelled at my husband and blamed him... and I just got into the car and came home. with, well, not much at all except for a headache and a deep brooding sadness.
at this time of year, I get even more confused than I am usually - my human Self knows that it is summer solstice/midsummer/litha but I am being told by the media that it is Yule-time. I am supposed to hang a yule-tide wreath on my door. I am supposed to decorate my tree with snow covered cottages. I am supposed to be all fuzzy and loving towards my fellow man.

after a cry in my Sacred space, feeling totally alone, I got to thinking again... I believe that the Southern Hemisphere astrological signs are wrong.. they should be reversed.. I am not sure if I am correct in thinking this and I am going to ask someone... but it makes sense... Capricorn is a winter sign, but not down here... it is a summer sign.... but if I were born in the Northern Hemisphere, I would have been a winter baby, which sits very well with my soul, thankyou very much.

today begins the silly season... we are off to our first of many 'christmas' parties... where I have to get dressed up in fancy dress, leather and lace theme and take a gift worth no more than $5... and will receive something in return that is worth no more than $5..... god help me. I will probably drink way too much champagne and feel as bad as I did last weekend...I cannot wait til December 22 where I will attend a Summer Solstice circle..

so welcome December, where somewhere it truly is beginning to look alot like Yuletide....