Happy Lammas!

Today marks the official crossquarter day of Lammas or Lughnasadh, when the Sun reaches 15 degrees Leo. It’s the first of three harvest festivals (Fall Equinox and Samhain/Halloween) —  and a good time to count your blessings. I’ve just had a full morning harvesting and tending the garden. I love this late Summer time of butterflies, bees, fresh tomatoes, cosmos and hummingbird mint. Here are some shots from today’s garden:

Robinhood roses in fragrant bloom

Casablanca lilies

hummingbird mint, orange zinnias and coreopsis

Garden Tower 2 with newly installed plant nannies

As lettuce went to seed, I converted some of those pockets to plant nannies with Pellegrino bottles filled with hose water. I’d wondered if this would cut down on my watering time, and indeed, it has! The lower pockets stay as moist as the upper ones, now, which means less frequent watering and happier plants.

So grateful for a very productive and flowering garden this year, for all the magical bird sightings in our yard, and for the new (free!) iPhone 11 with the huge camera upgrade. I’m still learning to resize photos so I don’t overwhelm my WordPress storage or slow down site loading too much. Meanwhile, between that and newly installed fiber optic lines to the house, it feels like a new Universe coming into being.

Blessed Be, and be the blessing!

Hair and Garden Update

Whew, it’s hot and HUMID here in Michigan! Here’s a little photo update of the garden in mid-late Summer. This tends to be a time of fewer blooms. The trick is regular deadheading (popping off the spent flowers). Many plants will rebloom to complement new bloomers like hummingbird mint, hibiscus, hostas, echinacea and cosmos. Before long, it will be aster and mum season.

The garden continues to yield more produce for less work, so I’m liking that! Between massive amounts of greens from the enclosed Garden Tower 2 and cucumbers, squash, herbs, banana peppers, carrots and eggplant in the open beds, every day brings a sizable harvest. It’s not the over-abundance I used to need to deal with while quasi-farming in Goshen: rather, a steady supply of fresh flavors and nutrients.

Some photos from today:

dinner plate hibiscus

 

Happy Solstice + A Sky Alert

In honor of Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, I thought I’d post some sunshine yellows from the garden. Very soon after Solstice, we’ve got a Solar Eclipse at 2:41 a.m. Eastern US time, plus Father’s Day tomorrow. Sending heartfelt blessings to all.

For those interested in an in depth sky weather report, Astrobutterfly does a great job here. As usual, key spots in my natal chart and life get activated by this eclipse. It’s really uncanny how this keeps happening in such precise ways. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy these sunshine yellows:

Happy Summer Solstice!

Garden and Portal Update

I’m busy with sessions and painting portal number 22, then need to work on July’s North Node Horoscopes. I painted and coded the back and hope to finish this mini “door” sometime this week. Meanwhile, the garden continues to bloom and produce, which makes a garden update the easiest blog post available. I thought I’d share this mix of herbs, edibles and flowers in back and front yards. Enjoy!

First lily of the season!

Love in a Mist, marigolds and just-about-to-flower purple kale

Purple bok choy, marigolds, chard, and chamomile

Magenta yarrow

floppy chamomile leaning against an evergreen for support

Robinhood rose by the back patio

Groundhog proof Garden Tower 2

Clematis on the shed

foxglove by the back patio

 

Pinks and Purples

Just sharing some beauty:

Peony and moth

Salvia, chives and dianthus in bloom

“blue” irises and Japanese maple

more irises, dainthus and chives

sage and dianthus in bloom

salvia and catmint

When the world looks ugly, find the beauty. It’s there. If you can’t find it, become the beauty … or paint or plant the beauty.

Beauty heals.

More Garden Pretties

Too pretty to keep to myself! From our front yard:

Veronica, dianthus, lilies (not yet blooming), columbine, and blooming chives. (That’s a pot of carrot seedlings to the far right.)

These irises aren’t “blue” and they don’t rebloom, as advertised, but they sure are pretty when they do bloom. 🙂

The yellow irises came with the house — up by the mailbox and the original inhabitants of the backyard bed.

Some of the front yard beds. That’s purple salvia, flowering chives and, I think, red veronica. I forget what the white flowers are. They’re perennial.

These beauties made the journey from Goshen. There was quite a breeze, hence the flutter.

 

My Garden Says “Happy Easter!”

 

Fall Colors in Fading Light

David and I have guests arriving from Amsterdam on Monday. Half-Dutch David has known Seth for 33 years, since his two years in Amsterdam after college, and they used to visit each other when David flew regularly to Europe for work. They’ve not seen each other in six plus years since David changed jobs, and I’ve never met Seth or his wife Dorothea. We’re all excited for this synchronously manifested time together.

From Monday, September 16 through Sunday, September 22, we’ll use our house as home base for all sorts of day trip adventures, and they’ll pass through again later the following week. All of which means I will have no session availability and very minimal email time for the next week. I will check emails at least once per day, and people can schedule sessions for later this month and into October. I won’t be blogging unless something really nudges me to do so.

I thought I’d leave everyone with a taste of Autumn beauty before the coming Fall Equinox. I know many clients, friends and myself experienced a bittersweet week — a time of rich growth and harvests, but also recognition that with growth comes change. I spent many sessions comforting sobbing clients during the Pisces Moon. Some felt embarrassed or confused by such powerful emotions, while others know they carry multitudes within them. To me, it all felt perfectly timed with the changing seasons here in the Northern Hemisphere.

“This, too, shall pass” is always true, whether joy or pain, spring blossoms, summer fruit, or fall colors and frostbitten plants. When the land goes to sleep in winter, it regenerates itself for spring. Meanwhile, I invite you to enjoy the moment wherever you are. Here’s how things look and feel this late afternoon at Dra’Faven:

Wishing you all a gorgeous week! Enjoy some of that Aries Moon vigor. That Pisces phase was intense! Much love and catch you on the other side of the Equinox …

Garden Update ~ Less Work, More Fun

2019 remains my lowest maintenance garden year yet. While I have very few edible annuals growing, the herbs, flowers and fruiting shrubs continue to produce. Our bird and butterfly population keeps growing, too. With temperatures finally in the 80’s, the slowpoke basil took off, and frequent nighttime rains plus well rooted perennials mean I’ve only needed to water the garden three times so far!

I’ve been waiting forever for these Casablanca lilies to bloom. I love how they contrast with the butterfly friendly liatris.

I thought the Polar Vortex claimed all my hummingbird mint,

Garden Update and a Whirlwind PA Trip

On Wednesday, I returned from a whirlwind trip to PA to help my mom, aka “Momma Jane” prepare for another move — this time from a standalone house into a 2BR apartment in an active retirement community where many of her friends live. She’ll hire packers and movers, but my 5-day trip laid the legal, financial, insurance and emotional groundwork for her shift. Big mountains (of paperwork!) moved. The weather in PA was hot, hot, hot to this Michigan gal, but on my last full day there, we remembered to take a sweaty selfie:

I came back to a raucously blooming garden that needed a bit of deadheading but otherwise maintained itself. Here’s some seasonal red, white and blue:

Red bergamot “fireworks” with a bumble bee up front

Madonna lily in bloom

Delphiniums on the Fourth of July

… and pinks: