Happy Love Day!

Sending everyone a whole lotta love!

December Garden, Portal and Personal Updates

As we ease into the other side of this powerful eclipse and New Moon in Sagittarius, I thought I’d share some grounding photos from the indoor garden. These ones show how the indoors blends with the outside garden, which is largely put to bed for Winter. You can still see various types of kale, collards, parsley, rosemary and green onions outside, but things are mostly sleeping until Spring.

Inside, the Christmas cacti have begun to bloom:

With such short days, lettuce, parsley, cilantro, spinach and onion spouts grow slowly. But they do grow! I turn the trays every other day so that they don’t get lopsided stretching for more light.

I also decided to try my hand at growing indoor mushrooms. This set from ETSY is on Step 2. Per the Mushroom Man LLC’s video, I let the white mycelium grow for about three weeks — until the inside looked mostly white. Last night, David and I sliced open the package and “roughed up the mycelium” with a fork before soaking the substrate for 24 hours:

Later today, I’ll drain the plate and flip things around to start growing pink oyster mushrooms on our kitchen countertop. We’ll see how it goes! Supposedly, we should get two flushes. This is totally an experiment. I love exotic and medicinal mushrooms and thought the pink might perk things up when nothing’s blooming outside.

I do have another blooming plant right now. I always forget what it’s called, but this one reliably puts forth flowers much of the year:

Today also marks the time to paint the garden portion of my next commissioned portal painting. This one has spent a long time in the planning stages, but its timing ties in with the Solar Eclipse. The degree of this extremely karmic eclipse conjuncts the patron’s South Node, so the portal integrates before and after timing. Yesterday I painted desert — and today a garden. More details once I finish!

I have two other portals in process, too, one for myself and one for another patron. Due to the uncanny astrology, this one jumped ahead of the others. I love when astrology confirms an intuitive nudge.

On a more personal note, I always incorporate some manner of garden into my life. I’m typing this post with a henna mud pie on my head. The henna doesn’t change my hair color much, but it does provide a lot of keratin and strength to my hair. I started henna’ing back in 2006, and for me, this nurturing ritual reconnects me throughout fifteen years of transformation. I’ve written about henna and my mood hair before (here and here), but today, it just feels fun to have mud on my head while I make a garden post!

When not covered in mud, I like wearing flowers. This past month concluded a multi-year search for a replacement to my beloved Faery Combat Boots. After a Leprechaun cobbler episode, two visits to a human cobbler for new zippers, and a final confirmation that no cobbler could fix the worn through back of my heels, I knew I needed to retire them. I’ve had those boots for over six years and they’ve taken me through many an adventure — whether walking in a very cold Lake Michigan, hiking in deep snow, or having an NDE after running through the Detroit Airport when Saturn crossed my North Node 2018.

I loved those boots, and they proved extremely difficult to replace. After years of searching and three returns, I finally settled on these that I broke in last Tuesday while wearing a garden inspired dress:

Why do I love Faery Combat Boots so much? No idea, but a good lug sole on a waterproof boot that I can wear with dresses makes me bizarrely happy. Almost as happy as flowers. Combine Faery Combat Boots with a floral dress, pink mushrooms, and Christmas cacti? Seelie stuff.

In these crazy intense times with all their karmic weight, it helps to find the little things that bring a smile to your face and heart. IMHO, the sillier and more delightful, the better. Vibration matters — as in, your vibration creates matter. Surround yourself with more of the energies you wish to experience. Your external world begins to reflect more and more of those back to you in physical form.

Blessed Be … and be the blessing! Happy New Moon in Sagittarius … and congratulations on making it through that karmic doozie of an eclipse!

Garden Update: Indoor and Outdoor Abundance and Beauty

Happy 11/11 and Happy Veteran’s Day to all who served!

I haven’t given a Fall Garden Update in awhile, and today’s colors are too pretty to keep to myself. From the front yard of edibles mixed with ornamentals:

From the backyard, including some of today’s harvest from the Garden Tower 2:

From the newly expanded indoor garden:

On the weekend, I mentioned foundational shifts. In addition to switching the locations of two portal doors, I moved my old desk behind a painted chest, so that I could add trays of spinach, lettuce, cilantro, parsley and chives along our large South facing window. I love my new L-shaped desk and new extra ergonomic office chair, but I really love having this extra growing space. We don’t have window sills, so this fills a formerly unavailable planting niche.

I’m also pleased that you can barely see the edible additions from our entryway. Except for the reflection in the window, it just looks like a bunch of houseplants:

The additional planting space brings the outdoor garden in. When David first saw what I had done, he said, “You’re going all Frank Lloyd Wright on me!”

I started the little sprouts outside, many weeks ago. Because of the cold temperatures, they grew very slowly — but just the right size for transplanting once I decided to grow inside. Here’s hoping they get enough light to give fresh herbs and greens all winter!

Sacred Decorating

Today’s post comes as a follow-up to a post from two years ago: How to Thrive in a Less than Ideal Location. I write now from a place of gratitude, post-relocation and feeling ideally placed, but I thought I’d share additional insights from the new location. So often I hear from clients that they feel misplaced, lonely, sick or stuck, with no sacred space to call their own. If that describes you, then do check out the previous link, too. If, instead, you feel largely well placed but you want to upgrade your surroundings, then today’s post offers suggestions for adding even more sacred experience into your everyday home, office, or little corner.

Why Bother?

“I have more important things to worry about than decorating.”

“It’s too overwhelming. If I start, I’ll never finish.”

“My space looks good enough, but I don’t feel inspired or energized. Why can’t I get things to flow in other areas?”

Decorating might seem superficial, but it’s one of the fastest ways to shift energy in other areas of life. Whether you study feng shui, or just pay attention to colors and shapes that delight your senses, your everyday environment seeps into your subconscious. As your subconscious works nonstop to filter and create your outer experience, changing your external environment alters your internal feelings and perspective. These, in turn, alter how you experience your external reality.

It’s like breathing: in, out, in, out. You live and breathe and move in your everyday experiences. Like polluted air, a space that irritates, annoys or crushes your soul does more damage than it would first appear. On the flip side, a space that calms, uplifts and expands your soul acts like increased oxygen in the body. Most parasites and other nasties can’t stand a well oxygenated environment. As you clean and uplift the areas in which you spend your time, you welcome fresh inspiration, healing and opportunities in life.

Toadstool fountain, ferns and orgone pyramid by the meditation chair in my office.

Little Things Count — A Lot

In sessions, I always ask people to pay attention to the little things. What small, symbolic step could you take today, which would move you towards your larger goal? Little things add up. They also take less time, energy, focus and determination. In many instances, little things feel like throw-away’s: five minutes to take out the trash, ten minutes to file the pile. A little thing could include changing your screensaver to something that makes you smile. Maybe you move your desk or bed so that a pleasant view greets you instead of one that sinks your spirit.

Dragons, Faeries and Flowers at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park

We had a lovely extended holiday visit with David’s daughter, Allie. On her last day here, she and I took a ladies outing to the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. Some people may recall David and me taking Momma Jane there a year ago to see the miniature city, lights and huge greenhouse. Their holiday display remains up through Epiphany, and I thought Austin, Texas based Allie would enjoy some warmth and greenery. Sure enough, we found lush decorations. We also lucked into a spontaneous and personal tour by an 87-year-old volunteer!

Forest Bathing, Indoor Garden and Writing Updates

Several people have inquired how my November writing month went, as well as how we’re enjoying David being in Kalamazoo full-time now. I thought I’d give some quick updates. We still love it here! Every week we find new local hiking spots of such beauty, and we haven’t even begun to explore the various forests one to three hours from here. So far, we just feel delighted to drive three to fifteen minutes to scenes like these:

Garden Update ~ Chilly Outside, Blooms Inside

We’re down to just kale, collards, lettuce and mums outside, but inside, we’ve got happy plants and the first blooms on a Christmas cactus.

 

Garden Update: First Frost and the Indoor Garden

Thursday morning brought our first frost, about one month later than average. Seeing the forecast, I harvested the last of the tender things from outside — nasturtium flowers, peppers — and brought plant friends like geraniums, pineapple sage and several more indoors for the winter.

As temperatures drop,

Garden Update: The Secret Garden

While everything outside has been tucked away under mulch, cold frames and/or AGRIBON row covers, the secret garden indoors looks lush and smells intoxicating and sweet:

The blossoms on this Meyer Lemon Tree perfume the air, while the pink geranium continues to bloom indoors. We ate the ripe lemon yesterday amidst snow and temps in the teens.

Fairy tale pumpkins continue to ripen in various stages. These take a long time to grow, but the flavor and texture are superb!

The Christmas cactus got relocated for the season, so Mr. Meyer Lemon could hang out by the south facing window.

The cold hardy avocado tree came indoors when temps dipped below twenty degrees F.

Cuttings from tree collards and pineapple sage keep company with this year’s lone red geranium.

I found this indoor herb kit for $1.00 at Goodwill. When I unpacked it yesterday, it offered seeds from 1989! I planted some newer basil seeds, but need to add more soil than what came in the kit before I can plant anything else.

The ivy anchors the living room, as trees, cacti, jade and other plants cocoon this room in green for the winter.

The Secret Garden, indeed!

Flowers in December

My very merry Christmas cactus … happy for lengthening days