A Sign O' The Times?

Zooey Deschanel

 image of Zooey Deschanel courtesy of:

  http://www.wolfgnards.com

 (spoiler alert: this blog is funny, but followers' comments may feature "unsuitable language")

Since I don't seem to be making much money these days, I thought I should make an effort to save a little, so... I cut my own hair! It's not bad, but I definitely wasn't able to "style" it at all - I just trimmed my bangs and a little off the sides (it's uneven but you really can't tell from a few feet away) so I saved $20 ($15 plus tip) 

Tomorrow I will color it (I have plenty of henna waiting to be plastered all over my new "do") and think of other ways to make/save a few more dollars

And so, to celebrate my cleverness, I went out for salad (healthy appetizer) wine and pizza with a friend - and spent $30! (One step forward, two steps back!) I can rationalize that, tho: I will have left-overs for lunch tomorrow

We decided that next time, though, we will share a meal at home with an already-purchased bottle of wine and it will probably cost less than going out (it will be a cozier setting, as well)

SORRY, Angie (hairdresser) and Marco (pizza) - when the economy improves we will happily darken your doors again

Until then, I leave you with this:

    The term bangs, always used in the plural, is, as you know, the fringe of hair usually cut squarely across the forehead.  According to etymology scholar Robert Barnhart, the term is strictly American in origin (the Brits call it fringe) first surfacing in 1878.  It was believed influenced by the adverbial use of bang in the meaning of abruptly, as in hair cut bang off;  some sources offer a relation to earlier bangtailed (1861) of a horse's tail that has been cut horizontally across.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Etymology-Meaning-Words-1474/bangs-fringe.htm

First Day of Fall 2011

Mid-Autumn Festival - Montreal

Mid-Autumn Festival - Viet Nam

 In other news... Jupiter and the Pleiades can be seen rising above the eastern horizon tonight - as you know, I'm partial to the Seven Sisters, so I'll be out there looking (if I can keep the mosquitoes from sucking all my blood, that is)


Happy Autumnal Equinox!

This is from a blog entitled Daily Kos

At 5:05 AM EDT, the Northern Hemisphere passes from Summer into Autumn as the sun passes over the equator heading south to give the Earth's Southern Hemisphere its turn at Summer. 
The Autumnal Equinox is also known as: Alban Elfed, Autumn Equinox, Fall Equinox, Cornucopia, Feast of Avilon, Festival of Dionysus, Harvest Home, Harvest Tide, Mabon, Night of the Hunter, Second Harvest Festival, Wine Harvest, Witch's Thanksgiving, and the first day of autumn

Pagans generally call the Autumn Equinox Mabon, though that's a fairly modern name, and some groups dismiss it. Neo-Druidic traditions call it Alban Elfed, and in some circles it's called Meán Fómhair (from the Irish name for September, "Middle of Autumn"). Others simply call it Second Harvest, or Mid-Autumn . . . and there's nothing wrong with just calling it the Autumn Equinox.

For those that observe the Oak King/Holly King duality, Mabon marks the ascendancy of the Holly King. Now he is the more powerful of the two, waxing stronger until he stands at the height of his power at Yule, the Winter Solstice.

For the rest of us, this is the time when the Goddess shifts from Mother to Crone, and it's in this aspect she's celebrated at Mabon rituals. The God grows old and tired, soon to die at the upcoming Samhain. The year is almost done. They move into old age, as they do every year. As the world does. As we all will.

Autumn, as I said, is an ominous season, and the specter of Death always looms large. The coming Winter symbolizes that inevitable turn of the Wheel, and the growing dark and the reaping of the crops are reminders of our journey towards it.

This should make us all the more mindful of what we have, and makes it all the more appropriate that Mabon should be a time of thanksgiving and joy. Gather with family and friends. Celebrate. Share. Feast.

    "Once more the liberal year laughs out O'er richer stores than gems or gold: Once more with harvest song and shout Is nature's boldest triumph told." - John Greenleaf Whittier

Sunrise at Stonehenge

This is from the web site for The Stonehenge Tour Company
 
Each year on the 23rd September Druids and Pagans gather at Stonehenge early in the morning to mark the Spring Equinox and to see the sunrise above the stones.

It's an ad hoc celebration that brings together England's New Age Tribes (neo-druids, neo-pagans, Wiccans) with ordinary families, tourists, travelers - usually about 100 people!
For many, the impulse to arrive at Stonehenge in time for the Solstice and Equinox is a little like all those people drawn to the strange rock in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It's akin to a spiritual experience. Anyone who has witnessed the crowd become silent as the sky begins to brighten can attest to that.

This is the third of the four ‘sky points’ in our Wheel of the Year and it is when the sun does a perfect balancing act in the heavens.

This is the point of the year when once again day and night are equal - 12 hours, as at Ostara, the Spring Equinox. The Latin word for Equinox means 'time of equal days and nights'.
After this celebration the descent into winter brings hours of increasing darkness and chillier temperatures. It is the time of the year when night conquers day.

After the Autumn Equinox the days shorten and nights lengthen. To astrologers this is the date on which the sun enters the sign of Libra, the scales, reflecting appropriately the balanced day and night of the Equinox. This was also the time when the farmers brought in their harvested goods to be weighed and sold.

Here in Wiltshire (as with the rest of rural Britain), it was traditional to drink dandelion and burdock cordials at this time, as these herbs help to cleanse the blood and are a good tonic for the body after its winter hardships.
 
The full moon nearest to the Autumn Equinox is called the Harvest Moon and farmers would harvest their crops by then, as part of the second harvest celebration. Mabon was when livestock would be slaughtered and preserved (salted and smoked) to provide enough food for the winter.

At the South Pole they will be celebrating the first appearance of the sun in six months. However, at the North Pole they will be preparing for six months of darkness.

During Medieval times, the Christian Church replaced Pagan solstices and equinox celebrations with Christianized occasions. The Autumn Equinox celebration was Michaelmas, the feast of the Archangel Michael.

The small group 'non-obtrusive' nature of this tour means you can have a real authentic experience, a great photo opportunity and valuable insight into ancient Britain.

Tonight, even though it's raining, I'm going to get a little fire going in the fire pit out on the back porch - I will burn some dead branches from the tree that fell during the storm... I will throw on some dried herbs (mugwort and the like) and say farewell to Summer... and some other things...

Visit both sites for some interesting information:

http://www.stonehengetours.com

http://www.dailykos.com

Photos: courtesy of Stonehenge Tours and Google Images for mid-autumn celebrations

An Ode To "Nothing Is Wasted On The Writer"

I will never forget the day I was introduced to Crescent Dragonwagon - writer, blogger, animal lover, former restaurant owner and fellow human being - not because it was so unusual but just because it was, for me, a lucky accident. (Please understand: I didn't actually meet her; I suppose I should say that I "discovered" her one day.)

A few years ago, my husband and I were at a bookstore (probably Barnes & Noble) looking for a cookbook containing recipes for South American (specifically Peruvian) meals. One of his sisters was having a milestone birthday (turning 60, as I recall) and the family was planning a surprise dinner that would be comprised of some of her favorite foods. She had married a Peruvian and lived in Peru for 30 years before moving back to New England ten years ago to be near her children and grandchildren.

We weren't having much luck with our quest, but we kept looking, hoping to spot some lone title proclaiming "The Best 100 Recipes of South America, Featuring Peru!" when a little book with an attractive cover caught my eye. It said, simply, "Soup & Bread" and, being someone who loves soup and bread, I picked it up. After looking through it, I put it back thinking, "I'd better see who wrote this because I want to buy it the next time I'm here, or online, or something..." and that's when my jaw dropped. The author's name was Crescent Dragonwagon.

Seriously????

Yes. That is her name. Crescent Dragonwagon. For me, it was love at first sight, if one can indeed love a personal pronoun.

As soon as I got back home I looked her up on the Internet. I also found some pretty good Peruvian recipes online, which I could have done without a trip to the book store, but then I would never have "met" this woman, this writer, this troubadour of life. And although I still haven't bought her book about soup and bread, I am now a huge fan of her writing.

You see, she's written several cookbooks, quite a few children's books and she puts out a wonderfully and thoughtfully written blog called "Nothing Is Wasted On The Writer." This is a blog I would be proud to put my name to, especially if my name was as incredibly inventive as Crescent Dragonwagon. She chose the name for herself, back when she was younger and more rebellious.

On this blog is a FAQ where she addresses such questions as "Is that your real name?" and other marauding mysteries about herself. She comes from good solid writing stock, too: Her mother, Charlotte Zolotow, wrote children's books and her father, Maurice Zolotow, wrote interviews and notable biographies about such celebrities as Marilyn Monroe. She writes about the vagaries of life (mostly hers, which to me is mind-bendingly fascinating and heart-breakingly moving), as well as the wonders of nature, the whimsy of love, the joys of family, the pain of loss, the comfort of food and other seemingly tepid topics, only when SHE writes about them, it's done is such a way that it makes you want to examine your own experiences and write about them with as much openness and honesty and perception as she does.

Just below her blog title is this marvelous header:

"Cooking, eating, living, loving, writing, reading, thinking. Listening, tasting, sniffing. Cozying up to mystery at midlife. I think we're all part of the narrative life tells itself about itself."

One of my goals is to attend "The Whole Enchilada" writing workshop that she hosts every September. The event involves several days and nights of writing, talking, cooking, eating and many other succulent activities, and I really want to be a part of something like that. It costs several hundred dollars, so I really have to start saving up for next year (I've said that before, but this time I mean it) and some day I will be there, laughing and listening and learning how to really write and/or create, as in "learn how to unlock and unleash my muse."

Meanwhile, I'll just keep tapping away at the keyboard and sitting upstairs in my unorganized "studio" trying to figure out what the hell I need to be writing about or creating or doing in my spare time - as if that will ever become vividly apparent to me (as in "apparition" or "epiphany") or come to me in one of those sorts of revelatory "a-ha" moments we can only dream about.

Check out her blog. Live life to the fullest. And wish me luck!

http://crescentdragonwagon.typepad.com/

A Week (or two) of Anxiety & Sorrow

There is just something sad about the last few weeks: earthquakes, floods, wind, rain... mayhem and destruction 

Then there was the 10th anniversary of Nine/Eleven and I watched it happen all over again - I felt like I needed to remind myself of what had happened - planes crashing, buildings falling, people suffering 

I've watched documentaries about the rebuilding and rebirth, how so many people are trying to piece their lives back together after the attacks

 I was also worried about other things: Mom in the hospital, bleeding from some medication she was taking for her atrial fibrillation - my "new" car quit running and my husband had to pay $500 to have it fixed (never mind that I still owe him $1000 for helping me buy it) - and underneath it all a gnawing worry and fear when my lovely outside cat, my stray, my sweet Willie, my Mister Handsome has simply vanished in the wake of that stupid storm, Irene, a storm that caused so much damage and took away so much from so many - maybe it was no Katrina or Andrew but it still took its toll

Now, this cat is a survivor, he is savvy, he is streetwise - he has a white bib and a little white stripe on his nose and four white paws - plus he has six toes on both front feet, which is unusual - he has come to me for sustenance for several years now, ever since he was abandoned and left behind when his family moved away - he's come to me again and again, through rain and snow, blizzards and blackouts - and now, there's absolutely no sign of him - I know it's just a cat, but for me there's an emotional parallel with Willie not coming home and all those souls who, in essence, "vanished" when the Twin Towers fell, never to be seen again...

I put a few flyers up - I've listed him as "lost" on the local animal shelter's "Found and Lost" web page - I've called four veterinary clinics to see if anyone brought in an injured cat - and nothing yet

But I still won't give up on him, not quite yet - I want him to know that I will always be here for him, my sweet William 

Harvest Moon

Last night was a Harvest Moon

 and a waxing gibbous moon

 and a full moon in Pisces

 Now that's what I call a busy moon phase!

 I saw it as it was just clearing the tree line on my way home from work last night - it was the palest gold and quite large as it rose - later on, as it moved higher, it was exceptionally silver and bright - I wanted to stay up and stare at it, but I was dog-tired - my husband made a lovely dinner for us and we watched a movie - The Conspirator - excellent movie but I was so tired that I fell asleep a couple of times (courtroom drama will do that to me, on occasion) 

(This photo courtesy of EarthSky web site - see below)

 In the days before electricity, farmers counted on the lamp of the Harvest Moon to gather their crops. Making up for the autumn season’s waning daylight, the Harvest Moon faithfully provides several nights of dusk-till-dawn moonlight. This bonanza of moonlight remains the legacy of the Harvest Moon!

 http://earthsky.org/

 http://earthsky.org/tonight/legendary-harvest-moon-shines-on

Just a short post this morning - have a nice week!

Nine Eleven Update

I watched the wonderful "World Trade Center: Rising" series on Science Channel tonight (directed by Steven Spielberg and narrated by Ed Harris) and it was about the memorial site at Ground Zero - indeed there are two waterfall/pools (each one about an acre) built inside the footprint of each fallen tower; 400 trees were planted; and the walls around the pools are inscribed with the names of all who perished on that day (including the airplane passengers, the people at the Pentagon, the brave souls in Pennsylvania and those who didn't survive the 1993 WTC bombing) - the goal was to have it all ready by 9/11/2011 so the families could have a place to mourn and find closure and peace... it all looks wonderful. The office buildings are being built to honor the victims, too - it's all about new life where there was so much death, or as the memorial's creators say, it's about "Reflecting Absence"

http://www.wtc.com/about/memorial-and-musuem

I think this will surely help many to heal - I certainly hope so

Here is a shot of what it will probably look like in a few years...

Another Day That Will Live In Infamy

Yeah - I know - it's everywhere... Nine/Eleven...

But there's no avoiding it, really, so I've just embraced it - I watched some of the newer documentaries on TV last night and checked out some links I saw on Facebook this morning - oddly enough, one of the most moving was a Budweiser commercial that only aired once (on YouTube - the Clydesdales pull the beer wagon to Ground Zero and then - music swells - they bow...) Yeah, I cried

My brother said he was going to put the flag out, and I thought that was very appropriate, even though it's not an actual national holiday, like Memorial Day or Veteran's Day or the Fourth of July - so I put out my little $1.00 flag, too - it's waving nicely, even though I have to go outside every once in a while and untangle it 

He also told me about the memorial at Ground Zero - I  couldn't verify whether or not it's actually been completed - and that it consists of two pools where the towers used to be ("The design strives to make visible what is absent." - Michael Arad, architect) They're also building a new World Trade Center skyscraper there, but it will only be about as tall as the Empire State Building - I think that's also very appropriate - and it will be followed by two or three more office buildings (after all, office space is at a premium in New York City)

Check out the new USAToday 9/11 web page (I have a friend who works there - a lot of work went into this tribute)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/911

Let's stop the hatred...

Let's shed a tear;

Let's make it better -

Let's end the fear.

TJBGoogins

"You may say I'm a dreamer... but I'm not the only one."

John Lennon

Rest in peace - and may the rest of us be allowed to go in peace

Goodbye To Summer

For me, September is a time for looking back at summer (which feels like it's still here - hot & humid) and all the lovely plants that grew, flowered, fruited and are now beginning to thin out and look scraggly...so here are some shots of spring & summer in my yard

 Here is my lovely comfrey with its giant, fuzzy leaves, and over here, a huge swath of mugwort, which was growing everywhere this year (at least, this was the first year I knew what it was)

Wild white morning glory with a bee being busy inside... next is spotted jewel weed, also wild, used to counteract the itch of poison ivy...

Here is yarrow alongside a volunteer kale plant gone to seed...

 And here are wine berries, growing wild (I've never tried one, I just leave them for the birds and creatures to eat)

 Luscious little black raspberries that return every summer... I pick a few and leave hundreds on the bush for the blue jays and mockingbirds to take back to their young ones

 Here's a blue morning glory growing amongst weeds next to a large bed of mint

 There are more photos, but this is already quite LONG... I just love my little microcosm of plants and animals, it nourishes my soul... so let me leave you with a little information about September:

Wikipedia says...

• September's birthstone is the sapphire. The meaning is clear thinking.
• The birth flowers for September are the forget-me-not, morning glory and aster.

 ... and elsewhere (see link at the end)

September is National Chicken Month.

It is also Cholesterol Awareness Month in America.

The very first comic strip was printed in an American newspaper on September 11th, 1875

The famous leader singer of the classic rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury was born on September 5th, 1946 on the island of Zanzibar.

The poem “Mary had a Little Lamb” was published September 1st, 1830.

World War II began September 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland.

The US Treasury Department was established 1789.

September 5th, is National Cheese Pizza Day.

The 1st Continental Congress was called to order on September 5, 1874.

September 9th is National Teddy Bear Day.

September 16th is National Play-Doh Day.

September 19th is “Talk Like A pirate Day” around the world…an International event.

The first airport opened on September 29.

September 24th, 1789 — the US Supreme Court was established.

On September 18, 1851 the infamous New York Times newspaper published it first edition.

Native American Day is always celebrated on the 4th Friday of September.

September 12th is National Chocolate Milkshake Day

The 4th week of September is National Dog Week

The Great Fire of London happened September 2, 1666.

George Eastman got his patent for the roll-film camera, in September of 1888 and the Eastman-Kodak company soon was off to becoming one of America’s major corporations.

On September 5th, 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed a hijacking bill, making air piracy a crime punishable by death or imprisonment.

Former President Richard M. Nixon was given an unconditional pardon, for his role in the infamous “Watergate” fiasco by President Gerald Ford, September 8, 1974.

Read more: http://socyberty.com/history/strange-facts-and-historical-trivia-about-september/#ixzz1XW5fHMNH

Stay tuned for a post celebrating the end of Summer and the beginning of Autumn, which can be such a lovely time of year depending on location, wind and weather, of course - stay well

Goodnight Irene - I'll See You In My Dreams

The storm has passed...  we were luckier than most (we lost power for six days - but at least we had running water)

My outside cat Willie (the stray I've been feeding for the last six or seven years) is missing in action but I am still looking... 





Oh - and Barry the betta fish up and died.

We lost one tree but it didn't crush anything - see? - it wasn't a very big one ( you can see it in the other photo, the one slightly leaning to one side in that space back there behind the clothesline)

 

 

 Our basement flooded a little but we managed to bail it out.

Hope to have more news when I have a chance to post again. Until then, stay safe and be grateful for the little things.