Druids and allsorts!

It's autumn, but there has been hardly any rain. We're still turning out to fires, mostly ones lit by people who aren't very aware.  They light a small fire and don't put it out properly, or they light too big a fire for the dry conditions. Ah well, at least it keeps us busy.  And dirty...

...but not in a good way!

I need to talk about the Druidcamp.  It was while back now but it was most marvelous.

Damh the Bard, Cerri and Kristoffer were so lovely.  As I've said before, if you want to see what a spirituality or philosophy will do for you, look at its leaders, and you couldn't ask for for kinder, wiser, more connected beings than these three.

I learned a heap, and laughed and cried a lot, and some of the moments in the ceremonies and bardic circle and giant music session were just mind blowingly amazing.

Julie, Tamzin, Cait and I performed Savage Daughter together at the eisteddfod.

Afterward at the bardic circle, I did my new song called King of the Boars that I wrote for my new lyre, Torc.  I love this pic Michelle got of me.

I look a lot more relaxed than I

felt!

I also got to spend time with my Druid peeps!  Yay!

Selfie with Mandy, and a photobomb by Damh the Bard and Kris!  Did you ever!

On the plane with lovely Michelle and my Druid brother Dusty!

My dear druid sister Trudy!

       
And we explored a bit of gorgeous Adelaide.  The botanical gardens are lovely, as is the old architecture, and they have a lot of art and quirky bits that I loved, except the moment where I thought i was about to fall down these stairs, though it turned out there was glass over them!  The sculpture at the bottom looks a bit worried that he might have had to catch me!  

Around here, things go on as usual.  The last chicks of the year are growing up. both roosters, dammit, but being part Hamburg, they aren't very big so won't be able to bully the girls, or very loud crowers, so they might be able to stay.  Frankendotte has gone to live with mum's partner, Karl, and his hens.  He is rechristened Frank Sinatra for his singing, which Karl loves.  A lucky break for Frank!

One of the so called Hamburgs is definitely not all Hamburg.  He is rather hideous in the face right now but his plumage is pretty and interesting.  He was christened Chugly (chicken ugly) for a while but he's now called Bunky, short for Shubunken, because of his goldfish colouring.

The other one is classic Hamburg and is The Cisco Kid because of his embroidered black and white appearance.  He is super pretty, which makes Bunky look worse.

I'm crocheting a blankie for my friend Amy, and as usual Mr Kitty has to help.

He's such a lovey.

I've been passed as a driver for the big ICV in our comms brigade (incident control vehicle).   

We turned out to the late shift with our comms brigade to a large fire and got to see our brigade mates from Chidlow VBFB.  Ha, I wasn't the grubbiest for a change!  Away from the fire, it was cold out there!  It seems silly to be fighting fires while it is cold, but there you have it. 

It was hectic at first.  We arrived to find many appliances and support crews on the boards to keep track of with our very good crew ...

 ...but as the fire was blacked out, trucks were stood down, and the night drew on, the number of fireys dropped, and by the time we left at 2am, it was quite spooky out there. Just one lone guy from the water truck wandering in to find coffee and food at the blessed Salvos truck!
  

No rain, but we know autumn is here because the Virginia Creeper has once more turned.

  I found one of my books on the feature wall at our local library.  Yay!

Roo and i got to turn out to a fire together in the back of the truck.  Also yay!

Yes something weird happened to my face.  Other than me just being weird as usual. 


We had some of our Druid mates over for a Samhain night.  It was lovely getting to see my  friends enjoying playing my lyres. They're so calming to play.  
 

   

            Also Guinevere felt she should be part of the night, and Michelle got a pic of her for me.

Michelle also made me this quilt!  Squeeeee!

It has the rune Ansuz on it, for my patron god, Odin, and for inspiration and skill in communication, and the two ravens who accompany Odin, Huginn and Muninn.  I just can't even begin to say how much I love and appreciate this gift and all the work and skill she put into making it!  I love you Michelle!

This gorgeous old Jarrah tree was on the side of the track we walked one morning this week.

Look at all the liminal space, and the face too!

Michelle also got this pic of my dear Rosie, who is 11-and-a-half now and showing her age a little more lately.

My sweet sweet baby, how did you get to be an old dog so suddenly?            


      

Rarrrrr!

Firstly beanie finished!

The recipient says he loves it, which is kinda sad because I badly wanted to keep it.  It made me happy just to wear it.

Secondly, red-head standoffs happen here a lot.  This one was between Mr Kitty and some chickens.

Kitty:  "I didn't really want to  go over there anyway."

The chickens won.

Hey food-person, are you in there?

Thirdly Andyroo had a call-back interview for a job today so I went into town to be his chauffeur.  While he was in the interview, I took myself off to, "Walking With Dinosaurs."  It was simultaneously lame and interesting!   I figure it is good author research in case I ever want to add some more Cretaceous critters to a "Land of..." book.

Plus, you know, the chance to have people take stupid tourist photos of you.

And to take even stupider selfies.

Yes I patted every one of them.   Of course I did!

   

Spooooky!

It's all spooky here at the mo.  With Halloween coming in the Northern Hemisphere, and half-arsedly being done Downunder too, plus me currently writing my scary sequel to Chicken Soup for Satan, I've found myself talking ghost stories with people a bit.

Like a lot of people, I've had my moments with the unexplained.  My most teeth-chattering moments have happened when I was still quite young. First there was a haunted house we were doing up to move into because the rent was cheap, but it told us it didn't want us in no uncertain terms.

I'll never forget having to creep back in by day to get something I'd left behind in our rapid exit, after a whole roomful of us had been scared out of our wits by a window suddenly moving back and forth incredibly fast with no wind to drive it.  By then we were well primed by the coldness, the creepy feel, and by the way lights kept going off and on every time you turned your back.  The window was the last straw.  It took a lot of courage to go back in, but my boom box (yes I'm that old) had been left behind and money was tight.  In I went all alone just at sunset, and out I came like a sprinter!  Brrr!

After that came a share house down near the beach.  An old two-story that we called the doll's house because it was just an up-and-down box.   It was the party house for all of our friends (and not so friends) because we were the first people our age to move out of home.  Nearly every night the lounge-room floor was littered with drunk and/or stoned people who didn't want to go home.  I was riding racehorses at the time, starting stupidly early, so I got the reputation for being a bit of dragon because I'd get up and come raging downstairs and kick them all out if they kept me awake for too long.

This night, though, all was peaceful downstairs as I crept down to go for a wee in the only toilet at the rear of the house.  The moon shone in lines through the front horizontal blinds in the big window that fronted the lounge-room.  There were the usual silent sleeping figures on couches and even floor, looking colourless in the stripes of moonlight.  All was still.   I tiptoed my way past them, and began to turn the corner to go to the rear of the house, and came to a sudden stop.  In the opening that led from the front to back half of house, hanging from a beam, was another grey figure. It was sort of misty, shining in the moonlight, and it was very obviously a hanged person.

It was super scary, and I hightailed it back upstairs and never risked coming downstairs at night again.   Later, what struck me was the strangeness of how the humans in the room were not aware of the ghost, and the ghost seemed equally unaware of the humans, as if it was just going through the motions, night after night, of replaying its own death.

It goes along with that theory I've heard that some ghosts are aware and some are merely memories of a traumatic event.  The first was very aware of us.  The second seemed oblivious.

Do you have a scary experience to tell?  I'd love to hear it!   

Eclipse!

Here's my lovely latest crochet project...  What the?  Nooo!  It's all going dark!  Kitty Eclipse!

"Whats your problem?  I'm more interesting than any crochet."

Yeah maybe, but here it is anyway.  Rooster teapot cosy on the way.   See the neck just starting?  I have no idea what I'm doing because I'm making it up as I go along, but I have a very vague idea of how I want it to look.  I'm happy so far!

The crocodile stitch is so nice to handle.  It's plump and textured and stretchy.  Nummy!

The afghan is still coming along too.  Anyone else see a friendly  robot face there?  

Oh ok, only me?  That comes of being a novelist and having too vivid an imagination.  I've been having fun this week researching and planning for the second Chicken Soup book.  That has really got the juices going, and already new characters are taking shape in my mind. Soon they'll begin to have a life of their own and then all I'll have to do is let them loose.

I've also been reading up on this stuff, the Karpman Drama Triangle, at first with an eye to understanding what is happening in our fire brigade, but then with more and more interest in how it can apply to all aspects of my life.  Many thanks to Frances, whose chance remark sent me off on a researching quest!  It's long, but very interesting, and I would recommend a read to anyone who has trouble working out how they ended up getting dragged into drama in family or other human interactions.

In a non dramatic moment, we came across some more work from the phantom rock-balancer this week, in an old railway cutting along a different bit of the bridle path.  I love coming across these.   Thank you, whoever you are!  

               
It looked especially lovely set against the wet black of the granite outcrop.

They always make me take an extra moment to return to centre and feel at peace.

Fido likes to be in the centre too: In the centre of any action that is going on!

 
Nothing to eat here, Fido, nothing to eat.  Move on, please!  I have more branches to drag!   (So many branches.)

We took Timmy the Jimny into town this week.  So funny how often we ended up juxtaposed with huge white 4x4's.
 

Wait for me, Mama!

The weekend promises to be a busy one, with a training day at a different brigade with some of my fave team members on Saturday, and on Sunday we have two different outings with friends.

The day today feels like spring is a comin' in, though tomorrow another storm is forecast. That's ok, I know it will be dry, hot summer before we know it. Bring on the rain!


        
 
 
     

    

Large Things

Large pile of books being sorted to go to a local store for them to sell.

Michelle at Just Add Passion wanted 4 of each of my books, which means I had to take 44 of them over to her!  Wow, that's a lot of heavy books!

   

Just Add Passion is a cool little gallery and shop on Stoneville Rd that specialises in the works of local artists, writers and craftspeople.  If you live locally or make a run to the hills, and you want a present for someone or to spoil yourself, go and check it out!  It's right next to the bottle shop there that my sis and her hubby call "The light on the Hill" because it is a very welcome sight after a long day.

The skies have been lovely this week, at least they have been when the clouds have cleared away.  Some of the days have been very grey.  Last month was our wettest July ever, I've heard.

How's this for cool clouds?

 

We watched them march across the sky getting bigger and bigger.

With two little lone ones that followed along and spread into rather ghostly figures.

Woooooo!  Boo!

Yesterday's walk was very pleasant.  Down the foresty track below our place.

 
Along the bridle path and down the old railway cutting.

Don't worry, Tuppy is still on lead.  Not that she's amused by it.

A large someone else is not amused.  Ever.

And that there is the definitive proof that diets don't work!

Excuse me!  I am a fine figure of a cat and don't you forget it!

I started writing the next book last night... by accident.  I had thought of my first sentence and started a document so that I wouldn't forget it.  I wrote two paragraphs and now need to go reread my character notes and the first book before I really get going, but still, I'm away.  It's so exciting to be writing again!  Satan Smith: Demon Hunter, here we come!  

If you missed seeing the last post here, don't miss your chance to win a free print copy of one of my books of your choice.  All you have to do is comment on this post, on my facebook page, or on the site.  Sign up to my newsletter too, to get to read the free short story, Hunting, which has an interesting twist in its tail!

My "fun with scoping" adventure went well last week.  I'll tell you more when we get some results from the biopsies they took.  They did take out a 15mm polyp from my stomach, so lets hope that will help with the vomiting.  Vomiting sucks.  Think I've had enough of it to last me my whole life.  Actually, I know it.  :D