New Beginnings and Other Stuff

I resigned as Equipment Officer for my Brigade this week.  It is affecting my health.  It is not the fires or caring for the station and vehicles, though you would expect it to be those.  No, it is the bloody meetings!  Jeezuz!

This is the card I got from our darling 1st Lieutenant. So nice to know I am appreciated.   

A fellow dog lover, as you can see.  :D  The crochet reference is because I crochet during the meetings, which he says rather reminds him of the ladies who would knit while sitting in the front row audience of the guillotine during the French Revolution.  Sometimes, the meetings feel almost as deadly!  Crocheting gives my fingers something to do when I get upset and makes the long pointless hours of conflict seem to be more useful.  Seemed.  Ha!  No longer!      

I'll still be going to fires and a member of the brigade, but as a non-officer I don't have to go to meetings, and I am having a rest from doing their social media too.  I would not say I regret the last two years, because it has taught me so much, given me wonderful new friends, and shown me new aspects of my own courage and ability, so it is all good.  Change is good too, as is letting go of that which is not serving your best interests.       

With my mind and time not taken up with brigade matters and stresses, hopefully I can find mental space to start writing the next novel. Novel number 12!  Who'da thunk it!  Next will be a sequel to Chicken Soup for Satan.  I think.  Am rather tempted to write another Freya novel, since I have so much fun writing her stories and I think I need some light writing, because Land of Giants took it out of me a lot.  I put so much into that book and it shows, but it was hard too.  We'll see.  I would love to be back in the world of Satan Smith and his lovely dog, Ghost, too.  I've missed them, especially Ghost.  The characters of my books, especially the animal ones, become so real to me because when I write them I can really see them and know their moods and likes and dislikes and funny ways, and miss their presence just as if they were one of my own pets.  Sometimes I want to own a White Shepherd just so I can have Ghost with me again, but of course she or he wouldn't be him anyway.  I'll just have to write him another story.    

My sister PJ's photo of the original art on her wall, together with the print book.

Let's see, what else?  My chookies made me giggle a lot this week when they discovered our pile of jarrah sawdust and took to dismantling it with great gusto.

Nobody knows how to enjoy life like a chicken!  Please ignore Nanny Ogg's vulture-like appearance.  She is currently molting, apparently only on her head and neck!  It is growing back in fairly quickly, thank goodness.  She was genuinely bald at first, with nothing but grey pins all over her head and neck.  Yikes!

Niamh's afghan is still growing and getting close to finished. Not sure how many more rows,  Perhaps six or seven, but the rows take quite a while to get around now.  There is something so cosy about snuggling under something you are still making.

This has been my view a lot this week.   I took four pics to take in all of the the tree, and google made them into a panorama for me.  

  

My tummy has been a lot better but i haven't felt up to much work around the place yet.  What I have been able to do is drag a chair around the autumnal driveway, following the sunny spots and playing my lyre.  This is the Singing Jarrah who lives right by our cottage.  I have been practicing my tree song ready to record it, and this tree loves me to sing and play near it, in fact it enjoys being near all of our daily interactions. I hadn't expected that when I went to talk to it.  Most trees are very communal and interested in other living beings and even humans, especially trees who live in close proximity to us.  As you can see, this one is very close to the cottage indeed!

What else?  Oh yes, I said I'd show you an 'after' shot of the tv/bookshelf area.  This is it now.  Much neater, and now we can get to the books behind by just rolling the cabinet out.  

Not the most spectacular sunset for colour, but it was so very gentle and pretty and hopeful. 

As the sun sets on one thing, it rises on another.  I have plans for new ways to be useful to my community.  More on that soon. 

          

     



      

   

Rats!

I'm sick again.  Not moving fast enough on lowering my stresses to suit my stomach, I guess.  There is a thing called Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome.  Think that might be what I have, and am currently unfortunately in a cycle.  That or the Porphyria acting in a new ways.  Or the multiple chemical sensitivity.  Maybe it's all the same thing.  Whatever it is, I lost the will to live some time late on Saturday night, but my usual resilience is working hard to spring me back.  I'm improving but not feeling very bloggy today.

I've still found a little energy for music, mostly very low key practicing of my new Anglo-Saxon Harp song about the messages of the trees.  It's coming along really well.

Oh yes it is!  Or the right notes in the case of the lyre!   Thank goddess for music!   

I've also used some of my down time to get further onto that final proof-read on the print copy of Land of Giants.  I know that my covers aren't very in vogue, what with all the blended photo-shopped images they use currently, but oh how I do love this cover.   It is such a joy to pick up. The swirling blues of it delight my eyes. 

  
What doesn't delight my eyes is all these folded corners.

Yep, every one of those is a typoe, at least one.  All I can say is, never do a proof-read when you have just had an operation!  Can't believe what I missed!  Yikes!

Ah well, there is a reason why I like to do my final proof-read on a printed copy; you can definitely see more in print.  It just usually isn't this scary!

Speaking of scary, I was worried that our local bees in the big Marri tree might move out when the smoke from our burn blew across their hive.  It got pretty smoky at times! 

Great pic by Phil.  Thanks Phil! 

Luckily they seem fine.

Can you see the yellow combs in the black area high up in the tree?  I could see bees flying in and out, but had to blow up the pic to see the bees en mass, still gathering at the base of the exposed combs.

There are so many!  Wonder if they are planning a swarm soon?  Seems very late in the summer for it, but the season has been so odd.  Rain and cooler temps have allowed many spring plants to flower again in autumn, so perhaps it is a very flush year for them.  Good luck on your journey if so, you brave bees!

At least here in Oz, winter is a good time for feeding because of all the Wattles and such that flower then.  They won't do badly as long as they can find good shelter.  Still can't believe that this hive has done so well exposed on the outside of the branch like that.



  

       

       

It's good To Be Home.

Day 5 after my operation and I'm beginning to feel a bit more like myself.  Did a little leatherwork today, tinkered on my lyre last night, things like that.

It was an interesting experience for someone who has hardly been to hospital in her life.  I last had an operation back when i was about 15 and that was just exploratory. A few stops by due to horse-related injuries, and then the one when i reacted to Penicillin the first time at 18.  That was fun.  Since those days I've become sensitized to so many things, and it is a credit to my Gyno and Anesthetist's research and care that I didn't react to a single drug they gave me, which was my great fear going in.  Acute Porphyria is no joke.  It can stay forever once triggered so it is well worth trying to avoid (think of the madness of King George.)

As you can see, like most people I was looking my best post op (Thank you Andrew, Dear One, for taking this.)

Look at me all pretty in matching blue.  :D  Actually I felt pretty good unless I sat up, at which time i got the woozies and felt sick. That has taken a few days to slowly get better.  I mostly dozed and did crosswords, which I found easier than trying to maintain concentration to read.

Actually, I did react to something in the hospital... the food!  I am told it is always pretty crappy there, and i do have food restrictions that make it harder, but really, who still makes food likes this?

One of those white lumps is rice and the other one is 'steamed chicken'.  I have never tried to eat anything so horrible in my life, it wouldn't even go down my throat properly, and that chicken pales to insignificance compared to the grey 'grilled steak' which replaced it, also with rice and veg, for dinner.  I have no idea what they did to the steak before they 'grilled' it... buried it underground for a hundred years perhaps, but it not only made me react, it didn't do Andrew any good when he ate what I couldn't.  Yeesh!  Good health is partly good food, and surely better food would make people heal better?  Luckily we took in lots of supplies from home, so when things like non-gluten-free toast arrived for my breakfast (I knew because it smelled too much like real bread and sure enough it was) I could turn to our own supplies instead.

The best thing about all of this, apart from my lovely hubby and sister who kept me company in hossie?  Going into this thing with my support crew of spiritual guardians.  I could feel them around me as I went into the dark of anesthesia, and on that first afternoon as I was still waking up and feeling so sore and sick, there were ravens outside the window calling.  I kid you not.  My window looked out onto a small garden between wings of the hospital, and outside were calling ravens.  Not coastal suburban birds like seagulls or pigeons, or swallows, or even the ubiquitous magpies, but ravens.  There is one calling outside the cottage right now as I type this.  Hail Odin!

              
  

A Little Creativity and a Lot of Bleagh

I have to take iron tablets, and the tablets make me feel crappier than anemia does. Such is the life of someone post Lyme Disease whose body is still sensitized to every damn thing.

Ah well, I naughtily didn't take an iron tablet yesterday just to give me a rest from feeling half-dead, and it was a blissful day indeed!

One thing I was very pleased to get done was this drawing for the Mundaring VFRS cadets' t-shirt/hoodie. It is to go inside a shield and some other lettering and such but the drawing for the design had to be done first.

Not sure, think I'll add raised visors to the helmets, and the hoses need adjusting, but on the whole, I'm ready to take it on to the ink stage, and then we can scan it and play in GIMP with it to make sure it looks good as white ink on navy.  Might go for dramatic lighting and shapes rather than line, not sure yet.  I did a lot of scribbling to get the poses right.

 The cadets wanted it to be serious, so serious I did it.

I've also been able to do a bit more crocheting on the current secret Amigurumi.  I always love this stage.  They look so surprised!

Hee hee.  Poor surprised little Amigurumi.  I wonder what he will become?  (I know of course, but I can leave you wondering!) 

It was cold enough for a fire last night.  Might be tonight too, but after that I won't be surprised if we close up the potbelly for the summer.

The dogs won't appreciate that!

 

Wish me luck, I have a rough few weeks ahead of me with medical stuff, and no easy choices available.  It is a lonely place to be in.    

    

     

Whippersnipping.

I've been doing a lot of it.  Apparently its an Aussie thing to call it whipper snipping and it amuses other people.  Brush cutting is what I am really doing since my tool is a bit stronger than the average line strimmer.  Anyway, I've done a lot of it this week, then some of this to recover: Sitting in my folding chair while the dogs pant and recover from all the mousing madness they do while I am busy.  

I was lucky enough to find this when I was under a tree whipper snipping on Wednesday.

It's a tiny nest, the size of my palm, so neatly hidden away, though considering it was only waist-high on me, I do wonder if they managed to safely raise their brood in it!

These pretty blue flowers are coming up in the paddock, patches of colour in what is already mostly dry brown grass.   I'd look them up in my naive plant book but mum currently has it. 

Another day of whipper snipping, another recovery time in the shade!
 

I need the recovery time. Just been told by the doc that my ferritin and hemoglobin is stupidly low.  Don't know how I'm still walking around.  If you know a Lymie, don't go assuming that they are weak.  I may currently have nothing but pink water in my veins, but I still feel better than I did in the bad old lyme days!

Fingers crossed I can tolerate the iron supp I am trying out of desperation.  It is so hard when you react to every damned thing.

Guess who was waiting for us when we came back from the block?  Can you see him under the tree there?  Cyrano is not one of those aloof cats.  He is weird, sure, they all are, but he also loves his people and misses us when we go out.      

 Speaking of aloof, I had to get a photo of this rare event.  Tuppy snuggling!

    
We currently have our old mattress on the floor while we try out a new one, and the dogs think it is great. 

So does the cat.  He reckons every floor should be a nice big squishy bed for cats!

The other thing I did this week was finish painting the new frame Andrew made for this dragon I did for my sis, Jen, many years ago.     

I still have a kangaroo hide lanyard to make, and have volunteered to do a design for the local fire and rescue cadets for their new t-shirts.  Bored?  Me?  Never!

A Winter Walk or Two

This morning it was a little drizzly on our walk, so we got to walk with a rainbow nearly the whole way.

It's the walk we call Mundaring Sharing, because it's in the reserve right next to the local community learning centre of the same name.   It's a favorite of the dogs because a lot of other dogs get walked there and roos and other beasties visit too, so there are plenty of good smells to be had.   It's got some lovely trees too.

We had it all to ourselves today, but Tuppy still stayed on her long lead.  It's just less stressful all round that way.  Too bad Tuppy!  Between running off following her nose and being a snippy bitch to dogs we meet, she really shouldn't be off lead.  I just tell myself that if we had a Greyhound or some other sighthound breed, we wouldn't have them off lead either.  While Tuppy is all Labrador, somehow she also turned out half Whippet.  :)

This is one of my favorite trees along the way.  A grand old Jarrah.   I call these type of trees petticoat trees, because it looks like they've lifted up their skirts to show their ankles.  :D

Those gaps through the trees are perfect liminal spaces. If you ever meditate and want to go deeper, find a tree like this in your inner landscape and pass through the gap.  Doorways, windows, tunnels and like work too, but I find these petticoat trees extra helpful.

Yesterday I left the dogs at home and did a divinatory walk as part of my Shaman studies, which I am currently doing to deepen my Ovate studies. I am lucky enough to be OBOD tutored by Mike Williams, who is also the author of this fantastic book, "Follow the shaman's Call: An Ancient Path for Modern Lives" so I'm taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity and getting his feedback as I work through his book.

It was a very different experience to the usual stroll or march with the dogs.   You walk keeping your attention your surroundings, city or country, and keep a question in mind such as ," Should I change jobs?" or "What path will lead to my greatest contentment?" or some such.  Then you find three things along that way that are obvious signs in answer to your question.

It certainly put me into a very interesting mental state as I walked.  I had six signs that I could not narrow down to three.  Of course part of the way it works is that what you see and what you are keeping in mind gel together and give you new insights that were probably just waiting for the space to get into your foremind anyway, but however it works, it's very well worth a try!

I wanted to know how to further my healing, which seems not to be moving forward just now, especially my digestive system/liver due to some crappy bouts of Porphyria.  These were my signs:

A huge old Marri tree bleeding in spots all over from the invasion of canker.

A very annoying dog who barked and barked at me as I walked the long fence-line beside its property, whether I ignored it or spoke nicely to it.

A property sign on a log that read, "Newhope Farm."

A very, very maggoty dead Quenda (Bandicoot.) (Euuwwwww!)

This one looks much prettier than the one I found!

I also saw:

A pair of elderly neighbours sitting on logs and having a peaceful chat over the fence between their properties.

A pair of White-tailed Black cockatoos peacefully eating honky nuts right above me in the tree, when I'd actually stopped to watch their flock-mates chaotically flying and calling all over the valley.  Looking up and suddenly seeing the big birds so close was quite a moment.  Usually they fly away if you get near them, but instead they just watched me and went about their business while I stood and enjoyed observing them so closely.  I guess I'd been quiet enough not to seem a threat.

This is what I was hearing.  There were birds in the trees and flying all over the valley. 

    


I don't think the messages for me there were too hard to read, though I'm still pondering the horribly dead Quenda!!!!   :P  Give it a try some time!  All in all, it was a very peaceful and insightful exercise that connected me wonderfully to place and to 'other' as well.

For crochet, I'm messing with these little daisy granny squares from Bunny Mummy.  I'm going to make my middle niece a 'pasture afghan,' since she loves green so much.  I'm going to do big squares in different types of green, with a flower in the middle of each.

I couldn't find anything quite like what I'm picturing when I googled, so will be interesting to see how it looks in the end. 
          







             

Busy Busy

Writing has been going well. My sort of novel makes for a very odd website history, though.  This week I've searched for the mating and fighting habits of turtles, how to sail in low wind, giant ground sloths, and many other fun things that would reveal too much if I told you about them!

All that weird knowledge didn't seem to do me any good when we went out to a quiz night with some other brigade members last weekend, though.

I must admit that while it was fun, the noise, perfume and whatever gave me a mostly mild bout of acute porphyria when I got home.  Had the chills and shakes and upset tummy but didn't get to my brain this time, thank goodness. Still meant for a pretty bad night.  Not fun, but I've just got to take some chances if I am to have any sort of life.

Training was fun at the brigade last Saturday.  We had a little turnout race. Which team could get into two vehicles, get out to the pretend fire, and deploy hoses. We lost but we did go first, so the second team learned from our mistakes.  :)

This is me trying to reach into the Light Tanker for a flat hose.  Shortness is a disadvantage in some cases, no doubt about it.  Still, I hardly ever bang my head on anything because someone taller has already done so and fixed it!
 

When I was looking for Nermal photos, I found these old pics I thought I'd lost, of Tam and Buffy and our pool at the last house.

It brought back a lot of memories for me.  Amazing to think that Tam wouldn't swim at all when she came to us at six months. We certainly did a good job of getting her happier with water.

It was a bit of a dangerous game though!  

A new things I've added to my days is learning Anglo-Saxon on Memrise.  It's been fun. I just have to do it, what with playing the Anglo-Saxon lyre and all. I'd like to be able to sing at least a couple of songs on my lyre in that language.  Not that I ever expect to get at good as Benjamin Bagby, or sound as marvelous! 

He gives me goosebumps!  I can now pick out a few words that I know. I hope to be able to read/listen to it all eventually. I do love the sound of it so much.  The lyre, the language.  All of it.  Interesting where learning can lead you, isn't it!