Samhain

Lots more cleaning, tidying up and sorting out of stuff today. Have had a good ponder about where I want to be and what I want to do with the next year as well.

Was going to have a Samhain  bonfire outside tonight, but it came on to rain really hard, so have lit the woodburner instead :-)

I have burned some old documents (to symbolise the end of another year) and also the hop garland from my Green Man sculpture - and tomorrow he will get a new garland, probably of rushes or willow, to celebrate.

 

Sahmain/Halloween blessings to you all:-)

Halloween/Samhain preparations

Tomorrow is Halloween, the end of the old year for those who follow the Old Ways. A time for clearing out and tidying up and putting things to bed, ready to start afresh in the New Year.

I spent some of today digging and raking and composting and covering over raised beds; cleaning out pots in the polytunnel, cleaning out the chicken house and scrubbing their drinkers, decluttering rooms upstairs and looking at old documents;  sorting through "things", both real and in my thoughts.

I found it helpful to do this as while I got on with some hard physical work which needed doing, I also had time to let my thoughts drift, to muse and ponder on my life, how it is, how I would like it to be and how / if I can get the two things to be closer together.

Hopefully some good will come out of this exercise - even if it is only in the physical sense :-)

After a good meal of Roast pork and lots of lovely veg, and apple crumble to follow, along with cider ( all except the pork grown/made by us ) and a sit down in front of the woodburner to relax, watch a little TV and do some knitting, I am now about to go to bed. More pondering and tidying to do tomorrow, as well as a pumpkin to carve ( maybe!)

Update on Tabitha

Tabitha Cat now fully restored to health - hunting, purring, pushing us out of bed etc etc . All scabs fallen off, huge wound scab gone and new skin growing new fur :-)

Many thanks to Mike the vet, who did a wonderful job and saved her life.

Second life (online) musings

Am I the only person who behaves online to you, as I would if I were talking to you face to face?

I suspect not - but events lately have made me wonder.

I used to be a member of a "green" forum - (some of you may also be members of this forum, so I am not going to tell you the name, as I do not do that kind of thing, however much I might feel I want to!)

but...having been a moderator on this forum, which was a huge part of my online life for a long time, I found out by chance that a few of the other moderators held ( and had stated in a closed area of the forum) really rather nasty and wrong views about me - eg:-  that I was a compulsive liar; that I ignored my child so I could spend many hours a day online; that I made up or exaggerated stuff to make myself look more important - to put it in a nutshell  that I basically was an really rather unpleasant, lying  person... 

Some of these people have actually met me in real life and seen our set up here at Compost Mansions - I have exchanged gifts, sent birthday cards to them or  their children etc etc ...unusual I know but I actually have always been keen to offer my place for meet ups so have actually met quite a few of my blogging or forum "friends"

Anyway, I found out about this rather nasty stuff , which made me feel very upset and basically poisoned my interactions with these other people- and so I complained to the forum owner ( another erstwhile
"friend")

Did he help? Did he censure the other posters?  No - he  banned me -  for no good reason I can see other than I found out about all this and asked him about it in a series of  private messages.

AND- - after banning me he (admin /owner) then told my ( ex ) fellow mods that I left  -  NOT  TRUE - I was banned, with no warning, so I could not even retrieve my personal messages, emails, contact details of friends etc....

What an unkind thing to do to someone.

Sometimes I despair of the "online life" - it all seems so very petty and playground like!

Anyway - that is just one of the many reasons I have been inactive online recently - I was really very upset by this issue and the implications of it  and I also have had a load of stuff going on in my real life which is not very great, as well....Life is pretty shitty, sometimes.

Sometimes,despite the various upbeat sayings about it - if life deluges you with lemons there are just too many of them to make lemonade from - you just end up, instead, with bruises from the impact and sore skin all over, from the juice..