Monday, August 27, 2012

The full moons a commin! The blue moons a commin!

And what am I doing for the Blue moon this weekend?
Trying to sleep because I have to wake up and drive early the next morning. That's right I need to drive across the province for my 2 week vacation/ wedding planning/ visiting relatives.
Hopefully my car will be fixed by then, because so far the shop is having a hard time finding the parts it needs.

That reminds me *note to self phone the shop for update on car today*

Well what will everyone else be doing? Well L is driving with me and C of ravens is looking after our animals. I have no clue who else is doing what though.

Maybe someone can leave a comment about what they're doing this weekend?

Blessed Be
~Flaming

Friday, August 24, 2012

fall gardening

Does it sound odd to you that I'm having a gardening post so close to fall. You know the non growing season?

Well don't be scared I'm not sowing my seeds just yet, but I am still preparing my containers for next year.

I don't want to be in such a rush to get things done in spring so I do what I can in fall to streamline things. And with a container garden this can be easy, though you can do some of these things in a regular garden as well.

I just got back in from filling some pots with compost and small organic material for next spring. As pots become available due to fall death and harvest I can add the old soil into a compost heap for over wintering and refill these pots with matured compost that I had going over the year. This accomplishes 3 things,
1) I don't rush to fill everything in spring so I need only to add seeds/saplings.
2)The rich soil gets to freeze in uncovered or insulated containers during -40°C winters. This helps kill any harmful bugs/virus/bacteria that may have gotten into the compost during the year.
3) Allows me to compost previously used soils with other organics to re-enrich them for the next year (is re-enrich a word?).

you know what else you can do in fall?
Buy cheap seeds.
Seeds are usually good for up to 5 years (some types are exceptions but meh those are usually good for 2-3 years). Just check the package date on your seeds and you can stock up on cheap clearance seeds for the spring. Other gardening tools and items are also on sale during the fall so stock up if you have space. Anything that needs assembly or preparation can be done in fall so it is ready to go come spring.

re-organize your space during fall for less damage to plants as moving your pots around in spring can damage or stress your plants causing them to lose their fruit/flowers. And again it lightens the load to move around empty pots.

Fertilize your pots in fall so that the soil is rich for your seedlings. This can also prevent fertilizer burn if done properly because you are allowing time for fertilizer to spread out in the soil instead of being concentrated in one spot.


See plenty of things out can do to make spring less busy.


Blessed Be
~Flaming

Friday, August 17, 2012

it's weird

it's weird when I wake up for work at 4 in the morning and see that I have 2 blogger visits already today.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

learning new systems, taking your time vs. jumping head first

Before I start typing much of anything I'm going to have to admit this.
My teaching style is next to non existent. I believe than one should learn 90%+ of the material on their own and discover it for themselves while the left over 10%- should be questions that the person is truly stuck on and has exhausted most if not all personal options. This ~10% needs a push from a peer or "teacher" to get the ball rolling again.
Why do I think this way?
Well in many cases (I can't quote an exact #) people learn both faster and learn more detail about the stuff they find out on their own through their own research and curiosity while people who are forced into lecture tend to have info go in one ear and out the other (think high school).
As long as there is someone available to help in tough times and to guide a person towards a safe path then there should be no problem in the student learning through their own means.

Now here's the story,

C of Ravens bought a new tarot deck this week and has/had no clue how to use them. He came to me to be taught and honestly I know that he is capable of learning on his own, after finding the book that came with the deck in his pocket (which he swears he never put there) he just started trying to do readings on L and himself.
Now avoiding the celtic cross because of it's complexity and the fact the C never really tried to understand tarot before, I suggested doing one card a day to get to know his deck better and to build a relationship with his deck (you know a small suggestion here and there never hurt anyone). C then continued to do a spread for L that I honestly didn't pay attention to because I was reading a book on the next couch. That spread was a bit complicated for C because he had/has no understanding on what his cards are trying to say to him so obviously trying to read this spread took over an hour with minimal results.
But that's ok! still a learning experience and I done the exact same thing when I was learning the first time, but I had a contrary deck while C has what seems to be a more understanding deck.

After this long spread he took it down a notch to a 3 card fan which worked a bit better, but by now he was noticing a pattern, so me and L injected the suggestion that maybe his cards and himself were speaking 2 different languages and that they needed to learn how to communicate with each other first before doing large readings.

Now he's doing the 1 card a day reading in the mornings to get to know his deck better.

Yeah it took him longer to figure out that the 1 card a day was a little easier system to get to know his cards better but he learned it on his own and he will remember it better from here on out.
Much better than doing homework and having the "what if's"

There is a difference between jumping head first and taking your time and while the vast majority of people would rather do it now, this approach tends to leave a lot of decks and other items gathering dust when the person deems it too hard to do.
and yes taking your time is usually better because you gain a greater understanding of the items you are working with.
But there are exceptions and I encourage people to try what ever may work better for them (under proper supervision of course, as some things may be dangerous).

Blessed Be
~Flaming



Friday, August 10, 2012

and I went missing, sorry

I got a job this month that has me working ~10 days at a time with more than 8 hours a day...That is why I missed the corn moon and Lammas.

So yes great news, I am working again. This change for this month will have me open to update every 2 weekends. Bad news? The job contract expires at the end of the month, so I might be out of a job in September.

Now about the last full moon and Lammas. I'll post another piece on that and see if I can change the date to a previous one instead.


Another thing happened this week...I overdosed on ginger. My monthly was taking longer than normal and in an attempt to speed things along I increased my ginger intake a bit too much.


How do you know if you've had too much ginger?
easy you spend the next 12 hours on the toilet defecating non stop.  Harmless but annoying and stinky.


well blessed be
~Flaming

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Lammas and the corn moon

Lucky this year that Lammas and the corn moon landed on the same day.  roll everything up and work some powerful shit now because you have a lot at your disposal when two days like this collide.

Depending on where you live the corn moon can either be in august or September and it is pretty self explanatory. The corn will be ready soon.

For those of you who call this the sturgeon moon it's because they are easier to catch this month.

For those who call it the red moon it's because in some parts of the world the moon looks red in the morning due to the haze created when the sun rises.

And last but not the least in my mind is the name grain moon, similar to the corn moon the grain is also almost ready for harvest.

Lammas, well time for one of the harvest festivals I guess. Grain is the crop I will focus on because I love baking breads. various types of breads and sweet baked treats are delicious this time of year. This is a cross quarter between the solstice and the equinox. various places and people will be doing different things to celebrate while I'll be working.

All the seeds I have planted so far this year have come to fruit in the form of a new job. It's only a month long contract but it is still right on time. I need to thank the powers that be (gods and goddesses) for helping me in this and also celebrate with some good eats.


Oh and though I'm not growing corn or grains it is almost time to harvest my tomatoes.




Blessed Be
~Flaming