Celebrate

I felt like I had a good balance this year of spending time with my sweetheart and time to myself. Yesterday was Beltane proper. My sweetheart and I spent some time poking around the local markets before heading off to a movie. We took a lovely walk at dusk and had a good heart to heart.

Today I spent the morning rereading an old favourite of mine and spent some time in the afternoon doing some contemplating. It was lovely.

The roses in the neighbourhood are spectactular at the moment. A friend of mine brought me a huge bunch from her garden the other day and they are currently decorating my desk. They’re a little past their prime now, but when they first arrived they looked like a wedding bouquet. My study smells glorious.

The weather has been quite hot. I can certainly see why the Celts thought of Beltane as the first day of summer—it certainly feels like it here. The wonderful greenery around here is starting to turn brown, though the lawn is still going berserk. It’s such a contrast to last Beltane, which was overcast and cool.

at my local community centre this saturday

having beer and going abroad, relaxing more – i have a lot to be proud of, i have stuck at salsa dancing on and off for 2 years. passed 3 karate grades, had a full drivers licence for over 1 year (and been driving for 5 months so far without any accidents. i have 5 gcse’s and i have managed to live totally independently for over 2 years now in my own place. pluse i managed to totally give up alcohol for 4 and a half years (although this was perhaps my downfall and lead to me losing friends in the process)

also i have kep the same friends for several years and held down jobs for a year

September is one crazy month. I’ve managed to celebrate about five different birthdays so far. Some merely required dinner out with friends. One entailed a visit to my sister for a few hours. It was a nice, relaxed visit with passionfruit cheesecake. She does shift work, so it was great we could catch up and that she had the day off. My sweetheart also had the week off for his birthday. We took it easy, went to the local flower festival, had a walk in one of the state parks, had a family dinner. It was great to see him relax.

I was also bridesmaid at my mum’s wedding. I had a fantastic time, getting to wear my gorgeous dress and catch up with lots of old friends of the family. Mum looked wonderful and was clearly very happy.

Ostara is today and after everything that has been happening, I decided to have a very low key celebration. Some less than pleasant weather had me foregoing the ramble in the hills I had planned in favour of some downtime inside.

It cleared up enough for me to have a walk around the front and back yard, as I have been doing lately. The trees all have green shoots and my flower bed is a riot. I picked some irises, bluebells and freesias for my altar to go with the gemstones—moonstone, bloodstone, rose quartz and tourmaline quartz. There’s jasmine oil in the burner.

My mum and stepdad dropped by for a visit this afternoon, having just returned from their honeymoon in Hawaii. They were full of lots of interesting stories and I had a wonderful time just listening to them all.

Tonight I’m off to watch anime with a bunch of friends.

Going to go do a pedicure and manicure on myself now! If I can’t reach my toes very well then hubby gets to paint them for me tonight! :-)

loves my baby bump.

There’s a strong possibility that I’ll be moving house quite soon and so I’ve decided to start celebrating Discardia a bit early this season. I’ve already made a start on cleaning out one of my boxes of stuff. I probably haven’t been as ruthless as I could have been, but the knowledge I might have to pack it all up soon has been helping. I feel lighter already.

My parents’ 40th anniversary is tomorrow. The 40th anniversary is a biggie, right? So why are there so few cards for it? And why are the cards that are available crappy ones?

Normally I buy cards at Walgreens. I don’t require fabric, ribbons, or glued-on geegaws – just something heartfelt without being cheesy. (Sometimes funny, though it seems more and more the only person I buy funny for is R.) But Walgreens had one 40th anniversary card, so I went elsewhere. Target, in fact. They had more of a selection, but nothing like I had in mind. I was also disappointed in their selection of gift wrap; the best I could find was a no-frills red paper bag – no glossy finish or even finished edges. The only cool bags were for birthdays, weddings, and baby showers…none of which had quite the tone I was going for.

So I braved the Hallmark store. That place sets my sinuses off terribly. (What is it in there that stinks so bad? And why would anyone want their homes to smell like that?) It’s so crowded with kitschy crap that you can barely find the floor, let alone the cards. You’re welcomed by a sugary-sweet, disembodied voice originating somewhere in the midst of all that kountry kouture, and end up responding to the shelving, hoping you’ve at least guessed the general direction of the girl’s location accurately.

I guess you could say I hate the Hallmark store.

Anyway, desperate for a decent card and gift bag, I resort to Hallmark. Would you believe they didn’t have much better? Nothing in the meager gift bag/wrapping paper selection worked for me, and they had a whopping three cards, all of which were awful. I finally managed to find a serviceable one behind one of those 40th Anniversary shelf tags, and swiped a correct-sized envelope from another card slot. And went back to Walgreens for a gift bag; I settled for a plain red (glossy, finished edges, but nothing special) bag and black-and-white floral tissue paper.

So, not at all what I’d had in mind. I would have settled for something mildly glittery, but all of those were birthday bags.

Do we not celebrate anniversaries anymore? I saw a few more cards for 25th and 50th, and Hallmark even had cards for each milestone, in increments of 5, from 5th to 45th. But usually only one card for each. And each store had customizable (pick the year) cards, which would have worked but felt too impersonal. I know the divorce rate is high, but doesn’t that mean we should put more effort into celebrating the ones who manage to stay married? I mean, what gives?

I know…this stuff isn’t really all that important. But my parents are not exchanging presents until they see what her insurance pays on the heart cath she had yesterday, so my present may be all they get. I want it to look good!

I shall wind up this rant now, and go wrap the present.

I’ve been a bit depressed lately, so Imbolc has come like a breath of fresh air. The weather has been doing its best to amuse me: sunny and warm one minute, cloudy and cold the next. It seems to be the way of Imbolc.

Nevertheless, it has the distinct feeling of spring this year. It has been quite a mild winter—we’ve barely gone below freezing. There are definitely more flowers out this year than last. The snowdrops and starflowers are out in my garden, the blossoms started early and my lavender has a few flowers. There are violets in other gardens that look so gorgeous I’m tempted to get some for my own.

I spent quite a bit of time outside today. I looked at the sky and marvelled at the intensity of its colour. I wrestled with the honeysuckle that is trying to take over my blossom bush. I went for a walk around my front and backyard to check in on how everything is doing.

No seasonal meal tonight, but I have had a bit of orange and poppy seed cake and a milkshake. My altar is looking gorgeous with a new white cloth. It shows up the colours of the gemstones—carnelian, garnet and amethyst. There’s a small vase of flowers from my garden and some gardinia oil in the burner.

The energy of Imbolc is turning up in the people around me, too. I’ve been invited to two housewarming parties for tomorrow night.

I still haven’t celebrated Discardia, though I have recently put some effort into cleaning my study. I think I shall let the holiday pass me by. Ostara is on its way next, bringing with it a spring edition of Discardia, so I shall simply wait for its arrival.

Now I’m off to write a love letter to my sweetheart.

Of all the holidays, I struggle with Yule the most. I didn’t manage a seasonal meal or any kind of formal celebration, but I still had a nice time nonetheless.

My sweetheart and I went out to the markets. There’s a permanent place there that sells fresh orange juice. This time around they also had mulled wine, apple cidar and a hot lemon, honey and ginger mix. I don’t know whether it was a winter thing or just for the solstice, but I treated myself to some of the honey, lemon and ginger. It must have been one of the tastiest things I’ve ever drunk. I also came away with a lovely journal cover in purple leather embossed with Celtic designs. The grey bearded man that served me was very sweet and gave me some tips on looking after it.

I had a chance to do some reflecting yesterday, which was lovely. I took a walk around my front and back yard, checking on all the plants and making sure that everything was going well. Amusingly, the blossom bush already has buds even though the coldest part of winter was still to come. There was a heavy fog, so I didn’t get up to watch the sun rise.

My study has been decked out for a week now. The appropriate sabbat banner is up, along with some tinsel hanging off my bookshelf. My ivy wreath didn’t want to cooperate this year, so I used some more tinsel to bind it. There was pine essential oil in my burner and starstone, garnet, sunstone and citrine on my altar.

Discardia was due to finish today, but I haven’t yet celebrated it. There has been too much going on for me to give it any attention. I’m very thankful that Discardia is such a flexible holiday. I plan to start next week, when things are a little quieter.