Gaian Tarot Artist's Journal

Last Night's Full Moonrise

We sat on the beach for three hours or more, watching in awe as the huge orange orb rose in the southeastern sky.   She shimmered and danced for us as the tide went out in ripples and waves.  Her reflection on the water sometimes looked like an undulating snake and sometimes like a bellydancer,   We sang to Her, and in response Sister Heron came flying out of the darkness to circle round between Her in the sky and us on the beach.  Later we were graced by the presence of Owl and Bat and Mouse.  We lifted our stones nestled in a clamshell up to Her and asked for boons to be granted.  We thanked Her for the blessings of our lives.  We giggled and laughed and played in the warm water.   We left before midnight with our hearts very full.

The Bounty of Summer

The morning's stash from the Farmers Market — who could resist?  An island friend was selling his produce and said he'd be stir-frying up new potatoes, sugar snap peas and garlic tops for dinner — we moaned and bought his peas and garlic to go with the potatoes and salmon we have at home.  Radishes for Craig's tacos and Rainier cherries from the other side of the mountains at $10 a pound — ouch.  But oh, so sweet. With every bite we remember we're supporting an organic farm family who've had a rough spring.

And this has nothing to do with summer or good food but I just want to thank Arwen for such a lovely review of this blog.  It's really something, sometimes, to "see ourselves as others see us" (a nod to Robbie Burns).  Thank you Arwen!

Prayer Flags in the Rain

 . . . as seen from my studio deck just now.

You know it's Midsummer when . . .

. . . there are blossoms and falling leaves at the same time.

Offering to the Queen of Summer

Moments of Grace: Summer Solstice Sunrise

Moment of Grace: First Wild Roses of Summer

Summer's Here!

It's a glorious morning . . . 70 degrees now and going up to 82, they say.  Can you believe how thrilled we are? Remember, it was snowing here less than a month ago.

I'm having a grand time getting to know my new "secret spot", aka my new back yard.  I know my herbs and my native plants pretty well, but I don't know most of the ornamentals that are planted here.  So it is great fun to watch things bud and bloom, and try to figure out what they might be.   

Instead of herons, we have quite a neighborhood of Steller's jays, and we've watched Deer and Raccoon roam through our yard.   Lots of LBB's too (the ubiquitous Little Brown Birds).

I'm going to take my art supplies outside and spend the day there.

Cleo and I are very excited!

A Trillium for May Day

Craig and I went for a walk in the woods last week on Earth Day and came across the first trilliums of Spring.  I offer this photo today, for May Day.  Trilliums are somewhat rare, delicate and evanescent so it is always a thrill to come across them in the woods.

We were up a bit late last night celebrating May Eve (amaretto! yum!) and this morning dawned overcast and cool.  I missed washing my face in dew — raindrops had to do.   

Here's a few posts of mine from May Days past:

2004:  The First of May
2005:  May Morning
2006:  Songs for Beltane
2007:  A Blessed Beltane

May is here!   Blessed be!

Random Thoughts on Earth Day

(Earth Day morning!  This is the same view as the photo I took two days ago. Welcome Spring!)

I have a few thoughts and links for you today, on Earth Day 2008.

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, makes a good case in this NY Times editorial for why we should bother to “go green” these days, in the face of discouragement and despair that whatever we do won’t be enough to turn the tide of global climate change. 

It’s about a change in consciousness. 

“Sometimes you have to act as if acting will make a difference, even when you can’t prove that it will,”  Pollan writes.   “That, after all, was precisely what happened in Communist Czechoslovakia and Poland, when a handful of individuals like Vaclav Havel and Adam Michnik resolved that they would simply conduct their lives ‘as if’ they lived in a free society. That improbable bet created a tiny space of liberty that, in time, expanded to take in, and then help take down, the whole of the Eastern bloc.”