Just found a really interesting site that I am finding really useful for exploring color and design - www.colourlovers.com It's another of those community sites... but very interesting in what you can do with colors and patterns. I have been finding it inspiring and practical! It is sloooowwwww, but if you have a cable internet connection (we have high speed satellite, which is much faster than dial up but not as fast as cable), it shouldn't be too bad - might be a pain on dial up. Anyway, I know lots of us here are artistic and we love our colors and such....enjoy. I am there under Niamh :)
Other than that, have a beautiful weekend! Lots to do here, but I am hoping to do a bit of posting :) Also, am doing healing dance, as always on Saturday night, if you need anything. :)
Out walking yesterday, my brother met me on the road with the sad news that one of our beloved Percherons, Jewel died sometime the night before. He wasn't sure exactly what happened. She did have a few minor breathing issues. but was otherwise okay. She will be missed! She was generally a friendly, though shy horse and her partner, Pearlie was the more outgoing one. I do know Pearlie will miss her - those two were very tight partners!! A small quiet rite to bless her passage to the land of the Ever Young was last night's business, and I have the distinct feeling she will be happy there...;)
The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.
The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.
So I managed to get out last night to a public full moon ritual - I have to say it was really well done :) I generally observe full moon on my own - I haven't really done a group full moon since I stopped priestessing for a dear friends wiccan coven. Formal full moon celebration has little to do with my path as a druid, but I do feel personally drawn to it as a woman and a pagan in general. It was really nice to get out!! This was a different group than the one I normally meet with. Hehe, I wound up calling a quarter, which was funny - I haven't called a quarter in about 10 years :) (once again, druid - it has no place in my tradition), but I did it and the ceremony was really nice. We are fortunate to have a good sized pagan population in this area, so you can really find a variety of people and traditions. Anyway, it was a good time. And I did see a familiar face too, from my other group :) cool stuff!
So that ws my full moon :) I will probably be in and out on covenspace today, as I catch up some house work, refresh my profile and make my friends rounds :) - which is something I have been dying to do, but this is a shared computer and I often get booted off before I am able to make my greetings to every one. Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!!
We have been lucky enough to have had a brief respite from high temps and humidity, though today is expected to change that... but things have been beautiful here otherwise - plants are happy and growing exuberantly and the critters have plenty to eat and drink :) Farmwise, the sheep look rather shocking without their heavy fleeces :) hehe. There is an abundance of beautiful wildflowers here and one of my favorites, dogbane, is in bloom all along the sides of the road right now :) We have tons of raspberries ripening up and shortly, I wil be making a trip to Grafton to pick blueberries :) Critterwise, I saw an interesting little fellow on the road the other day, a kangaroo mouse. Cute little thing!! They hop about on large back feet (actually, they are considered to be bipeds) with a long tail - they are rather wee and terribly cute :) Here is a pic I found on line : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kangaroo-rat.jpg
Other than that things have been quiet, the frogs look good (frogs are an important indicator of how the local environment is going) - they are plentiful and healthy and reproducing nicely ;) The deer are looking well too - there are quite a few very healthy does that I have seen, though not as many fawns as I'd like to see. The turkeys are happy and I saw a bevy of quail the other day :) soooooo beautiful - the male had his tail displayed beautifully and was strutting back and forth on his log, holding court...wonderful! Also, lots of bluebirds!! Which is a very good thing. So that's what has been going on here. Am just getting over a vicious sickness of some sort. It was a little more than a cold - it sucked! So I have been quiet. But getting plenty of design work done, yea! I hope you all are having a beautiful weekend :)
