Happy Halloween! (Cookie's third b-day)

The front porch looking spooky.
Lily preparing Cookie's birthday meal.

Creepy pumpkin and beautiful walkways.

Organizing the loot at a friend's house.  

Our annual Halloween portrait.

Lil and Cook

nap on the warm front porch.

Sleepy Pair

Dozing in the lazy boy.

Crag mountain

We hiked up nearby Crag Mountain. It felt so good to be able to scurry up the ledges and get to the top without worrying about my back.  It was beautiful to look out at the horizon.

Cookie made a friend. They played so vigorously I thought they might plummet off the mountain!

A partridge berry; bright red among the brown leaves.  Below are a cluster of partridge berries. Partridge eat them in winter, digging them out from under the snow.

 

 This is wintergreen with its bright red berry that's juicy and tastes like a spongy mint.

Georgia taking some field notes of a squirrel.

Garlic and Arts

This was our first time going to the Garlic and Arts festival. It was great fun. Lots of low-tech activities and delicious food.

Kitties

Stopping by Upingill for milk and a kitty fix.

They've got some sweet new cats that bound around the farm and let themselves be cuddled.

Sleeping on a mountain

It was Sunday night, but we had the day off Monday, so we booked a night at a local cabin. We were busy and disorganized all weekend, so we had to run up the mountain with our pillows as the sun went down. The cabin has no electricity or heat, which seems charming on a warm night, but it was going to be cold and my 25 year old sleeping bag had disintegrated last year. I  just carried in my comforter and hoped not to freeze in the night.

We settled in quickly with our bags and pillows before we lost light then we made a fire.  It only took a few mysterious twig snapping sounds from outside the ring of warm light to make the girls ready to head inside and go to bed.  It was only about 8:30! I wanted to sit out and admire the full moon, but it was cloudy and cold, I was tired and the family kept worriedly opening the door to see if I was still there.

Night was long and I was cold for a while, but then the cabin warmed up enough for me to sleep.

A magnificent morning!  The sun was bright and warm.

Sweet fern was growing where they had recently cut down the trees.  I love the smell of it, it is sweet and grassy. The Native Americans used it for tea and for purification.
Here's the cozy cabin with the windows open.

We'll go back again in the spring.

Inanna's Crown class

http://www.jenniferposada.com/innanas-crown

Another amazing Class with Jennifer Posada.  Innana's journey down into the underworld and back.

Innana’s Crown: Journey Through the Seven Gates

A 7-Session Course by Telephone Conference
Once upon a time there was a Goddess, a Girl, who was known as the Queen of Heaven…  She was called Innana in Sumer, Ishtar in Babylon, and often merged with Isis in Egypt.  She loved to sit beneath the apple tree and revel in her “wondrous vulva”, she carried all the powers of the universe within her, and she bravely ventured to the underworld, the place where none had yet returned from…she set her sights on finding the greatest wholeness ever known… 
This is a wholeness we, following in her footsteps and at the same time newly creating our own path, can also find.  Hers is a royalty we can also know in ourselves…we too can attain our Queen’s throne and crown.  And we too can do it by walking from the bright light of day down into the darkest essence of creation and truth…
When Innana visited the underworld, she had to enter through seven gates, removing one article of clothing or adornment until she was completely naked.  This, too, is how we can return to the original state of our purity and power, our original soul design.  We will walk, in this course, with Innana…fully disrobing and moving through the death of the false self and into the rebirth into all that we truly are.  We too will then walk in the pure lightness that only comes from having faced the magical darkness, and therefore from containing its beauty forever in our hearts.
We will also discuss the power of Innana’s sexual mysteries and teachings, her secrets of embodiment and love of her wondrous breasts and vulva, her connection to all that is wild and uninhibited, her connection to the Sacredly Sexual Priestesses and to the very earliest temple rites that tied us to nature when we had begun to lose sight of that golden cord.  She will teach us to walk between the worlds of the old and the new, nature and the cities, the body and the heart, and to break free of every constraint that has held us back from flying free.  For to walk between these worlds and to fly free of these constraints is at the very heart path of the Priestess.  And Girl, Goddess, Priestess, Queen, Innana was and is, just as are you…
In This Course:
* Reclaim the ancient magic of your deep wholeness…and find out how your life can change when lived from that place…
* Shed and clear energies from your heart and body that no longer serve you on your path…
* Walk through the underworld of your true creative and restorative gifts…
* Explore the empowerments of the Seven Gates and discover the meaning of each one’s part in your liberation…
* Integrate your ancient gifts with your current life, and re-embody the Priestess that you are…
* Learn about the special sacredly sexual practices of the mysteries of Inanna and how they help you to access the Sacredly Sexual Priestess within you…
* Identify which submerged gifts are ready to be accessed in your life, and how to fully become the Priestess-Queen of your world, again, now…

Whale watch in Glouchester

Whales! it was a wonderful trip. After two hours our to sea we came to the ledge where they feed. Here's a mom and baby humpback.

Lily keeping an eye on the water.  Here's the humpback mom and baby again. See the baby blowing and her white fin is green under the water.

Here's a tail!

Here's a fin whale we saw just before we turned back towards home.

Here's more of the mama and baby beside the boat.

Another humpback that did some tail splashes for several minutes. It was very dramatic!

This one was playfully laying on its side and waving.

Here the girls were cold and tired as we headed back. It's a long four and a half hours.

I was dressed warmly and was glad for my hat.

Pulling into Gloucester harbor. We're hungry!

More Autumn flowers

Lily's favorite flowers. So bright!
Georgia walking through the zinnias.

Oh, these colors kill me! I can't believe a frost will come and these will be gone. It feels like it will be bright and warm forever.

Filling the vases with cold well water.

Sickie

 
 Georgia was home sick for a few days. Above is her variety of beverages (water, ginger ale and peppermint tea) with straws. The tissues were gutted quickly.  We spent most of the day sitting on the futon couch and watching TV.  Her fever was high and she didn't want me to leave her.

I got a new delivery of essential oils and they look and smell delicious!