Ode to a Tree
My house is a little brighter today and not just because it is summer.
Yesterday the neighbor had a maple tree cut down that shaded almost
my entire house. In case you are imagining a gigantic tree let me explain
that I live in a mobile home park. There are larger trees in the woods
behind me so it was an average sized tree. (I’m not quite trailer
trash tho I do enjoy a good Nascar race and only occasionally wear heels
with cut offs (a’la Daisy Duke) but no porch couch!). The branches
of the tree actually extended the entire width of my roof, providing
shade and lowering my cooling bills. But the neighbor’s mom was
complaining about the roots that stuck up above the ground in his yard
and yes, they were a tripping hazard to her when she visited. The huge
roots are under both of our trailers....I mean mobile homes.....which
are on pillars and not cement slabs so they really were not doing any
damage. It was a pain to keep the tree trimmed so the branches didn’t
actually sit on my roof, my boyfriend said this was a bad thing for
some roof-maintenance reason. And I did worry about a larger branch
falling on my house and causing some damage.
But she wanted it gone so yesterday with a lot of noise that had Sandy
hiding most of the day, down it went. I was gone for most of it. They
cut the branches off first until there was just the center of the tree
left. I came home just as they cut that halfway down and with the use
of ropes, guided it to fall between our homes. Then he cut the trunk
in chunks until there is just a stump left. Next week they will remove
the stump and roots.
So goodbye to the majestic old tree that saw me move in to my house
13 years ago. It was loved by the neighbors who lived there when I moved
in, an older couple with a dog. The tree was there for her as she lost
the dog and husband. She moved a few years ago to be replaced by the
most annoying neighbor ever....well not ever but still annoying. When
he is not home, and that is quite often, his dog barks constantly. While
the tree had no opinion on this, I am quite annoyed. The tree often
made its presence known by dropping a branch on my roof, never one so
big to cause damage, just a friendly “hey, wake up in there”.
It kept the sun from being too bright in the mornings while I slowly
woke up to the new day.
Now when I am on my porch, it is weird to look up and see sky instead
of a canopy of branches. Its too open, too empty. There are no shadows
moving softly over my east facing windows, just steady bright light.
I feel as if a comforting, protective presence is missing from my home.
And I’m really going to miss the occasional sounds of squirrels
jumping off the tree onto my roof and chasing each other all around
up there.
Update: Now I'm really upset....the day they cut down the tree,
my neighbor went into the hospital. He is bi-polar and it seems he either
had an episode or something because he was confused and looked like
he'd been beat up (according to the person that found him). He is too
ill to return home so they are putting the place up for sale. That's
right, they forced the park to chop down a perfectly healthy tree and
now they are not even going to live there!
Announcements
We will be at Gibraltar
Trade Center in Mt. Clemens this weekend, June 25, 26, & 27
. This is the last Holistic show we will be at until September, so please
come on out and visit us. I am planning to have some new jewelry and
pendulums at the show for sale. I am also labeling some awesome quartz
crystal points to get them ready for the show. In the process I am learning
about what each feature on a quartz point means and how to ID them.
These quartz points are from Arkansas and will only be available at
shows.
**The show was so fun I didn't want it to end. Thank you to everyone
who came by to see us.
I plan on putting a page on
Infinite Flame’s site with the properties of the stones I sell
at shows. If you have purchased tumbled stones at a store like Earth
Lore or from some vendors, you may have gotten a small card with the
properties on it. This actually adds to the price of the stones as ink
and paper are not free. I prefer to keep the price of the stone lower
and save some paper and thus some trees. There are several books and
online sources already out there to find out the properties of stones,
I am adding this list to our site for convenience to customers and again...to
save some trees.
Infinite Flame is now on FaceBook! Yeah, yeah, so is almost everyone
else on the planet. I joined FaceBook earlier this year to figure it
out. I figured out that for most it is just a huge waste of time. There
are silly farms, zoos, and "gifts" you can send to friends.
I won’t put down the quizzes, they are fun to take. You can find
out which Goddess you are, what element you relate to, which Wizard
of Oz character are you (I was the Wicked Witch, my boyfriend was
Dorothy!! hmmm....might be a key to our relationship hee hee) even
what your stripper name would be.
It really is a great way to keep up with those you don’t see very
often. I have "friended" several people from the Gibraltar
shows and its a great way to keep in touch without adding to your already
packed email inbox. You can tell several people at once about what shows
are coming up (ok, that is specific to us vendors), exchange
ideas, family events, and even what song is going through your head.
You can link to an interesting article you found online to inform others
or to alert them to a cause or issue that is dear to your heart. And
you can link to your favorite LOL
Cat pic to share a laugh.
=^.^=
Business-wise, it is very useful. If you like a business...say Earth
Lore, Sacred
Sage, or us ...you can "like" them (this used to
be called becoming a "fan" but for some unknown reason
FaceBook decided "like" is a better term) and find
out about new products, sales, and all about the people who run the
business. There are famous people who keep pages too. I "like"
Jessica Galbreth, D. J. Conway and Silver Ravenwolf. Seriously, think
about it, you are actually communicating with your favorite author or
artist. You can ask them questions or just tell them how much you enjoy
their work. Awesome.
So join us on FaceBook
and be the first to hear about new products, shows, and we will have
specials offered only to FaceBook fans in the future. Just don’t
send us any "hugs" or ask us to help you with your "farm"
: )
I am trying to link the site to FaceBook but they don’t make
it easy. I’m not holding up this newsletter any longer so please
search for us when you are on FaceBook and I’ll get the link on
the website asap.
Midsummer Incense
This started out as being the Dark Moon Newsletter for June 12. I didn’t
actually start writing it until after the dark moon as I did not have
any inspiration or time before that. Then I was unable to finish this
last Friday, which is the actual day I wrote the Ode to a Tree part.
The tree was cut down on Thursday June, 17. So since today is Midsummer,
I thought "why not combine them?" So........
I will mention once again that Midsummer marks the anniversary of
this newsletter, my first one being sent on
Midsummer in 2008 . Being born under the sign of Leo
and relating to the element of Fire, the
holiday that celebrates the Sun
is the one that I find affects me most. I love the heat and how
green everything is at this time of year.
This is the time when I feel I can recharge my batteries, drawing on
the power of the Sun. Ideas and inspiration come easy to me on this
day. I feel that by starting these newsletters at this time of year
is what has helped me to be able to continue to do them. They are blessed
with Sun energy and from that I can draw the inspiration to write them.
Here’s a little story about the energies of Midsummer sending
me inspiration. I happened to be home on Midsummer on few years ago
and was doing dishes when I looked out my kitchen window and noticed
some daisies growing in the empty lot next to me. I was drawn to them
and decided to go out and pick some. I had planned to be outside exactly
at noon so I waited until about 5-to and went out to enjoy the Sun at
its highest point. While basking in the warm sunlight, I remembered
the daisies and picked 8 of them. When I went back into the house I
put them in water. A little while later I was looking through a new
book I had, Midsummer by Anna Franklin, for inspiration for our
ritual and I came across a section on daisies in the Herb Craft chapter.
It said " Daisies picked between noon and one o’clock on
Midsummer day have special magical properties. They bring success in
any venture when they are dried and carried." Hey, I picked
mine between noon a nd one o’clock! I was planning to use them
in our ritual but not now. I took them out of the water and put each
one in a folded piece of wax paper. I then put all 8 daisies in the
pages of a big old bible* I had to press them. Then the next year at
Midsummer they were empowered with a prosperity spell. I kept one and
gave the other 7 away. The weird thing is that I have not seen daisies
growing in the lot since that Midsummer. I even checked before I wrote
this today.....no daisies.
*Why does a witch have a bible? Because this was way too cool to
pass up. Not a true bible, it is "Contrasted Editions of the
New Testament being the Old and New Versions Arranged in Parallel Columns".
It is from 1881. The real leather cover is tooled beautifully, but the
spine is falling apart. It was in a box of books from my Grandmother’s
second husband. Each page is divided to show the old translation and
new side-by-side. I thought it interesting mainly because it shows how
each translation changes the bible a little, so what a person reads
today is not a true translation but the result of many different people
translating and interpreting. Something I like to point out to those
bible-quoting Christians.
Ok, back to Midsummer. Last
year I wrote about creating a blend to throw on your Midsummer bonfire
and how I could not find where I had written it down. I found it. So
now I would like to share with you the incense blends I created. You
can look back at my Midsummer
2008 Newsletter for a list of herbs associated with Midsummer but
as always, that is a guide. I created these based on the supplies I
have on hand, so don’t feel you have to go out and buy something.
If there is some herb that you feel should be in your blend then add
it. Please remember to always check on the toxicity of any herbs you
burn, especially if indoors. We do not burn these incenses when indoors,
only when we have a outside fire.
I start with a base of 1 tablespoon frankincense resin and 1 heaping
teaspoon of mugwort herb for each blend.
Fairy Blend: 2 teaspoons lavender
flowers, 1/2 teaspoon thyme (don’t use more or it will over
power the other herbs), and 1 tablespoon elderflowers
Fire Blend: 1/2 teaspoon
basil, 1 decent sized chunk of dragon’s blood or about 1 tablespoon
powder, and 1-2 teaspoons brimstone (adding more will create a burst
of flames so be careful when putting this blend in the fire if you increase
brimstone)
Sun Blend: 1 teaspoon chamomile
flowers, 2 teaspoons dried rose petals, and 1 stick cinnamon
I mixed the ingredients while concentrating on the subject of the blend
and then put them in a tea bag (see below). I threw the Fire
Blend in at the opening of the ritual. The Fairy Blend was thrown in
to call the fairies to us so we could communicate with them. The Sun
Blend was thrown in when we honored the Sun God.
I have some large tea bags from the Atlantic
Spice Co. that I put these blends in. These tea bags are sealed
on three sides and then once you have added your herbs, you iron the
fourth side to seal it. Or you can staple it. If you plan ahead, you
can get some of these tea bags before you create your blend. If not,
you have several options. You can blend them in separate jars and then
toss or dump the herbs in the fire (depending on how much you want to
use). You can find some type of natural material bags to put the blends
in that you can burn (no plastic bags!). Be creative, look for something
you or someone else in your group has that can be used, as long as it
is safe to burn.
Happy Midsummer!
~~~~Rhiannon Rose @--^--
