~Alban Eilir*The Light of the Earth~

so the great wheel has turned again and almost overnight things have changed.

i am sitting here with the windows open and the sound of the birds drifting in on a light breeze, the sun is shining although there are a few grey clouds drifting by but after the last 36 hours of constant rain even these clouds feel great.

i have just been in the garden where the forsythia has put out yellow buds over the space of two days, the honeysuckle is bushy and full of new dark green leaves and the old, climbing banksia rose is putting out small, pale green leaves.
tete a tete's are pushing through the soil and the woad is a good five inches high.

i have had a feeling of peace settle over me,my present studies are almost over giving me 8 months of freedom and i suddenly have the urge to reconnet.

as is usual with me and my path i have had a few months of drifting, of being disconnected and this is only right given the terrible time we had over yule.
but with the turning of the greater wheel so my personal wheel has turned again and bringing with it peace and the urge to move further along my path, devote more time to it.

a sense of balance has been reached within the balance given to us by being midway between imbolc and beltane



the longer days that the equinox has brought means more time in the garden, more time away camping...nights sitting under the stars and moon watching their movement across the sky, watching bats flitting around and listening to owls...its enough to want to pack up the camper, unfinished as it is, and take off.

~welcome home Flynt~

well what a day we had yesterday!

we left at 6.50am and set off up the country to northampton where three of us were meeting up to finally collect our pups.

the whole thing has been a logistical nightmare for the owners Enid and Geoff on the Isle of Skye and James, a member of the springer forum we belong to, who kindly pitched in to help bring them from close to the Scottish Boarders, looked after them for a night and then brought them down to our meeting place.

there were two puppies going to regular homes and two going to be trained to be cancer detection and hypo alert dogs~very worthy jobs.

of course we had to stop, chat and take lots of photos and then when it became too cold all went our separate ways~so finally the litter born on such a sad day for us were all starting their own lives and we were bring home a new little life.



little flynt slept all the way home and at first was a bit unsure of coming out of his crate



but within half and hour he was out exploring and following us around



but soon all the excitement was too much for such a small pup...







over night we were getting up every couple of hours to take him into the garden and each time he cried for a little while when we put him back in his crate but on the whole he was fine.

so far this morning he has had some food, played, explored the garden and slept and we are getting things that need doing during his nap times!




~sunshine joy~

its been another glorious sunny day today and we drove off across the forest to visit our good friend Al





Al collected his new puppy tilly last week, born ten days after squishy, so of course we had to meet her...





she is so sweet and weeny-tiny. but for such a small, young pup she is very confident and already well socialised.
poor Al has had a sudden appointment with the hospital next week and we, of course, have been more than happy to step in and have Tilly for a few days...so imagine this house next week with two pups running around and causing all manner of chaos!

by the time we set off home it had clouded over a little but i still have such joy when driving through the forest






******

things are full-steam ahead for finally collecting squishy this wednesday.
luckily the soft crate i bought from a certain website finally arrived today. i was becoming increasingly worried as i paid for it 13 days ago and was gearing myself up to demanding my money back and having to get hold of another crate by first thing wednesday morning...so panic over.

we have finally settled on a name...

~dark moon~



we are standing on the cusp of the dark moon.

this is why i have felt my energies leaving me this week.
all the negative energies have been leaving me these past few days, leaving me open to embrace the dark, quiet time in which to replenish myself.

the dark moon is a time to turn inwards on reflection and introspection and focus on questions and answers through divination and pathworking, to centre yourself for the coming weeks.

~mists of lethargy~



i have been so lethargic lately~mentally lethargic~laying in my virtual hammock and whiling away the hours

i sit down everyday with my books and papers in front of me and what gets done?
a big fat nothing
not a bean

i think its an accumulation of feeling unwell, swmapy is unwell with a really bad back, waiting for squishy to arrive and i think a developing spring fever...

we have had cold, frosty nights and the days have given us wonderful sunshine, although still cold.
all kinds of flowers are pushing their way up through the earth and the trees are coming into bud.
driving out of the village two days ago we came across a herd of about 15 donkeys, obviously just been let out onto the forest after our particularly hard winter. i know it has been so bad that many people took their animals off the forest and so seeing the donkeys is a sure sign the worst is over and spring is springing.



i have struggled this winter

i have always been a winter girl, loving the cold and wild weather.
as a pale red head hot summers have always been difficult, i don't function well in the heat.

but now i think my personal wheel has turned and i now find myself craving some sunshine and heat~i am looking forwards to a lovely warm summer with endless blue skies and days spent out of doors.

my wanderlust is raising its head too with the coming of spring and the fact that the interior in our camper being finished is on the horizon.

it means getting away and sitting under the stars at some peaceful destination and we are hoping that this year we will be able to get away more than we have been.
the last two years our old camper had become so unreliable and so costly to run we missed a lot of opportunities to get away. now we have a reliable, very economical camper with a lot more room and as we are building the interior ourselves the layout is perfect.
and of course we will have squishy to introduce to the joys of camping~Cody slipped into camping mode really well and always enjoyed the freedom of being able to be outside all of the time and we hope squishy will be the same.


well now i have bird song (not traffic noise here just bird song~how perfect is that?!) and a mild breeze coming through the open window near me so its time to go get a breath of fresh air

~where ever you are have a good day~



~endless~


we have had no rain and almost constant sunshine for over a week here in our ancient forest.

its wonderful!



i have spent a little time putting in some bulbs and making tidy the clematis that grows over the arch at our front door, cutting back a lot of dead plants and yesterday swampy cleared the piles of oak leaves from the flower beds.
it looks much better.

~*~*~*~

we are feeling a little deflated today~we were supposed to be going to collect our little squishy today and because of a broken down vehicle the logistics of getting pups from the Isle of Skye has defeated us all and so we are now counting the 'sleeps' until next thursday~seven more sleeps!

in a way its been helpful...

it meant cancelling our dentist appointment made for next wednesday and we managed to get in for our check-up today, that's the dentist sorted for another six months.

also the soft crate we bought last wednesday still has not arrived despite the money going out of my account the same day and the food i ordered last friday has not arrived~so if neither had arrived by the end of today we could have no food and no nice little hidey-bed for squishy

and its my moontime and true to form i am feeling unwell~sick, crampy and grumpy.

so maybe it was meant to happen this way.

the good thing is we have seen some new video of squishy and his brothers and sisters playing in the snow~so cute!

~too bogged down to blog!~



i am becoming increasingly aware of my lack of blogging of late~i feel i have been so bogged down with everything right now.

anything i do during the day that does not concern my studies have become a luxury
...i cannot remember the last time i picked up a book that did not concern ancient greece or the late roman republic and have a nice read.

...or the last time i woke up and did not have to think about getting some reading done, notes written, essay drafted

right now i am sitting here with part of my mind thinking over the conclusion to my essay and have i completed my bibliography ready to submit it by midday?

oh my word

its as if a large part of me has gone into hibernation, for no other reason than it is of no use right now~i have nothing else but my studies engulfing me

for this part of my degree i have one final essay and an exam in june...but already i am thinking of next years course~what do i choose to do?

i have it in my head to choose one that starts next february or shall i go completely wild and have a year off and resume next october?

if i took off a year would i get bored?

what would i do with myself?

well for a start there is the quilt i keep promising myself to make

the garden to tend

books to read

paintings i want to create

places i want to visit

and of course there is little Sgurr~who is finally coming home with us next wednesday, two months to the day we had to let our beautiful cody travel to the summerlands.
after we heard the news of the date late last night i went out into the garden, as i do every night, as i did every night with cody, for one last look at the sky and a sniff of the air...sure that cody still joins me in this ritual.

as i stepped out it was freezing cold and the sky as clear as it possibly could be and i caught the briefest flash of a shooting star in the west.



i found it comforting~it felt that it was the final sign i needed that this new path we are following with a new little life, is the right path.