The Venturous Life

Blessed Yule!

This striking composite image follows the Sun's path through the December Solstice day of 2005 in a beautiful blue sky, looking down the Tyrrhenian Sea coast from Santa Severa* toward Fiumicino, Italy. from NASA's Astronomy Photo of the Day site

Today's the shortest day for us Norther Hemishpere residents. I hope you all spend it well, noticing all the beauty and love in the world, especially in your own hearts.

love, Ven

It's time to catch up on all the great cards that have come rolling in recently. I have sent out one batch of mine, and have more ready to go tomorrow. Amazingly, the USPS did deliver on Saturday in the midst of our blizzard. They must have walked, or flown by reindeer, but there were more cards in the box!.

I have cards from cruisedirector (penguins!),  carpet_deimon (original snakey art card plus a patronus gift!)  dementordelta (gorgeous snarry mistletoe card with sparkles!),  swtalmnd (great snarry watercolour!), softly_sweetly (shiny things!) the_flic (big hugs to you, dear), pumagrrl (beautiful shiny yule star)Jvalread (porcelain ornaments!!!), torina (dog by the fire! *loves*), Olimpie (skating bears!), Krishna (recipe, yum!), Tvals (father xmas with a very sexy cupid!), and BertaS (poem!). Plus, a box arrived from mypetconcubine. I am saving it for actual xmas.

Thank you to everyone who sent all this holiday cheer. I have really needed it this year, and enjoyed every single card.

I've been all caught up in the blizzard here, and I had this illusion that snow means less to do. HAH. I shoveled a ton of snow, probably literally. And I cooked up a storm, in case of power failure. I made an awesome curry, lazy style but the best yet; a pot of turkey and wild rice soup thick with corn, beans, rice and turkey. Then I had big fun making a rustic pastry from a cookbook with instructions like 'half a glass of oil' - haha. well, it came out pretty well, considering. Got the car out today, and found our private roads well plowed, but the county roads were treacherous. So, back to the ranch. I feel like the kid who loved to be sent to her room. Stuck at home? yipeee!

love to all, and to all a good night.

Tis the melancholy season, despite all attempts at cheer. There is much I enjoy about that, really, until the depressive gravity gets too strong and I lose my perspective.

( Read more... )

Fandom helps; there are so many marvelous fests going! And Holiday cards are rolling in, all of them magical, sparkely, fun, cheery and some with surprises! Big snowy smooches to all card senders! My Snarry Hols cards are going out, and I've just downloaded some music, an amazing gift from perverse_idyll (her post here). This makes me realize that I've not been listening to much music, a key element in my mood management system! So, more music it is!

Getting outdoors helps: even in icky weather. The other morning we took a morning walk in the thick fog, and it was really stunning. everything sounded different - echo-ey. There were hundreds more birds along the boardwalk: ducks, gulls, hooded mergansers **loves**, diving ducks, blue herons and an eagle. Plus cardinals and crows. My dogs frolic and roll in the frosted grass with joy. Today we just went round the ballfield, but at the back of that field, the mosses on the forest edge are weird and lovely, not to mention springy to walk on.

I have a long to-do list for fandom as well as everything else. I have more fest art to post, even some to finish! and recent picspam, so stay tuned for more!

thank you to my lovely flisters who sent me snoflakes!
I've been off the grid for a few days and missed the flurries.
I love the snow!!!

First, the feast preparations are underway!

• The turkey, all 21 # of him, are brining happily in the cooler outside. It was so freshly... uh... processed it needed a thorough rinsing, then it's soaked overnight in salty ice water. In the morning, I'll push rosemary under the skin, and stuff it loosely with lemon rinds and onions just for flavour. The stuffing gets baked seperately, which makes it lighter. and the bird cooks faster and more evenly.
• For classic stuffing I use Pepperidge Farm brand and enhance it with sauted onion, celery, turkey stock, butter. Maybe mushrooms. And cracked green peppercorns.
• For a green veggie: Roasted brussel sprouts
• My Irish housemate makes divine mashed potatoes to go with my awesome gravy.
• Houseguest from NC is making baked Delicata squash, low-sugar apple pie and cranberry-apricot sauce.
• We also have pumpkin ice cream to embellish that pie.

And now, for some gratitude.
I am incredibly grateful for my warm and beautiful home, a place people want to be. I am blessed with wonderful friends, nearby and all over (**hugs you!**). I have wonderful animal companions whom I adore. I am grateful for the time I have had away from work, to recover , to look ahead, to plan and prepare for much-needed change. Many blessings come to me from the amazing passion and creativity of my friends and colleagues. I love all the inspiration, entertainment, amusement, motivation, stimulation and challenge your art, writing, music and healing work brings into my life.I am grateful for my parents and grandparents, (all deceased) from whom I received so many gifts. I treasure the intellect, imagination, talent and passion you gave to me. I love the land I walk on, the food that grows in her, the river that waters us, the trees, flowers, vines, grasses, berries, briars, wild irises, underwater grasses that make this world so soft and green and beautiful. I cherish the animals I love with in these wild woods, the deer, possum, fox, racoons, chipmonks, squirrels, weasels, otters and mice. I am in awe of the birds, from the enormous bald eagles to the tiny hummingbirds, the herons, ducks, geese, cormorants, coots, grebes, grackles, crows, vultures, osprey, seagulls, warblers thrushes and wrens, I love you all. Even the crawly and flying things... for every nasty bloodsucking mosquito there is a Luna moth or swallowtail butterfly, an irridescent beetle, a colorful caterpiller, a dazzling dragonfly. Even the spiders are awesome.

May you all have a day filled with blessings.

to all my Francophile and Francophone friends:

Joyeux Fete Nationale, et Viva la France!



France has become my heart-country; I never fail to feel inspired and uplifted on her soil. If I could run away to rural Languedoc I would in a heartbeat! Blessings all around.

1. Happy Canada Day!   J'adore notre voisin au nord!  I was privelaged to grow up on the Ste. Clair River which forms the US/Canada border, and have many lovely memories of Ontario. If nothing else, the place names are wonderful: Tobermory, Lake Coochiching, the River Snye, Wallaceburg, the Big Basset, Missasaugua, Thorold, Pentangueshine, Guelph. I raise my virtual Molsen's to you, O Canada. But it definately tastes better when you drink it 'in country'.

2. Don't forget to check out the Percy_ficathon, now posting on LJ and IJ. There's fic! There's art! **wink**

3. Same goes for NextGenDarkFest, over on LJ. My gift just posted, a dark and twisted ghost story wherein Lily Potter & Rose Weasley get in trouble in the Forbidden Forest.

4. In need of good 'foundation garments' for my Sprout costume, I braved the mall today in search of bras, etc. and scored well at a 'buy 2 get 2 free' sale. I loathe shopping, so I was pleased to bag my quarry so easily. New undies, woot! and a surprise cool black vest that has costumey potential.

Goodnight, all! It's time to curl up with the latest fabulous Snarry from  , The Black Asphodel. Romance! Adventure! Mystery! and fabulous costumes! I love reading about Severus having his many buttons lovingly opened...

Ven and her critters wish you all a blessed spring, season of rebirth, renewal and reawakening.

Lily's glam new haircut!




the mighty Peanut approves of Easter Bunnies.

well, its time to tally up all the wonderful wishes and gifts that have arrived in the mail over the holidays.

I have beautiful cards from gryffindor_j , savine_snape , lesyeuxverts00 , akuma_river and ziasudra . Then there's a sweet, sad holiday snarry ficlet fromangela_snape , an original impressionist painting  from jean_c_pepper, some , beautiful art cards and booklet from logospilgrim , a wonderful  art card, booklet and bookmarks from littleblackbow, and a very original snarry card made with love by dementordelta .  Then there's the twelve days of Harry Christmas card from pennswoods ("nine Slytherins sneering" lol!)
I had a lot of fun participating in holiday_wishes , sending out a few packages, and receiving some yummy english tea from cruisedirector  and some space and drone music from jlsigman .

I am still finding things, so if I missed giving you a mention, poke me and I will look again!

Today also brought me a hp_yule_balls  gift: An Order of Potions... It's a preposterous misadventure in brewing, with sticky, well sated results. Go enjoy some holiday cheer with Harry and the Order as they defeat the Dark Lord in spite of what they would rather be doing. All this in 3600 words!

I love fandom!  **happy sigh**

Day 4: Sunday, December 21, 2008 The Winter Solstice

Oh, my. What was not to love about THIS day? L and I were just laughing about how the shortest day became the longest day, since we got up for a 6:30 am drumming ceremony. We had to chisel ice off the car to get there, and the branches hanging over J's driveway were like a green car wash. But we began drumming in the dark and darn if the sun didn't rise, and the sky grow lighter, in spite of the icy rain.

Then we put on rain hats and jumped in the hot tub. I have never, ever been outside naked in freezing rain before, this was a first! Strangely wonderful.

Then I came home and wrote drabbles and dozed by the fire. Later, a friend came out from the city and back to J's we went for the solstice brunch, with dozens of neighbors and friends, great food, good conversation.

home again and I changed into my dressy pagan finery, beautiful green brocade dress with dragon buttons, and my splendid sparkely winter cloak made for me by spidermoth . Woman, you have made me feel like a Slytherin goddess! **smooch**

Off we went to the River Road Unitarian Church's Winter Solstice circle, where we did circle dances and meditation. Finally ,out for nice Italian dinner with friends I hadn't seen in a while.

It was a wonderful holiday. I am so blessed to be a pagan.