Happy Fall, Y'all!

We now leave behind the heat of summer and move into the cooling temps of autumn. I am ready for my ac to not have to run so much and the excitement of the coming months. This poem really sums it up well:

Greeting to the Autumn Equinox

Hail! Journeyer of the Heavens,
Queen of Brightness, King of Beauty!
Gifts of gladness richly bringing,
Autumn sheaves and red leaves' fall.
Generous be the heart within us,
Open be our hands to all,
Justice to be in equal measure,
Harvest thankfulness our call.

Caitlin Matthews - The Celtic Devotional

Many people hold feasts today to celebrate the new season. My family certainly did! Salad with pumpkin spiced cornbread croutons, fruit soup, cranberry/raspberry sorbet for dessert. You can find the recipes for it all here.

I bought and lit for the first time today an autumn scented candle. I put away all of my flower and fruit scented candles for next year. Now is the time to break out the baked good scented candles! Hubby and I went out shopping today and I bought a couple of autumn type teas that I can't wait to brew up!

Now that fall is here, there are different things you can do. Besides cook up autumn foods! LOL!

- this season of thankfulness is a good time to donate. Canned and non-perishablel foods to a food pantry. Clothes, books, toys to charities. Perhaps work at a soup kitchen - everyone wants to do it around Thanksgiving or Christmas, but they can use the help year round.
- consider taking a class at the local community college. It doesn't have to be toward a degree; many offer continuing education classes. Learn something new - ceramics, square dancing, welding - whatever sparks your fancy.
- summer is a time for being out in the open, fall is a time to draw inward. Bring out the cozy throws and stock up some wood. Temps might not be cool enough just yet, but they are coming!

Whatever you do, have fun doing it! You're never too old to jump into a leaf pile!

Don't Step On A Bee Day

Today is Don't Step on a Bee Day. It is pretty much a reminder about going barefoot during the summer and to protect your feet. But it is really so much more than this.

Colony Collapse Disorder is where bees are disappearing and dying at ever increasing rates. Wikipedia defines it as:

"...a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or European honey bee colony abruptly disappear. While such disappearances have occurred throughout the history of apiculture, the term colony collapse disorder was first applied to a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006. Colony collapse is significant economically because many agricultural crops worldwide are pollinated by bees; and ecologically, because of the major role that bees play in the reproduction of plant communities in the wild."

If you like to eat, the last sentence should matter very much to you. Bees are responsible for much, if not most, of the foods you eat. Want to know just how many foods rely on bees? Just take a peek at this list. Pretty eye opening, isn't it?

There are things you can do as an individual to help the bees. Some suggestions are:

Plant things bees like. Clover, sage, salvia, oregano, lavender, yarrow, alfalfa, honeywort, dragonhead, echinacea, bee balm, just to name a few. Flowering trees, flowering plants, there are so many bee friendly plants available to you. Just plant some!

Create or provide a bee habitat. Like all creatures, they need a safe place to live. They also need a water source. Research how to make a bee house, one you can do easily.

Don't use or severely limit pesticides. It has been theorized that pesticides are what is contributing to the bee death. Go organic - for you, for the bees, for the planet.

As a vegan, I don't use honey. Bees are extremely intelligent and studies have demonstrated that they feel pain. BeeCulture magazine reports that beekeepers are notorious for contributing to the spread of disease: 'Beekeepers move infected combs from diseased colonies to healthy colonies, fail to recognize or treat disease, purchase old infected equipment, keep colonies too close together, [and] leave dead colonies in apiaries.' Artificial diets, provided because farmers take the honey that bees would normally eat, leave bees susceptible to sickness and attack from other insects. When diseases are detected, beekeepers are advised to 'destroy the colony and burn the equipment,' which can mean burning or gassing the bees to death.

Bees need their honey. I don't.

I'm thinking today should be renamed to Be Kind To Bees Day instead.

Stay Out of the Sun Day

Today is Stay Out of the Sun Day. Since tomorrow, July 4, is a day a lot of people spend outside and in the sun, I guess today is as good a day as any to remind people to take care.

You can find information everywhere about using sunscreen and sunblock, how to avoid the hottest parts of the day, what to do to treat sunburn if you don't pay attention to the aforementioned. The thing I want to remind you about today - and every day - is to drink plenty of water!

Something as simple as drinking water can have profound effects on your health. It can help with weight loss, give you more energy, stave off headaches, help with digestion, give you glowing skin and has even been shown to reduce your risk of heart attack. Yet, most people don't get nearly enough.

How much should you drink? A rule of thumb is to take your weight, divide it in half, and drink that many ounces. Okay, let me explain that better: if you weigh 160 lbs, half of 160 is 80, so 80 ounces of water.

So, how to drink that much if you are more used to sucking down a couple of sodas or chugging down several cups of coffee a day? It's really not so hard to do. When my husband was in basic training in the Air Force years ago, they made the new recruits drink two glasses of water with each meal before they could even consider drinking anything else. That's 48 ounces right there already. You're already over half way there if your goal is 80 ounces. You may need more or less than that based on weight and how much time you spend outside or exercising.

My son insists on filtered water, so we have two different style of pitchers with filters. My daughter likes to add sliced lemon or mint sprigs to her water. I'm a little different. I make a pitcher of this water every morning and drink it throughout the day until it is gone.

To the pitcher I add 1/2 t. turmeric, 1/8 t. black pepper, 1/8 t. cayenne pepper, 1 T. organic apple cider vinegar, 1 T. food grade diatomaceous earth and three garlic cloves cut into pieces. To this I add two quarts of water and stir.

When the water is gone, I add the garlic pieces to a dish I'm already eating and consume them raw.

Seriously.

The health benefits of the ingredients are many, and this is something I designed based on that research. The diatomaceous earth is a later addition based on a recommendation from my doctor.

Try it. You just might like it.

At the very least, please make sure you are drinking enough water. If you are thirsty, you are already mildly dehydrated.

Summer Hobby Day

Today is Summer Hobby Day. I don't know about you, but I have no hobbies I do in the summer that I don't do the rest of the year. The closest thing that is different is I avoid the outdoors during summer as much as possible! It's hot here!

I should amend that. I'm going outside today. Specifically, to the garage. Our garage door decided some weeks back that it wanted a change, and literally folded itself in half one day while we were lowering it with the automatic door opener/closer. Suffice it to say it was a strange experience, and I don't recommend anyone trying to duplicate it.

Weeks later, it is much improved. Hubby and sons got it unfolded that day, but once they got it closed, forget it. It was staying closed. My father, a master mechanic, has taken it as his personal mission now to get it working again. I love my dad! He's awesome! The door can be lifted now (with muscle, thank you, boys!) and I can return to what I was attempting to do when the door first cratered. Clearing out the clutter.

I thought, and certainly grew up believing, that garages were for cars. They had a workbench. Maybe holiday decorations were stored in there along the wall.

Not my garage.

(not my garage, but isn't it cool?!)

I want to say I am secretly pleased when I glimpse inside a neighbor's garage and notice they have no room for cars, just like my garage, but I can't. I'm actually very bothered by it. While my kids were growing up I could use the convenient excuse that they, and running a household, took all my time. My kids are all grown now. I can't justify that reasoning any longer.

My dad joked I could clear it out quickly by torching everything in there. My husband has suggested hiring a bulldozer.

Yeah, it's that bad.

I, however, like a challenge, and I'll be honest: opening up a box and reacquainting myself with the contents sometimes feels like Christmas. Hey! I haven't seen this in awhile! Oh, cool, I was wondering where this was! I am proud to say I am more discriminating than in years past. I dump out a box and sort through it. I have next to me a trash can, a bag for any recyclable paper, a large plastic trash bag for donations to the local Goodwill or assistance ministry, a bag for books to donate to the library's sale shelf. It is very satisfying to empty a large box and have only a small pile that actually comes into the house.

I still have a long way to go in clearing everything out. But it has become my summer hobby, at least for this year, and I am enjoying the heck out of it!

World Environment Day

June 5 is World Environment Day. According to the United Nations Environment Program, World Environment Day celebration began in 1972 and has grown to become the one of the main vehicles through which the UN stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and encourages political attention and action.

The program is designed to help "personalize environmental issues and enable everyone to realize not only their responsibility, but also their power to become agents for change in support of sustainable and equitable development."

It is also a day for people "from all walks of life to come together to ensure a cleaner, greener and brighter outlook for themselves and future generations."

Whatever your beliefs regarding the health - or lack of - the environment, we can all agree that we should care for it. Each in their way can do something, anything, to make a difference. The UNEP offers several suggestions, and I have pulled from it those we can do today, with little to no planning:

Adopt a ‘green’ way of life
Art made of recycled materials
Bicycle parades/races
Calculate your carbon footprint
Carpools
Dedicate your blog to World Environment Day on 5 June (done!)
Donate to an environmental cause
Excursions to nature sites
Exhibitions (drawings, posters, photos, paintings)
Give a gift membership of an environmental organization
Join an environmental group
Keep your neighborhood clean
Kick-start an environmental campaign
Kick the CO2 habit!
Know your rights
Lobby local authorities to adopt sound environmental policies
March for the environment
Never litter
Offset your emissions
Organic farming/cooking
Parades (even just a small one on your street with only you and your kids)
Performances (plays, songs, poetry)
Plant a tree
Plastic bags: avoid them!
Puppet shows for children with an environmental message
Rainwater harvesting
Reduce, re-use, recycle
Rehabilitate natural habitats
Replace your light-bulbs with energy saving ones
Save paper
Sort trash, separating recyclable materials into different containers
Switch off stand-by TV and computer
Use sustainable modes of transportation (walking, jogging, cycling, skating, carpool)
Vermicomposting
Visits to botanical gardens and national parks
Volunteer for organizations such as Clean Up the World
Waste less!
Write plays, poems, songs
Write letters to civic leaders, members of parliament, government and newspapers

These don't have to be big or elaborate activities. Doing them in your home, with your kids, will go a long way. Invite your friends and your kids friends over and make a day of appreciating and respecting nature.

Just do something. Like Margaret Mead said, "A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

Happy Oak Apple Day!

It was on this day that a young royal climbed into an oak tree to avoid his pursuers. Young Charles (later King Charles II) was running from Cromwell and his followers after his defeat in a battle. His father, King Charles I had been executed earlier and Cromwell had become a dictator. Even though Scotland named the young Charles as successor to the crown, England had other thoughts and declared such proclamations as unlawful.

Living in France and other countries in exile, following the death of Cromwell in 1658, Charles returned to England in 1660 and took his rightful place on the throne. To celebrate his birthday and the restoration of the crown (and his initial escape from death), May 29 became known as Oak Apple Day.

Everyone knows oak trees don't produce apples. (Right?) However, they do produce what is known as a gall. Galls are actually an irregular type of growth caused by the reaction between plant hormones and  growth regulating chemicals produced by some insects, particularly wasps. The galls provide nourishment for the developing baby wasps, and they resemble, loosely, an apple.

The holiday was abolished, but that doesn't mean you can't find a way to celebrate. Okay, maybe you aren't subject to the British crown, but what does that matter? There is always a reason to celebrate, and this one is an example of that.

So, what can you do today?

Plant an oak tree. (Duh.)

Make crafts with acorns. If you have or live near an oak tree, there will be an abundance, always, and all you have to do is collect them. You can find ideas here, here and here.

Pick up all the fallen branches and collect them for firewood. They are perfect if you have a fire pit!

Play up the Green Man (wild man of the woods) motif by making leaf covered masks and headdresses. You can find directions for one here.

Eat an apple. No, not an oak apple. A regular, old fashioned, honest to goodness apple. Eat them all year long. They're good for you.

Hug an oak tree. Heck, hug any tree. The important thing to remember here is that trees are the lungs of the world, so take care of them.

You can probably come up with a whole host of things to do involving trees, so just get yourself outside and do it! Enjoy the weather before it gets too hot!

Lemuralia

Sometimes I think my blog should be retitled to something gothy, what with all the posts that denote ways of celebrating days involving death or the macabre. Take, for example, recent posts on Charles Addams or Friday the 13th or Edgar Allan Poe, just to name a few. Today is no different.

Lemuralia was a Roman festival celebrated on May 9, 11 and 13. Well, celebrated probably isn't the best word for it. More like participated. They were days designed to rid the home of malevolent or otherwise unwelcome spirits (lemures). It involved the head of the household getting up at midnight and walking barefoot around the house nine times while throwing black beans over their shoulder. A prayer or recitation commanding the spirits to leave was said while other family members banged on pots. It was hoped the beans would please the spirits and they would leave; the pot banging insured they would.

Interestingly, I learned that Pope Boniface IV designated May 13 as the first All Saint's Day. Pope Gregory III moved it to November 1, which coincidentally is the same day as the Celtic feast of Samhain.

It is said that Romulus started Lemuralia as a way to appease the spirit of his murdered brother Remus. Romans honored the lares, their benevolent deceased ancestors, but feared the lemures. A similar feast which honored both lares and appeased malevolent spirits was Parentalia and Feralia.

May was deemed by the Romans to be bad luck for marriages. The Irish, as well, have a saying about that: Marry in May and rue the day. I find this curious due to the practice of *green marriages* that happened on Bealtaine.

You can spend today, of course, walking around the house barefoot and throwing beans over your shoulder, or you can choose instead to eat those beans. I suggest Cuban black beans and rice.

Bang on some pots to be on the safe side. You never know...