Bugs abound!

For the last couple of weeks everyone around seems to be sick or getting sick. Must be some serious bugs going around. My turn should be coming soon…. :(

Carline and I found a good book at Chapters for our garden with lots of valuable information. I think it’s going to run us about two thousand dollars to do all we want and that’s not including plants! I’m thinking I’ll start the rototiller in a couple of weeks if the ground isn’t too wet. I hope by then my body is ready too.

I’ll post a picture of the back yard next week so there will be something to compare the ongoing project with.

Beltane is going to be held on Saturday for our coven. I’m looking forward to it… maypole and bonfire! :)

Not much else new… boring eh?

Weekend in Vermont

The Vermont weekend was fun and the food was fantastic as usual. Hans is a great chef. I spent a great deal of time in the hot tub soaking my sore back after the long drive down. Too bad I don’t have a hot tub at home for the return trip!



There were a lot of new people (to me) this weekend, but a number of familiar smiling faces too. It was nice to reconnect with people. And it’s been nice reconnecting with my lover Carline since I got home too.

I was able to stop in on the people from Dryad Design on the trip down to Bennington. I met Paul and his wife Suzanne who are fantastic people and very friendly. I was given the Royal tour of Paul'’s work, which I must say was like standing in the aura of greatness! His work is much more that it seams at first glance. Having the opportunity to talk to the artist and learn first hand what the thoughts and feelings are behind the woodcarvings is just so enlightening.

Backyard Creation

Carline and I are going to craft a new backyard this year. We’re going to start with getting rid of all the grass. (That’s the main reason for this) I’m going to rent machine (a tiller) to turn the soil and that will chop up all the sod and mix it with the soil. Then I’m going to spray all the ground with Roundup to kill off everything. I’ve heard it’s one of the more effective and least harmful ways of doing this.

Then comes the constructing part – We’re going to have two raised areas of rock garden at the end of the deck, a path of flagstone or similar product going out and around the yard. In the centre we are going to plant a Rowan tree. Around the edges of the yard we want to plant shrubs, roses, ornamental grass and perennial flowers. The ground cover where nothing is growing will be stones that look like tree bark.

Can you picture it? I can’t wait to see the end results… I think I’ll post a before and after picture!

New Job

I spoke with someone from Human Resources last week and found out that I’m going to be starting a new job when I return to work.

As you may know, I’ve been off work for sometime due to a neck injury I received at work in March 2004. I was involved in a clash with a psychiatric patient and we fell hard face down. I had whiplash to my neck and as a consequence my disc from c6-c7 was bulging out and pressing on a nerve to my left arm. I’ve since had surgery (January 6/05) to remove the disc. So now, I won’t be able to do my old job of psychiatric orderly.

My new job is a desk job. I’ll be a ward clerk on the Rehabilitation Unit. It’s what I’ve wanted for a few years now. I’m getting too old to brawl with patients that are half my age.

I did a spell to get this job, so you should all take a lesson fro this and be careful what you ask for because you might get it. You might think of this as Magickal splatter, but no. If this disc had bulged for any other reason other than an on the job injury, I would be out of work all together. My neck has been causing me trouble off and on for a few years so this may have happened anyway. Better this way than any other.

I must say though that it’s been a rough year and it isn't over yet. It’s been noted that I’ve not been myself lately. I am sure that this is due to the fact that I have about 9 hours a day and 5 days a week to fill with trivial things that I have to make important to myself. Since most of the time I’ve not been able to drive the car and get around, and not allowed to lift anything over ten pounds, there has been little to do around here.

Do you have any idea how many things weigh more than 10 lbs.? Too many!

Anyway, I’m looking forward to being active again… working on our backyard garden and getting into a normal routine again.