Saturday 30 January 2021

Do Ye Know "The Wellerman"?


[Hand-painted miniature of 
© Anne O'Leary, 2012]

Avast, ye swabs, aye, 'tis me, 
Her Royal Highness the Cat
Pirate Queen and Scourge of the Seven Seas!

A mighty sea shanty called "The Wellerman"
has been taking teh interwebs by storm for the past month.

This phenomenon started with a video of one guy singing
a cappella. His video was then modified by other video fans
who later added bass lines, harmonies, and fiddle music!

And I got in on the act too!

I love this shanty so much, me hearties, that I actually had a bath
cleaned myself up, and joined in right at the end of this video!


Now, if I were a pedantic bore like my tiresome human
I'd explain the meaning of all these odd lyrics
but lucky for you I'm not

However, if you do want to know more, go watch 
the first two-and-a-half minutes of 
this video right here for an explanation.


Alas, my landlubber human has completely
gone off the deep end over this song and has
obtained the sheet music so she can learn to play it.

An intervention is necessary and 
I'm just the cat who can do it.


Thursday 28 January 2021

January Full Moon Altar: Lakshmi


My first altar of the new year honours Lakshmi, Hindu Goddess of Abundance. She confers wealth and all the good things of life -- everything that money can and cannot buy. The way to honour Lakshmi is to display gratitude and thankfulness for what she has already given us, not to complain about or focus on what we lack.

Her sacred colours of red and gold are reflected in the red satin altar cloth, the white candles wrapped with gold ribbon and the gold (chocolate) coins which surround her.  Two tarot cards complete the altar, each one being the Nine of Pentacles, often called the "Plenty Card." The left card is from the Morgan-Greer deck and the right is from the Triumph of Life deck.

A friend gave me this lovely statue of Lakshmi about 12 years ago. She had bought it at an auction, thinking she was buying only one statue but then discovered she had, in fact, bought a case lot of twelve! Talk about abundance! So she had a lot of them to give away, LOL! I wrote a poem about it which you can read here, if you want.

May Lakshmi shower us all with abundance this year and every year!

But don't worry, she is firmly opposed to any spread of Covid-19 abundance, because it is most certainly NOT a good thing of life.


[Photo of Lakshmi Altar © Debra She Who Seeks, January 2021]

Monday 25 January 2021

Saturday 23 January 2021

The Best "Cold Bernie" Meme EVER


This has won the internet.
Thank you and good day.

Friday 22 January 2021

Full Moon Altars: Introduction


I had so much fun in December creating my Winter Solstice Altar that I've decided to continue making new monthly altars as a kind of spiritual practice. Now that I'm no longer facilitating my drumming circle and my favourite local labyrinth has ceased being available for walking, I'm feeling the need for another outlet through which to focus these energies.

Each monthly altar will have a theme built around an aspect of the Divine Feminine or a spiritual value of some description. And I'm just bursting with ideas! Also, bursting with Goddess statues -- I'm a collector and currently have about 75 to choose from. I won't run out for a while, LOL!

I intend to post a photo and description of each altar on that month's Full Moon. So January's altar will be posted next Thursday, but I just wanted to give a little introduction first as to what I am doing in this new blog series.

Wednesday 20 January 2021

May Sanity Prevail Once More




Happy Inauguration Day, America!

Monday 18 January 2021

Whose Side Would Captain America Be On?


[First edition comic,
March 1941]


And now here's an updated 
first edition comic cover
created by Jon Wesley Huff --



Saturday 16 January 2021

Remember This Little Guy?


My Nordic gnome objected very strenuously to being put away until next December. He wanted to remain out and about, so I had to find a new household job for him to perform, in order to prevent him from simply running amok making mischief. Wrangling Christmas cards is a seasonal task only.

Therefore, he is now the Permanent Official Guardian of The Big Basket of Cushions in the living room and has settled into his new responsibilities quite well.


And he is no longer nameless. Because of his rather magnificent beard, he has proudly taken the moniker of: 

Fearsome the Fierce! 

He chose this name because he is a great admirer of the blog Fearsome Beard and checks out the featured "Beard of the Day" regularly, if you know what I mean.

[photos © Debra She Who Seeks, 2020 & 2021]

Thursday 14 January 2021

Thursday Art Date With Rain: "Birds and the Sky"

Rain's art theme for this week 
inspired me to finally finish 
one of my long-neglected assignments 
from the "Art of Coloured Pencils" 
class I took in the Fall of 2019.

Our subject was a cheery little warbler 
of some description or another 
(hey, I'm no birder, LOL!)

Here's the assignment at 
various stages of completion:


A word about the twigs --
the three completed ones
in this next photo
are meant to be bold, clear
and in the foreground.

All the rest are meant to
be fuzzy, indistinct
and in the background.

I'll let you judge whether
successfully accomplished that 
in the final version.


This is where I left off --


And here's the final version,
created from 17 different
colours of Prismacolor pencils.

I'm not thrilled with the background twigs
but I'm happier with them than with that
goddamn leaf beside the bird's body.

It's the worst fuckin' leaf
in the history of leaves
and I ain't lyin'.


But before everyone tells me
I'm too self-critical,
just let me say that
I'm very happy with 
my rendition of the bird
and the foreground twigs.

[Art and photographs © Debra She Who Seeks, 
December 2019 and January 2021]

Tuesday 12 January 2021

F.U. Déjà Vu











And of course, HRH must have the last word --


Monday 4 January 2021

2020 Book Reading TRIUMPH!


of only one (1) book read, 
blogging buddy Old Lurker 
challenged me to up my ante 
to at least my pathetic 2018 level 
of seven (7) books.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

IN FACT, IN 2020 I READ
ELEVEN (11) BOOKS!

I'M BACK, BABY!


So here's the list of books I read in 2020 --

1. Andrew Shaffer, Hope Never Dies: An Obama/Biden Mystery

2. Andrew Shaffer, Hope Rides Again: An Obama/Biden Mystery

3. Liz Hinds, This Time Next Year

4. Rick Riordan, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Ship of the Dead

5. Teemu Selanne with Ari Mennander, Teemus Selanne: My Life

6. Ross Matthews, Name Drop: The Really Good Celebrity Stories I Usually Only Tell at Happy Hour

7. Hiro Arikawa, The Travelling Cat Chronicles

8. Catherine Gildiner, Good Morning, Monster: Five Heroic Journeys to Recovery

9. Jane Routley, Shadow in the Empire of Light

10. Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing

11. Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

BONUS LIST
OF BLOGGING BUDDY
PUBLICATIONS
I READ THIS YEAR!

My book list already mentions 
Liz Hinds' book, This Time Next Year
Liz blogs at Finding life hard? 

I also read two short stories
penned by blogging buddies, 
both of which were published in 
2020 anthologies.

All are highly recommended!

1. Louise MacBeath Barbour, "Dare, Double Dare" in Insecure Writer's Support Group Anthology, Voyagers: The Third Ghosts. Louise blogs at Standing Into Danger.

2. Sue Bursztynski, "Red Sky at Morning" in Phyllis Irene Radford (ed.), OZ is Burning. Sue blogs at The Great Raven.