A Clucking Great Blog Award!

Thank you so much, Wendy at The Year of the Cats, for conferring this award on my humble blog! I am cluckin' touched!

Indeed, as Foghorn Leghorn would say: Why, I am honoured, I say, honoured to receive this Clucking Great Blog award. Now looka here, son. This proves I ain't no loud mouthed shnook. So what's goin', I say, what's goin' on?! Don't stand there with your beak open! Say somethin'! Explain yourself! Your tongue's flappin', but no noise is comin' out of your mouth!

Well, if I can just get a word in edgewise . . . what I must now do is pass this award on to others who are worthy of it. And who is more worthy than those brave urbanites who actually raise chickens in their own backyards and blog about it occasionally for the benefit of the rest of us? I know of two such intrepid bloggers and it is my pleasure to pass the Clucking Great Blog Award on to them:

Little Messy Missy at Little Messy Missy

Miss*R at Stories from Villa Maria

Happy Diwali!

Today is the first day of Diwali, the 5-day Festival of Lights sacred to the Hindu, Sikh and Jain spiritual traditions. The lighting of small oil lamps represents the triumph of good over evil and our emergence from spiritual darkness into the light. This festival also celebrates the inner light of all people.

Many Gods and Goddesses are celebrated during Diwali but two Goddesses in particular are honoured. First of all -- Lakshmi, the Goddess of Abundance, She who gives all the good things of life which money both can and cannot buy. May She smile upon all of us and shower us with Her blessings!

And then Kali is honoured -- She who cuts through all Illusion, She who is Inexorable Time and Change. May She smile upon all of us and shower us with Her blessings! Kali Ma, You rule us all.

[Diwali lamps photo by Rohit Saxena (dhondusaxena). Kali photo by Piyal Kundu.]

Finger Labyrinths

An alternative to walking a labyrinth with your feet is to walk a labyrinth with your fingers instead! These "finger labyrinths" are portable and handy for indoor use when a meditative experience is desired. They are made out of a variety of materials, such as plaster, ceramic, wood or plastic, and usually feature a grooved unicursal path.

Some finger labyrinths are very small and are designed to fit in the palm of your hand, like this pewter one. A stylus is often used to trace the path of these tiny labyrinths.

Finger labyrinths can also be made of cloth or paper, traceable directly by your finger or by pushing a small bead or token around the circuits. Labyrinths on paper can also be coloured with pencils or crayons as a meditative experience, in the same way as mandalas frequently are.

Finger labyrinths can often be purchased in spiritual bookstores or gift stores and may also be ordered from the many, many websites which sell them. But if you want a finger labyrinth that is really quick, easy and cheap, you can just print a basic Cretan or Chartres labyrinth design off the internet, enlarge it as needed on the computer or photocopier, and away you go!

As the old Yellow Pages slogan used to say: Let Your Fingers Do the Walking!

My Favourite Valkyrie

Now, I'm not a proponent of warfare, battles, death and misery but, having said that, I've always had a certain fascination with Valkyries, the "Choosers of the Slain." Accompanied by ravens and riding their fierce horses through the sky, these Nordic Warrior Goddesses carry fallen heroes and warriors from the battlefield to Valhalla, the home of the Gods.

Valkyries are tough, no-nonsense Goddesses. And they are given suitable names to prove it, names that reflect and celebrate conflict. For example, Brynhildr, the name of the head Valkyrie, means Bright Battle. Her sisters have names like War, Tumult, Chaos, Devastation and Clash. And then there are Sword-time, Spear-flinger, War Axe, Victory Rune, Cruelty and Killer. Not to mention Battle Spear, Battle Cry, Battle Noise and War Oath. Even the softer sounding Ale Rune is a reference to drunken brawling.

But there's one Valkyrie who resonates with me above all others -- Bossy. Yes indeed -- Bossy the Valkyrie. She doesn't sound quite up to the same belligerence level as her sisters but still, I bet she can seriously get on someone's nerves which might cause conflict to break out.

Hey, don't get me wrong. I do not have a soft spot for Bossy because she is in any way like me.

[My Rare One and Her Royal Highness both vehemently shake their heads: Nooooooo, no resemblance there!]

Bossy the Valkyrie sounds well-meaning, really, and gosh, can she help it if she just knows better than everyone else?

[And now my Rare One and HRH commence exaggerated rolling of eyes.]

It would save so much time if everyone just listened to her! And did things her way which is the correct way, after all.

One Last Jack-o-Lantern

Well, that's it for another Halloween/Samhain season, folks! Let the countdown begin for next year! Nom nom nom.

It's the Witches' New Year!

The Wheel of the Year has turned again. As you know, in the Celtic tradition Samhain marks the end of one year and the beginning of another -- it's the Witches' New Year! And so, dear bloggy friends, may this upcoming year bring you good health, good luck, happiness, prosperity, friendship and love!

May Water cleanse you,

May Air teach you,

May Fire drive you,

May Earth be a foundation for you.

Be it so!

Happy Halloween! Samhain Blessings!

Welcome, my pretties, to our haunted mansion! Bwahahaha!

While this fabulously decorated house is (unfortunately) just a photo from teh interwebz and not our real home, I can assure you that the following pumpkins were actually carved by my Rare One and me last Halloween to decorate our front steps.

I chose to carve a bubbling cauldron of witchy goodness . . .

. . . while my Rare One went for a celestial look featuring a lovely translucent Crone Moon with completely cut out stars!

Here's a shot of our pumpkins together. Alas, it's too dark to see our black rubber rats (Cardinal Ratzinger and Archbishop Fang) but I assure you they're there too.

Don't be scared by any rustling or yowling you may hear as you walk up our sidewalk . . .

. . . because our cat, Her Royal Highness, will protect you. Either that, or kill you and eat your eyeballs with her ghoulish friends. We'll see how it goes.