Tuesday Morning Musings

I woke up Tuesday morning at three and couldn't get back to sleep for the longest time.  Sometimes when I wake up, I can go back to sleep if I imagine invoking the four quarters and protective circle.  This time I got out of bed so I wound't wake Mark, and went out and joined the dog on the couch.  Part of what was keeping me up were thoughts about how I don't feel writerly enough, or gay enough, or NeoPaganly enough.  I think part of this stems from not being able to physically gather with peers and mentors.  A character-driven plot begins when the protagonist is dissatisfied with their life and ends when they A) make changes or B) resign themselves to their situation.  After an hour, I did manage to fall asleep.

Lately I've been RollerBlading up at the reservoir, the top is about two city blocks by a half-block wide, which means I can get a long gliding runs in.  The place is popular with other skaters, small children and their bikes, and martial artists.  Previously to RollerBlading there, I would only go for astronomy.  I'm hoping that if I can continue to go, it will be like a workout, and I'll get some of my muscle tone back (or at least lose a little bit of the belly that's crept back).  

Over the weekend I purchased a foliate head.  I've been wanting a traditional looking one for a while and just happened to find this one at a local store (they have lots of garden art, but they tend to focus on Buddha or gnomes or Quan Yin or winged pigs).  I found a place in the grape vines for it, but I think what it really needs is a stone column in the hedge to peer out from.  Perhaps in the next few weeks I can make a kind of Ides of Autumn altar with it.

Last Lazy Sunday of September

Today is a lazy Sunday.  The morning's fog has finally burned off and white clouds are scudding along a blue sky.  Mark and I had thought to go to the beach, but Mark suggested that maybe we could put it off a week; I was feeling disinclined to spend hours in a car, so I agreed.

I spent the morning sipping some tea, listening to Sunday Baroque, and virtually visiting the chapels of Oxford via a booklet put together here:  

http://www.cleverpaper.co.uk/dominic_price/stained%20glass/mobile/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1doslfpq6E6w7eC9ZphmSPkiJmt9u4wctJjVca83kjDX19vXxhYTN7lIY#p=55  

and I came to the conclusion that Pamela Colman Smith must have been influenced by various stained glass windows when she created the images in the Rider-Waite tarot deck. 

Slightly related, I've been having some fun watching Dr. Colleen Darnell and her husband, Dr. John C. Darnell, at The Vintage Egyptologist:  https://www.youtube.com/c/VintageEgyptologist/featured  

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The spiders are out and building their webs.  There are at least three visible from the back deck; they each hold quarter-sized orb-weaver spiders (I think).  The brown and dun bands on their legs and abdomens remind me of rattan.  I'm guessing the larger spiders are the females.  Yesterday I'm pretty sure I saw a mating ritual; a larger spider sat near the edge of its web and strummed one of the strands.  A smaller spider slowly advanced along the threads.  They faced each other, the smaller spider waving three or more legs so that the tips just brushed the larger spider's legs.  The smaller spider moved closer and closer, occasionally tagging the larger spider, then rushing away as if to a avoid a tag-back.  The larger spider eventually folded its legs close to its body and held still.  The smaller spider quickly wrapped its legs around the larger one (?pinning its legs?) and pressed its abdomen against the larger one.  About ten seconds later, it dashed off, quick as lightning, and hid under a nearby leaf.  The larger spider unfolded and splayed across several web strands.  I didn't stay to watch, but I think they were going to do it again.

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The hummingbirds continue to visit the fountain.  I'm torn between wanting to go out and get a feeder for them and the knowledge that eventually Cicero and Smokey will tolerate Aoife enough to venture back into the back yard.  Cicero's bad enough with dragonflies and snakes, and I can imagine catching and torturing hummingbirds would be great sport for him. 

Autumnal Equinox 2020

Happy Equinox!  

We've had a few relatively smoke-free days, and when I checked this morning the Air Quality Index was something like 15 -- much better than the ten days of +400 readings we had after Labor Day.  

I felt so much better the other night when I stepped outside and I didn't have to worry about not wearing a particulate mask and I could see Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Capricorn.  The miasma that had settled over this end of the valley oppressed and depressed me -- I'm sure glad that I don't have some sort of breathing problem, because by the tenth day of the smoke I was ready to just curl up and sleep forever.

I can't imagine being a crow, eagle, hawk, osprey, hummingbird, heron, wren, or other flying thing sharing the sky with the smoke; I can't imagine being a squirrel, frog, raccoon, cat, dog, rabbit, deer, sheep, cow, newt, or other small creature picking through the ash-scape; I can't imagine being a grape, cherry, apple, rosemary, hornbeam, azalea, iris, lilac, laurel, pine, oak, or other leafy thing enduring a sun-block of burnt forest and houses.   

And I can't imagine why someone nearby would want to smoke a cigar right now and ruin an otherwise pleasant evening with their foul smoke.  I mean, honestly.  

Unfortunately, this isn't the last bad fire season we're likely to see (and I think the cigar smoker is a neighbor).  Fortunately, more wind and rain from the ocean is on our way, so we're in for a respite.  

On the plus side, the pair of hummingbirds who had discovered the fountain and come to bathe on top of the basalt column once or twice most mornings seem to be sticking around.  Aiofe bothers the cats so much that they don't venture into the yard, so the birds are safe from them for this season.  I've tried taking some photos of them as they rustle and flutter in the water, but so far I haven't managed clear shots.

Forest Fires, Smoke, and Ash

Well, let's see. The West Coast has been on fire for a week and our skies havebeen Mordor Dark with a ruddy ember for a sun. It started late Labor Day Monday when Oregon got Santa Ana-style winds. A variety of fires in the Cascade Mountains got pushed down-slope into the easter Willamette Valley. Several mountain communities and towns have been burnt; there are a handful of fatalities. Eugene wasn't under evacuation orders, but parts of neighboring Springfield were.

The air quality index has been pushing 500 for at least the last five days; 250 is hazardous air quality for all populations.  0-50 is generally healthy, 100 starts to be problematic for sensitive groups.  The dog and cats don't understand why we won't let them outside.  Each morning, Mark takes a wet cloth and mops up the fine ash that has seeped in under our windows and doors.  Outside, cars, trees, the sidewalk, mailboxes, streetlights -- everything -- is covered with a fine layer of ash from pines and houses.

Supposedly, the smoke was to clear by last Wednesday; then Friday; then by this last weekend. If we're lucky, a new weather system will blow in Friday and we'll have blue skies -- or at least rain -- again. 

Labor Day itself was a warm and sunny day; it seems like a lifetime ago I arranged the Backyard Circle into a Ritual Writing Spot and invoked the four directions to help me write.

One bright spot in otherwise smothering days is that the hummingbirds have been using the fountain as a bathing station.