Day 22 // Happy Beltane!

Last night, I held a small solitary ritual for Beltane making some Beltane Oil and followed with a Banishing Oil I had been meaning to make. I wish there was a local group nearby that I could participate with, but alas, solitary is excellent if not better ;) This marks the very first holiday I have participated in as a pagan.

Did I mention that I love little glass bottles? ^.^

Any who, we made a trip out to buy some wood. Get this! I want to make a raised bed, right? For my herbs. If you go and buy a pre-cut raised bed kit from "PLUG IN LOCAL DO-IT-YOURSELF LAWN AND HOME STORE", you can pay around 70$ !!!!! That's not counting the soil to fill it! Good grief that's a scam!

So, being the thrifty freak I am.. I'm doing it myself ;) Huzzah! I'm sticking it to the Do-it-yourself man.... whoever.. he is.

I bought a 5/4" x 6" x 16' plank of wood, had THEM cut it (they cut it for free) into two 6" x 4' planks and two 6" x 3' planks for a whopping.. $7.00!!! Then add in the 2" wood screws and you've got MAYBE $10 with sales tax for a 4' x 3' raised bed. I could have had a 5' x 3' but I was afraid it wouldn't fit in the car with the car seat in the back.. .. plus... Fawn, lol. I don't think she'd take kindly to sharing space with lumber not to mention the safety hazard. SO! 4'x3' it is and it's plenty big enough.

I was chicken shit decided to play it smart and since the herbs were doing so well in the little biodegradable cells, I bought biodegradable 4"- 6'' pots to transplant them into before exposing them to the raised bed, raw like... ...

Since everything was biodegradable I just left the herbs in their original cells, ripped off the bottoms so the roots didn't have to fight through the container (even though they had started too) and sat them inside the new biodegradable pots. Filled in the sides with soil and sat them outside. They're currently enjoying their first evening and night in fresh air and pure sunlight. I watered them and left them on my cement slab until I can build the bed tomorrow morning.. I would have done it today but .. the summer heat was in full gear and I was already working quite a sweat watering the lawn in near 90F heat at 7pm.

Let me tell you, 23 containers of baby herbs makes you look quite the pro if you've never grown anything. Dare I say, I have a light green thumb? If they survive the transplant/move outside and the treacherous onslaught of summer, I'll officially title myself, Queen of the Herbs!!! ... for the day at least.. :P

Day 21 // Bright Blessings on Beltane!

Say that 9 times fast! :P

Tonight, I took Fawn outside and taught her how to pick flowers ;) She was of course very interested in just the petals and would pluck them off one by one. I think the little nature spirits in my backyard would have found her sweet and innocent. The ladybugs wouldn't leave her alone, so I'm taking that as a sign of them liking her ;P She is an Earth baby, born Taurus on Earth day after all.. ;) Okay, so Earth day is a made up holiday, but still.

So I taught her how to pick them and get the whole buttercup flower! What a concept! lol! We gathered them up and placed them on the altar. Something's been chomping on them because several have perfectly cut out round holes in the petals ;P

I received my six essential oils from mountainroseherbs today and oh my goodness they smell so FREAKIN' good!!! The lemon and orange.. man. I'm a sucker for citrus. I also got my glass bottles from sunburst. 30 little amber 15ml bottles with reducers and 12 glass jars for dried herbs. I love glass bottles. Have I mentioned that before? Just looking at them make me happy! They're so freakishly cute!

Lastly, the plan for this weekend is to transplant my herbs finally to the outdoors. They've stopped growing. They're definitely not dead, they've just reached their peak for their little starter cells and the biodegradable container is breaking a part. So it looks like I'm going to buy some planks of wood and build a raised-bed for my herbs. The ground here is too tough and dry. Not to mention probably nutrient poor. So, I'll start in the raised bed and maybe by the time the roots get deep enough they'll have a good enough root system to adjust to the natural dust dirt.

.. meanwhile, I've made a recent addition to my "Dream House Must Haves" list and it includes a huge greenhouse lol.