Totem animals

I was watching a presentation in a Facebook Group recently and the speaker briefly mentioned totem animals.

This got me thinking that Owl might be a totem animal for me. I looked it up in Animal-Speak Pocket Guide by Ted Andrews. Here is what I read: “Spirits are strong around you. Attend to dreams and to heightened senses. It is up to you to act on that guidance.”

And then suddenly, Owl seemed to be popping up everywhere! It was happening so often that I decided to take some photos of them all (See slideshow below).

The best Owl appearance of all was one I couldn’t get a photo of because it happened too fast. As my husband and I were driving home from the harbor (water!), a large owl flew across the street in front of us and then swooped up into the trees. It was an amazing sight! Keep reading

Celebrating life’s important moments

My husband and I celebrated 32 years of marriage this month.

We decided to go to Calzolaio Pasta Company in Wilton, Maine.

As of today, we have been together over 34 years, but we almost never met.

At the time, I was working as a restaurant manager. I was happy where I was, but my store location was closing and I needed to take a new store.  The one that was offered to me was one that I had no interest in taking over. None. Zero. What I discovered was that the company had zero interest in my feelings about it. It was that store or I was out of a job. Keep reading

Shower wisdom

A friend mentioned a problem she was having to me recently and it had been on my mind for a day or so.

I noticed that whenever I was thinking about my friend’s problem, I also began thinking of another person that I knew that was from the same area as she. Gradually I realized that my intuition was telling me that I should reach out to this second person to see if they might have any information that could help with this problem.

And because I was in the shower at the time, I realized that I had to act on this. I get a lot of intuitive hits when I am near (or in this case, in) water. I have learned to trust these nudges and to act to put them out into the world. Keep reading

The garden, 2023 edition

It’s one of my favorite times of year: the mostly blank slate garden.

Deciding what to grow this year and seeing what lived through the winter.

My habit is to way, way, way overplant tomatoes, such that my tomato bed turns into a jungle from which it is difficult to extract any actual edible tomatoes before they split, mold, or become otherwise unappetizing. I am going to do my best to avoid that this year–and yes, I say this every year. Maybe if I declare in advance of plant shopping that I will grow one heirloom, one purple/orange/or yellow, one cherry, and one early variety then I will stick to that plan. Okay, so already know I won’t because I want a Purple Cherokee and I want a Lemon Boy, and I want a Supersweet 100 and a Sun Gold… Keep reading

Evaluating my coffee consumption

I recently realized that I was drinking up to six cups of coffee a day and decided (for reasons that I won’t go into right now) that it was excessive and perhaps could bear some, um, reduction.

I have my favorite kinds of coffee, and one of them was Green Mountain’s Spicy Eggnog, which was discontinued years ago. I still had 2 of the k-cups left that I saved for a special occasion (one of which I used last week when I was feeling sorry for myself and needed some cheering up).

Periodically I would look online to see if they might magically appear again but sadly, they have not. Keep reading