Spring Has Officially Sprung

Blue speedwell is blooming (so pretty and dainty, but I keep it outside; old folks say it's bad luck to bring it in the house), and I have a new pot of hairy bittercress in a pot on the deck (keep your potted hairy bittercress outside; those things can shoot their seeds three feet if you accidentally brush up against them when they're ready to pop), and today, I found some Viola bicolor (field pansies) all over the meadow behind my house.

I'm especially excited about the bittercress. It's one of the nine herbs used in the 10th century Old English Nine Herbs Charm against poison. It's supposed to do very well in a pot, so we'll see how it goes.

The ornamental pears are in flower (and stinking up the place), the forsythia is on its way to full bloom, and soon the Japanese pink cherries (my favorite) will be out.

I'm going to try and get some good pictures tomorrow if the rain holds off.

Thundersnow

I live in the mid-Atlantic area, and we are getting a ton of snow from winter storm Pax, about 8 inches so far. I was just out walking my dogs and was astonished to see a flash of lightning bolt across the sky accompanied by a rumble of thunder. "Thundersnow," as such an occurrence is called, is exceedingly rare here, and I aim to take advantage.

This was particularly meaningful for me as just a few hours ago, I began work on a hymn to Jupiter Tonans, a thank-you for a gift he gave me earlier this year during a mean  rainstorm.

I think I will split up the melt and use some of it as an offering on the next Ides and some of it in a war water I'm working on.

Ungrounded

Good lord, there is a lot of energy flying around today. My hands are shaking and my anxiety has ramped up big time. I thought that it was JUST anxiety until I noticed the dogs acting weird and went for a little walk. The hot spots around the neighborhood are LIT UP. I had to ground a shit-ton of extra energy into one of my traps, and I still feel a little buzzed and jittery. I need to put it to good use. I've already done some cleaning, but I think I need to get back outside. This is more than my traps can handle. I need to get rooted into the earth and let some of this go.