Tommy and the Ghost

Tommy and the Ghost
I never really got to this story and you might have been wondering if there was a story to Tommy, our classic barn black and white Tomcat and the ghost, actually technically a hag looking out our east window. I think I posted it a couple weeks ago. My how "time" flies...

This is the last week before the days when the veil becomes thinner between the world/plane as we know it and the supernatural, the world beyond.
We were advised of ghosts before we came here so long ago. Many generations lived here. Locks on every door. Mysteries and shadows. Creaks you can't explain.

Being fond of ghosts and trapped souls and black and white stray cats, this picture captured it all.

The stray sounds in our house are mostly explainable. Moving Air by wind or water through the pipes, wind, cat paws on the stairs, rats running up the walls in fall. This is a farm after all. The cats see to it the rodents don't live long.
Once in awhile something happens and I look and say, who did that? It feels like a supernatural presence. I also hope they watch as I take a shovel to the road or load firewood or sell vegetables and thereby feel like I paid my dues too. I guess ghosts are as much about being happy that you are there. Likewise they do get a bad rap for doing trickery.

Here as I filmed my favorite rascal barn cat Tommy looking out the east kitchen window near where lightning reportedly struck many years ago, the ghost who we call Hag looks out over the curtain. She is such a trickster. She could be noisier, or more of a bother and I wouldn't mind. She doesn't even do the classic throw the plate or glass up against the wall. So we do get along and I know she looks out for Tommy when we are away.

Soon the veil will return with All Saint's Day, Saturday November 1st.
So until then, look for the Hag and her kind lurking in the shadows, desperate to be noticed, longing to return to the material plane.
Forgotten and lonely at times. Be kind to them. Their lives were always harder than you could know.

Happy Hallowe'en.
from tommy and the hag

New Story posted

For those of you that don't already know, I have had a diagnosis of MS for a little more than a year. I have to say that before introducing my new story which was posted on a great MS website
I am sorry but Note: 9.19.2011, the website no longer works: http://www.ourmsstories.com/

I posted the story called "Wheelchair Repellant" on my blog. Look in the margin for the directory of my stories. mary

Writing helps release stressful feelings and fears while hopefully helping others going through similar or worse challenges.
Rated R for Real.
May you write your heart out and share your dreams.
p.s. the snow did not accumulate down here in the valley but was beautiful

Fall winds down

The Fall winds down
as the leaves fall faster and faster
the rain
and frost help
gravity take
what nature made
and men marvel
at the colors made
soon to be
a golden carpet
then soil
then tree food
and a bed for
mice and squirrels.
The first snow deserves a mention
and tomorrow morning
we find out how serious nature was
in reminding us of coming winter.
I am unable to predict the weather
by omens or wooly worms and
the unpredictable-ness of weather
makes us appreciate a perfectly beautiful warm summer day
all the more.
enjoy fall

The Spruce Tree,Tommy and the Ghost

the spruce tree tommy and the ghost

Here is my nature story for the week.
We just cleared about 100 dollars total on the farm stand this year.
We called it "eat the farm" because when you eat our vegetables you are eating all the rain, minerals etc that come off the farm.
We were wondering what to buy and I really wanted an evergreen tree. They are always green and it will grow and be here a long time.
Not like dinner out or some plastic crap from Wal-Mart.
We went to 4 seasons and the prices were way out there.
We found the last 5 foot tall spruce at home depot marked down half price to 35 dollars.
We planted it 2 days ago with the full moon on the rise. "hunter's moon"
Fred had to cut all the burlap and string out of the roots since they had neglected the poor tree.
We found a place it won't block the sun but we can see it everyday. It symbolizes that we have officially arrived home, 16 years after moving here.
A religious experience for sure.
Then I looked up "spruce" trees and Spruce was an ancient word for Prussia, the country Fred and my Dad's ancestors came from.
With déjà vu we experience the same thing over and over. In my view of reality there is no time. No first, no last. everything is and always is. Everything is now. Nothing to "get through". My human flaw says, "hate that one" or "I will get through this". My metaphysical side says, you will have to go here again because you are always going through this. What am I learning on this material plane?

Mercury Returns to forward motion

And exactly What's in it for me? you might ask.
Well, have you noticed better
Communication?
lately?
I stumbled onto the fact Mercury went retrograde earlier this month.
Ok, it does that about 4 times a year.
google or wiki for details.
Yes, I gave up on trying to easily communicate for a few weeks.
I didn't expect electronic nuisances like cell phones to work.
My reflections of days yet to come were blurry and vague.
Much better to sit out back and take in the views of turning leaves, such a mysterious and magical explosion of color.
Perhaps the periodic adjustments captured by the magnetic powers of mercury, the communication planet, allow us the necessary self reflection to achieve certainty of the need to connect with others.
All I know is that after knowingly experiencing the powers of a retrograde mercury, astrology takes on a scientific basis.
Aren't there days when you just can't get anything done? You got the letter late, the contract just couldn't be finished or signed, the person sitting across from you looks at you like you have horns sticking out of your head.
Now check the planets.
And take a break and take in the sights on your side of the planet.

typing better since wednesday....believe it or not

Lincoln Peak

Our Farm Stand Closing Monday 10.13.08

Lincoln Peak is beautiful anytime but especially in the fall.

Here are some current foliage snaps that say a thousand words each.

winter is coming.winter is coming.winter is coming...............................

Have a great Columbus Day. What have you explored lately?
mg

The Archives

The archives of my prior blog
are under
Travelogue for the universe the first generation
Hope you can find it
Takes us old timers
a little longer to catch on
Mary

October is the month

of the Black Cat

Here is Mr. B.B who is pausing in a high

window in our woodshed much to the disturbance

of the swallows and their kin who fly in and out of here

a million times to sustain on mosquitoes, flies and other

insects that pester us. We wish BB could curb his taste for bird

but alas a black cat likewise prefers poultry.

BB we hope to tame and have spent years getting a little closer

to inviting him in with our other black cats. He is reluctant to

leave his feral brothers and sisters and torn between the 2 worlds, one warm and comfortable and the other on the streets of the country with the thugs and creeps as abundant as in a busy city ghetto. A feral cat always has a wildness to her and even house cats go wild sometimes, flashing back to their root behaviors that make them fierce and then docile to conserve energy.

I hope when we go to Mars, we will take our cats. Although they only like Friskies canned food lately and the spaceship will get to be smelling pretty bad after a year or two, we have a decade or so to work out the kinks.

See you then.

Have a great October Black Cat Celebration

Fall Fury Begins

Fall colors have begun in earnest. Reports of peak colors in the higher elevations and colder spots like the Adirondacks. Here in the Western Vermont Champlain Valley, we enjoy a more drawn out process. Greens mixed with blazes of colors mainly reds and oranges and yellows. Warm colors to warn us of the cold future. This picture is from last year.

We canned 13 quarts of kiefer pears from our 15 year old tree that a couple years ago was tipped over and uprooted by the water coming off the hill. We propped it up much to my doubts and it has taken awhile but here we are, eating the bounty.

The air is cool and crisp and cleans out your breathing apparatus.

The weekend went by much too fast and back to work tomorrow.

The old cat cage went to a couple who have a rabbit in need of a cage. When they said they rescued the rabbit I thought of how senseless and useless a human must be to be stupid enough and cruel enough to set free a domestic rabbit. So we just had to give them the cage. It was a nice cage we had made for the cat population explosion when Captain et al were a baby cats (kittens).

Now we needed it to go somewhere and a rabbit has a nice house tonight.

Hope your crib is comfortable warm and accessible.

MEG