I have some time to myself today; I’m on Hornby, looking out the window at fresh show. It has occurred to me that good heavens, I’ve fallen behind on my ob-blog-gations here. So I’m going to post my most recent crop of self-portraits. Remember, if you want to view any of them larger, just click on the image and it will take you to my flickr page.

This is going to be long because oh good lord, it has been a long time since I posted my self-pics here.  Look at this one: it’s from the last snowfall. That one didn’t last long, and neither will this one, we can hope.  February means spring; the nettles are up and, I believe, on the menu for dinner tonight. Ahh, spring. But it’s COLD.

February grants us teasing glimpses of spring then crushes us under snow, and don’t even get me started on March. Nasty bitch of a month. (more…)

I been likin this webcomic, Overcompensating, drawn by this guy Jeffrey Rowland, who writes in a hick country boy style that is starting to warp the way I think. Jeffrey Rowland stop being so awesome! I don’t have time for this!

This one (lots do actually) hit me in the funny place and the profound place at the same time, which I enjoy.

If my blog template gets in the way of the picture, click on the image.

Whoops. It has swears in it. Sorry kids. But it’s funny!

Well, time or not, I am reading his webcomic from start to finish; I’ve  only got about about a year to go. It kills me. In a good way. It’s the characters. You have to get to know them or the whole thing often just seems pointless and weird; once you know them you get caught up. Hooked. Bad. This guy’s brain is unique, and I mean that in the very best sense.

Darn it. I’ve just been through this with Questionable Content. Now I’m on a maintenance dose of ‘whenever a new one comes out’ (not often enough). And now this. That’s not counting the others. Is there a 12 step group for webcomics?

Still rofling.

This is a test, this is only a test. What’s it gonna look like?

Please pardon the wank post; I’m trying to figure out a plugin that will let me post photos from my flickr account directly from the blog editor. And I think I’ve done it, finally, after much twiddling and hair-pulling. Don’t look at the time I posted this. It lies.

Oh, wait. It doesn’t even show the time posted. Nevermind.

The photo? Oh yeah. It’s the self-portrait from the 9th. Here in Chemainus the sidewalks have yellow painted footprints to show you where to go to see murals. And in this one spot, the footprint paths diverge,. What to do? Feels like my life right now. And there’s no way to predict which pathway will lead to what.

“These feet have lived in darkness, hear their cries for light and air
These feet are coming out to breathe, these feet are quite a pair
There’s a way to live each day in balance so complete
Yeah I’ve found my path to freedom lies in following my feet” – (from  ‘Pheet‘)

I posted the following to Word of Mouth Blog. I realized that the mere existence of this ongoing commitment (whether I was diligent or derelict) was a drain on my inner resources. It’s time to release and renew my focus on what’s real and necessary in my life.

Also, there is a brief tribute at the bottom to Billy Little, a renowned Hornby Island poet and what my Mom would call a ‘real character’ (she always meant it in the most complimentary way).

It’s a hard thing, but I’ve decided to let go of this forum. It’s coming up to two years since I left Hornby and it’s finally sunk in that I don’t live here anymore, though I continue to visit and love the place. I have family here; I can’t go too far. Still, my finger has left the pulse of the Hornby community. As a result of my own (and others’) lack of participation, this place been pretty quiet for a long time. Perhaps a new person can step into the breach, if there is still a need for this forum, and bring it back to life. (more…)

Ah, February. Where I live, it is the portentous time, month of promise, sunshine and early flowers, an opening hand reaching from a beautiful dream that we then wake from in March. February’s fragile promise breaks in that foul stormy pain in the ass month.

But it’s still February, dammit. Sweet dreams are made of these. Valentine’s Day, yes. Love is in the air, and here on the coast, little flowers are already protruding from the soil. I’m having the strange sense lately as my presence on the interweb grows that I am somehow growing too, growing virtual tentacles that literally extend out into the e-thers.

(Woo, woo, I know… hee hee. I like allowing my woo wooness free rein, because it scares the right sort of people.)

Wait! I’m in Crisis mode here. I started this blog to get my red lights flashing. Not ‘woo, woo’, but ‘SOS’. Heelllp!!

Sudden midstream topic switch. February’s dreams have been pre-empted by premature March fears as drear Pluto in Capricorn bites reality, prompting panicky cat-tail-lashings instead of happy puppy wags. Sorry bout that.

I wrote the following letter tonight:

Hola beautiful music/dance/drum deities, I’m reaching out a gentle virtual tentacle to see if the two of you have returned and might perhaps be ready to avail yourselves of an awesomely awesome astrological experience with me at some point soon (ideally before the dance journeys return)?

And also, if you would please pass the word about your circles that you know an awesomely awesome astrologer in desperate need of work and that now is the time if ever! Before she starves to death! Yes!

Hahaha… really I do need to generate some business so I’m asking my friends and clients alike to (only when opportune and appropriate, of course) Spread the Gaia Word.

I’m also offering a new service that you folks might also be interested in. There’s information on the website which I’ve just created: ‘Computer Help For Newbies’.

I would be totally high on gratitude if either or each of you could possibly pass the URL on to your networks (or to anybody you think might be interested in such a service).

Phew! Thank you! And thank you to the universe for the huge influx of business which I am about to receive, tee hee.

To say I’m looking forward to the return of the dance journeys is kind of like saying I’m looking forward to spring, or to being born. It’s been a long dark cold one and I’m ready to make the journey through the birth canal… oh yes.

Yikes! Life is crazy!

But I have faith. It’s opening up in amazing and downright portentous ways. I’ll see you all soon, I hope, and I hope you’re all having amazing and precious journeys wherever you are.

Blessings and blisses,
phee

There, so now you know. If you feel moved to, would you, could you, help me spread the word? You might think of it as literally spreading the Gaia word, because that is what I do in my work: the astrology / dreamwalk / singing / writing part, anyway; the computer help, not so much. Still, I’m good at it, and it can make me some bucks.

Maybe it’s time for the word to be spread: for Gaia’s word to go viral. Here I am, coming out of the soil, protruding, poking my lil face toward spring, opening to a new kind of light, a new spring of hope, opening my lil mouth and screaming for help.

“Help! Let me help you!”

and oh, ps: If there’s nothing I have that you want, but you like this blog or my photos or writings and find what I’m doing somehow cool and interesting, I happily and with gushy gratitude (or grateful silence, should you prefer) accept your kind donations through PayPal. And there’s now a button in the sidebar.

I’ll help by continuing to make this site (and my other related sites, linked in the sidebar) as varied and interesting as possible.

There’s a facebook viral post going around; after being tagged five or six times by different friends, I succumbed and created my own version. In the name of avoiding doing a real blog today (but still including pictures), I’m including it here:

1. I’m taller than I look. The measurements lie.
2. This is more difficult than it ought to be, considering how much I normally enjoy talking about myself.
3. I like the way I look a lot better than I did when I was younger, including the wrinkles and sags.
4. My kids taught me about magic.
5. I don’t have kids anymore: I’m the proud mother of these amazingly smart, capable and beautiful grown-ups. I miss my kids a lot. It’s a sad, sore spot.
6. I believe in magic (thanks, kids). I’ve seen way too much proof over the years to doubt. But I don’t claim to understand why it works or how to make it work consistently.
7. I like people. Just about everybody I meet is excellent in some way.
8. I’m an Aries with a Leo Moon and Virgo rising. This is not easy.
9. I’m good at too many things I love to do. It’s a problem.
10. If I had to focus on any one of the things I’m good at for the rest of my life, it would be singing.
11. I’m still trying to figure out how to make a living; number 9 doesn’t help.

12. My current obsession is photography. I love my camera. I would sleep with it if it weren’t so cold and lumpy.
13. I’m not worried about the future, despite the grim prognostications. I see evidence indicating that life is just getting more fabulous. And yes, shit will happen and we will deal with it.
14. I might be crazy in some way, but I’ve learned to cope. More or less.
15. I’m really, really smart.
16. I’m also incredibly fuzzy-minded.
17. I encourage rule-breaking and thinking outside the accepted parameters of ‘what’s normal’.
18. I’m here to foment some kind of revolution, if only in my own mind.
19. I express emotions in sound and movement as much as possible. It feels good and things change in a positive way as a result.
20. I like things that are fun.
21. I believe in universal consciousness, and I listen to its voice because it says good things. I don’t believe it’s a Creator; I think the universe created itself just as a germinating seed does. But the sum of the whole thing is a loving awareness, and Earth is its face. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
22. I don’t care what people think of me, except when I do.
23. I’m a kind, helpful and caring person, with bad habits and unresolved fears.
24. I’m hugely grateful yet somewhat resentful at the same time, often for the same things. The gratitude is growing and the resentment is fading, it’s a benefit of growing older. Also of #19.
25. I’m in love, which is a wonderful thing to be in, when it isn’t catastrophically painful. Love is a paradox, like life, and paradox is cool.

After I finished this, and read some of my friends’ versions, I realized that I am really talking about my feelings, opinions and perspective on life. Most people talk about facts (‘when I was ten, this happened, I did this, I went there’) and activities (I belong to this group, I engage in that sport).

Now I feel like I ought to make another one and do it differently. But I probably won’t.

Cats are magical creatures. I’m just saying, because at the moment I have one wrapped around my lap (not precisely on it), purring madly and doing her best to rub her entire body against all of my exposed surfaces, including my fingers as they type. She’s succeeding, too. It’s annoying yet (this is the magical bit) endearing as hell.

She just shoved her entire face into my nostril. Thought you might enjoy that image.

Onward to my blog entry of the day, or rather, the past several days. If you want to see a picture of the cat, see my last blog entry. Otherwise, you’ll have to settle for this shot of me in front of the house. That’s my bedroom window up there.

There’s a thrift shop in this town; the last time I was there I found the find of the year so far! Maybe even last year too! Yes! It’s a gorgeous cut-work velvet scarf that is so lush and elegant it makes me happy just to think about. See, I’m not so very hard to make happy.

This cat is crossing the boundary from endearing into seriously annoying and is beginning to trigger desires (which I allow myself to feel, if not act on) to toss her out that same bedroom window, which at the moment is located directly behind me. Yaahh!!

There, she settled into my lap. Goood kitty. Now she’s peacefully combing my hair with her claws. Oh, yes. That’s nice.

In the next shot, I indulge my images of greatness, kind of like where you take a picture of Mount Rushmore with your head in one of the presidents’ positions. Here I am in the Chemainus mural! You know the one–it’s the famous one on all the billboards and promotional material. My head is occupying the central position.

One day, this town will be famous cuzza ME [insert maniacal laughter here].

Sorry. It’s the influence of this cat. She’s a fey, strange and dark creature with a large, assertive presence. I’m quite certain she deems herself to be the absolute ruler of the world, and I’m not convinced she’s wrong about that.

In fact, I’d wager she stopped annoying me purely out of regal graciousness and not because I intimidated her into it.

Last and definitely least, here’s today’s self-portrait: me hunched over the computer screen. The look on my face says it all. Yep, that’s how I feel. Whatever. It’s Sunday, and Sunday has always felt like a throw-away day.

However, the good news is, my new website is up and running! You can find it at newbiehelp.earthmatrix.net. I’ll be promo-ing it some more soon. It’s perfect timing, because Mercury has recently ended its retrograde period. It is not considered wise to launch new ventures that involve communications and technology while Mercury is retrograde.

Check it out, all. Tell your friends in the area. I’ll be putting some helpie-type content up there soon, too. I just now finished creating the masthead image. Kinda cool, no?

Actually, I’ll probably be still fiddling with it quite a bit. So maybe the announcement is premature. Bear with me…