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Summer Solstice AND a Full Strawberry Moon

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“Stay wild, moon child.” – Riitta Klint

Today we celebrate the summer solstice and tomorrow is June’s full “strawberry moon”, the lowest full moon of the year, staying close to the horizon as the sun soars to its highest point in the sky.

How often does a full moon and a solstice appear at pretty much the exact same time? Not very…however, some reports said the last time the solstice full moon happened was in 2016, and some said it last occurred in 1986 or even in 1967. It’s weird that no one seems SURE, don’t you agree?

WOW! The energies are crazy today. I was in a store and a man was causing an issue, swearing and yelling at the employees, and had to be escorted out. I watched the entire scene and stepped aside as his out-of-control anger ramped up so that I wouldn’t become an innocent target or collateral damage. Down the street from THAT insanity, a woman, definitely homeless, was lying across the sidewalk in the hot summer sun with her personal shopping cart tipped over blocking a lane in the the very busy street. I drove by and planned to pull over and call 911 because I didn’t know if she was dead or alive, when the fire and paramedics showed up.

After that, I thought the best course of action was to go home to my safe space and BREATHE.

To make best use of this intense energy, a full moon is a great time to manifest our dreams, honor the light within, and express gratitude.

And don’t forget to charge your crystals, especially with the super intensity of this solstice. I plan to take a walk around the lagoon at sunset and hope to see the moon rise at 7p.m.

Happy Summer!

“

UNbroken 🦋

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I helped this monarch butterfly escape from being trapped in the fence and she flew away unharmed.

Photo credit Enchanted Seashells

And just when the darkness
became too much to bear
and the struggle too hard,
the light broke through
and the caterpillar emerged
a butterfly
delicate but unbroken,
wild and gentle,
finally free to spread its lovely wings
and fly away on the wind. --L.R. Knost

Seashells in Bloom 🐚

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From Casa de Enchanted Seashells….Happy Father’s Day to all the good dads in the world! 🐚

Whether it’s a Chanel or a seashell, they both bring me joy.

Since I’m woefully allergic to most cut flowers like roses and stargazer lilies, I’m rarely able to have vases full of sweet smelling blooms to decorate every room, but I do have hundreds of seashell treasures, collected by me or presented as gifts.

This is the very last freesia of the season; she’s so precious that I had to bring her in so I could marvel over her color and fragrance, but I had to place far away her from me or I’d start sneezing. As you can see, she’s happily resting among a few of my other seashell friends.

I’ve never really figured out why I love seashells as much as I do, but I learned that some people associate seashells with love and fertility. Some also believe they represent the safe journey between the physical and spiritual world, while seashell jewelry is supposed to bring good luck and to protect the spirit of the wearer.

I’m not super creative like everyone on Etsy and Pinterest, but I do like to embellish almost everything with shells and rocks.

Here’s how to make the seashell bouquet:

  • Get craft sticks of all sizes; I even used chopsticks.
  • If you don’t have a glue gun, get one! I can’t live without mine, that’s for sure. For this project, you don’t have to be perfect, obvs you need to use more glue for the heavier starfish.
  • Florist’s foam (the green stuff) makes it really easy to place the sticks exactly where you want them and they’ll be stable.

I’m pleased with the results.

I liked the idea of a seashell bouquet so much that I made another one; more rustic, in a vintage frog vase (Majolica? McCoy?) from an antique store. This time I used sticks from the garden to attach the seashells.

And because I was inspired by the seashell bouquets, I started a more intense project. With my handy glue gun and a lot of glue sticks, this entry mirror took a longer to complete than I thought it would, but I’m happy with the outcome.

Today is a Day

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“I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep today.”

I looked up to see a resting-for-just-a-minute hummingbird as he perched in the bottlebrush tree. This time I was able to quickly snap a photo before he took off. At some point, we all need stillness.

Credit to Enchanted Seashells

Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word.
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.

The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.

But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m traveling
a terrific distance.

Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.

Today by Mary Oliver

Photo Scrapbook

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I spent a frustrating couple of hours attempting to install new, adhesive shelf liners in the kitchen and bathroom. If you’ve ever done the same, frustrating doesn’t even describe the feeling of trying to smoothly stick the paper without bumps, lumps, or having it fold over and stick to itself. I did a HORRIBLE job, gave up, admitted defeat, and put all the items back under the bathroom and kitchen sinks to cover up the mistakes. I hate to fail at a task, but this was a fight I couldn’t win. That’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back, that’s for sure.

After a much needed break with a mug of lovely ginger tea, I reviewed some of my favorite photos snapped in the last few days:

Another photo I sent to the original Angel Boy to make him miss SoCal surfing and come down for a visit!

While I was looking at the surf, a bunny behind bars came to visit.

I was enchanted by pretty cactus flowers all in a row.

My mulberry tree is going crazy this year. In the past, I’ve harvested and made jam and frozen quarts and quarts of them for cobblers and to sweeten smoothies, but I’m not taking on that burden this year. That leaves more for the birds and the RATS. Eww.

A Shasta Daisy and The Fibonacci Sequence

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Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food, and medicine for the soul.” – Luther Burbank

With no rain in sight, my plants are becoming thirsty and I have to water them so they don’t dry out. I stopped for a minute to contemplate the droplets on a perfectly perfect Shasta daisy.

Nature is amazing. Everything is related to everything. Nothing is simply what it seems.

Many flowers exhibit a petal count that corresponds to Fibonacci numbers. Shasta daisies have twenty-one. This is something I didn’t even know about until recently. If they taught it in school, it’s another one of those days when I wasn’t paying attention.

In the 13th century an Italian mathematician, Leonardo de Pisa, better known today as Fibonacci, published a book called Liber Abaci. He introduced a number sequence that became known as the Fibonacci sequence. Starting with 0 and 1, each new number in the sequence is the sum of the two before it.  0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377.

The golden mean or the golden ratio is a special number found by dividing a line into two parts.

The golden mean and the Fibonacci spiral are connected to life, even spiritual life. They can be found in nature in the number of petals of flowers, the way the tiniest stem
unfurls, in spirals in seashells, and more. 

The golden proportion of 1.618 is found in key proportions of the body in humans, animals, insects, and in DNA. Our perceptions of beauty support that phi is a factor in what we find attractive.https://energeticgeometry.com/

That’s a pretty weighty concept for my brain to absorb or even understand. The possibilities seem endless, one more mystery of the universe.

I’m an uncomplicated person. All I know for sure is that I love the way Shasta daisies spread to fill in the empty spaces like they fill my heart and make me happy.

“Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.” – Theodore Roethke.

Little Monday Thoughts

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Some of the times
There are no words, 
so let us just sit here in the silence. 
Together in the silence we shall be.

Little thoughts by Athey Thompson
Art by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

Lady Justice Prevailed With a GUILTY Verdict On All Counts

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I don’t often write about political issues, but this is big news.

Have you heard?

On May 30th 2024, a jury of citizens in the state of New York convicted a former President of thirty-four felony counts.

There has been a full scale political assault on Lady Justice these past few years, but she’s still standing, proud and resolute.

In my opinion, the true crime is whatever the orange turd did to steal the election from Hilllary Clinton in 2016. He should have never been elected President.

I was a bit worried that the jury wouldn’t understand their task, but they did.

From the New York Times:

Donald J. Trump was convicted on Thursday of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign, capping an extraordinary trial that tested the resilience of the American justice system and will reverberate into November’s election.

From BBC News, here’s exactly how it happened when the jury returned to the courtroom with a verdict:

The judge walked into the courtroom shortly after 4:00 pm, and said he planned to dismiss the jury for the day in a half hour. Then he left to talk to them.

Passing the time, Mr Trump and his lead attorney, Todd Blanche, huddled together at the defence table laughing. They looked like old friends sharing a good joke – and Mr Trump’s shoulders even shook in a rare display of mirth.

But then, as time passed, the judge still had not returned.

A few minutes later, Justice Merchan arrived in a swoop of black robes, his face inscrutable.

The jury, he said, had a note. And a verdict. They had taken extra time to fill out required paperwork, but they were ready.

The atmosphere shifted. The only noise was the sound of reporters frantically typing.

“All rise,” a court officer said suddenly. “Jury entering”.

One by one, the twelve walked past Trump who rose along with the rest of the courtroom for their entrance.

Justice Merchan, in the same even tone he used throughout the trial, asked the jury to confirm they had a verdict.

They had, the foreperson said.

The first guilty verdict landed – the next 33 added a crushing weight.

Silent and still at the defence table, Trump kept his lips pursed as his lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove on either side of him, glanced sternly toward the judge.

As each juror verbally confirmed the decision to convict him, Trump turned his head in their direction and followed their faces one by one as they answered.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office charged Trump with 34 counts of falsification of business records. He was guilty on all counts.

Prosecutors said that with Trump’s approval, his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stay silent just before his 2016 presidential run about an alleged sexual encounter. Trump then was accused of approving a fraudulent scheme to disguise the reimbursement to Cohen as legal expenses.

He pleaded not guilty and has denied having sex with Ms. Daniels.

On Thursday, Trump’s pursed expression remained unchanged after the verdict was read and his attorneys pleaded with the judge for acquittal, claiming Mr Trump’s former fixer had committed perjury with his damning testimony on the stand.

Denied, Justice Merchan said.

Can he still run for president?

Yes. The US Constitution sets out relatively few eligibility requirements for presidential candidates: they must be at least 35, be a “natural born” US citizen and have lived in the US for at least fourteen years. There are no rules blocking candidates with criminal records.

What could Trump’s sentence be?

Trump has been free on bail throughout the trial and this did not change after the verdict was read on Thursday.

The judge will have several factors to consider in sentencing, including Trump’s age. The sentence could involve a fine, probation or supervision, or possibly prison time.

The more pressing matter to discuss is how messed up this country is, how his cult of hatred attracted so many disturbed followers — and how we can make sure this never happens again.

It’s really scary to consider that millions of Americans were being brainwashed by a reality-TV host.

Do they need to be deprogrammed? Can they be deprogrammed?

From Vanity Fair, Steven Hassan, a former Moonie turned cult expert and author of The Cult of Trump, says the process will require not only empathy and individual family involvement but a wholesale change in how social media and information systems separate fact from dangerous fictions. “I would put undue influence or mind control as the number-two most important thing that we address for the planet,” he says. “Because otherwise authoritarianism, using social media, is a threat.”

At the end of the day, Lady Justice might be slightly tattered, but this time she was able to rally and stand for truth. We need more of this.

What I’m Reading: Crow Planet

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Because my human family understands the special love I feel for my crow family (I refer to them as my cousins), I was gifted Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt.

These are some of my garden “cousins” who greet me in the morning.


“Grandma, I know you love crows so much, but do you think they’re a little scary?”

Angel Boy asked that question because the crows in their neighborhood seem to know when they’re eating outside in the garden, and perch in the trees and on the garage to patiently wait for fallen morsels.

“I’m not afraid of them because I don’t believe they would ever cause me harm. The crows who visit me at home leave shiny little gifts. These guys simply want to share your dinner.”

I didn’t think it was the right time to tell him that if he tried – he could get them to eat out of his hand — but one day I might.

Crows are considered to be among the most intelligent animals in the world with brains that are similar in size to humans and make up almost two percent of their body mass. They’re known for their ability to solve complex problems, and some say they have the intelligence of a two to seven-year-old child.

Haupt is a Seattle-based author, naturalist, and speaker. “My work explores the beautiful, complicated connections between humans and the wild, natural world.” She has created and directed educational programs for Seattle Audubon, worked in raptor rehabilitation in Vermont, and as a seabird researcher for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the remote tropical Pacific. (Curated from https://www.lyandalynnhaupt.com/)

If you love crows like I do, you will LOVE Crow Planet.

What are YOU reading now?

The Dragonfly

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Art + Poetry, two of my faves to join together.

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite 
The Dragon-Fly 

Today I saw the dragon-fly
Come from the wells where he did lie.
An inner impulse rent the veil
Of his old husk: from head to tail
Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.
He dried his wings: like gauze they grew;
Thro’ crofts and pastures wet with dew
A living flash of light he flew. 
--- Alfred Lord Tennyson

Before bats, before birds, before pterosaurs, a dragonfly-like insect was probably the first thing to fly on Earth. Dragonflies are the strongest flyers in the insect world—reaching speeds of up to 30 mph and among the few animals that can hover. (PBS)

Dragonflies undergo “incomplete metamorphosis” which means that they don’t go through a pupal phase like a butterfly. A dragonfly nymph hatches from an egg looking somewhat like a tiny adult, but without wings. The nymphs go through a series of molts, shedding their skin. Each of these molts is called an instar. The nymph comes “from the wells where he did lie” in the final instar before becoming an adult, or imago.

The nymph must shed its exoskeleton to reveal a new, winged body. A split forms dorsally on the thorax just above the wing pads and somehow the imago must pump fluid into the wings so they will expand and harden.

Nature is AMAZING.