In the corner of the garden close to the back gate, I found a wing that belonged to a Monarch butterfly. Poor tattered little one, colors dull and listless; I carefully picked her up to bring inside the house to spend eternity resting in a pretty box of similar treasures.
Photo by Enchanted Seashells
When I went back outside to finish a yard clean-up project, I had a visitor — this magnificent Monarch who stayed still long enough to spread her wings for a picture, vibrant and alive:
Photo by Enchanted Seashells
It’s a blueblue sky circle of life day here in SoCal.
It’s been an insane couple of days here on Earth, hasn’t it? A lunar occultation, double meteor showers, giant earthquakes, tsunamis — in addition to retrograde Mercury and the Lion’s Gate portal — and we are definitely in the midst of a massive amount of cosmic energy. I’m not sure what it all means, but I’m on high alert, that’s for sure.
There were no earthquakes or tsunami damage around here, but check out this crazy photo! I was in the garden near a brick patio cleaning fallen leaves from the eucalyptus tree. It’s a really annoying job because my stupid city planted the wrong sort of street trees decades ago and not only do eucs make a giant mess, they’re also a fire hazard. I have to constantly pick up the leaves and the incredibly painful-to-bare-feet seed pods (known as gum nuts). No matter how many times neighbors and I lobby the city to get the tree removed, we are always turned down; another stupidstupid city decision.
In and around the bricks and rocks, I had positioned a few random tiles to add some color when a friendly real lizard stopped by for a visit. I’m glad my camera was close by to memorialize the meeting between art and reality.
Does art imitate life or is life imitating art?
Yes, you are beautiful!
You can see some of the offending euc leaves that fell right after I had cleaned up this area. It’s SO annoying!
The first planetary event is a lunar occultation. I had never heard that before, have you?
It sounds quite witchy and magical, don’t you agree? I hope our SoCal skies are clear tonight so I’ll be able to see what it’s all about and absorb some of that mystical celestial enchantment.
Tonight, July 28, two worlds align as the Moon will pass incredibly close to Mars to create a lunar occultation — a fascinating event where the Moon temporarily hides the Red Planet from view.
Lunar occultations involving bright planets like Mars are incredibly rare.
The Moon will move in front of Mars, causing the planet to disappear behind it for a brief period. This is known as a lunar occultation, and it’s a stunning, rare cosmic alignment you’ll want to catch.
Depending on your location, you could experience:
🌓 Mars completely disappearing behind the Moon (full occultation)
🌓 A close conjunction, with both celestial bodies appearing side-by-side in the sky.
🌓 No telescope required — but binoculars or a zoom lens will give you a clearer view.
🌓 Look toward the eastern sky shortly after sunset for the best view.
There’s more…
Don’t miss this two-in-one meteor shower.
The second sky show will occur tomorrow, July 29–30. We’re in for a breathtaking celestial show as two meteor showers—the Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids—reach their peak at the same time.
This rare double meteor shower event will light up the night sky with glowing streaks of light, creating a truly magical experience.
The Southern Delta Aquariids, active from July 18 to August 12, will be at their brightest around these dates and can produce up to 8 meteors per hour under dark skies. Meanwhile, the Alpha Capricornids, though milder at around 3–5 meteors per hour, are known for occasionally producing bright fireballs that surprise even experienced stargazers.
With the moon only 27–36% full, the darker skies will make this event even more visible. It’s the perfect time to step outside, find a quiet spot, and enjoy nature’s own light show.
Info curated from Astrowonders, Google, and Pinterest
With all the powerful planetary energies at play right now and everything else in this country that almost too horrible to even think about, it seems like a great time to get grounded, to literally get back to what’s simple and healing — and that’s where you’ll find me, in the garden planting seeds of serenity (and flowers).
A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy. – Luis Barragan
Is there anything better than homemade apple butter?
Apple butter is not a single invention by one person, but rather a preservation method with roots in medieval Europe. It originated in Germany and the Netherlands, with monasteries in those areas using it to preserve their apple harvest.
The Pennsylvania Dutch, who are actually of German origin, later brought the practice to North America, particularly to Pennsylvania, and it then spread throughout Appalachia and the American South.
This is how they used to make apple butter! It was a slow, laborious process.
My mom and I made apple butter every year. We’d get a bushel of apples and spend a fun day working together.
Cooking apple butter typically takes eight to twelve hours in a slow cooker on low heat. This long, slow cooking process allows the apples to break down, caramelize, and develop the rich, sweet flavor characteristic of apple butter.
Here’s my easy recipe. Even though it’s easy ingredient-wise, it’s going to take a long time for the apples to cook down, so be patient, otherwise, you’ll end up with a lot of applesauce.
Ingredients:
🍎 Apples, a lot of apples. I used the ones from my tree so I know they’re organic and free of any pesticides.
🍎 Cinnamon…I add a massive amount of cinnamon because that’s how we like it, so add as much or as little as your taste dictates.
🍎 Water
🍎 That’s all you need, except this time toward the end of cooking, I tasted the concoction and added two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and three tablespoons of sugar because my apples were VERY tart. (ACV brings out the sweetness, too.)
First, core and cut the apples into medium size pieces or chop them smaller, whatever you feel like doing is fine. No need to peel.
I started the cooking process on the stovetop, rather than in the crockpot, because I had too many apples to fit and I needed to wait until they cooked down before transferring. This is when you add water, about 1/2 cup to one cup depending on the amount of apples you have.
Add cinnamon.
Cook over medium heat for about an hour, stirring ever so often so the bottom doesn’t burn. I used a potato masher to make sure the apples were all getting softened.
When it looks like applesauce, carefully spoon into a blender and zap until smooth.
After that, transfer it into the crock pot and cook on high for four hours. Stir every once in a while.
After that initial four hours, turn the crockpot on low for twelve hours to cook overnight. Keep the crockpot top cracked open or condensation will form and drip into the pot and make the apple butter too watery.
If you like it super smooth and creamy like we do, blend it one final time.
And this is the finished product, so good you’ll want to eat it with a spoon. It looks like chocolate, doesn’t it? YUM!
While it’s still warm, I store some in glass canning jars in the refrigerator to eat right away, and freeze the rest.
Apparently, I could resist no longer. The primal pull of these Birkenstocks were too great; I succumbed to the ugly cuteness of these shoes.
What sealed the deal for me was their Hello Kitty pinkness. The style might be hideous but that color draws me in every single time.
I get it now. They are essential; maybe not as adorable as a pair of stilettos, but in their own way, they’re fashionable and even princess-y, don’t you agree?
Even better, they were on the clearance aisle at Nordstrom Rack, so I scored in my own strange, thrifty manner.
If you see me walking around with my Birks and socks, just nod and carry on.
But wait! It gets worse!! Much worse…both Angel Kids have Crocs with charms to embellish their weird looking shoes, so I became obsessed with them, too.
I found some kid-sized offbrand “crocs” for about three dollars (yay for thrifty me!) and subsequently discovered these adorable charms, so now I am officially chic/unchic. I’ve been wearing them for gardening so they haven’t been out in public yet, haha. “Mom, Grandma, Boy Mom“, how could I NOT represent my tribe???
Crocs and Birks, what the heck has happened to me? What’s next? Will I stop shaving my legs and run around naked like the hippies who lived at Taylor Camp, the 1970s commune on the island of Kauai?
Not. A. Chance. Nope. Not bloody likely. Not gonna happen. But I’ll wear the shoes…
Feinting is a deceptive or pretended blow, thrust, or other movement, especially in boxing or fencing.
Fainting, or syncope, is what I experienced a couple months ago. I definitely wasn’t feinting when I got dizzy, nauseous, fell, and hit the fireplace. The loss of consciousness felt really weird and not entirely unpleasant.
I thought it was simply an unexplained but strange incident, and finally told my doctor about it.
Her response to me was, “Of course you went to the ER, what did they say? I don’t see that in your notes.”
I replied, “Oh no, I didn’t go anywhere and I didn’t call the paramedics, either, because I was wearing my Hello Kitty jammies. No way was I going to let anyone see me.”
She shook her head and laughed as I explained to her that my RN mom had often drilled into my head that I should never EVER go to the doctor or a hospital unless I was well dressed and nicely groomed– and always with pretty underwear. I mean, there might be scenarios where that’s impossible, but her words are tattooed in my brain.
Of course I would have sought immediate medical help if it happened again, but so far I’ve been lucky.
My doc said her mom was exactly the same, so she understood. However, after asking me a lot of questions, she was concerned enough about my syncope episode to want to rule out any underlying and serious reasons, so she gave me an electrocardiogram and referred me to radiology for a carotid artery ultrasound.
The ECG looked OK and I’ve booked the appointment for the ultrasound to see how my four carotid arteries are performing. Most of the time I think I’m pretty smart but I didn’t know there were FOUR carotids–I thought there was only one, so I’ve learned something. Hopefully, we can rule out any underlying blockages to explain why I fainted. The worse case scenario is that a blocked artery can lead to an increased stroke risk or an aneurysm, but at least I’ll find out one way or another.
The best case scenario is that it was a singular vasovagal syncope episode with no lasting harm. Fingers crossed. Maybe I will actually have “feinted” and dodged a direct hit. That’s funny to think about, but then I’ve been accused of being easily amused…
Since then, my goal has been to mindfully dress for the emergency that might never happen; a personal version of disaster preparedness.
Enchanted Seashells | Princess Rosebud 