Hell on Earth

Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
William Shakespeare

After last night’s horrific anti-Semitic massacre at Bondi Beach in Australia during a Hanukkah celebration and the violence at Brown University in Rhode Island, at least right now, this world we inhabit is not a warm and loving place.

I spent quite a bit of time in Providence while DIL was there getting her doctorate and Angel Boy was at Yale doing the same thing. I walked around the campus and the neighborhood, even Governor Drive where there was a report of another incident which proved to be false.

When AB endured his serious medical scare, he was at the same Rhode Island hospital where the shooting victims were taken because it’s the closest trauma center. These poor kids were simply taking their mid-term exams when they were attacked.

It looks like they have a suspect in custody, but the damage is done. I read that at least two of the students had already witnessed other school shootings.

What a hellish world this is.

Rare Hybrid Solar Eclipse | Journey Between Two Worlds

Get ready for sky drama!

Photo by Drew Rae on Pexels.com

The upcoming solar eclipse on April 19-20 holds a significant amount of energy that can bring about profound changes in our lives.

The Ningaloo Eclipse April 20 is an extraordinary and rare hybrid solar eclipse that takes its name from an Aboriginal word. The path of totality passes over North West Cape, a remote peninsula of Western Australia.

On April 20, the shadow of the moon will graze the tip of the state in a twenty-five mile wide track as it travels over one of the most beautiful parts of the world – the Ningaloo region near Exmouth.

Exmouth is the only town within the line of totality making it one of the only places on earth to experience a total solar eclipse, one of nature’s most phenomenal occurrences.

The Aries new moon solar eclipse is a hybrid between an annular eclipse, where you can see a ring of fire around the sun, and a total eclipse, where the sun is completely blocked.

Hybrid eclipses are incredibly rare and can suggest a transition or perhaps a shift between two worlds.

Just as the eclipse moves from total to annular, perhaps something in our lives is preparing to shift too.

Claim the messages sent during this timeframe, as they are usually crucial to our spiritual and physical evolution.

It’s a good time to meditate on the Taoist concept of the flow state (Wu Wei), and examine what is in or out of alignment in our journey.

In addition to this blast of cosmic energy, Mercury retrograde occurs between April 21 and May 14 in my sign of Taurus.

“That which offers no resistance overcomes the hardest substances.
That which offers no resistance can enter where there is no space.
Few in the world can comprehend the teachings without words, or understand the value of non-action.”
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Chin

Silver Shield: Graceful But Hardy Native From Australia

A long, graceful spire of lilac-hued florets.

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Multiple flowering spikes.
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Jagged sage-like leaves.silvershield4 Lovely for height and texture.silvershield5silvershiled3

I cut this one back severely, and it’s just starting to grow again. Look at thick trunk; it almost looks like a tree.silvershield6

More fence-line plantings. The leaves of the mulberry tree are turning yellow and falling.
I need to rake them up and add to the compost bin.

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Native to Australia, drought-tolerant Plectranthus argentatus.

I found this plant in our neighborhood on one of our walks to the beach. I surreptitiously snapped off a small piece to experiment with propagation. Lo and behold, it started to grow immediately. That was about ten years ago, and now my entire yard is ringed with Silver Shields, and I’ll share a cutting with anyone who likes them. They are super hardy, beyond easy to grow, and just need to be cut back because of a tendency to spread and get leggy,

It’s raining now and the garden is loving it. Happy Sunday!