Beneath the Surface

... because I've been sick all day, and am hoping it's not an oncoming flu :P. I suppose it could be something I ate. (We do have all that Halloween candy around... :))

I finished the girls' costumes yesterday and they look good, no thanks to my sewing skills, they just chose marvelous fabrics!

And today I've been working on a logo-of-sorts for Lake Effect.

I realized (okay, I already knew this, I think I was consciously forgetting it) that if I want the next Lake Effect (local pagan newsletter) out on time I have to get a lot of it ready before we leave, because I'll only have a couple of days once we get back. So I've been working on that. Luckily it's small, so I think a general piece on different harvest holidays and one on Lugh ("Putting Lugh Back into Lughnasadh"--but I'll refrain from being too obnoxious about that one :)) should do me. I think I'm supposed to be getting some poetry in as well, so will leave room for that when it arrives.

What I'd like to include is something about Finnish paganism--with our large Finnish population, I think that would be of interest to folks--but I haven't managed to find any decent resources on it yet.

And I made a blueberry pie (it's Dan's birthday and he doesn't like cake) today with some help from younger daughter.

The girls are playing the Sims on the PS2 this afternoon--actually elder daughter has convinced younger daughter to torment the little virtual creatures by removing doors and so forth. Generally she just likes building stuff.

My crocuses are up today. They weren't up yesterday--and even today it's only the yellows, not the purples--but there they are, the first of the spring flowers. I automatically glanced over at the rosebushes, the leaves aren't even budding yet, as they shouldn't be, but somehow I had to look.

Some years I'm already thinking about planting something, this year I'm not. Well, maybe grapes--I've had it in mind to see if I can get some grapes going, although I'm not sure where to put them. Something hardy. Something that, in a few years, I can use to make a sweet red wine :).

I've been trying to write something about Beltane, for the local pagan newsletter. (Someone suggested writing something about how to dance the Maypole, since we've certainly had plenty of experience of the trial-and-error sort, and I did, and it's either too long or too short depending on where I want to put it...) Drawing a blank. Well, actually, that's not quite true--I am drawing a blank on things I want to include, which is Beltane activities--you know, Maypole dancing, bonfire jumping, screwing in the woods... (Not that we can depend on warm enough temps here for that last one...) I don't know--I'm thinking of going into broad themes, the fertility aspect. Maybe a brief discussion of how different pagan faiths might celebrate the holiday? I'm having more trouble than anticipated "writing eclectic," you know? :) But I have some time before it needs to be done, one of the pluses of a very small press run :).