I was re-potting strawberries the other day, moving them from where they'd been wintered over under a bed of straw into pots on the south side of our house. A man was walking by with his dog and he stopped to admire a rosemary bush next to our front steps. The dog ambled up the steps to greet me. We chatted and I told him how I make essential oils and have made it from another rosemary variety in our yard but not this particular bush. He looked up at me and said "You must be quite the alchemist." I said that I actually was an alchemist. He thought that was great, we exchanged names and shook hands and he was on his way. Partly because of alchemy I don't think that was a coincidence. And partly because his beautiful Labradoodle's name was Gaia.
When I uncovered the berries from their winter hibernation the straw that had been heaped over the pots had a weathered layer on the outside, a drier layer underneath and then a really decayed, slimy layer down right over the pots. On top of this layer were a LOT of happy, fat earthworms. I carefully gathered up the straw and moved it to our compost pile so everyone living in the straw can keep right on doing what they are doing. When I cleared away the straw from my fuchsia bush, there were no worms in the straw but the lowest layer that had been touching the dirt was thick with mycelium. Another excellent garden sign! This straw also got carried carefully to the compost pile. Most likely when we get further into the project of the raised beds and moving that stuff around, the broken down straw and all the beneficial inclusions are going to get mulched into the new beds.
The worms and mycelium got me thinking about various manifestations of elemental energies. The worms were up above the actual dirt, almost living in the air, and yet buried inside a thick heap of straw. That felt like Earth of Straw, if you were going to look at it like an alchemical purification. And then over in the fairy garden, not one single worm in the straw and a thick paste of mycelium way down at the bottom. Given the really delicate and serious transformative nature of mycelium, that felt like a manifestation of Spirit of Straw.
The sign of the Work perfected will be this: If the Stone being projected upon an hot plate of Venus, doth melt like Wax, and not smoke, but penetrate and tinge, then is the Oriental King born, fitting in his Kingdom with greater power than all the Princes of the World.
from "THE TOMB OF SEMIRAMIS - Hermetically Sealed, Which if a Wise-man open (not the Ambitious Covetous Cyrus) he shall find the Treasures of Kings, inexhaustible Riches to his content." H. V. D., 1674.
I had my last training/briefing before ECCC this past Sunday. I had to go downtown to the Sheraton, which sits immediately adjacent the convention center. Most of the area was utterly devoid of humans except for two types: minions on their way to a last training or people doing the St Patrick's Day Dash. Buses were re-routed, part of the freeway was closed, and it was raining like crazy. The slightly soggy nerds were an excited and friendly bunch. There are about a thousand of us, at least on paper at this time, set to help assist 75,000 at a sold-out event. Ten percent will never make it to the con, for whatever reason. Last year, 80% of the full-time Saturday volunteers never showed. The event is working to really not have that happen again. A distinct lack of parking contributed. Various con methods were altered to get rid of lines and backup that also contributed. It's going to be insane.
And every freaking day I think up another cosplay idea. A pox on my brain. Actually, if I can get the Blink wig braided, that's all that has to happen for that outfit to be done "enough." But it's going to take a few tries, as I have never done herringbone hair braiding before. I've got my bamboo strips ready to steam and shape, and went back and made way more screencaps of Lorelei's face cage in Agents of Shield. There's a whole piece on the front I didn't notice at first, and it's not totally shown clearly. But my brain goes "Huh...? Looks like a spool or two and maybe some big gears..." when it tries to deconstruct it.
Over the weekend, K and I cut an entire 40 yard bolt of tulle into
approximately 6" strips. The 54" folded width was perfect as-is. Once
we had all those strips, we tied some elastic into loops to make
waistbands, slapped in a movie and started knotting on strips. Most of a
movie later we had below-the-knee/tea-length, gothic/ratty,
princess/fairy, black tulle skirts. Materials-wise, that's about $15
per skirt and about three hours of crafting labor. Stasi and Zella are
gonna kill it at the PDX vampire ball.
One really important pre-con detail did get crossed off my list this week. I can now pronounced "yaoi" correctly and confidently aloud. That was one of those things that just had to get handled.