Two Things Left on the Feng Shui List and Summer Fruit Fun

One week finished on the 2012 Summer vacation and I’m afraid I haven’t done anything terribly exciting to report.  I have, however, knocked one more item off of my Feng Shui list of cures, and started summer fruit and vegetable stocking for winter consumption.

Feng Shui update first:

This week I was able to, finally, complete another Feng Shui cure for my home – something quite simple, actually, but not something I was able to easily get done as I don’t have a table saw.  You just raised your eyebrows, didn’t you?

Over my front stairs there is a hole – sort of an attic type of hatch, if you will.  I’m sure there was a hatch cover there at one time, but when I took possession of the house said hatch was long gone and so all that was visible was a hole over my stairs.  A good place to store things, incidentally – as I found out this week when I pulled out my step ladder and looked up there wondering if the original hatch might actually be up there and just pushed aside.  Nope.  Another (dust covered) picture, a couple of tennis rackets and some odds and ends, but no hatch.

Anyhow, this week I spent an overnight at my mum & Dad’s house and Dad cut me a hatch.  I had some plywood I was willing to take down with me, but he had some scraps on hand and didn’t need it.  Hatch cut, when I got home I did a Three Secrets reinforcement and installed the hatch.

My Teacher and Feng Shui friend, Terri Perrin, has the Three Secrets Reinforcement method described on her website – and as Terri has taught me, this reinforcement is an excellent way to set intention when a cure is being put into place.  Here’s the link to Terri’s site.

This leaves two final cures for me to complete.  It’s been nearly a year since I moved into the house and so nearly a year since I had Terri’s consultation and started the process of putting the cures into place.  The two left aren’t big or scary and will be hardly noticeable to anyone casually observing my home… there have been far more significant changes to the house and yard in the last 11 months, but over the last 11 months things have slowly come together in and around the house from an energetic perspective. Have things changed? Yes. Drastically? Not that anyone other than me would notice, but this process has actually been all about me, so I have noticed BIG changes.

I’m hopeful that some time in the next month or so I may be able to obtain the materials needed for the last two cures.  I’m not in a financial position to just go out there and buy things, so I am asking the universe to supply me with what I need – a water feature (I am thinking a solar-run water fountain or maybe a bird bath) and a window (36” by about 24” should do nicely!) – OH - and for the window, someone to help me install it.

Ha ha ha!

In October Terri is holding a workshop which I am saving some money to attend – creating and filling a Wealth Vase with intention.  Wealth and abundance are always appreciated and anything to help “tweak” that will come in handy.  If you are in the Comox Valley and interested in attending, I encourage you to check out Terri’s site for more information.  I know she only had 12 spaces initially available and at this point there might be a spot or two left, but then again, there might not!

Ok… on to the Fresh Summer Fruit Fun.

I LOVE summer fruit – nectarines, peaches, strawberries, cherries, plums and on and on and on… Local fruit is starting to hit the shops and fruit stands now and sometimes the prices are great for stockpiling. I’m planning to build a raised garden bed before the end of October – I will need one as Mum is going to give me some garlic to plant… and then come spring I’ll put in beans and tomatoes and whatnot…

Anyhow, down at Mum and Dad’s place things are starting to ripen and get put up for winter.  I came home with a great handful of beans (don’t know what kind) which last night I chopped up, blanched, froze on a cookie sheet overnight and then bagged and put into the chest freezer today.

I did some grocery shopping this morning and picked up a case of 18 freestone Okanagan peaches for $9.99.  Tomorrow I will start processing them.  Eventually I will can them, but until I get my hands on canning supplies (like, well, everything!) I will freeze them similarly to how I processed the beans.  Come October I’ll process all of my frozen plums into jam and can the peaches and likely my pears at that point too. 

That will be my first canning ever and I’m looking forward to learning a new skill that will allow me to put up my own fruits and vegetables in such a way that I can enjoy my own produce all year ‘round. I’m hopeful I may be able to trade some of my apples (down the road) for other fruits and vegetable that I can put up.  Between freezing, dehydrating, and canning, I’m thinking I should be able to become fairly self-sufficient with longer term storage of fruits and vegetables.

Anyhow, for now, I’m looking forward to having a freezer full of yummy summer goodness that will keep my face smiling in the winter. 

Peaches and ice cream anyone?

With love across the waters,

A Change in Plans and Counting the Projects

My summer vacation plans were abruptly changed for me.  The new neighbours at the cabin put out Warfarin thinking to combat a mouse problem - and though they have since removed the poison, I do not feel it safe to take my pets to the cabin this year and so am electing to stay home.

I ran the gamut of negative emotions – as you can well imagine. Fury, anger and bitterness being the most violent of what I was feeling, sadness and disappointment now being foremost in my heart.  I had planned my vacation for the end of summer so as not to discommode any of the others wanting use of the cabin this year, but my timing acted against me.

So what am I to do with my two weeks off instead? Well, I’m trying to find a bright side in this.

Trying – some minutes are much harder than others.

I have two weeks now with which to, I think, accomplish some project work.  I’m going to need to be creative in this because with plans being to spend the bulk of my vacation at the cabin, I have no money set aside (or even available) to do anything large.

Yard work can therefore be one of my projects – the fruit on the Damson Plum tree was long ready to harvest and so today I brought in the rest of it, washed and froze it for a time when I can make jam. That will be another project for this next two weeks – making jam, I mean.

A Trug Full!

I have moved the Italian prune plum tree to a slightly more suitable location (it may not survive the transplanting, but I would not be devastated if that happened.)

I additionally need to buy a new hose and a sprinkler – the back yard is dry as a bone and I really do need to keep things alive back there.  That will be one of the minor purchases I make over the next two weeks.

I will need to spend some time combating the newest strain of dandelion that has been popping out. These ones are teeny tiny ones with little tiny flowers on very long stems.  Lawnmower should take care of that, I think. 

The front yard could use some attention and I will also measure up and have a hatch cut for the hole over the stairs at the front steps.

I’m thinking I can spend some time planning and picking out paint options as well – for the outside of the house, I mean.  I’m thinking that the grey blue of the siding would go nicely with white trim and then my red front door will really POP with this as an option… but I will spend a little more time thinking on that option as it will also mean eventual replacement of all of the tin around the house (soffits, facia, rain gutters and downspouts) and while I am at it, I may as well get up there on my ladder and clean the damn gutters out before the autumn rains are upon us.

While not how I planned to spend my vacation, I can take some pleasure in the knowledge that I will have some house-related accomplishment over the next two weeks.

With love across the waters,