(The Old Man is flowering.)

Four days until the Summer Solstice.  Sven is taking legal classes and I'm waiting for a background check through E-Qip before starting a federal job.  Nonetheless, we're getting by, although I did decide not to go to yoga for a couple of months to save a little of our cash.

As when I was in Coronado, I'm watching outside daily for the markers of seasonal change that belong to the desert.  For the past couple of months it's been cactus flower season, an example of which is above.  

Since May, we've been seeing a plethora of the local fauna coming out: rabbits, ground squirrels, lizards and roadrunners.  Oh, and the omnipresent quail have increased.  The monsoon season is a few weeks away since summer in Arizona is divided into "dry" and "wet" summers.  Observation continues.

We also finished our kitchen remodel.  Since hospitality is valued highly in heathenry, having a kitchen suitable for making lots of food and entertaining guests was mission-critical.  Our miserable little manufactured-home kitchen, which was furnished with RV cabinets of all things, is now full of floor-to-ceiling Ikea cabinets, granite countertops, and a central cooking island.  I found a copy of the Joy of Cooking for $7.95 on clearance and have already started to work with it.  It has recipes for just about every foodstuff out there, and if transforming every foodstuff out there isn't kitchen witchin', I don't know what is.

(More of the local flora on my property.)

Further to a reading done for me at Trothmoot in 2013, I've upped my ancestor devotion.  Currently I have an altar to my departed family in a corner of the bedroom.  After some thought while at Pantheacon, I've put one of those Indian-made Celtic tapestries up to make it private.  I am offering a small glass of water every morning and meditating there in front of items related to or owned by my forebears.  This seems to be producing results for me in the form of serendipitous knowledge and dreams.

I hope you all have a great Solstice, and plan to write about it soon!