Sunday, February 28, 2010

How to know


This is a cute list that I found on another site. It works perfectly for me and I can't help but smile while reading it. Enjoy! :)


Fifty sure-fire ways to detect paganism without having to resort to a dunking stool or wart-inspection.

1) Never puts any rubbish out on refuse-collection day. I mean, re-cycling and composting is fine, but you can take it too far.

2) You casually ask what phase the moon is in, and she tells you down to the exact number of days, hour and minute of rising, position on horizon, and current angle of declination.

3) All the stray cats in the neighborhood tend to congregate in her garden (and use your own as their litter).

4) A screech owl has chosen the lamp-post outside her house as its favorite calling-post. That's just when it's getting warm at night and you like to sleep with the window open.

5) Doesn't cut down the weeds in her garden; in fact it looks more like she's cultivating them. Needless to say, you get the seeds wafting over onto your pristine lawn.

6) Most of her clothes on the washing line are black.

7) The local kids talk in whispers as they go past her house, then start running at the last moment.

8) Nobody trick-or-treats her house; not after the incident when the kids' costumes were less scary than hers when she opened the door to them. (She was embracing the Crone that year no doubt!)

9) Footprints on the roof. And the trees in her flight-path have been pruned down. I swear it's true!

10) She can't even make a simple sandwich without adding fresh herbs to it. And don't ask her for a cup of tea unless you want something yellow coloured and smelling of flowers.

11) She hardly ever gets junk mail. You ask her what her secret is and she confides that she returns it to sender after writing something on in strange curly writing.

12) When you pop next door for a chat, the kettle is always already on.

13) The Jehovah's Witnesses never call (not anymore; not after the last time :-).

14) Keeps the local scented-candle shop solvent.

15) Has a pond full of frogs (and you haven't seen that bothersome double-glazing salesman around for a while).

16) She's always smiling, darn her!

17) She goes dressed as normal to a Halloween fancy dress party; and wins first prize.

18) Her house always smells of incense.

19) Has named her four cats Hecate, Kali, Diana, and Moonbeam. (Or her rats Devon and Cornwall)

20) Her bumper sticker reads "I brake for toads".

21) Frequently gets raided by the drug squad who confiscate large amounts of dried green leaves; they always return them with apologies after analysis.

22) At Christmas, it seems like half the garden has been moved into the house.

23) You sometimes hear the sound of singing and dancing through the wall. If you look out of the window, it is usually a full moon.

24) She was given a bodhram drum for her birthday. And she plays it at midnight in the fields. And she's got a blasted tamborine.

25) You discover that her realistic resin skull ornament in her living room, actually is real.

26) You catch her washing a crystal ball along with the dishes.

27) She wears a lot of silver jewelry, even when doing the gardening. And bat ear-rings for goodness-sake.

28) You knock on her door and she answers it naked except for a toweling robe. You apologize for disturbing her in the bath, but notice that her hair isn't wet.

29) Irritating tendency to hum a lot. What's she got to be so happy about, huh?

30) She has a tame robin that will eat from her hand in the garden. That can't be natural.

31) Never catches a cold, even though she walks barefoot most of the time. In the snow as well.

32) Doesn't kill spiders. Not even big hairy long-legged ones that suddenly appear from the waste-pipe whilst you're having a bath.

33) She listens to what you are saying like she really cares.

34) She has lots of female friends who come round every few months. When you ask what they get up to, she tells you that they just have cakes and ale and a good natter.

35) You catch her hugging a tree.

36) Her dinner-set is decorated with Celtic patterns.

37) She has a mail-order account with a semi-precious gem wholesaler.

38) You notice that the parish priest crosses himself whenever he walks past her house.

39) She never watches television. And she has shelves full of books with black spines and silver-lettered titles.

40) To your certain knowledge she has never set foot in the local church. In fact, you have heard rumours that she has been barred from it.

41) She makes jars of quince and mandrake relish for the Women's Institute coffee morning jumble sale.

42) You ask to borrow a pack of cards for an impromptu bridge evening, and there are 78 in the pack.

43) You have never known her to visit her GP.

44) When you talk with her, she maintains eye contact all the time.

45) Expectant mothers are forever visiting her. Also women who become expectant mothers a month after visiting her.

46) You ask her for suggestions for nice walks in the area, and they all go by way of stone circles and strange earth mounds.

47) She only buys organic. And you just bet that she's a vegetarian as well. (Well, maybe not strictly vegetarian....)

48) When you ask her about her vacation plans, she tells you she will be camping in a tee-pee in the Brecon Beacons.

49) There aren't any mirrors in her house. Or clocks.

50) She tells you that she is coming out of the broom closet, joins Witches' Voice, and erects a stained-glass pentacle window in her front door . Ooo what a give-away!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Snow Day!



It has felt like spring around here for about a week now but today the students of Western Mass woke up to the joyous delight of a world of white. There is nothing quite like that feeling when you are watching the other schools go by on the bottom of the morning news with their various delays and cancelations and seeing your school with the beautiful word 'Closed' next to it.
This happy declaration was followed by a sweet return back to bed. Afterwards I helped a few people dig out their cars and got caught in the middle of a snowball fight. I fully intend to spend the rest of my day curled up under the covers writing and listening to "Vegan Freak" Podcast with a cat curled on my feet.
The power is apparently going out all over the place but I am lucky enough to have not had any real problems with it yet.
Hope you all have a great day!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Herbal remedies for colds.


No matter what ails you, there is a leaf, root, or petal somewhere that can help make it better. After all, why take chalky white pills with who knows what in them when you could have a warm cup of tea instead?

As a before-hand note I would like to say that garlic cures almost everything on earth save for death itself. When in doubt, eat more garlic. Along with curing many diseases it helps the immune system and will prevent many common diseases. You can never go wrong with garlic. (Just don't eat too much of it before going on a hot date) ;)

-Headaches
A tea made of either peppermint or Rosemary will help cure and prevent headaches. Also rubbing the pure extract of peppermint on your temples will help ease the pain of a current headache. Be sure not to get the extract in your eyes though because it will sting.

-Cough
Drinking warm soups and tea will help soothe a cough at once but it is all the better if the drinks are infused with thyme, licorice, or Eucalyptus. (Licorice tea is very, very, yummy and naturally sweet. The Thyme would also be very good in a nice Veggie soup! :)

-Stuffy nose
Steam and hot baths or showers is very helpful to clean out the nasal passage. Make sure that you blow your nose often so you don't get a sinus infection like I have. A little peppermint or eucalyptus extract under the nose will help un-stuff a nose

-Sore Throat
Peppermint is what my family uses for sore throats and it helps a lot!!! Pure peppermint candy, such as 'Thin Mints' are great. Peppermint tea is also helpful as is any kind of peppermint oil rub on the chest and throat. A rosemary or lemon infusion is also helpful as is a lemon gargle. I personally also found that drinking apple juice works wonders, I really didn't expect it to but it fixed me right up.

-Fever
Sometimes it is best to let a fever burn so the disease will die but if the fever is high it is good to lower it. Infusions of any combination of Garlic, ginger, cinnamon, lemon, cloves, Cayenne, yarrow, elder flower, or worm wood, will help. (Use cloves and cayenne is very small amounts.)

-Nausea and Vomiting
A nice ginger tea or soup will help ease this in a jiffy. Lemon and Peppermint teas are also very helpful for recovery and the hydration from the tea will certainly help.


As a final tip I will say that if you are going to make a tea out of a strange combination of spices to help your illness, I advise adding a nice helping of peppermint to the tea and be liberal with the sweetener. I have found that the taste of peppermint will help cover up almost any other taste. Remember to try and keep the amount of spices you use to about a teaspoon, two at the very most. Best of luck!

Early Morning Quotes


Good Morning all! I am a little under the weather today and am at home. Normally I hardly ever become sick but I suppose we all must pay our dues at some point. I'm going to put up a few of my favorite quotes in hopes that you might like them. I'll be putting up some basic herbal remedies later today to help other like me who are feeling the effect of the season.
Enjoy!

"In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people."
—Ruth Harrison, author of Animal Machines

"About 2,000 pounds of grains must be supplied to livestock in order to produce enough meat and other livestock products to support a person for a year, whereas 400 pounds of grain eaten directly will support a person for a year. Thus, a given quantity of grain eaten directly will feed 5 times as many people as it will if it is eaten indirectly by humans in the form of livestock products.…"
—M.E. Ensminger, PhD

"Poor animals! How jealously they guard their pathetic bodies…that which to us is merely an evening’s meal, but to them is life itself."
—T. Casey Brennan (1948–)

"Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places."
—Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519)

"It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind."
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

"Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty."
—Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, Polish poet and aphorist (1909–1966)

"In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place."
—Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948)

"To forgive and accept injustice is cowardice."
—Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948)

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968)

"It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear."
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

"What would we do if we didn’t try? We have to try."
—Lyle Lovett

"All of us cherish our beliefs. They are, to a degree, self-defining. When someone comes along who challenges our belief system as insufficiently well-based – or who, like Socrates, merely asks embarrassing questions that we haven’t thought of, or demonstrates that we’ve swept key underlying assumptions under the rug – it becomes much more than a search for knowledge. It feels like a personal assault."
—Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World

"Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves. "
—George Gordon Noel Byron (Lord Byron), English Romantic poet (1788–1824)

"The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking."
—John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian-American economist (1908–2006)

"It takes 7.5 pounds of protein feed to create 1 pound of consumable hog protein; and it takes 5 pounds of protein feed to create 1 pound of consumable chicken protein. Close to 90% of protein from wheat and beans is lost to feed cycling.

This means that an enormous amount of resources are dedicated to producing wheat and soy just for the purpose of feeding it to animals, which will be slaughtered as "a source of protein"--even though they only provide about 1/5 of the amount they consume.

Not only can the production of meat be considered an injustice against animals, but it can also be considered an injustice against human beings, as well as the environment in general."

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Don't eat us!


If slaughter houses had glass walls, everyone would be vegan.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! I will start putting up pictures and stories as soon as tomorrow but as for right now I am going to go watch Monty Python with my best friend. Ta-ta for now!

Sir Bedevere: What makes you think she's a witch?
Peasant 3: Well, she turned me into a newt!
Sir Bedevere: A newt?
Peasant 3: [meekly after a long pause] ... I got better.
Crowd: [shouts] Burn her anyway!