August 2017 Specials

First, a quick reminder that today is the last day to sign up for the $77 email special. If you’d like an email reading, book today, because I’m taking a break on email sessions after offering them for three straight months.

August 2017’s specials reflect the intensity (and opportunity!) surrounding the annular solar eclipse on August 21st, which runs directly over the United States. Those in the US will likely feel its effects most strongly; however, eclipses are always gateways that affect everyone on the planet. I posted details of this eclipse earlier in July, and you can read and watch those here. We’ve also got a lunar eclipse on Monday, the 7th, which happens also to be the exact crossquarter day of Lammas or Lughnassadh, when the Sun reaches 15 degrees Leo. Anytime an eclipse occurs on the actual crossquarter day of the Wheel of the Year, the energies of each event amplify.

You don’t need to understand or believe in astrology for these energies to affect you. Simply living on Planet Earth at this time bathes you in the energy. Traditionally, eclipses were feared or considered powerful omens. As with any energy or situation, though, it’s what you make of it. One person’s trauma is another’s amazing opening. Chaos can overwhelm, or it can activate new, preferred options that would otherwise have been difficult or impossible to summon. This month’s specials focus on helping you make the most of the energies.

AUGUST 2017 SPECIALS

Timeline Tune-up with Reiki Rocket Fuel

This new 40-minute offering helps identify which areas of your life can most benefit from the energetic openings this month. I focus your reading on finding small shifts you can make in order to generate monumental trajectory changes — kind of like switching the tracks on a railway. Tiny adjustments in the here and now can result in hugely different journeys later.

When you identify and make these adjustments during a powerful cosmic hinge point like August 2017, you can literally alter your current and future timeline. In addition to the 40-minute phone reading, you’ll receive 15 minutes of Reiki to add even more oomph to the already potent energies. If you’ve been intending and intending yet somehow “failed to launch,” a Timeline Tune-up with Reiki Rocket Fuel will provide an extra boost to help you fly beyond the status quo’s inertia.

$133 if paid on or before August 31, 2017. Please contact me to sign up.

Energy Protection for Empaths

Whenever big energies arrive, sensitives and empaths feel not only their own experience, but can also become vulnerable to other people not handling the energies so well. This 20-minute offering shares tips and techniques specifically tailored to your own energy field and the challenges you face as a “Sensitive” or “Empath” — someone who deeply feels the emotions and energies of others, including the larger collective energies and emotions. Empaths have intuitive, psychic, and healing gifts that can feel more like a curse when faced with discord, negative or disharmonious frequencies like EMF’s, groupthink, or emotional overwhelm.

As someone whose already very thin veil practically disappeared with a 1998 brain injury, I have learned through trial and error, extensive research and nearly 16 years as a professional Medical Intuitive, how to protect the energy field so that those “gifts” actually live up to their potential. These tips and techniques don’t mean you stop feeling the energies; however, they allow you to recognize more clearly when something’s “yours” and when it’s not. They also help you much more quickly return to peace, soul sovereignty, joy, and allow you to exercise much greater healing influence in your life and in our world.

$77 for 20 minutes if prepaid on or before August 31, 2017. This session can also be doubled for 40-minutes at $154. For more information or to sign up, please contact me here.

source https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/07/31/august-2017-specials/

Bronson Park Garden Fun

We saw these yesterday on a visit to Bronson Park in Kalamazoo, Michigan. There were many more, but these were some of my favorites. Too clever and lovely not to share:

source https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/07/30/bronson-park-garden-fun/

Nettles and Chives

Blast from the past 2012 post from my first garden in Madison, WI! This post is dedicated to Sophia, who had lots of questions about nettles when I mentioned having transported mine to our new garden and looking forward to making a nettle-basil pesto. Because YUM!

For anyone interested in growing nettles, I definitely suggest a pot, since they are very difficult to eradicate once planted in the ground. (Sorry, Madison!) They regularly grow on the edge of woodlands near streams, as well as in some gardens. You can harvest with gloves. Crushing the leaves releases the antidote to the sting, and heat also neutralizes the burn. If you carefully toss those yummy leaves (and even stems) into a high speed blender, you can drink nettle smoothies or make a yummy pesto, with or without basil. Herbalists have a saying, “When in doubt, use nettles,” since they reportedly cure so many things. Long infusions made from the dried herbs are particularly fortifying.

I also find nettles a fabulous addition to vegan curries, since they take on a slightly fishy flavor and scent when cooked. One of our very favorite nettle recipes is a (cooked) asparagus-nettle-lasagna using zucchini as the noodles layered with tomato sauce and the greens, baked, and then topped afterwards with just a dusting of raw goat cheese or raw Parmesan. It’s so mineral rich that it feels like every part of you got a jolt of deep, wild nutrients.

Laura Bruno's Blog

Spring has sprung in Madison, and I’ve got the garden goodies to prove it! Well, as you can see from the photo, I’m a Lazy Gardener as well as a Lazy Raw Foodist. I go for the perennials and not so much for the raking of leaves. Weeding? Um, since I actually prefer to eat wild things, I planted those nettles myself last year, having invited them to me energetically. One batch arrived from a potluck/foraging friend of mine via an unknown neighbor who dropped them off during a 2011 Reiki 1 class — just as I had mentioned how Reiki hones your manifestation skills. Touché! The other batch came as a gift from the same potluck friend after their own patch had grown beyond the capacity of nonstop nettle infusions and mortar-and-pestle’d salads. Here they are again, tender little leaves, spiking their way vigilantly through the ground as…

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source https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/07/27/nettles-and-chives-2/

Compost, Critters and Fritillaria

Another update from the Wild Kingdom of Faery Gardening. This morning features hopefully my last truckload of compost and soil. I ordered a lighter blend and 1/3 less than last time, so I also hope to finish today rather than in tomorrow’s 87 degrees! We shall see. I had planned to get the delivery yesterday with its balmy high of 75 degrees; however, I had a backlog of email sessions to do, and my arms needed a break after this weekend’s picture hanging activities. In any case, today is soil delivery number 2. I’ll fill the second 100 gallon Big Bag Bed and as many more 10 gallon Vivosun pots as I can, at which point I should be done until fall planting time.

Meanwhile, we continue to have hours of entertainment in both front and backyards. This kitty on groundhog patrol found the catmint:

I’m beginning to think she’s a he, because the cat leaves quite a scent — to my nose anyway. It’s not spray, and David only barely detected it; however, I’m more than part animal. When I walked outside this weekend, I could smell that something had claimed the garden, and judging by no more nibbles in front or backyard, I assume it was the cat.

Later in the day, when the groundhog peeked out of his hole, he lumbered over to the catmint, took one whiff and zoomed back down the hole. They’ve had a few encounters — no actual fights that I’ve seen anyway, but plenty of stalking, whistling (the groundhog), huffing and puffing on both sides. Perhaps as a result, the groundhog has stuck entirely to clover and behaves quite respectfully rather than swaggering around like he owns the place. David saw him this weekend and said, “You have to admit, he’s kinda cute, but WOW is he fat!” Yep. As long as he sticks to clover, he can get as fat as he likes. I still haven’t figured out if he actually lives under our shed or in the evergreens across the street.

Even if he does live across the street, the cat’s got that covered. The front yard garden (and just the garden) was even more scented (to my nose) than the backyard. You can see the kitty up front telling everyone who’s boss. He seems to have picked up any slack between hawk and owl:

Speaking of owls, we finally got around to hanging the painting I finished in January 2010:

I painted this owl from a photograph taken of a great horned owl I called in the middle of the day. This one and a mate showed up on a sunny afternoon in Reno, but I changed the photo to a Full Moon night. (This is the painting that will be mentioned in Mike Clelland’s new owl book, whenever that one comes out.) In any case, we figured it couldn’t hurt to display prominently a painting of an owl I had called, as intentional support for my ecological balance project of calling in a great horned owl. Over the years, I’ve found that just having hawks, owls and cats around keeps things in check, even if no real skirmishes or hunts occur.

So far so good … but one thing having an open, relatively small garden does is make me extremely grateful for every moment I experience it. Every tomato, cucumber, green smoothie, salad, or basil pesto feels like a celebration. Every morning when I see still blooming, lush plants I feel gratitude that deer and smaller critters with big appetites have left the birch tree with its spiral of friends and us with good views and the ability to “shop the yard” just a few steps from our house. Knowing something could but didn’t decimate the garden overnight keeps me from taking any of it for granted. It’s hard to explain, but it takes gardening into the range of Grace and gifts.

Similarly, the absence of train noise fills me with glee on a daily basis. Each afternoon when I hear the distant horn of one Amtrak train through town, I feel so incredibly grateful for quiet joys. Even the groundhog provides some (at this point harmless) company, and his existence has really clarified the entire garden design, including a soon-to-be Secret Garden out back.

Because of my ongoing quest to create a garden that repels deer, groundhogs and overly zealous bunnies by beauty, energy, and harmony rather than by imprisoning my plants, I’ve discovered Fritillaria bulbs. I’ve seen these before in garden catalogs, but they seemed kind of flashy and weird. Apparently, though, they’re highly prized bulbs both for their wide, unusual and dramatic variety of flowers, as well as because rodents and deer despise Fritillaria. Even more than daffodils! Here are just two of the many types:

Fritillaria (Wikipedia, public domain)

Fritillaria I ordered from Longfield Gardens

Other Fritillaria look like foxglove, with tiny bell shaped flowers on tall stems. I didn’t bother with tulips this year, even though I have a half-Dutch husband. Every critter and their mama loves to munch on tulips, so I opted to forego frustration, temptation and wasted money, splurging instead on hundreds of daffodils, various Fritillaria, and one reblooming fancy iris to go with the many yellow irises already established here, plus the varieties I brought from Goshen.

I just received word my soil and compost are on the way, so it’s off to work I go — soil in the morning and afternoon, sessions in the evening. I look forward to being done this phase, though. I have a bunch of perennial butterfly plants on order for delivery in the next couple weeks, but other than that, I can hopefully coast outside until the time comes to plant hundreds of spring bulbs. Years of beauty, bee forage, butterfly habitat, and critter deterrents for less than the cost of trapping one groundhog — all in harmony. What’s not to love!?

 

source https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/compost-critters-and-fritillaria/

More Mantis and Marmot Magic

After last week’s unusual animal sightings and interactions, the bizarre fun continues. The praying mantis who “reported for duty” last week is the friendliest insect I’ve come across. He (and it does seem to be a he, judging by size) landed on David’s arm on Sunday, and yesterday, I felt someone looking at me, only to discover it was my little mantis friend, hanging out on the cosmos! He said hi and then continued on his way. Today, he landed on my arm while I was planting strawberries and thyme. We both startled each other when I jumped, but after I apologized for flailing my arm, he turned his head and nodded at me.

David took down the dog run wire that had created a no-fly zone for hawks and eagles, and I didn’t see any groundhogs for a few days. This was compared to 3 or 4 sightings per day. The shed showed evidence of some kind of major tussle, but I don’t know who did what to whom. On the day I received 1.5 tons of soil, right before it arrived, I saw the old woodchuck out back. This is the more polite, grizzled one who just eats clover. He looked right at me through the window, kind of like a fat, old man saying, “Listen lady, I heard about you. Don’t mess with me.” When he got a little too close to the house for comfort, I opened and closed the window, which sent him lumbering away to the spruces.

Because David had recently trimmed the very bottoms of low hanging trees in order to make it easier for him to mow the lawn, I could see the groundhog, aka, “whistle pig,” aka Marmota monax, pop up in the far back, right corner of brush and trees. He just hung out there for awhile, and I went out front to await my soil drop off. Right before it arrived — and I mean immediately — who goes zipping from our neighbor’s backyard in a beeline across our driveway to the area across the street where I kept feeling a woodchuck? The very same one.

One scream later, I realized several things:

1. I don’t have to worry about the one I’d seen across the street suddenly finding our yard. This was a well traveled path.
2. The only reason he hadn’t seen my front yard garden was that it’s super stealth, hugging the treeline and he was moving fast.
3. The most likely predator of this particular groundhog might be a car. One barely missed him.
4. I don’t think it’s the same groundhog that ate my pepper plants, but it might be. For sure, I have seen this one on a regular basis, because he has very distinctive markings — almost distinguished with the white “beard.”
5. Once again, that uncanny groundhog timing was causing me to rethink an ambitious garden plan.

After the soil arrived on Monday morning, I started moving it to various beds, bags and in ground areas. Synchronously, my second 100 gallon original Big Bag Bed has still not yet arrived, and it was supposed to rain last night. It didn’t, but I used last night as my deadline to move all the soil off the driveway. I did fill another 50 gallon Big Bag Bed Jr. and a bunch of Smart Pots and Vivosun fabric pots. I’m experimenting to see which ones I like best, but they all mix and match sizes in a consistent black color that blends well with the edges of weeping trees:

Prior to seeing the groundhog jet across our driveway, I had planned to put the 100 gallon Big Bag Bed to the right of that second 10-gallon pot above and just to the left of the pots you see below, which are closer to the driveway:

The silver artemesia (wormwood) and lavender are both deer and groundhog resistant, possibly even repellent. I’m still ever so slightly considering the garden as planned with the 100-gallon circle just to the left of the leftmost artemesia; however, I have concerns that putting a larger bed out in the open, jutting forward into full sun from the treeline, will scream, “Hey, all you devouring critters, I’m gardening here! Free buffet.”

By getting greedy with the sunlight for more plants, I might jeopardize the entire front yard garden. If, on the other hand, I just continue hugging the treeline with the grow bags interspersed with mints, salvia, lavender and other highly fragrant and flowering herbs and deer/groundhog resistant butterfly plants, then maybe my front yard garden will remain stealth from not only groundhogs, but deer and humans, as well.

As I filled 20-gallon beds near the mailbox and readied the planter area for a bunch of butterfly friendly, deer repellent and drought tolerant plants, the woodchuck started going wild in the copse across the street. He was whistling so loud it sounded like a song. (I took this photo last evening, which is why it’s in the shade. Normally this area gets about 12 hours of direct sun per day, so these pots will house monarda (scarlet bee balm), catmint, and likely some daffodils. The pots unify the mailbox area with the birch tree guild closer to our house.)

Anyway, during the two days of soil moving, every time I thought about putting the 100-gallon bed up front, the groundhog would go crazy with excitement, whistling, singing and making bizarre woodchuck noises I’ve heard on youtube. Whenever I’d think of not doing that, he quieted down. Coincidence? Maybe, but since living here, I’ve noticed that groundhogs really do have impeccable timing. I’ve been eating from and enjoying this kitchen garden every day. I’d really prefer it remain off the radar. I’d also not like total devastation to be the first impression of our house if he or some of his friends finds the front yard garden. With plants hugging the treeline, damage is far less obvious.

Here’s where things get even more synchronous and magical. Part of this soil moving adventure involved filling eight 20-gallon Vivosun pots along our existing backyard hedge. Doing so meant moving the soil twice — once into a garden cart, hauling it around the side, through the gate, across the yard and then shoveling it a second time into each pot. They are too big to fit in the cart when full, so I would fill them up front just enough to hold shape, cart them back and then shovel the soil into them from the cart. It has been in the upper 80’s, sunny, and very, very humid. Let’s just say I got the full steam room treatment and a mini cleanse both days!

This hedge in front of the existing hedge will grow aronia berries, blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb and gooseberry, at least that’s the plan. After all that work hauling dirt, I now have some concerns that it may get sloshy and overflow during a hard rain. Once roots lock into the soil and give it structure, that will be less the case; however, we’re supposed to have four days of rain starting tonigh. Today, I realized I needed mulch, but I don’t want another delivery before all that rain. What to do, what to do … and I was still also wondering about that 100-gallon bed. Maybe I should put it out back, but if so, where? And plant it with what?

…And where could I get some wild ginger for the shady area up front? I checked around local nurseries and no one seems to have wild ginger, or at least not right now. It’s deer resistant, edible, and solves a ground cover situation up front. But where was it?! I looked all over online and finally found a bare root vendor on Amazon, but it’s very pricey for what ought to be free or close to it, since wild ginger grows like a weed in many places.

Anyway, dilemmas, dilemmas. Because of this groundhog situation in both front and back yards, I started wondering what would happen if I just put the Big Bag Bed to the west of the shed (on the side with the 20-gallon pots) and plant it with perennial onions, sea kale and whatever backups for the front yard crops I want. I could put my pot of nettles behind that bed and fill in the area behind the bed with more catmint and butterfly plants.

If that bed were to get devastated, I wouldn’t even be able to see it from most of the backyard. If it thrives, great! Sea kale might even wake up in spring before groundhogs do. Plus, I’ve been wanting an out of the way spot for garlic, Egyptian Walking Onions and a “magical” garden — some of whose plants can look a little weedy in an otherwise cultivated yard.

Today, I checked on that space multiple times to compare and contrast with the up front option. I think it gets ever so slightly less light than that full sun spot up front will, but it for sure will not scream, “Hey, I’m a garden!” because it will be tucked away and surrounded by and planted with repellent plants. I’d put it in an otherwise totally unused area, which is nowhere near our house foundation and close enough to the shed that no new tunnels would need to be dug.

While exploring that area again this afternoon and still pondering my mulch dilemma — too heavy to carry from the store while David’s in Goshen, don’t want a bulk delivery before the rain, really need something to moderate the soil moisture/overflow situation of my new fruit shrubs — the previous dumping ground for years of grass clippings suddenly caught my eye. This neglected, unseen area offered beautifully matted, dried grass clippings, perfect for mulching the 20-gallon bags! As I lifted literal pads of mulched grass clippings, I glanced in the shadiest back corner and saw several thriving wild ginger plants I can use for cuttings or transplant to the shady spot up front!

I also realized I could use the grass clippings to protect my new delphinium from having a landslide since I just threw in a 1 foot by 3 foot area of soil along the back trellis:

I planted some thyme as a groundcover/erosion control back there, but it will take awhile to establish. I don’t know that the grass clippings will totally solve the issue, but if they at least slow down the landslide until the roots get more established, then mission accomplished. That delphinium is groundhog repellent and should grow to 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide, filling in the center between the two established clematis.

I really can’t say that the groundhog is my official garden planner, but it’s quite eerie when every time I ponder a plan, a groundhog brings to light a wiser course of action. Perhaps it’s just permaculture in action: the problem is the solution. Maybe it’s the faeries.

In any case, I hauled 1.5 tons of soil in two days, some of it twice. A testament to just how hard I’ve been working since beginning to move out of the blue house/office on May 1, followed by our full relocation: even though I’ve been busy with sessions and literally working my butt off, this week still feels like a vacation. It feels good to have new plant friends, animal allies, and yes, nearly 2 tons of additional soil since moving here, with more on the way next week to fill that Big Bag Bed and more grow pots, wherever I decide they need to go.

It feels good to observe and learn our land, and it feels dangerously good to have an outdoor garden store, indoor hydroponics store and our favorite health food store all within a very short walk. I’ve had more synchronous encounters than I have time to blog or document. Sessions continue going well. All I can say is that I must really be tired of packing and unpacking, if hauling that much soil in 80+ degrees and high humidity feels like a vacation! But it does …

Wishing you and yours some garden magic — preferably without the marmot, but the mantis are fun! Blessed Be … and be the blessing!

source https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/07/19/more-mantis-and-marmot-magic/

Last Month for Email Sessions for Awhile

Just a heads up now that I’m getting more settled into our new home, yard, and the new rhythms of life here. For May, June and July, I’ve been experimenting with a $77 20-minute email special, and I mentioned this special might become a regular offering. It still might at some point in the future, however not at this time. I might just occasionally offer the email options as a special when I feel called to do so.

All that said, here’s the monthly special:

JULY 2017 SPECIAL + OPTIONAL ADD-ON

This special can be used for medical intuition, past life work, quick check-in’s, follow-up between sessions, or as a way of addressing your needs sooner than my phone availability would allow. Also, please see below an option invented by one of my clients and now a popular variation, spanning many properties in May, June and July – a very cool combo, indeed!

20-Minute Email Check-In for $77

Twenty minutes usually covers one or two questions or issues, and it includes my time reading and replying to your email, plus the time spent tuning in and interpreting any intuitive messages I receive, along with providing links (if applicable) for further details and information. If you have more complex questions, you can add time. Available if prepaid on or before July 31, 2017.

Please contact me to sign up.

Some clients in May and June opted to combine this email special with the land clearing services I recently announced, and that worked so well that I’m listing this as an option here, too. Essentially, people sent me an address to request a 20-minute email reading about a property they own or considered purchasing, in which I shared my findings and suggestions, and then they requested a property clearing ($77) based on those results. In other words, this worked as an unofficial package for $154. Also available for houses or apartments.

PROPERTY CLEARINGS AND RELOCATION BOOSTERS

This is a previously unadvertised service, which so many people have found so beneficial that I’ve decided to make it public. (The property clearings are now on my regular menu of services, but if you’d like an emailed reading about your property in addition to clearing/healing/booster, then July 2017 would be the month to do it). This service can be used for:

• Clearing properties or spaces of negative energies and hostile influences
• Preparing homes for sale and removing unwanted attachments to old properties
• Blessing new homes, properties or work spaces
• Smoothing details of relocation and supporting synchronicity in the search for a new home or office
• Raising the vibration and increasing the positive influence radius of your home or work space
• Blessing gardens or public spaces
• Creating spheres of protection around your environment
• Dedicating spaces to support certain goals or intentions
• Creating a healing sanctuary or supporting sacred space

(If it’s not listed but seems related, please contact me for options. This process involves a combination of a Reiki Healing Attunement, Runes, specially determined timing, and any supportive symbols, crystals, etc. depending on the individual situation. It’s more complex and specific than a Reiki Healing Attunement, but that technique forms the foundation of this process.)

Rates:

$77 per location or specific intention

$200 for 3 locations or intentions (i.e. if you need to sell one property in order to purchase another and also want help finding a new office; if there are multiple properties involved; or if you anticipate needing this service again sometime)

source https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/07/18/last-month-for-email-sessions-for-awhile/

Bluebird Hill Farm Owner Extends Essay Deadline

My friend Heather alerted me to this essay contest to win a farm. For anyone who has had the dream of running an organic farm incorporating permaculture principles, here’s a chance for a committed couple (of any type — spouse, mother-child, siblings, you just need two people) to win the land and farm house. If you feel so led, the deadline has been extended until August 1.

Client News

Aspiring farmers have until August 1 to vie for this small enterprise in North Carolina.

​
​June 29, 2017 (Bennett, NC) — Norma Burns, the architect/farmer who intends to gift her 13-acre organic farm in Bennett, North Carolina, to another aspiring small farmer through a convincing essay, has extended the deadline for submissions to August 1. (Background information to follow.)

June 1 was the original deadline. As that date neared, however, Burns received a flood of questions and comments on the farm’s Facebook page from people who had only recently learned about “The Gift,” as she calls it. And because she has not yet received the number of submissions/entry fees needed to pay off her mortgage so she can gift it to another aspiring farmer, she decided to extend the deadline — in accordance with the rules set up on the website www.essaybluebirdhillfarm.com.

Norma Burns introduces a young…

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source https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/07/17/bluebird-hill-farm-owner-extends-essay-deadline/

Garden Update: Calling, Planting and Growing an Ecosystem

I’ve had an interesting week in and around the garden! The groundhog “training” continues, with one of the groundhogs content to munch on clover and behave in a very respectful manner. The other groundhog has behaved more like a teenager: “You’re not the boss of me! I’ll eat whatever I want and like it!” Opening and closing the dining room window startles him back into his hidey hole, but this guy was determined to get into the backyard bed.

On Wednesday just past dusk, really too late for a groundhog to be munching my backyard plants, I saw him lumber into the backyard bed. I thought this was perhaps poetic justice, since he would become great horned owl bait at that hour; however, the great horned owl informed me that the dog run wire from previous owners has created a no fly zone for predatory birds in that area, effectively turning the shed and backyard bed into a free for all. The red tailed hawk chimed in, as well, so that wire’s coming down this weekend. I don’t want to trap or have this groundhog killed. I just want the hawk and owl patrol to keep him in line.

In any case, on Wednesday just after dusk, I decided to see what this “whistle pig” would do. (They actually do whistle. More on that later.) I won’t embarrass my two pepper plants back there by taking photos of their completely denuded stalks, but suffice to say, I now have a clear understanding of the devastation one groundhog can wreak on plants. It was borderline apocalyptic. That morning, I walked to the dangerously nearby nursery and bought a bunch of groundhog and deer repellent plants. I put most up front and few of the bargain ones and known repellents like lavender in the back.

Well! Now I know why the list is so specific. It’s not all Coreopsis. There’s a reason for the specific “threadleaf Coreopsis.” My dollar bargain no longer looks like a bargain at any price:

It still looks better than the peppers, though! Anise hyssop also took a surprising hit, but el chubbo left some leaves. I’m not terribly mad, because I’ve been using the backyard bed as a testing ground. So far liatris, the large sedum, cosmos, peppermint, nettles, threadleaf coreopsis and lavender remain untouched. In keeping with his perfect timing, the groundhog devoured my pepper plants immediately after I considered putting just one veggie bed out back filled with pepper plants. He appears to be quite telepathic, this woodchuck, so I decided to use that to my advantage.

A friend who has been trying to give me his (very often puking) cat, joked that “Jiji could take him.” I declined, but went outside to explore. I found an apparently purposeful hole in the fence and thought about having David patch it up, in case critters moved from the backyard to the much yummier buffet of the front yard. Not that groundhogs can’t dig, but why make it easy for them? I had just texted David about repairing the hole when who walks through the hole and creeps along the back hedge? A cat. A very large cat — much bigger than Jiji, LOL!

This is where things got interesting. The naughty chubster came out of his hidey hole and started munching clover. All of a sudden, he stood on his hind legs and looked towards the hedge. The cat had begun stalking him. I’ve seen this cat before, but never on groundhog patrol until my friend and I started joking about that. The cat creeped all along the backyard spruce, and the groundhog got mighty nervous, at which point, I telepathically said, “THIS is what happens when you eat my pepper plants! THIS is what happens when you destroy things in MY yard. We can live in peace with you eating grass and clover, or we can duke it out, but I will win, little man. You need to behave.”

The cat continued to watch him from the spruce while I watched him from the window. He stared at me and after several repetitions of my message, I got a distinct impression of, “Arggh, would you please SHUT UP?!” At which point I said, “I want you to get the message. That no fly zone is going down. That makes you hawk bait. And owl bait. And now you’re cat bait. Behave, and we won’t have any issues.”

Amazingly, he nodded, then slinked towards his hidey hole with his head down, scurried past his hole, squished himself behind a pot of mint and continued to walk towards the back of the shed where the cat stood. Nothing happened, but he disappeared for a good 12 hours. When he returned, he did not move out of his hole. He just looked around, and I gave him a mental reminder of the rules. “OK, OK, I get it, shut up!” Other than eating the rest of the pepper fruits his two rodent teeth marks had made inedible to me, he’s done no more damage. I bought a nice nepeta (catmint) as a reward for the heroic kitty and put it right near the hole, along with more lavender.

Yesterday afternoon he popped out just to scratch himself but not move around the yard at all. This morning, he grabbed a bunch of grass in his mouth and ducked back down the hole for a snack. The mysterious arrival of the cat right after discussing cats as groundhog patrol underscored the continued call and response from the animal kingdom and makes me ever so cautiously optimistic that –despite warnings otherwise from every single gardener I’ve asked, local and otherwise — we may be able to coexist with respect instead of a mandatory relocation by trap or “flight.” When he behaves like the other one, I rather like this guy, but boundaries seem to be up for review and enforcement everywhere these days.

Meanwhile, I’ve got 1.5 tons of soil on order for a Monday drop off, in order to fill two more Big Bag Beds up front, as well as 10- and 20-gallon Smart Pots for up front and alongside the back hedge patrolled by the kitty. Two aronia berry bushes, three blueberry bushes (super sale on two of them), and a cranberry bush arrived yesterday:

… and I’ve got a bunch of perennials on order, including more rhubarb, some sea kale seeds (as well as a request for more starts from a local permaculture person), and numerous other Crazy Plant Lady goodies. Just the arrivals of the pollinator plants/repellent plants has dramatically upped the diversity in our yard. Bright, fragrant bloomers and mammal repellents tend to be the same thing since deer and groundhogs get sensory overload from too much scent, whereas bees and butterflies love them.

Just as I wondered about getting the catmint as a reward for the kitty, I heard a tapping on the bathroom window. A praying mantis “reporting for duty” reminded me that yes, the Universe has my back, and yes, please do reward the helpers:

That shed bed will soon have so much more color and fragrance, but even now butterflies and dragonflies are zooming all over the backyard. The front yard is beginning to resemble a small, regional airport, unlike the “O’Hare” of our Goshen yard, but still a major uptick in just a few days. Pollination of tomatoes and cucumbers has gone way up in recent days, and I’ve already eaten two ripe tomatoes with more on the way:

I’m so glad I’ve decided to complete the circle around the weeping birch tree by adding another 50-gallon and 100-gallon Big Bag Bed, plus at least 4 more 10-gallon Smart Pots for perennials and herbs. The ones pictured below are growing well despite only getting about 6 hours of direct sun, cobbled together throughout the day.

(Check out this sunflower who came along or the ride! I hadn’t planned to bring any, but this stowaway has earned a spot by the mailbox once I get my soil delivery.)

The new spots receive much more consistent sun, but they’re on greater display. I wanted to see how things progressed before committing to them. For now, I’ve got beautiful and repellent perennials staged approximately where the new beds will go. These plants will surround the edges while the veggie crops grow inside and among them. At least, that’s the plan!

The circle will continue around the tree with four more 10-gallon Smart Pots on the side facing our front door. These plants seem to love the Eastern and Southeastern exposure:

Near the collard on the right, you can see my one sea kale cutting from Goshen trying to take root. Poor thing has had a few transplants but does seem to like this spot better if I can get him to recover. If not, hopefully some of the seeds and/or cuttings I’ve arranged for will thrive. We do love our sea kale, and it’s sooooo pretty, too!

Meanwhile, I’m happy to report that the weeping birch appears to be making a recovery. A week of rain, runoff from garden watering and a whole community of new plant friends seem to have rejuvenated this very struggling tree. Here’s the current view from our living room, with the birch to the far left:

The ground cover needs some major weeding, and I’ve got more strawberries to plant while the drastically chopped back (by previous owners) holly begins to regrow. I’ve got shade blooming and deer repellent astilbe on order, and I’m pondering some other friends. It still feels quite manageable, and I’m excited about discerning and nurturing this “right sized garden” that makes our house and yard feel like home, while (hopefully) showing what’s possible even in and around existing landscaping.

As my Aunt Kath and Uncle John — who will visit soon — say, “To more love!”

Indeed.

 

 

source https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/garden-update-calling-planting-and-growing-an-ecosystem/

Timeline Splits and the August Eclipse Gateway: Sandra Walter

A few people have asked me about the August 2017 Eclipse, so I wanted to share this Sandra Walter video (below). This complex video might make more sense to people who’ve had Timeline Tune-in and Tune-ups with me. If this (or any post, for that matter) is not for you, then please don’t worry about it. I have a wide variety of blog readers, and I know this will be important information to some of you, even if it sounds boring or crazy to others.

Sandra shares a lot of the collective timeline information that I sense, as well. I particularly appreciate her discussion of “bifurcation” as “choice” rather than “good” or “bad.”  I reallllllly appreciate her discussion of Earth gridding and that she also recognizes how something deeper, more powerful and far less manipulated than ley lines is being increasingly activated on our planet.

I have sensed this for a long time but usually meet with great resistance whenever I mention it. Rather than trying so hard to “reclaim ley lines,” if people just tune into the crystals, waters, mountains, and deep Earth structures — become intimate with the Ancestors and Land beneath our own feet — we may find that most of the current focus on ley lines is a distraction from the real, natural power and healing available.

New structures have already evolved and are continuing to strengthen and grow. We don’t need to fight for an unnatural control grid that has already been lost when something so much more powerful and organic offers to nourish, interact with, and respond to us in positive, healing ways on so many more levels. It’s the difference between linear and multi-dimensional healing and awareness. I’ll leave you to ponder how this all relates to “time constructs,” but it very much does. Sandra gives specific details about how this eclipse can assist in opening powerful new gateways into the higher reality.

Connection to this organic, healed timeline is not flashy, mental or New Age: it’s primal, heartfelt and requires tuning in on a very deep level to wherever you are. Even though Sandra Walter and Sarah Anne Lawless have probably never been named in the same sentence together before, some of Sandra’s video discussion reminds me of this post by Sarah: “The Song of the Land: Bioregional Animism.” In addition, I recommend this post by Dana at Druid’s Garden: “A Druid’s Primer on Land Healing, Part iii: Understanding ‘Energy’ and the Three Currents.”

Here’s Sandra’s own note on her youtube channel:

Blessings Beloveds ~ This is a complex topic of conversation, be responsible and read the supportive articles. The intention is to reach Lightworkers who connect via youtube. More & more Wayshowers are confirming the intel received in December 2016 about a timeline split, and it is wonderful. Let us unify to reveal the New Earth experience for all concerned. Weekly articles about these unfoldments and upcoming Gateways at http://www.sandrawalter.com Intel Links below.

Join us every SUNday for the Unity meditations:
http://www.sandrawalter.com/global-un…

Light Intel articles: http://www.sandrawalter.com/light-intel/

Eclipse maps by Nasa https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/
and Fred Espenak http://eclipsewise.com/solar/SEnews/T…

Ascension Path online class: http://www.sandrawalter.com/ascension…

In Love, Light and Service, Sandra

Light-encoded vocals by Sandra.

source https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/07/14/timeline-splits-and-the-august-eclipse-gateway-sandra-walter/

On the Receiving End of a Bouquet

I think the FedEx guy who delivered these beauties was as excited as I was: “You’ve got FLOWERS! Someone sent you FLOWERS! Oh, look at that smile, someone sent you FLOWERS!”

Too funny, as he has no idea how many bouquets I’ve made for others and given away in person, as well as virtually via texts to loved ones or shared on this blog. It’s nice to be on the receiving end — a housewarming gift to David and me from our sweet Madison friends, Brian and Ingrid.

And yes, they do smell heavenly. Crazy Plant Lady may have (slightly) restrained herself at the garden store within walking distance, but she is getting her rose fix after all.

source https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/07/13/on-the-receiving-end-of-a-bouquet/

Shamanic Gardening

I’m making up for very sparse blogging the past month in otherwise unusable time chunks set aside for various repairs and upgrades. Today it was five new, matching locks on three doors. Because we bought an older house, the locksmith wasn’t sure how long it would take, but now I have some extra time before I get busy again with sessions.

As the locksmith left, I felt called to plant some of the potted up strawberries into the existing groundcover in front of our porch. After watering them in, I second guessed myself, wondering if that would encourage mice too close to the house. I had in my Amazon queue another 100 gallon Big Bag Bed and some fake snakes that supposedly help to repel mice and possibly groundhogs. I put some veggie burgers in our air fryer, went outside to harvest a little lettuce, and what suddenly appeared at our threshold?!

A garter snake: “Reporting for duty.” This was similar to when a praying mantis appeared out of nowhere right after I put out a mental call for one in Goshen. One early evening, I got a telepathic and insistent message: “Go out on the porch.” I did, then heard, “Turn on the light.” I did and heard two taps on the porch window. Sure enough, a praying mantis was tapping on the window, and I heard clearly in my mind, “Reporting for duty, ma’am!” Then, he was off to chase mosquitoes. Similarly, today, this snake appeared out of nowhere, but synchronously right before I planned to order the fake snakes. I didn’t even know we had snakes here.

After my heart slowed down, I realized this snake was on its own schedule. This little guy was not leaving the threshold. At first I thought it would block my entrance, perhaps indefinitely, but then I realized something else was going on. The locksmith had inquired about two flower orgone pucks located on either side of our front door, inside. I explained that a friend had made them and they “shift the energy.”

The locksmith said, “Oh, I just asked, because I see people from all walks of life. Sometimes people put things by the door to protect the threshhold.”

I said, “Yeah, that’s why they’re there. I have foo dogs, too, but they’re in the hall closet. My husband thought they looked funny outside here.” He laughed and I added, “I guess I’m a little superstitious, but it’s worked well for me.”

He then proceeded to ask if I was the resident artist: “I love your painted doors. I’m a lock guy!” He was the coolest locksmith I’ve ever met.

Anyway, right after he left, I planted the strawberries, had a concern flash across my mind about mice, put in the veggie burgers, got out my laptop to order my garden supplies, and went back outside to harvest lettuce, at which point, the snake appeared. It slithered at the base of each external door we’d just had re-keyed, and then shimmied up the side of each door towards the new doorknobs. The movements were deliberate, and I got the sense it was blessing our thresholds, telling me not to worry about the garden, the foundation of the house, or these entry points.

“I’m the real deal, reporting for duty. You don’t need a fake snake. I’m the real deal.” Once I acknowledged that message, the snake immediately slithered away.

Just prior to all of this, a friend had sent me an email, “How are you doing with the state of your yard, worked out a deal with the critters to let you garden in peace?” When I had answered him, I was still trying to work out the balance of not attracting the wrong sort of attention to our front yard, while finding balance with the known groundhog situation out back. Groundhogs who so far, have done nothing but eat clover and make a mess of our shed before we got here. I want not to be their favorite backyard, but also not to make things so inhospitable that they dig new tunnels, especially not along our foundation to my front yard garden beds.

I had come up with a new plan, but I wasn’t certain it would work. The snake seemed to affirm that we are all in harmony here. I can plant as I feel led, and despite all the complex considerations, I can rest easier that I do have both seen and unseen support here.

I thought of all the other times animals have appeared right after I’ve called them — wasps, bees, hawks, owls, pelicans, praying mantis, eagles, osprey, ladybugs, possums, and more. I thought of the plants that have appeared overnight right after I thought, “I’d really love to have ___ in our yard,” and of having needed to learn in Goshen how to cloak my thoughts if I ever considered moving or removing a plant or tree, lest I walk out the next morning to find it dead. I thought of when the Elementals helped me bring much needed and miraculous rain during the 2012 drought in Madison.

I thought of my 2013 walk in the Goshen woods, in which I told the faeries, “OK, I’ll create a huge garden for you, but if you want that garden, then I need mulch and lots of it. For free.” Not even two minutes later, I left the woods, and what was barreling down the street towards me? A tree service truck, filled to the brim with mulch.

“Do you ever make home deliveries?” I asked.

“Hmmm, I suppose I could do that depending on where you live. You’ll save me from having to pay to dump it.”

“About a half mile from here.”

“Race you there,” he said.

Thus began the first of about 16 full mulch loads over the years, plus the contagious front yard wood mulch “Back to Eden” gardening that increased to 13 delivery addresses in Goshen by the time we left town four years later.

It’s a strange life, but it’s the life I live. Of course, we never have any total guarantees, but it would seem I’m covered for the new plan I’ve envisioned for our yard.

I can walk to all the amenities I need here, or walk 11 minutes to catch a bus downtown. We’re pretty urban. But last evening, I walked the other way. It’s wild here! As dusk approached, it was loud! Not with cars or trucks, but with bird song, squirrels, crows cawing, critters large and small rustling in the deep woods adjacent some people’s yards. As I turned back towards home, another woman walked the opposite way, carrying home bags of groceries, and we just smiled at each other. Big, exhuberant grins amidst the noisy calls of Nature.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I sure enjoy this present!

source https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/shamanic-gardening/