Fleeting moments

   Just a few images from recent days. No time to write - I should be dismantling the computer but  instead am captivated by the gorgeous Beltane light! I really am off now. See you again soon!

A bit sad

Moving House
Soon the house will be filled again,
Our boxes have been carried off,
The walls are bare, we only leave
White patches where our pictures hung.
Dust settles widely now among
The places where we used to move.
And though we are most glad to go
We want to leave some hint behind,
Nothing so powerful as a ghost
But some part of us to remind
New tenants whom we do not know
That the old house is not resigned
To wind and dust and spaces cut
Clean where our furniture was put.
We want to flourish our old selves
And frighten the new owners, but
We quite forget they will be glad
To find some trace upon the shelves
Of our own past, that what they dread,
Like us, is space untenanted.

ELIZABETH JENNINGS (1955)

Reverie

As Neptune slides gently into Pisces, its own domain, we can expect subtle changes to the  way we relate to the vast ocean of collective consciousness. Around the world millions of people have prayed in their different ways for the earthquake victims, human and animal, of Japan and for the war torn countries of the middle east and Africa. Somehow we are all starting to know more clearly that none of this happens apart from ourselves, we are all in some way implicated in what has happened and for what lies ahead. This is the realm of Neptune. We're seeing the very early days of a long period in the soul growth of humanity and I think that already our minds are opening to the experience of empathy and compassion with those who until now have been just shadows on the TV screen.  One way we can recognise this is by noticing the content of our dreams - are our dreams showing us how we are connected to those in the world who are suffering or to our Mother the Earth herself who has taken too much abuse from her children?  Have you had any dreams recently which seem to be messages from the realms of spirit, perhaps connected in some way with the ocean or its creatures? If you haven't already, may I suggest you visit  
                                     sysprints.blogspot.com
 for the kind of thing I mean.

Rehab

Mercury retrograde in Aries isn't mucking about!  Every blessed thing has had to be done twice this week - a state of affairs I could have done without with two weeks left till moving day. Monday was the shiner; with retro Mercury squaring natal Uranus, all hell broke loose! Because the house is a tip with half packed boxes and general disorder everywhere, the Dyson was left unstabled at the top of the stairs where poor Mr Leo in his nocturnal stumblings stubbed his little toe. I don't think it's broken but the Royal Toe started Monday as black as your hat.  Later in the day smoke emitting from under the bonnet revealed a minor but annoying fuel leak. With diesel fast approaching the price of champagne, that needed fixing at once. Meanwhile, at home I  was the recipient of a particularly nasty phishing scam that got past my excellent security disguised as a programme and embedded itself like a limpet to my system. I won't even waste energy cursing the ***holes that do this to people - especially the poor things who fall for the scam and reveal their bank details to the fake microsoft thieves. Unresponsive to standard malware removal, the whole system had to be backed up and restored, an expense too far really with all the odds and ends of house removal to pay for. Anyway, back it is now, clean as a newborn and instead of packing boxes I'm reloading apps with an internet connection that completely drops out  as often as every three minutes and poking around in folders trying to find things. Normally I quite enjoy a bit of this but with contracts to terminate (ISP!) and stuff for the new house to arrange, it's really surplus to requirements just at the moment.
  A visit to the local housing benefit department did nothing to reassure. The modest but much needed amount of expected housing benefit predicted by their online calculator (which speaks with forked tongue) failed to materialise when shown the harsh light of day. After a sleepless night during which Mr Leo and I temporarily lost faith in the whole enterprise, I flailed about trying to find alternative and cheaper accomodation. Fortunately this wore off by teatime and we are again trusting in the universe, albeit with some extra hours on an already busy working schedule.   Looking forward to a more restful weekend; burgeoning plants are taking over the back yard and slugs may be eating my lettuce as I write - I shouldn't be here at all really but, hell - you have to get it off your chest sometimes don't you?

Showing off

                                              A glory of squashes!

While the Iron's hot

You might think that the current Mars in Aries energy along with all the other hot stuff going on would be far too strong for plants - not so, I sowed these salads and brassicas on Sunday teatime under the Aries New Moon and this morning - 62 hours later they joined the chillies in the sunny bedroom window! So plant those seeds and nurture those good intentions, there really is no time like the present.

Midnight oil

My house has become an archipelago of ever decreasing spaces where one can  'live and move and have one's being'.  It's a law of metaphysics as sure as rhythm, causation, polarity and the rest that matter outside of a drawer or cupboard expands to fill the space available. And so it is with us. Mercury retrograde brings its usual havoc of lost and delayed items, inexplicable computer glitches and apparent inability of normally intelligent folk to understand each other's simplest communications! However, I do have the blessing of transiting Mercury trine  Pluto and also - better still - of Pluto sextile Mercury so am endeavouring to use the opportunity of the impending house move to get to the bottom of my 'Paper Work'.  Cue watery music! Now, I have Mercury in Pisces so while I am quite comfortable with my inspirations and notes, written in odd signs and symbols being stashed away in books, backs of drawers, not to mention every pocket of every garment - even ones I never wear (?) it doesn't make development of said inspiration very easy.  I am fortunate enough to have a natal trine of Saturn to Mercury so the business paperwork is usually in some form of retrievable order and so it was that I spent most of yesterday getting the annual accounts ready for a final check over by our saintly accountant (yes , he really is!) to pick up later today. There's always something better to do isn't there? A friend arrived for coffee mid-morning - she hadn't been to the house before and upon being 'greeted' in his normal Leo Moon dramatic fashion by Jess the collie, proceeded to teach me how to  deal with his admittedly awful behaviour. She is so good at this that she had the lunatic asleep at her feet in about 10 minutes - unheard of, so it was nice and peaceful, chatting and planning our various future successes and a pity to have to drag myself back to my accounts at lunchtime.  With only a break to cook and eat dinner, it took me until 12.30 am to get the thing finished so of course brain clicking like an abacus, it was 2am before blessed sleep - My beloved brings me tea in bed - the only way to get me up - at 6.45 so  'Not fit  for purpose' today. Ah ha! just the state of mind to start retrieving all those notes and inspirations. I have a beautiful whicker hamper put aside  especially for them - wonder what will end up in there?