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?

Morvah snaps close-up of sedum at Tol Creeg

Hubble snaps close-up of the Tarantula

credit NASA, ESA

     Phew!!! That's more like it!     

Provocation

  Mystified today as another salvo arrives with the post. This time, a neatly typed letter from Mrs Landlady, ostensibly formally accepting our notice, full of provocative little demands about how she expects the house to be left:
     "Please would you remove the settee and any other soft furnishing but leave behind the chest of drawers and any other items of storage. I assume that you will also leave the house fully carpeted and curtained as it was when you moved in."
  Arrrghh!!!   For crying out loud, if the place was left in the condition it was when we moved in it would be uninhabitable. We spent our flippin' wedding present money on carpeting the place as it had been necessary to remove the disgusting collection left there. Luckily I kept some of the curtains so they can go back up!
  Following this frosty little request, she goes on to say that she has contacted the builder that I arranged to do the work in the bathroom "as soon as possible after you leave and  I have asked him to be in contact with you to arrange access and I am grateful to you for offering to do this."  Oh YES?
    Perhaps I've taken advice (come to my senses) and regrettably am unable to take any further responsibility for the house or its keys after we leave.
  Grrrr! I can feel my Pluto going white hot as I write and will have to resort to much calming therapy before the day is out.   What the fuck is it all about? Sooner or later this was always going to happen. In spite of having to leave a house we rather liked through no fault of our own, we are leaving the place looking as good as it can under the circumstances and most of it is massively improved. The rent has been paid in full, on time, every time, complete with a friendly note, photos etc, keeping in touch and a copy of the local paper sent every week without fail at my own expense as a gesture of appreciation.
  Now she will have no personal sense of obligation - if she ever did - a bigger rent and I can't see that we have done anything to deserve the provocative attitude.
   This is not the peaceful blog it started out to be, I suppose given the nature of the times it was always unlikely! What it does do is allow me to talk to myself and 'get it off my chest' so that the aggro goes no further. It would be wrong to take bad feelings out into the world or with us to our next home. Only a month to go now and Quirky House with all its own lessons and rewards will wash away this sad tale and I for one will not be sorry.

Awake

                                                The birds they sang
                                                at the break of day                                           
                                                Start again                                   
                                               I heard them say
                                              Don't dwell on what                       
                                               has passed away              
                                              or what is yet to be. 
                                              Ah the wars they will            
                                               Be fought again       
                                               The holy dove 
                                               She will be caught again      
                                               bought and sold
                                              and bought again 
                                              the dove is never free.
                                              Ring the bells that still can ring
                                              Forget your perfect offering          
                                              There is a crack in everything
                                              That's how the light gets in.
                        
           Thanks to Neeti at Astrology Expressed for finding these perfect words from Leonard Cohen's
           'Anthem'       Revolution is just that - round and round and round again. The I Ching says ;       
                               
                           " Times change, and with them their demands. Thus the seasons change in the course of the year.  In the world cycle also there are spring and autumn in the life of peoples and nations, and these call for social transformations......... the object of a great revolution is the attainment of clarified, secure conditions ensuring a general stabilization on the basis of what is possible at the moment."

 May this great wisdom be in the hearts of all leaders, everywhere as we go into this new dawn.