Plants, Spider Bites and Sprucing up

That pretty well sums up what I am up to right now. My muse on the plants is still strangely intact. I am amazed at the way this holds my attention. Everyday I find a plant, use my grandfather's herbal book and identify it. I draw it and contemplate the plant's spirit. I love it!

My daughter came to visit me and we have been doing a lot of clean up. Things that I wanted to do but needed a lot of help with. We cleared out my favorite place at the mouth of my little mountain hollow. It took two days to remove piles of rotted wood and a lot of other debris. We found 4 snakes, 3 salamanders, a black toad and a load of the largest spiders I have seen for a while.

I love spiders and snakes. I don't want them as pets and I don't want to pet them. However; I adopted them years ago as my allies. In fact I have a spider tattooed on my chest and a snake on my back. To remind me the messages of Grandmother Spider and Grandfather Serpent.

Grandfather Serpent reminds of the strength, mystique and protection available in the unseen world. He reminds me that nothing begins in the physical but is manifested. He epitomizes Spiritual protection and wisdom.

Grandmother Spider represents to me the practical wisdom needed to go through this world. Grandmother Spider does not have to chase what she wants. Her web attracts the things she needs. Her web also shows me how this world and everything in it is connected. She is the teacher of practical survival skills for this plane.

I never kill spiders or snakes. But yesterday I either scared or injured one of my Spider sisters because while I was moving rotted wood (that was covered with spiders by the way) one must have got in my shirt and got squished. I got bit. A large angry welp like blister on the right side of my abdomen. It is a bit painful but not as bad as the last one I received.

It reminds me of a time almost 20 years ago that I was bit for the first time. A brown recluse bit the right side of my left breast. I don't know where it came from and I didn't even know what kind bit me until I went to the doctor. By that time I was very ill. It took me weeks to get over that. During the feverish time I had dreams of spiders all the time. And when I recovered I had the spider tattooed over my left breast.

This current bite is most likely from a wolf spider. It is painful but not sloughing or spreading like the brown recluse. It is remaining fairly local. I am giving it Reiki and I applied a plantain poultice to draw out the inflammation.

Another message from Grandmother Spider? Perhaps. I just haven't gotten it yet.

My partner and my daughter also scrubbed the siding on the house and the small wooden deck and stairway leading into my back porch. It looks wonderful

Today we are going to Sandstone Falls for the day. It is beautiful there. Kind of wild but not too hard to get too. I am taking my plant book and camera. I know I will see lots of plants. The vegetation this time of year is so lush. My daughter wants to swim near the falls and use an underwater camera, my partner wants to comb the area for arrowheads and I want to see the plants, smell the aromas of earth meeting water and enjoy the sun.


Speaking of lush...I had a peach tree that was loaded with small but perfect peaches. This week they would have been ripe enough to pick and I was ready. Yesterday morning we discovered there was nothing left except hundreds of peach pits under the tree. The critters stole them. GRRRRR....I don't mind them taking a few but I would have liked to try at least one.

That's the way nature rolls here. And it's all good.