I was looking in the book Papa Jim’s Herbal Magic Workbook and saw this great spell.

For returning evil back to a person doing you harm, carve the name of your target into a Black Image candle. Place the candle on a piece of red cloth, our some Black Salt over it, and wrap it up with some blackberry leaves then tie it up with a Black ribbon. Hit it with a hammer a couple times. call out the person’s name and what you want to return back to the person. Then every couple days hit it with the hammer again repeating what you said, then throw it into a deep hole.

In the past I’ve agonized over not having precisely the right tools/ingredients. Now I’m not so worried about precision. There are so many opinions on ritual and spell it’s hard to find the truth. So I decided a while back to go with MY truth and do what I feel comfortable with.

On that note, I also don’t believe in waste. Taking black candle, smashing it, then throwing it into the ground seems so wasteful to me. So instead of using a candle I’m going to use a stick. I will wrap it in red yarn because that’s what I have on hand. Then, I will pour some dirt over it because, again, that’s what I have available to me. I will wrap it in blackberry leaves and tie it with black yarn. Then I will dig a hole and throw it in since there is no pit in close proximity to me.

And now is the perfect time because Moon is waning. Actually, since Moon will be new on Tuesday, I’ll wait until then to do this spell. It gives me a chance to gather what I have and create some sacred space. And it gives me something to plan for Tuesday.

I just finished putting blackberry, blueberry, and strawberry leaves into olive oil and jarring the whole caboodle up. It’s my first real foray into herbalism.

The three berries grow wild around my yard. I had no further than my front door to walk out of to get some of Mother Earth’s healing properties. How cool is that?

Blackberry

• Internal use: anemia, diarrhea, dysentery, influenza, laryngitis, throat, vitamins

• external use: astringent, psoriasis

I don’t have any info on blueberry and strawberry yet. Thus far I have one book The Master Book of Herbalism by Paul Beyerl. It doesn’t have anything on the latter two berries. I assume, however, strawberry and blueberry both have medicinal properties so I infused them anyways. I need more books!

The combs on each of the chickens is getting brighter. Each had pink-ish combs on top of their heads and their waddles were the same color. But now both the comb and waddle are getting redder, brighter, more noticeable.

Is it an indication they’re getting ready to lay? Is it because they’re scratching around the New Hampshire woods eating all kinds of bugs and greens which is meeting their nutritional needs? Is it both?

We shall find out!

Edited to add: “Chickens mature at a relatively slow rate in terms of egg laying. They need to be anywhere between 5 and 6 months old usually before they are ready to lay eggs. It is not always possible to tell by age however, but it is able to tell by the development of their features. If you look at the bird in my right hand, she is an active egg laying bird. She has a very bright red waddle and comb and is very distinctive. You can actually see it. If you look at the bird in my left hand, her comb is almost non-existent, she has no waddle yet and her face and features are very pale pink. As she matures and gets ready to lay eggs, those features will become more extinct, the waddle and the comb and they will darken and get redder and redder until she is actually ready to lay eggs. The other features is harder to show but the distance between the points of their pelvic bones is another characteristic. If you can get three fingers in between the points of their pelvic bones, then you know they are actively laying eggs.”

There’s a video which goes along with the text but it ain’t workin fo me. Click on the link and see if it works for you.

To make it rain like leaving your car doors open and hanging the laundry? Yea, I’ve done those and still we’ve not had any rain. The weathermen keep promising it’ll rain but nary a drop from the sky. Watering my garden in May is not good. It should be moist as hell around here.

I’m not a fan of weather spells but I’m thinking of doing one asking for rain. I’m just afraid of my lack of balance and how it will affect the spell and the weather.

Edited to add: We did get a brief shower. It came down really, really heavy for about 10 minutes then descended to a light rain. I was hoping the light rain would last a week but it only lasted about a 1/2 hour. It’s still pretty cloudy so maybe it’ll rain some more over the weekend.

Parmesan

Soup

You know, it’s not easy to tell the ladies apart in pictures. Looking at them I can without issue but in photos? That’s much, much harder.

Oh, and speaking of the chickens, Wolf went and bought a couple of wooden eggs with the hopes all of them will sit on them and then get the idea of laying.

There’s this great anxiety I have every year: that my garden won’t grow. This year it’s more pronounced than in prior years because I put seed directly into the ground instead of sprouting and transplanting like I usually do. Depression knocked me on my ass in the late winter/early spring which is why I didn’t really care when my seedlings died. Warm Sun is burning away the cold dampness of depression and my eyes eagerly await whether my earlier apathy will be as detrimental as my imagination thinks.

I can relax a smidge though. There *are* things poking through the soil. Behold:

Onaway Potato (bed VI)

Gold Rush Potato (bed VI)

Corn, squash, and marigolds (bed II)

Chives (black bucket)

Mystery bean, Black Turtle Bean, and Oregano

Funny story here. Last year I planted oregano in this small garden bed. Earlier this year I noticed oregano growing in it which made me happy. First, because it meant I didn’t have to buy more oregano seed and second because I was hoping it would come back on my own. But then I noticed beans coming up in the bed too. I never planted beans in this particular bed. I did plant them in bed IIII last year which is near this bed so I wonder if a bird or rodent ate some then pooped them into this bed…? So I have no idea if what’s coming up is bush bean or pole bean. And, of course, there is still some oregano in there so it’ll be mixture. Oh, and I *did* plant some black turtle beans in there once I found out there were beans there in the first place. Hence, I call this the “mystery bean bed.”

Blackberries

There are wild blackberries which grow all around Howling Hill. I doubt I’ll get many this year because of the chickens but still they are so effing yummy! I get so excited when I see them every year.

Rose of Sharon

Charlie gave us some Rose of Sharon. They’re biggest nemesis isn’t the plastic bag they were in for at least a month but the chickens. I hope they grow but I won’t be surprised if they don’t. Fear not, they get morning sun.

Great-Grandma’s Roses

Wolf’s great-grandmother grew this beautiful rose bush which has been in Agnes’ yard since the dawn of time (she lives next door to her grandmother’s house). We asked for a cutting but it doesn’t look too good. I’m hoping it perks up some.