Well, that was quite a week! Many things have been fixed, or prepared, or done in some way. I had forgotten how everything takes 3 times as long as one thinks it might. I won’t list the rather long and tedious list of things that have changed, but think it fair to say that it’s been a productive week.

I think I should thank the Earthenwitch for actually upping and offing with the Witchling for a week, as it’s given me the opportunity to spend far more time than I would have done otherwise working on the chateau. I know that they have both been enjoying their time at Gwandma’s house (she is so called by the Witchling) and that they have had a chance to a) rest and b) visit ducks. Always a bonus. I have had a chance to lie in undisturbed this morning, which has been absolutely blissful. The week has seen me up at 5.30 and working til 7 or 8 in the evening; this comes of naturally being an early riser, I think. I do like the feeling of being outside stripping a door or something in brilliant sunshine, while everyone else is asleep. But today it was me who was asleep!

In other news, we are almost ready for the Witchling’s second birthday. Bless her, how can she be two?! I am sure pictures will be posted in due course of both beaming child and of presents. We have a couple of things we have made for her, and I’m particularly pleased with one of them. The other, from me, involved spending some time with a chainsaw in order to make it.

Right. Now I’d better toddle off to make the house look presentable again. Piles of tools in the middle of the kitchen – far simpler than putting them back in the shed every day. Can’t wait – I get my girlies back this afternoon!

When I was about fourteen, I came across a well-established witch who read tarot cards with astonishing accuracy. At the time, I felt pulled between the assumption that he must have been cheating in some way, surely, and the equally strong desire to believe that We Just Don’t Understand Everything There Is. Over the years, I think I’ve come down on the latter side, for the most part. Yes, there are some charlatans out there (and various aspects of this person’s conduct are, shall we say, questionable, perhaps), but that doesn’t seem to mean that everything they stand for is rubbish.

I’ve been picking the cards up on nights when Quercus sleeps downstairs, and having a quick look at whatever comes out first. It’s sort of meditative, and at the same time renews my sense of connection. ‘Connection to what?’ I hear you cry (along with ‘good grief, woman – what incredible old bollocks’), and well you might (to both!), because I’ve got no idea what I’m on about, frankly. I was trying to explain to Quercus yesterday what I feel when things seem… witchier, somehow, and of course I fell over my feet, verbally, and ended up sounding like Madame Arcarty, which was, shall we say, not quite the effect for which I was aiming.

I think it’s something which requires some serious thought, at some point. I mean, what do I actually think? I think there is More. I have an enduring interest in witchcraft, which, for me, means an awareness of one’s surroundings, including but not limited to the seasons, the weather, the herbs, flowers, oils, spices and so on that can be used culinarily but also for purposes less well-known. I also have a strong feeling that the universe sometimes sends you what you need, even if it’s not what you wish for. Fate, I suppose. I think I might just believe that sometimes you can effect what you wish for yourself, but only if it’s vaguely in line with What Will Be anyway. But beyond that, I’m not sure what I think. I have had a few examples of things I couldn’t explain, and I have reason to wish for More, for sure, after my mother’s death. I’d also like to know why I feel so preoccupied by these questions just now, when there is no obvious prompt for them.

The inherited lunacy, by the by, is a reference to my grandmother’s conversations with her own grandmother, who had been dead for thirty years at the time. Apparently, I have two generations of mediums in my family, and my father has often demonstrated worrying foresight, once or twice in most unusual circumstances. That, coupled with my mother’s strong interest in witchcraft, speaks clear and loud (and apparently alliteratively, as we shall see) of as barking a bunch of beggars as one could hope to meet, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s something in the DNA.

In other news:

Why is my radio constantly wandering off its station, sometimes after a few seconds, sometimes after an hour?

Why, on the first weekday after I start thinking seriously about what I’m eating, is my office strewn with cake and biscuits?

Starsky or Hutch? I think my money is on Hutch (if only for the quirky vegetarianness)*, but this is subject to change.

Homemade apple pancakes – do they count as junk food?

Why is it impossible to get in touch with the Citizens’ Advice Bureau if you’re not in a position to walk through the door?

* This definition of vegetarianism is also something of a post in itself; I’m still going about the place “looking like a vegetarian”, according to colleagues. More on that anon.

Bell, book and candle, this-a-way.

And in the meantime, I have finished the watercolour pencils drawing I started for the small girl before she even born, and Chrimbly brought me a new set of double-pointed needles and some beautifully variagated Noro yarn to play with. It is time for a new list of projects, methinks; this witching feeling that has crept up on me appears to be taking a creative direction.

1. A cardigan for the small girl. (No. 1 was finished, but it’s on the small side due to my being rubbish at maths, and having to do sums which pushed my brain in ways it just doesn’t enjoy, all because I wanted to use some wool I happened to have in my stash, rather than going out and buying the stuff specified in the pattern.)

2. A Noro hat for me. Myself. All for my very ownses.

3. A sweater for Quercus. I would really love to knit something for him; so often, my creativity is focused on the small girl or the house, but Quercus is the axis on which my world turns, so it seems only fair to clothe said axis in something appropriately woolly. I’d like a jumper with a roll-over neck and no welt, which is relatively easy to do, and which uses double-knitting wool. Anyone come across such a thing? Comment, do.

4. I have it in mind to paint a small but significant set of stars on the small girl’s wall. If things go to plan, we will be re-rending the inside of Earthenhouse this summer, so now is the time to try out such things without having to commit to them forever; we have a very lovely book with illustrations which I could copy quite easily using the aforementioned watercolour pencils, and the small girl does love a star or two.

5. A spiral for the kitchen wall. Longer-term readers may recall the spiral which lived on our wall before we rebuilt the kitchen – hopefully this one will get to stay a little bit longer. When I was little I wanted a house full of music and laughter and bright colours; that spiral said all the right things to me, and it said them in three languages.

6. I must find me a chest of drawers, narrower than a metre, and tall enough to be useful. We have a short wall in the extension, and I would very much like to use it to get Quercus off the hook of making drawers by finding drawers which fit, and doing something to make them fit in. Drawers, though. They tend to be wider than this, damn them. So, the search continues. And then, oh then, if I find some, I’ll get to Put Things In Them. I love doing that. And organising cupboards. Oh, unpacking things. I’m really looking forward to rediscovering the contents of our sheds, most of which belong in a kitchen. (I know – I need to get out more.)

Right. On that note, off to do something productive. And you?