Welcome to another edition of The Chronicles of Pendragon Hold, in which I, THE Michael, AKA Alex Pendragon, will enthrall you with tales of rural/suburban angst, joy, boredom, and transcendental pontification. No poets or Republicans shall be harmed in the elucidation of this episode.

There are certain landmarks on the ever-evolving continuum of time that we eagerly await, yet most often lament, for wondering what all the fuss was about once it's all over. This, hopefully, will not be the case of two events which will be occurring very close together, sort of like an alignment of the planets, which are THE Wife's birthday, which one I am not at liberty to disclose, and the Spring Equinox, or as we Wiccans refer to as Ostara. Personally, I am also looking forward to the days off of work I am taking in celebration of these two happenings. Don't be hatin' me now....

This weekend we tackled the shade garden (tidying it up for the upcoming circle) and the terrace garden, in which we have started preparing now that perhaps there won't be any more freezes. THE Wife dug up the upper tier and planted various beans, herbs, and sunflowers. I watered same said tier. We'll plant the other veggies out at the main garden, which will consist of bags of garden soil split open. I think I shredded enough leaves this weekend to bury Canada an inch deep in leaf liter. We use it to mulch the shade garden.

Ever since I constructed the arbor which welcomes all to our shade garden/sacred circle, I have been trying to come up with the perfect welcome to put on the cross member. I found it at the hospital gift shop where I work. You tell me, is this NOT the perfect welcome to our circle? (click on the pic to get an enlarged view and see what the plaque in the middle says.)




As I continue to watch the continuing meltdown of our economy, it's only natural that my personal anxiety level has steadily risen, because I do not consider myself immune to the horrors of job loss and all that entails. However, the Big Boss of our particular facility came out with a statement that not only did not mention any staff cutbacks, but assured us that nurses (and ancillary personnel such as Moi'" would be getting at least a minimal wage increase. Upper management, however, will NOT be getting any raises. Wow. Maybe I can breathe now.

Today we had to "spring forward" thanks to that biyearly aggravation we call "daylight savings time". I never figured out how losing an hour of sleep is supposed to save anyone any time, but I'm sure that somewhere around the dawn of civilization when 90% of us lived on farms, saving daylight must have meant something. I wonder how many blue collar workers these days need their daylight saved? Could we PLEASE just put the clock somewhere and LEAVE it there?!

Oh, and there was a price to pay for the two days THE Wife and I worked outside, after a Winter's long hiatus from physical labor. First off, our bodies are sore in places we didn't even know we had. Second, we have acquired this really odd RED color on our necks, face, and shoulders. We got BURNT, folks, I ain't kidding you!

Anyway, I want any of my fans who stumble across this post to be sure and visit Anne, of "The Gods are Bored" fame. Believe me, you WILL enjoy her latest post!

This is THE Michael, signing out...........may your treasure remain buried where you put it, and may the pirates of capitalism run amok pass you by. Blessed be!