Monday, March 31, 2014

In which we meet Aura....

"Daisy!" I was doing a little spring sorting of the old wardrobe when we heard an awesome Scottish accent from the dining room/sewing room. "I was so worried about you, girl! Thank the Goddesses you got out of there all right."

"I think I might stay a house pixie after this winter," Daisy was saying when we went in.

"I don't see why you shouldn't. You can watch out for things just as easily and it's a lot safer for you."









She looked around as we came in. "Thanks for looking after her. This girl means a lot to me. I only just now heard about what happened and I got back as soon as I could."








"And you must be Caroline. Daisy's told me all about you."












She said that her friend, the aforementioned Scaramouche, is actually in South Korea at the moment, trying to help out in the search for that missing Malaysian plane.

"Even if the humans can't see us, we can still guide them to it if we find it. But that's the problem. Even she has no idea what happened. And this girl can find anything. She's leading a team of devas working with a group of ondines trying to locate it - but she said she isn't convinced it's in the ocean. I thinks she still hopes they'll find it on land."

"Ondines?" I thoguht I knew what she was talking about, but I wasn't sure.

"Water sprites. Personally, I'm a little surprised that they didn't see it - if it did end up in the water, that is. They usually don't miss much."

"Why is she in South Korea? I thought it went down off of Australia," Daisy said.

"That's just it, girl. She's onto something the humans aren't. It may be nothing, but it may not be. She said we owe it to them to check everything out. Everything."

Eek. That time-rift theory is looking more and more plausible....

~*~

Maddy's note:

Aura is a PukiFee Luna. I'm still awaiting my PukiFee Shiwoo, the aforementioned Scaramouche. (She really is in South Korea at the moment, presumably in production at Fairyland.)

If you're curious about the Findhorn Gardens, there's more info in this post. It's a really interesting and inspiring story.









Saturday, March 29, 2014

In which we learn a bit about devas....

"Would it be all right if I invited a friend to stay with us?"

Maddy looked around at Daisy. "Sure. Is it the forest deva you were talking about?" As you can see, our mad makeover artist, John-John, had been working his magic on Daisy. I am seriously envying those silver boots. So space-age. Just the thing to wear to the launch of a certain guitarist's totally awesome Satellite....

"No. I mean, she'll be back eventually, but this is another deva. I mean, they're friends, but..."

"Sure, no problem. Is she a forest deva, too?"

"I think she's a landscape deva. I know she's one of the Findhorn devas," Daisy said.

"John-John will love that," I said, looking around from the book I was reading over Fawn's shoulder. I think she's discovered science fiction.

"How is that book?" Shel said.

"It's really good. Strange that it's set in 1993, though," Fawn said. "Of course, the title page said it was published in 1963, so at the time that was thirty years in the future."

"Did you say something about Findhorn devas?" John-John said, coming in.


"I know one," Daisy said.

"I'd love to meet her," John-John said, joining us.

"She's really nice. She's friends with Scaramouche, the forest deva I was talking about," Daisy explained. "She teaches classes in plant working. How to read plants, how to communicate with them, reading the weather so you can work effectively with them...."

"Reading the weather?" Fawn said. "I thought devas controlled it."

"Not really. They're just really good at reading it," Daisy explained. "But it's important to be able to tell if a storm is building, for instance, and how bad it's going to be. If there's going to be a lot of wind and hail, for example, you can warn the plants to turn their leaves up before it hits." She looked at Maddy. "That's where your old human saying about the leaves turning their backs to the rain comes from. It helps keep them from getting damaged."

"That's awesome," John-John said. "I'd really love to meet her."

"So would I," Maddy said. "If she'll talk to a human, that is."

"In general, devas like you humans. Most of us pixies do, too," Daisy said. "We like that there are more and more of you who do your best to work with nature and not against it - like working with us and growing plants that will thrive instead of trying to force plants not meant for the climate or environment to grow instead. It makes our jobs a lot easier." She made a face. "There's really only so much I can to to keep the deer out of all that hosta your father put in."

"Don't sweat it. I'd like to take most of it out. I already took out all of it from under the front of the house. But now it's coming up wild all over the yard. I bet it gets classified as an invasive species soon."

"I noticed that," Daisy said.

"Does she teach non-devas?" John-John said.

"You have to have some magickal ability to do some of what she teaches, but she's willing to show anyone how to read the plants and weather. She's great. She even put up with Torii without strangling her."

"Who's that?" I said.

"I don't know if she's a pixie or what. Someone told me she was half-fairy. Personally, I think she's part troll. She thinks she's the hottest thing going, but she's a total ignoramus." Daisy rolled her eyes. "I think she's with the Light Court in the south right now. That is, if they haven't thrown her out."

"Wait. Does she have pink hair? Dresses like whatshername who sings that song about a wrecking ball?" Fawn said.

"You know her?" Daisy said.

"Unfortunately. She was one of the reasons I left there so early. I decided I'd rather take my chances with the Unseelie than deal with her."

She must be pretty obnoxious if Fawn said that. She doesn't say anything bad about anyone. She will, however, say nothing at all when the situation warrants....

~*~

(Maddy's note - the book Fawn is reading is "Lords of the Psychon" by Daniel F. Galouye. It's out of print, but I found that copy recently on Amazon. It's a really good read.)

Saturday, March 22, 2014

In which Fawn realizes something...

This is the first time she's seen the yard not covered with two feet of snow.

We even have crocuses, but couldn't get pics because while the yard is no longer a frozen wasteland, it's now a swamp.

See, I told you it has to start being spring sometime.

(Yes, we have another arctic front for Monday and are supposed to just miss a huge snowstorm Tuesday night and Wednesday, but it's supposed to be back up around 60F by Friday and Saturday. About freaking time.....)

Thursday, March 20, 2014

In which...just a whole bunch more random photos...

Oh no, there goes Tokyo, go go Hogzilla!













"Got my Nissan in the EZ-Park-It
At the rock and roll supermarket
Muzak music makes me feel so funny
I went and spent all my money....

We're riding on the escalator of life
We're shopping at the human mall
We're dancing on the escalator of life
Won't be happy 'til we have it all, we want it alllllll...."





The view from the EZ-Park-It....













Sooooo ready for my closeup here....



















A bran fan? Or a yarn fan?

















Crud. Too much cloth, not enough table....












And Jasper in pig-atory. He really hates having his cage cleaned.....

Sunday, March 16, 2014

In which we interrupt this Sunday to bring you some really awesome news....

But first, we want to extend a very warm "welcome back" to an old friend we haven't seen since the end of December.....










The Ground....













Yes, it's been awhile....












Welcome back, Ground! We missed you!













It's not a lot of help for Daisy, though. Her place is still somewhere under all that....stuff.











She lived in something like a hobbit hole (as in really nice place, not an icky damp tunnel) but the weight of the snow started collapsing it. So she had to take refuge in the nearest safe place - the house. Since she had to get out with pretty much the clothes on her back, she's pretty short on outfits at the moment. Maddy and I tried to make her some clothes but - it didn't go well.

"It's not bad..." Daisy, the ever-polite, said.

"Yes, it is," Maddy said. "I have a new pattern coming in for Caroline that's supposed to have different sizes. We'll see if one of them fits you. I think it should."

"Hey, Caroline?" Fawn had been reading about that missing plane on CNN's website when an email arrived. "Look at this. Isn't this the band you and Maddy are following?"















"Which one? John Ashton's?" I ran to look.

"They just got to 100% on their pledge page." She looked at Maddy. "Wasn't tomorrow the deadline?"

"I think so. Ohmigod, that's great!" She leaned over to look. "They did it!"

"Yes! Yes! They did it! They did it! In your face!" Whose face, I don't know, but it seemed appropriate somehow. "It's happening, it's happening, it's gonna happen, the album is happening and it is going to be majorly awesome and....


 .....what?"












"Haven't you ever seen the Hitty Happy Dance before?"

"Indeed I have," Fawn deadpanned. "And I hate to say it, but the problems you Hittys have dancing have nothing to do with whether or not you're pegged."

Ouch. I hate it when she's right....




~*~

Fawn is a lot like Shel in some ways. Like him, she reads - everything. She's read the entire Wrinkle In Time series, Maddy's Douglas Adams books and some of her band bios. Right now she's reading John-John's Findhorn Garden book.








"Cool." Daisy had come to see what she was reading. "I know a forest deva, She's nice, but she's tough. Of course, you kind of have to be to protect trees around here."

"Around here as in the backyard?" I said.

"She comes and goes. Right now I think she's down south helping out where they had all those ice storms. The trees down there need all the help they can get."


"Do you think she'd want to meet us?" I said.

"I'm sure she would. She already likes Maddy for not having the tree out back cut down a couple of years ago."

"It didn't need it. It just needed that one broken branch removed," Maddy said. "Besides, I like that tree, too."

"When will she be back?" Fawn said.

"Probably not until late spring. I'm kind of watching out for everything until then," Daisy said.

Wow. A real deva, Too cool....as if today wasn't too cool already.

(They did it! YES! Ohmigod, this album is going to be AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!)

Thursday, March 13, 2014

In which - an update!

Yes, it's been awhile, I know. The good news is, nothing's wrong. It's just been a little busy.

After putting it off for several years, Maddy's mom finally went ahead and had cataract surgery a week ago today. It turned out to be no big deal (they don't even put you under general anesthesia for it!) and it went well. Maybe a little too well. Now all of her glasses are about a bajillion times too strong, because every pair she has were made after the cataract was initially diagnosed. In fact, she doesn't even need them for the right eye any more, but still needs them for the left. My suggestion about rocking a steampunk look complete with monocle didn't go over too well.....

(Maddy - She just laughed and said "riiight.")

So anyway, it's been nothing but eye doctors and eyedrops for the past couple of weeks. That and that missing plane. Yikes. All I can think of is that Stephen King story where the plane flew into the time rift.....

~*~

And the other big news....

Meet Daisy.

Yes, Daisy is indeed a pixie. As it turns out, she's been living here for quite some time now, but none of us knew.












She was living out in the old garden until the polar vortex that's been making everyone miserable drove her indoors. She'd set up house, more or less, in the old dollhouse Maddy still needs to fix up. Since it's downstairs and kind of half-behind the treadmill Maddy keeps saying she needs to get back on and never does, we didn't find her until a couple of days ago, when we were trying to find a particular flowerpot on the shelf nearby.




Maddy said that she was more than welcome to stay, but not in the dollhouse. For one thing, if she still has any of the old furniture, she doesn't know where it is. She's afraid her father may have thrown it all out to make room for some of his train stuff. For another thing, the heat isn't turned up downstairs. It's usually about fifty-five degrees down there. Better than outside, but not all that comfortable. Besides, it's really lonely down there.




So needless to say, she's joined the family.












She's a garden pixie, so she's pretty much at home in here.


















And Maddy isn't adverse to letting Daisy move into the dollhouse. She just wants to move it somewhere upstairs and fix it up first. Where is the big issue right now.....









Maddy's note:

Yes, I indeed succumbed to FairyLand's charms. :). I also have a PukiFee Shiwoo on order, but she won't be here for about another eleven weeks. When I ordered her from DDE, I saw that they had a PukiPuki Ante, natural skin w/faceup in stock. I sat on it for a few days, figured out my finances, went back and - she was still available. I still can't get over how SMALL she is. I thought Caroline was small. (She is, but still...)