In which - Love wins.

Love is love....

In which - Happy Birthday to me!

It's been two years already - wow.

And, just for the record, it was snowing the day I was made, it snowed last year on my bithday and guess what? We got four inches of snow this morning, too.

Next year, I want 70F weather, if that's not too much to ask.

So anyway, I got some new furniture, including a new chair. Okay, so it's not pink - it has butterflies on it, which is just as good.

The little chicks are Paisley's, by the way,,,,

She works with animals, but lately this girl's been getting more and more fascinated by everything space. And no, this pic was taken a few weeks ago - like, before we ended up with two feet of snow and a ton of ice under that.

She wanted something like the song "Touch the Sky." Maddy said we'd need to be a) on a train, which this isn't and b) she still hasn't figured out how to trick the camera into taking pictures of things like the night sky.













Anyway, it's been a cool couple of years....

The beginning....

The guys, John-John and Shel.

Woodstock! Too bad I could't get a photo with John Ashton....

Stockbridge. Too bad I couldn't get any photos with the original Hitty.....

The new and improved me....

Heatwave 2013....

Meeting my fella....

Christmas 2013....

New flooring....

Fawn arrives!

Daisy joins the family....

The day we found out the Satellite Paradiso album was HAPPENING!!!!!

We meet a real Findhorn deva, Aura.

The first sign of trouble - Tori the Perpetually Annoying.....

World Fishing Day. I wonder if this sort of thing ever happens to John Ashton?

The Scottish sisters - Aura and Paisley.

The amazing Scaramouche.....

Tempest, the storm deva with a conscience.

Although I have a feeling that when a deva facepalms at you, that's whe you know you screwed up.....

Hawthorne threatening to go all gangsta - or gladi-ata - on that dealership at the Kia place.

Clarence Fahnstock State Park....

 Zephyr, our heroic wind deva.

THE album!!!!!!!
















Does anyone else see a possible family resemblance between Kira and Daisy? How closely related are devas and pixies, anyway?




















 And last but not least - meet Fiona. She's the redhead. She's a friend of Aura and Paisley's from Findhorn. She's a former radish deva who now mostly works with birds.

And rumor has it that we may soon get to meet the Gulf Coast storm deva who helped Tempest turn that EF-5 tornado away from that little town - well, mostly away, anyway. And Kira has mentioned that a friend from Australia might be joining her here as well. So cool....

Looks like it's going to be another awesome year!









Note: Fiona is a Pukifee Vanilla. She arrived in December, but this is her debut in the blog. She was originally intended to be Paisley and Aura's middle sister, Rhiannon, but she had other ideas. Right now I don't know when or if I'm shelling Rhiannon, although I'd like to find the right Pukifee for her.

In which everyone's back and then some.....

A partial family portrait - clockwise (sort of) from 8 PM, it's Emmaline, Shel, John-John, Fawn, Paisley, Aura, Daisy, Hawthorne, John Ashton Smith and yours truly.

Aura got back just before noon yesterday, along with her little sister Paisley and the aforementioned Hawthorne. They had to come up from the city and just missed all the horrible weather. We were on the very edge of it here - we got some thunder, some lightning, a LOT of rain, but not the high winds and hail. Actually, we've had nothing but rain and humidity and murk since Saturday, which is why you see laundry in the back of some of the photos. Maddy doesn't have a dryer and has almost five days worth of laundry to contend with. It's better than no rain at all, though.

Like Aura, Paisley started out as a Larkspur Deva in the Findhorn Caravan Park, which is now the Findhorn Garden. She told me the most important thing for any deva is following his or her heart. Although they're brought into existence to care for a particular plant or animal, not all of them stay with their first charge. Aura became a Lettuce Deva and Paisley was a Rose Deva for awhile before she started working with sheep.

By the way, Aura is now a Highlands Deva (more or less a general nature spirit) and Paisley is an Animal Deva. She had to ask a young squirrel to leave and not mess with the laundry -twice.

Aura said she doesn't think she's going to travel by land like that again - at least, not overseas.

"I'll never get used to those airplanes humans have," she said.

If poor Emmie was expecting a quiet little Missouri pixie, she was in for a bit of a surprise.

Hawthorne is really super sweet, but she's also got the energy of your average EF-5 tornado.

Daisy's a lot quieter, but they hit it off well right away. Hawthorne, like Daisy, was training with a Rain Deva to learn to read the weather.

Speaking of tornadoes, Aura said she has to agree with one famous movie starring one - "there's no place like home!"











(Note - Paisley is a PukiFee Mio and Hawthorne is a PukiPuki Flora. And don't ask me why Aura's hair looks so blue in some of those photos.)

In which Daisy gets mail and we meet Boris....

Daisy got a package in the mail today, all the way from Thailand.

It turned out to be from the aforementioned Scaramouche. Aura had told her that we probably weren't going to be able to salvage much of anything from Daisy's little hobbit-hole home, so she sent a care package of new clothes. She included a note that said she expects to be back in a few weeks, but isn't sure when yet. I think Daisy said she's studying Whale Whispering, whatever that is.

And never mind that old thing about it being bad luck to give a pixie clothes. Daisy thought it very good luck, indeed.

Because right now we can't even find where the entrance to her place was.

She's taking it well, though. She's just glad she got out in time and found a place to stay.








"So why did you leave Findhorn?" I asked Aura while Maddy and Daisy went to look for a trowel.

"I became a muse for awhile," she said. "Scaramouche did the same thing. She was an urban deva for a very long time until she followed a band she'd fallen in with up to Bearsville when they recorded their first album. The band I fell in with was from Dunfermline. I think your friend Maddy might know the name if I said it. It didn't end well, though. I couldn't--"

That was when we were interrupted by a scream from the house.....

"Maddy, ohmigod, do something! It's huge!" Shel really, seriously does not like spiders. Especially big spiders.

"Maddy, don't!" Daisy yelled, running in, even though no one had done anything yet. "It's Boris! Please don't hurt him!"

"Boris? Is he yours?" Maddy said, reaching for Shel. "Shel, get down from there, please."











"No, he's Scaramouche's. But he's a really good spider," Daisy said. "He's not dangerous, really."











"Wouldn't hurt a fly?" I said.

"Uh no, he'll do that," Daisy admitted.

"If he'll eat flies, he's welcome to stay," Maddy said.

"She has a salamander named Charlotte, too, but I think she brought her with her," Daisy said.

Hmmm, I think I like this girl already. And I think I need to get Shel off the ceiling.....


Edit - I forgot to say that Daisy's adorable new outfits came from Nubanded/CrazyHandmade on Etsy (Link here.) The shop is in Thailand and she makes items as they're ordered, so there is a bit of a wait - but it's worth it. The clothes are well-made and super cute.

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.)

In which Fawn is today's guest blogger....

Hi.

It's me, Fawn. Caroline thought I should be the one to tell my story so - here I am.

I think Caroline already told you that I moved here from the Wylde Kingdom. (If you want to know how I arrived in the Wylde Kingdom, Miranda told the story here.)

Shel keeps wondering if I was afraid, but I wasn't. For one thing, Wendy and I talked it over and we both decided that I needed a new home. And like I told Shel, I knew she wouldn't just send me anywhere or worse, consign me somewhere. I knew she'd make sure she found the right place for me.

You see, I'm not like most BJDs.

I'm sure you've noticed my crutches by now. I can't stand up, much less walk, without them. My knee joints have no stability at all. Even tightening my stringing and sueding them didn't help.

There's nothing to keep them from turning side-to-side in a way that no knee joint was even intended to turn....

It looks painful, but it's not - at least, not until I faceplant or land on my rear end or something.

So my options are either stay on a doll stand or use crutches. I'm not about to stay frozen on a doll stand. I spent too long stuck on a stand or in a box with my first person. To quote this old song John-John likes, I may not go very fast, but I get pretty far.

But I realize that not every doll person is going to accept that. It's just the way things are. My first person didn't accept it, which is part of how I wound up at DDE. It was all for the better, though.










As for my new life in New York....

I was looking forward to seeing Amiee and Alexis again. Turns out there are a small group of Woodlees living here, too. These two were two of the first to make the journey from Colorado.

There's even a resident bunny, although Edward doesn't like to travel as much as Gage did. I think he'd like it better if his first real trip hadn't ended with him and Tim Morris getting lost in India.









I will admit that I was a little nervous about how Caroline would feel about me moving out here. But she's just wonderful. And yeah, she's right - "Pretty In Pink" is a really good song, although like Maddy pointed out, she's really misinterpreting it.

And Shel is the biggest sweetheart - damaged, but sweet. Then again, you don't go through the sort of things he went through and come out in one piece. And no, he thinks of me as the sister he had and lost and found again. John-John has been trying to track down Abagail, Shel's real sister, but so far no luck. John-John is hysterical, by the way, He's got this perfectly sort of deadpan British sense of humor. (He's also hoping I can help him improve Shel's taste in shoes. Straight Eye for the Queer Guy?)


So I'm here, and looking forward to my new life in New York. Yes, I'm going to miss the Kingdom, but, to quote one of the songs Caroline listens to, everything passes and changes and comes to an end. It was time to move on.

I can't wait to see what happens next.....