Many of you  may know that I have been searching for a new home.  The search is over and I have found my little Gingerbread House!

The Magick Garden will evolve as a destination and I hope you will follow along as it becomes a reality!  The house is located in Richmond, Maine, sits on just under half an acre and has a wonderful two-story detached building that I will eventually renovate into business space.   I  have been putting in a lot of sweat equity ripping up old carpeting, scrubbing windows and incredibly dirty floorboards, painting and hauling out trash and unwanted items left behind by the previous occupants.  My hope is to begin seeing clients for healing sessions in October or November.  I’ll keep everyone posted on the progress.  There is work I must have done by a carpenter prior to having clients in my home.  Until then, keep checking back here for new photos and updates!

Garden Leaves in a new home

Midsummer is almost upon us.  The sun is shining on The Magick Garden here in Maine.  The peas, green beans, scallions, tomatoes and rhubarb are growing-as are the weeds.  Aaargh!  Oh for the day when I can give up my job and spend all my time doing what I love.  I’m hoping that I can get some much-needed weeding done this weekend.   I have harvested some thyme (wish I could harvest some “time!”), and have crafted about 25-30 Garden Leaves thus far.  Most of these are smallish and I will put some aside for those who wish to purchase one for the upcoming Faery Garden class.  The others will go with me to the Farmington Summer Festival in July (more details on both of these below…).

My search for the perfect home for myself and The Magick Garden marches onward.  I’m sure it’s out there somewhere and will show up when the time is right.  I will continue to keep everyone posted.  You may follow The Magick Garden on Facebook, and sign up for my newsletter to keep updated on the latest news.

What’s coming up…

Bowdoinham Chicken BBQ-On Saturday, June 23rd 11:30-1:30 the town of Bowdoinham will be holding a chicken BBQ at the Bowdoinham Community School.  Tickets are on sale now and can be picked up at the town office.  For more details go to:  http://www.bowdoinham.com/news-tickets-chicken-bbq-are-now-available

Pagan Circle-Saturday, June 23rd 2:00pm-5:00pm at my home in Bowdoinham.  We will celebrate Midsummer so wear your most festive attire.  We will make flower crowns and toss sacred herbs into the fire in honor of the bonfire tradition.  This will be a potluck so please bring along something yummy to share.  Please do RSVP asap.

Farmington Summer Festival-Friday, July 27th 11:00am-7:00pm.  Visit http://downtownfarmington.com/events.html for details about the day’s events.  I will be there with The Magick Garden and hope you will come to the the festival and stop by to visit me.  I will have many Garden Leaves for sale, as well as other garden art and nature-inspired gifts.

Craft a Faery Garden-Saturday, July 21st 10:00am-2:00pm at my home in Bowdoinham.  Learn how to craft your own miniature Faery Garden.  You may bring your own vessel in which to make your garden but I will also have some Garden Leaves which you may purchase the day of the class.  Bring along any tiny objects you might want to include in your garden decor (including any plants if you wish).  We will forage for natural items such as stones, moss, bark and plants and I will also have some plants available for purchase.  Other materials for decorating will be supplied.  Bring a bag lunch.  Sun tea and lemonade will be provided.   Please contact me to register.  Cost for class is $25.00

Just a reminder to all that Sunday, April 29th is the Enlightenment Expo.  It is being held at the Fireside Inn and Suites, 81 Riverside St. Portland, Maine from 10:00am-5:00pm.  I hope you will stop by to see me.  Just in time for Mother’s Day, what could be more special than to give your mom a unique, handcrafted nature-inspired gift from The Magick Garden!

A very big THANK YOU to everyone who attended the Holistic Mystic Fair at Le Club Calumet in Augusta on March 31st!  Thank you, especially, to all who stopped by my table and purchased an item from The Magick Garden.  The tiny Tabletop Faery Gardens were a hit with many people and this makes me so happy!  I have a couple left and will create more next week, so if you are interested in purchasing one, were unable to get to the fair and cannot make it to the Enlightenment Expo at the end of this month, please contact me.  These little “gardens” are such a joy to create.  Place one on your desk at work or on a windowsill or table and it will lift your spirits and make you smile!

Tiny Tabletop Faery Garden-African Violets Tiny Tabletop Faery Garden-Pansies

Here is the large Faery Garden Leaf that I created for the fair.  (it IS for sale, by the way…the cost is $120.00 for the leaf and everything in it).

Faery Garden in Rhubarb Leaf

As soon as plants are growing in the garden once again, I will be a Garden Leaf-creating-fool!  I would like to craft more smallish to medium sized leaves this time so that I can have available smaller Faery Gardens in Garden Leaves.  At that time I will take orders for Garden Leaf Faery Gardens.  Check back here for status updates!

I am also planning on holding a class in the creation of your own Faery Garden.  Again, check back here!  If you do not already receive The Magick Garden newsletter please sign up so that you can get updates regularly.

Sunday, April 29th–Enlightenment Expo–10a-5p at the Fireside Inn and Suites, 81 Riverside Dr., Portland.  $5.00 entrance fee.  Go to http://www.magickbridges.com/Events.html for more information about this great fair.  The Magick Garden will be at the fair with all the above listed lovely nature-themed items.

Saturday, March 10th–Pagan Circle 1-4pm, at my home in Bowdoinham.  We will craft bath salts, talk about spellwork, share our Book of Shadows. and do a group spell for Prosperity.  The Circle is open to everyone.  Refreshments will be served.  $5.00 donation is requested.

Sunday, March 25th–Maine Maple Syrup Sunday–Join we Mainers for this annual event!  Go to http://www.mainemapleproducers.com/maine-maple-sunday-map.html for the Maine Maple Producers Association list of sugarhouses offering everything from free maple syrup samples, demonstrations, treats, games and more.  Many sugarhouses are open and offering activities on Saturday, March 24th as well.  YUM!!

Saturday, March 31st–Holistic Mystic Fair 10a-4p at Le Club Calumet, 334 W. River St., Augusta.  $5:00 entrance fee.  Go to http://theenchanteddragon.shutterfly.com/holisticmysticfair for more information about this wonderful fair.  The Magick Garden will be at the fair with Garden Leaves, Bird Garland, small decoupaged nature-themed gift boxes, Hawthorn Dreamcatcher, Charm Bags, Mini Alter Kits and lots more!  Keep checking back here to see photos of new fair items.  I will begin posting photos soon!

Sunday, April 29th–Enlightenment Expo–10a-5p at the Fireside Inn and Suites, 81 Riverside Dr., Portland.  $5.00 entrance fee.  Go to http://www.magickbridges.com/Events.html for more information about this great fair.  The Magick Garden will be at the fair with all the above listed lovely nature-themed items.

***If you haven’t subscribed to The Magick Garden Newsletter there’s no time like the present!  In our March newsletter there is a coupon for 10% off any item purchased at either the Holistic Mystic Fair or the Enlightenment Expo.  The coupon must be presented in person.  So, subscribe to our newsletter or get a friend who already receives it to forward it to you! 

Snow blankets the ground.
Bright-white, light-reflecting, insulating snow.  I love it. Not only for its beauty; the way it covers the brown of the grass and bare tree branches, but the way it protects the precious growing things sleeping underneath.

Winter is the dark time of the year.  It is the time for resting and nesting, dreaming and scheming.  I find that it is harder for me to drag myself to the gym! Subsequently I spend more of my spare moments at home wrapped comfortably in a blanket, cup of hot tea in hand, thumbing through Spring editions of my favorite home and garden magazines!

And so, the metaphorical seeds have been planted.  Now is the time to nourish the growth that will bring them, lush, green and flowering, into the bright light of day.  I sit cozily at home making lists of all the plants I have and the ones I still want.  I make lists of the type of property I am looking for, the sort of house and the location that I want.  I make lists of business ideas for The Magick Garden.  I make lists of craft ideas for The Magick Garden shop.  I make lists of the garden rooms/areas I want to have at The Magick Garden.  I make lists of all the practical steps that need to be accomplished before I can even contact a realtor…

For those of you who aren’t List-Makers I would just say, in my defense, that list-making helps me to organize my thoughts.  I have always been a dreamer and creative thinker.  Sometimes I have so many thoughts and ideas flying through my head that writing them down is tremendously grounding.  The simple act of writing them seems to automatically organize and prioritize.  It makes me think of Dumbledore’s Pensieve.  What a great idea!  Would that we could all have a Pensieve.

Once I have written the lists I have a clearer idea of what I need to do.  I contact the appropriate people.  I schedule appointments to meet with them.  I gather together the necessary documents to move forward with financial arrangements.  These are the mundane, often-frustrating-but-necessary, behind-the-scenes tasks that must be attended to before this Dream can be realized.  I keep in mind Mike Dooley’s words of wisdom by trying NOT to get stuck on (and worrying about) the “Cursed Hows.”  Instead I keep moving forward toward my goal and try to leave the “Hows”
to the Universe.

Coming up…

Friday, January 27, 2012 from 6-8pm-Stepping Into The Light-Sharing Your Unique Talents With The World, with Deb Snyder.  This will be held at Magick Bridges in Scarborough.  Check out Magick Bridges on Facebook or visit www.magickbridges.com I will definitely be there!

Saturday, February 4, 2012 from 1-4pm-The Pagan Circle resumes!  We’ll celebrate Imbolc and have some fun trying our hand at reading tea leaves and other forms of divination.  Bring along a pendulum and dowsing rods if you have them!  The circle is open to everyone.  Please contact me if you have questions or would like to attend.  The circle will be held at my home in Bowdoinham.  I will send out an email to everyone who is interested in attending just prior to the day.  $5.00 donation to cover circle costs.

Saturday, March 31, 2012 from 10am-4pm-Holistic Mystic Fair.  This wonderful fair will be held at Le Club Calumet 334 West River Rd., Augusta.  There is a $5.00 entrance fee and many free workshops.  There will be a wide variety of healers and vendors at the fair.  I will be there with new nature-inspired gift items from The Magick Garden.  Come and visit us!

Fall in Maine is one of my favorite times of the year.  The air is cooler, the light is different-a warmer, golden color.  The leaves reveal their true colors.  Canadian Geese are on the move again.  Woodstoves are fired up and the burning-wood scent fills the air.  Scarves and sweaters make a reappearance. Grey squirrels wedge themselves into one of our feeders and hang precariously off another, in their eagerness to fill up on sunflower seeds.

October found me at another Enlightenment Expo at the Foreside Inn and Suites in Portland, Maine.  Planned and executed by Dede Eaton of The Magick Closet www.themagickcloset.com, the fair was a wonderful mix of talented practitioners and business owners who do amazing and interesting work.

Friends and I got together for a movie night on the 22nd.  We had a potluck and spent the evening sprawled about my livingroom in our pajamas watching Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic!

Saturday, October 29th will be a Samhain celebration.   We will gather to remember loved ones who have passed on and to celebrate the turning of the Wheel of the Year.  A fitting way to end this year!

In addition to adding more Garden Leaves to the online Shop, I’ve been working on some new creations for The Magick Garden…Wood Nymphs!  Look for these magkical creatures to make their live debut at the Brunswick Elementary School Holiday Craft Fair where I will be a vendor!  (look below for a sneak peek preview) The fair is being held Saturday, November 12th at the Harriet Beecher Stowe School at 44 McKeen St. in Brunswick, Maine from 9am-2pm.  I hope I’ll see you there!

I will soon begin a regular entry where I will highlight a particular herb or plant, so check back frequently!

Wood Nymphs!

We have just survived Hurricane Irene.  The Magick Garden was miraculously spared much damage.  I staked the Cosmos and the just-blooming pink Hybiscus and they made it through the winds and rain!  We lost power only briefly and had no flooding to speak of.  Dead tree branches and lots of leaves littered the yard, an almost-dead chokecherry tree at the top of the gully cracked and blew down, a piece of aluminum from the peak of our house flew off.  So many others were not so lucky and our blessings go out to them.  During the storm my daughter, who is at school in south eastern Vermont, kept in touch via text.  They were pounded with rain.  The campus lost power, parking lots in town were flooded, many roads were closed.  Roads were washed out.

And so commences the time for clean-up and taking stock.  Time to gather together in support of each other.

The day after the hurricane, as we picked up branches and pinecones we noticed a ring of mushrooms in the grass.  We had a Fairy Ring!!  I have never seen a Fairy Ring except in pictures.  Now, here is mine…

Coming up in September…

Saturday, September 17th ~ Pagan Circle from 1:00-4:00pm.  The Pagan Circle is held once monthly and is open to all who are interested.  We meet to discuss a topic or two, to do crafting such as making charm bags, or to try our hand at something new, such as tea leaf reading.  We then have a small ceremony in honor of the closest esbat or sabbat or to do some specific work.  We finish with ‘cakes and ale,’ (usually a season-appropriate snack and juice, cider or tea)!  Unless specifically noted, the Pagan Circle each month is meant for adults only.

At the September Circle we will have some fun experimenting with Henna.  The focus of our ceremony will be the upcoming festival of Mabon, the Autumn Equinox.  All are welcome to bring something small to place on the altar.  Requested donation is $5.00 to cover the cost of supplies, etc.  Alternatively, contributions of appropriate snacks and refreshments are gratefully accepted if money is a worry right now.

Please note that this Circle is open to children age 12 and up if accompanied by an adult.

Please contact me (see Contact page on this website) in advance if you plan to attend or  have questions.  I will email directions to those who plan to attend.

Monday, September 19th~Road trip to Enchantments.  For those who don’t know, Enchantments, www.enchantments-maine.us is a metaphysical store in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.  We will meet to carpool in Cooks Corner, Brunswick at about 10:00am (exact location to be decided).  Enchantments is a two-story shop filled with the mystical and  magical and simply loads of fun to explore!  If you’ve never been or have visited in the past and would like to go again with some like-minded folks then this road trip is for you!  We will likely get lunch in Boothbay so please plan accordingly.  We will decide on return time to Cooks Corner closer to the day.  If you would like to join us for this trip please contact me (see Contact page on this website) in advance.  I will email meeting time and return time to those who plan to come.