Common Miracles - The View From Where I Sit

The Common Miracles Project was started by Chel over at GingerBlue earlier this year.  Out of her research on human happiness, well-being, etc., she found that:

the one piece of advice I have found *across the board*, shared by everyone from religious experts to philosophers to psychologists to historians to self-help gurus is this: FEEL GRATITUDE

So, I'm gonna jump on the bandwagon. The move and leaving behind so many things that are so important to me razes me to my emotion ditch more often than I care to admit, so hopefully this sort of thing can help me keep me "bloom where you're planted" mantra in focus.

Lights in the Darkness

I'm not afraid of the dark.  But I do appreciate the different view of common things provided by odd light and shadow.  And, of course, my life as a chronic insomniac would be so much less productive and interesting were it not for lights in the darkness.

Roses, ivy, aloe, lavender, etc. on my patio, brightened by a streetlight.

Tea and Honey

There are songs and poems about it; romantic movie lines you wish you had thought of.  All for good reason - there is nothing quite so soothing in life as a cup of tea with honey.

I grow and mix much of my own tea, too; part of the process of calming oneself down from a really stressful day.  This particular cup has jasmine, mint, and alfalfa with a tad bit of honey from a beekeeper who sells at that Davidson Farmer's Market.  The tea ball is from my sweet mother-in-law, Anne.




Alela Diane's To Be Still

I love this mellow folk rock album.   It's beautiful and wispy and the imagery often describes places I want to be.  Or makes me homesick.  I originally bought the album when I was looking for new music on Amie Street, which was criminally sucked up by Amazon MP3.  If you like girly voices and folk music and mellow song stylings, you should check it out.

While sitting on your patio, looking at roses, drinking tea with honey.  Or at least, that's what I'm doing!

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Patio Update in Pictures

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A Word About Spiders

michiganspiders.blogspot.com

Let me preface this little rant by saying I don't hate spiders.  I actually kind of like them.  They're cool-looking and mostly mind their own business and eat lots and lots of pesky bugs.

In Michigan, we had lots of spiders: our two out-buildings and huge musty basement = dark-corner-loving, eight-legged-freak heaven.  Wolf spiders are the most common and bite a lot, but they're pretty harmless.  A stout heart and a quick hand are all that is needed to keep the creepy beasts at bay.

Here in North Carolina, there are lots of spiders... including the two most venomous in the United States.  Honestly, I don't worry too much; no one in the US has died from a spider bite in the last 10 years (unless from an allergic reaction to the bug).  And bites can be painful and cause damage, but it's pretty rare.

But lately, I feel like I'm under attack.  I've had spiders falling on my head while I'm in the bathroom, crawling on my computer unannounced, scurrying across my kitchen counter, and otherwise just surprising me and making me jump.  And the ones I'm talking about have all been different kinds.  I didn't recognize them - but at least that means they weren't poisonous.

But it's starting to freak me out!  Either this apartment was uninhabited longer than I thought, or the air being on has scared them out of hiding, or someone has cursed me!

I'm going to be proactive.  I'm going to vacuum the utilities closet, unscrew all the vents and vacuum them, spray the outside walkway and patio with alcohol to kill what's there, then spray every vent, door, and walkway leading into the apartment with a solution of 2% lavender oil mixed in water.  I'm going to hang lavender bunches at each point of entry.  And then I'm going to repeat the process every month from here on out!!!!

Now, if only there was such an easy solution to getting rid of the ants...

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