Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain!!!

Pumpkin in Window photo was taken in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia

The temperature is dropping radically and today was supposed to be cold but clear but nope. Rain is coming in so we are either getting freezing rain or snow tonight for Halloween!

Food for tonight is pretty much done, we are having some friends over and for the few kids who are determined to trick or treat, they are going to get a ton of candy from us. That just leaves cleaning up the house. I do not think we are going to decorate outside very much which is a shame but the weather for today sounds miserable.

Not only is the veil super thin right now, so are my nerves. The cold is entering my body. I have done too much lately and I am shaky and exhausted. I think November is going to be about slowing down and resting. I have very little left to give but not to worry, I will still be able to do my Halloween Tarot Reading Giveaway. Contest is open until the end of Halloween.

My cards have assured me that the worst is over. Our bad luck and nightmarish cycle is done. That I have to move past it and heal. That is exactly what I am going to try and do.

I am also going to listen for more messages tonight. Draw a card for the new year. See if I get any signs from the other side. Most of all, celebrate the end of another challenging cycle and become open to a new one, fresh and clean and hopefully with minimal pain.

May we all have a beautiful, spooky and magickal Halloween! Blessed Samhain everyone!

Suzie's Halloween Giveaway!

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED! 

Percy the Crow has been filling my head with all sorts of crazy ideas and secrets but the best one was to do a Halloween giveaway for my readers! I am offering one Halloween Tarot Reading for the lucky winner.

Contest is open until the end of Halloween and I will be drawing a name out of the cauldron on Monday. When I am strong enough and the planets align in a positive way for clairvoyant messages from the other side, I will do the reading.

All you have to do to enter is tell me what element of your life you would like some spiritual guidance and insight into. The cards have a mind of their own and will tell you what you need to hear but I will do my best to focus on your particular issue. Remember, my tarot card readings can be intense and will tell you the truth, no matter what. Please only comment if you are ready for one of my readings.

Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you! If you do not have an active blog or profile, leave your email address. No contact info means you will be disqualified.

Good luck everyone! Samhain blessings to all!!!

Are you scared yet?

Halloween is all about getting in touch with fear. We are going into the dark half of the year. It is a mentally tough and cruel marathon for many of us. Delving into the spooky helps us get ready for it psychologically. Me? I am super scared of clowns and think this scarecrow from the Mahone Bay Scarecrow Fest is downright terrifying!!!



Looking at the grotesque, facing violence in an imaginary way creeps us out. Some get an adrenaline rush from it, others want to run and hide. When it comes to this beheaded scarecrow, I can not help but laugh. Yes, I am weird that way.



I am moving towards a brutal time of year. One that truly pushes me as far as I can mentally, physically and spiritually handle. The next six months I will be barricaded at home, unable to leave because the pain is just too brutal. I am already having huge issues with mobility which right now is a more realistic fear than a clown showing up at my door. Well, at least I hope that is the case!

I love all things spooky. All things unusual. The ordinary bores the hell out of me. I am hoping that this winter I find a way to survive and continue along my supernatural path. The last three winters was more like a desert period, one I just wanted to get through alive. I want more than that this year.

Yes, I am scared. I feel the veil thinning. My dreams are getting bizarre. The bare trees are looking spooky. I worry about my survival through another winter. But fear is just a phase. Like Halloween, it will blow past me and leave me alone for a while. I just hope that it is not a cruel six months ahead of me. I will find a way to be brave.

Hexed & Contest Announcement!

Hexed has a contest up for an autographed copy of Michelle Belanger's book Walking the Twilight Path: A Gothic Book of the Dead. You just need to fill out a short survey to give us some feedback on our podcast to enter. It's that easy!

How exciting Michelle tweeted me and offered to send out an autographed copy!!! Super exciting.

Isn't it fabulous that there are supernatural shows and movies on TV right now? Can you feel the veil thinning? Life getting more exciting? Energy brewing? I sure can! Man, I love this time of year.

I hope you enter to win, this is a very cool opportunity for you to receive a very unique and gothic book.

Also, I will be announcing a giveaway on this blog on Friday so make sure to come visit OK?! Don't want you to miss out on that opportunity either.



Halloween/Samhain blessings to all!

Autumn is disappearing

The last of the gold light has been shining these last few days and I have been collecting images as quickly as I can. I woke up this morning to dark, dreary, wet, miserable weather and decided to use some photo therapy to brighten up my spirits.



I took this photograph yesterday and apparently while doing so, proceeded to drop my wallet on the street. Thankfully a good samaritan found it and via my friend Kelly (whose phone number was in my wallet) got it back. Such a strong boost of adrenaline ran through me as I wandered my neighbourhood, losing all memory of street names so it took a while to find him but I did and gave him some of my wild blueberry freezer jam to say thank you. I hope this photo was worth all that stress!



The leaves were literally raining outside my kitchen window yesterday, chronically falling on to my deck. I want them to stay on the trees but with the stormy weather outside that will remain for days, I'll be amazed if any trees have leaves by Halloween.

I have also managed to wrench my shoulder again. I can move it a little but not much. I am starting off winter at such a disadvantage. It has been cold here. Much colder than the past autumns I have been here.

I wish I could say my heart was not filled with dread. I just hope that I am wrong and that we have a gentle winter ahead. The word gentle is not one I associate with this province but I invite it to prove me wrong.

Season of the Witch

Halloween is my favourite time of year for so many reasons. A big one for me is that it is a celebration of women. I am sure many of you are thinking oh the Suzie, she really is insane! But how often do we get to see elder women portrayed anywhere?

Recently I had a discussion with my mom about being a female senior citizen. She said that they are completely invisible in our society. Nobody pays any attention to them at all and wow, did that ever make me sad. The only time we see them illustrated anywhere they are usually evil bitter witches. Every now and then you see one like I did at the scarecrow festival. How I love this witch! Her character, her openness, her other-worldly ways.

So during this season of the witch, I ask you to wake up to your female elders. Pay more attention. I am terrible at doing that (I tend not to pay attention to the human race at all) but this weekend at the grocery store I saw an older woman talking to this little boy. He was captivated by her. She told him all these stories including one about Darth Vader who the boy did not know yet, he was that young. Oh how she loved to tell him stories and he stood there, eyes huge and mouth wide open.

Whether we are really witches or not, older women have so much to offer. All women should be valued, represented and listened to. I have struggled with feeling invisible my entire life. The idea that I will fade away even more as I age brings me to tears. To know there is a sea of women who feel lost and unseen makes me weep.

Well I see you. I care about you. I honour you. You are not invisible to me and I will try and listen more to the stories you have to share. For they, like you, are so very important.

Dreamboard: Foodie Queen of Halloween

I wasn't going to do a dreamboard this month because I have been so freakin' busy! I am so dedicated to becoming the Foodie Queen of Halloween I was just going to let this full moon go by me but I just can't. I have to say it to the world, this is my dream. I live for Halloween and for food and somehow I want to become the queen of this domain. I don't know what that means yet exactly but I am working on it.

Above you will see all my most recently Halloween foodie creations from my foodie blog. I know I am pushing the limits on my health and sanity but time is running out. As I type this my chocolate cupcake skulls are cooling off and I am getting ready to freeze some lychee eyeballs. Yes, my life is a weird one and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Hope this is good enough! I am not able to visit other blogs this month, I am such a loser. So don't feel pressured to comment. I just had to get this out there because this is my biggest dreamboard yet!

The Happy Book

This week for The Happy Book Jamie wanted us to collect stars. Well I don't have magazines or anything like that to look to so instead I went through some of my photographs and found my favourite kind of stars. Stars that are in circles!

I found this pentacle after leaving my spirituality store on my walk along a horrid busy noisy street. I was amazed. It has probably been there a long time but this was the first time I had ever noticed it.



I found this pentacle amongst miserable graffiti on a bench. I had no idea it was there at first. I just sat down and all of a sudden it was there beside me. Again, magic amongst the worst of urban crap.

This means there is at least one of other magical person in my neighbourhood, trying to say, Suzie, you are not alone! There is magic here, you just got to ignore the ugliness.

Well I am not good at ignoring the truth but the cool thing is, the truth that there is another pagan in the 'hood somewhere who is trying to communicate with me makes me very happy.

Does this symbol frighten you? I hope not. To us pagans, it is a very comforting symbol. It took me a long time to get over the scary connotations society projects on to this symbol to scare us away from the power of magic but now I see it and smile. As long as the star is not upside down, this is a happy symbol. When it is upside down, someone is perverting it which is very bad.

So I only collected two stars in my neighbourhood but that is more than I thought I would find. I live in a very depressing neighbourhood where no one cares about nature at all. To find any hope amongst the graffiti or next to busy streets is something to celebrate.

Blessed autumn and all that colourful jazz

Autumn is here in a big way! The other day I was sitting on the kitchen floor talking to my mom on the phone (my cordless phone is chronically dead) and I looked out this window and just could not believe the colours. Absolutely stunning! Here is where I shoot all the pretty shots of my food, the one area of my house that gets natural light and has there ever been a plethora!



Even my walks have been pretty and you know how much I loathe my neighbourhood. Fall has come out in a big way. It was the one season in BC that was a disappointment. You do not get these bright colours there at all. Leaves either just wither and fall away colourless or they hang on until next spring. Still, with winter coming here, I would have no complaints.



I took this photograph of me on my deck after I went to the hairdresser's. The hair dresser I have had the entire time I have lived here has moved on and for the last few months I have been trying out new ones. None of them felt right until yesterday. She understood what I wanted when it came to colour and did a fabulous job cutting my hair too. You can't really tell in this photo but my hair has a reddish purplish colour to it now. Something festive and cool for Halloween.

Yes, soon I will be a prisoner trapped inside my house but for now I will enjoy the last celebration of nature through her colours. I even changed my own colour to mimic the trees. We are approaching a long and challenging cycle. I might as well celebrate while I can, be out in the sun and walking while there is no snow. Living an artful life among the many colours of autumn.

Getting Witchy & Announcing Giveaway!

October is going way too fast for witchy me! Yes, I probably freaked people out again yesterday dressed as a witch taking a photograph of myself holding my replica of Hermoine's wand on my deck.

As you know, this is my favourite time of year. So I am going to go all hobbit-like again and do some giveaways. Each of my blog's will have a Halloween giveaway this year.



On the Hexed blog my sister Shannon the Movie Moxie and I will be giving away a copy of Walking the Twilight Path: A Gothic Book of the Dead by the fabulous psychic from Paranormal State, Michelle Belanger.



Listen to the podcast here. I tell Shannon why I love Paranormal State so much and share the first two episodes of their new season with her. The contest will begin next week and the winner will be announced right after Halloween.

More Halloween giveaway announcements to come! So have you gotten into the Halloween spirit yet? What are you doing to celebrate this year? Please, share!

A light in the dark

Lantern outside Jo-Ann's in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia

Winter is coming. On Friday we had a horrible storm in Nova Scotia. Thousands were without power. I had to leave the house to go to physio just a few blocks away for my torn shoulder. I came home soaked and chilled to the bone. I got a flare in my left hip and could barely walk. It is hard not to let fear invade me. That cold, that storm, was nothing. So much worse is on its way. Soon I will be paralyzed for months. Tortured.

I am doing what I can. I am buying some warm socks this weekend. I have ordered an electric blanket. I bought thermal pants from MEC. I am trying to keep walking and doing yoga to save up some strength and improve my flexibility before my life becomes an indoor life for half a year. The joys of Halloween keep me going but after that I know I will fall into despair. I just hope that it isn't as far a fall as it has been the last three winters.

I will try and keep my inner lantern alive. Feed it with candlelight and hope. Hope that this is my last winter here in Nova Scotia. Even if it is probably a lie.

Pumpkin Patch Update!

I took this photograph a couple of weeks ago from my deck. Sure enough my pumpkin patch started to take over my backyard.



I had tons of blossoms but no pumpkins. Apparently, according to my friend Fran, you have to do some work helping them pollenate which I had no idea you had to do. No wonder I wasn't getting any pumpkins growing!

But then we had my mother-in-law over for Thanksgiving dinner and she wanted to see my entire garden and we found this:



A wee pumpkin! Now it probably will not end up being a real pumpkin by Halloween but at least there is a small success story to this backyard experiment.

I really wanted to have a ton of pumpkins for Halloween but I just started too late. Oh well, I tried! And asking me to be a sex therapist to pumpkins is just too much for me. Glad we had a miraculous pumpkin despite my neglect and gardening ignorance.

The Happy Book

 
It is too funny! I had no idea that we were supposed to do guerrilla happiness this week for The Happy Book but that is exactly what I did! Each week for Hexed during October I am dressing up all inspired by Halloween. I was going to be a pirate this week but decided to embrace my inner punk rock star persona instead. Yes, I am a grown woman who gets dressed up and goes outside onto her deck and takes photographs of herself in front of the neighbours. Honestly though, I doubt anyone notices me, LOL. Or I am the local weirdo. Either way is fine with me.

This is actually more me than people realize. I am an intense human being. Just because I spend a lot of my time quietly by myself making food does not mean that I am not a big troublemaker with a strong personality. It is weird being both of those people but it is my truth. I know a lot of people dress up as things they are scared to be during Halloween. For me, I like to take the opportunity to let the parts of me most people don't see, shine a little brighter.

People want to see me as gentle, sensitive and sweet but I am also bitter and dark, not to mention a fighter. Just ask my cable company! LOL. (Story to come). Seeing this sexy fabulous part of me makes me very happy. It has taken a long time for me to have the confidence to share this part of me with the world. This kind of woman is not normally embraced but I think she is pretty darn fabulous.

Blaming the sick for their illness

Crow trying to figure out how to break through an acorn to the food inside.

For over two years I have been waiting to see a counsellor who helps people with chronic pain. This was my last hope for dealing with the cold here, to help me stay sane. So what happened? It was like being invited into a head-on-collision.

I did not know anything about his "healing" technique, intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy. On camera he battered me with questions and called me an emotional cripple. He said that all my pain was a result of emotional stuff I had not dealt with yet. He did this all with me on video which made me incredibly uncomfortable. A bug he was crushing to break down my walls. It was all part of his routine but I left flattened. My pain got so much worse. This is healing?

Obviously I am not going back for more abuse and torture but it did teach me something. I am sick and fucking tired of people blaming me for my illness. I have done everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, to get better. Special diets, counselling, grieving groups, journalling, meditating, praying surrounded by white candles, calling on the divine, letting go of the past, crying, screaming, beating pillows...

Fibromyalgia is not my fault. Anyone who thinks so can fuck off and die for all I care. Ten years I have been on a health odyssey and nothing works. I never asked for this. I did not want to give up my aspirations. I did not work my ass off at school only to graduate and give up. I wanted a career more than anything. I fought as long and as hard as I could. Once the pain entered my back, after destroying the rest of my body, I knew it was time to move on to something else. But to blame me for this in any way is just downright cruel.

If you are suffering from any kind of illness or affliction, I want you to hear this: it is not your fault. OK?!!! Your "bad attitude" did not give you your illness. Yes, our attitudes and lifestyle impact our health but they are not responsible for it. Some illnesses are fate. A part of our journey where there is nothing we can do about it. It takes a lot of courage to make peace with what is. Sometimes fighting takes more energy than we can give. Some fights make everything worse.

It is easy to judge others, especially when they are in pain, blaming their bad attitude for their affliction. I want you to consider this: maybe it is the affliction causing the bad attitude?

We have to make choices in our lives. Like the crow in my photograph, I have been trying to crack this nut for ten years. I am glad I tried, I gave it everything I had. Now is the time to make peace with what is and move on with my life. Trying to change a reality that refuses to budge over and over again is actually the definition of insanity.

I choose to make peace with my illness.

I choose sanity.

Halloween treats come early!

Recently I won these fantastic hearth-Goddess-inspired treats that Nydia makes by hand that you can find in her Etsy shop. I hope this photo does justice to Nydia's craftsmanship which is astounding. I have bought little ghosts from her before as well as Yule ornaments for my tree and her talent blows me away every time I see one of her treats before my eyes.



Dear little Lucas, Nydia's son, also snuck a fabulous spooky and witchy art piece he made just for me and I treasure it! It is going up in my crafts room!!! Thank you sweet Lucas, you are such a talented cutie like your Mom.



Bohemian Single Mom has also been sending me Halloween care packages! She is in the midst of moving (again, I know, poor thing!) and sent me a DVD about Amityville Horror which will definitely get me into the spooky spirit, as well as some black salt and candles.

I just wanted to express my gratitude to my fantastic friends for their generosity! You know this time of year is my Christmas, October is the month I live for and presents like these mean so much.

Spirit Halloween Store in Bayers Lake, Clayton Park

Our friend Kelly told us about some Halloween outlet stores in Bayers Lake and one day last week my husband and I had to stop by and check at least one of them out while we we doing a million errands. It was the best part of our day! We stopped by Spirit Halloween which was so completely exciting. I had bought some supplies from them via their site and ended up paying almost $20 in duty so getting to go directly to the store and shop without having to pay duty or shipping fees? I am so there!



Here we have Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies, impressive!!!! Such an odd yet riveting character.



I adored this trapped mummy mirror, it was so effective and exciting!



Here is the scariest guy in movies to me, Mike Meyers. So many of their displays and special effects stuff were well over $150 but the amount of stuff you could buy for reasonable prices was astounding.



I got this "Wicked" cauldron for only $20!!! I will be using it in my Halloween foodie photos soon. Perfect for a punch bowl or to fill with treats. My husband got an arm tattoo sleeve for only $5. You can get lots of special effects makeup and even the high-quality vampire teeth there, on top of all the fantastic Halloween costumes and accessories. We came out of there wanting everything!

If you want to check it out, drive to Chapters in Bayers Lake. It is right across the bookstore in the giant parking lot. It is hard to describe so just go to Chapters, I promise, you will see it from there. They have been having huge inflatable displays on the top of their store which will help you spot it for sure.

Halloween is so close! I have so much to do. I am finally getting into the Halloween spirit. Are you?

Hexed and the New Moon in Libra

Thank you to everyone who helped support me via Wishcasting yesterday. Well my bad news ended up being a little better than originally expressed and I credit that to all of you and your many wishes!

Today the new moon is Libra which is a great time for cleansing the house and then writing some poetry, dancing... getting into our artistic spirits instead of getting caught up in emotional drama.

I am hoping to do some spiritual cleansing today, I feel like lighting candles and filling the house up with the aroma of cinnamon which is very cleansing and protective. Remember, cleansings do not have to complicated. It is all about intention and action. A little goes a long way. Plus, the veil is thinning, it is October for goodness sake, so more paranormal stuff might start happening around you. Also, really pay attention to your dreams!

I love doing Hexed with my sister Shannon. Each week we delve into supernatural TV and I do talk about real paranormal and supernatural stuff too with her. This week I also mention my dear friend Shell's comment about the show Supernatural this season. We agree, so far, we are not super impressed but I do hope that it ends up being a winner season this year.

TV lets me escape my reality just a little and with the winter coming, do I ever need that!

Blessed New Moon Everyone!

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Wishcasting: Where do you wish to grow your confidence?

An eroding shed on Prince Edward Island 

Jamie is asking this week for Wishcasting:

Where do you wish to grow your confidence?

I wish to grow my confidence in myself and my belief and ability to survive winter without falling apart. This will be my fourth winter here in Nova Scotia and I just got some tough news that it may be a tougher winter than ever for me. I can not go into details but it looks like I am in for some additional hardship and challenges that will make winter tougher than ever.

I am thinking about getting an electric blanket to warm up my bed and couch and help me survive the winter. Don't worry, I won't have it on while being under it, I know better. I will be going to MEC for the warmest clothing I can find. I will be stocking up on food so I will be staying inside most of the time, eliminating my need to go outside on a regular basis.

Physically the next winter will be tough but it is my mental state that worries me the most. I know the physical torture will push me to my limits and my homesickness for the gentle and warm west coast will attempt to drive me mad. I have done it before three times now but each winter it gets harder regardless of how much it snows.

I wish for the confidence to know with all my heart that I can handle yet another Maritime winter that gnaws on my bones for five months.

Aliens crash into Bluestone Magik at the Scarecrow Festival

In Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, you will find the store Bluestone Magik & Enchanted Crystal which was recently taken over by aliens during the Mahone Bay Scarecrow Festival.



The aliens were everywhere, threatening to ruin the magic inside!



From the moment I saw this store, I fell in love. From the Arthurian sword trapped in stone...

... to the free parking for husbands and significant others to allow people like me to roam freely and for long periods of time inside, musing over the many treasures... this store stole my heart.

Despite the police warning, I had to go inside and see if all was well inside this special store.



Yes! The treasures were all still there! From crystals to books filled with ghost stories... pentacles and pirates... the aliens seem to have zero interest in the bounty of Bluestone Magik.

I almost bought a pentacle that I saw once years ago in Vancouver and had not been able to find since. I thought it was made of besoms and blue orbs but according to the package it was actually swords. For those who know tarot, five of swords is a painful and piercing card. I am done with pain and suffering so I let the pentacle go and evaded alien attack as I continued my way down Main Street.

Mahone Bay Scarecrow Festival 2010

We pondered long and hard about the paw-less teddy bear she seemed to be riding, never figured it out.

Two years ago we went to our first Mahone Bay Scarecrow Festival and I never forgot it. Bumper to bumper traffic, stunning sunny October afternoon... the world descended on Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, to see the spooky and sometimes beautiful scarecrows.

Mahone Bay is gorgeous. If I could live here, I would be happy. Pretty homes, fabulous shopping... it is just too darn far away but for a weekend trip out of the city, it is one of my favourite places to visit. Cover it with scarecrows and you can not keep me away!



We grabbed hot beverages at Tim Horton's and even they were participating, they had two scarecrows inside!



We went to this fabulous market I will be writing about later and I hung out with Obama. There seemed to be many more hand-painted scarecrow faces than when we were there two years ago. I like it but not as much as the more old-fashioned kind of scarecrow.



I think this is supposed to be Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest, isn't she lovely?



Here you have a mermaid scarecrow with a bounty of shells sporting a golden bath mat for her hair. Clever and creative!



Here is the kind of scarecrow I like, that feels more real and authentic. Hello Farmer Ted!



Thanks goes out to our friend Mike for taking these pictures. My husband had to help me get up on to the chair as well as get down (isn't he cute?):



Not an easy task! I laughed the whole time and felt like a kid again.



Mahone Bay is such a special place with old fashioned houses but tons of shopping and with the scarecrows, so much to check out. The turnout was great but the morning thunderstorm kept the huge crowds away the day we were there.



There were scary scarecrows too and for me, this is the scariest! I find clowns absolutely terrifying!



Nice, head in a basket with bloody tongue. Now we're talking!



My favourite, of course! The Bay Witches display was fabulous, I felt right at home.



There were exotic displays as well like this harem of scarecrows.



My husband even got to hang out with his favourite... robots!



I love this scarecrow, scares the hell out of me!



As we were leaving cutting across a back road towards the cemetery there was the most fantastic Phantom of the Opera display and I got to live out my fantasy of playing Christine, singing to the Phantom.

It was fascinating to see how the festival had changed in just a couple of years. We recognized some of the scarecrows but many of them were brand new. I have a gazillion more photos to share and will be writing about some of the food at the festival on my foodie blog so not to worry. If you want to hear and see more, there is a lot more to come.