Do You Believe in Ghosts?

I don’t- well not yet.

I have always wanted to experience something beyond birth, life & death but despite the tales since childhood of ghostly tales from well meaning relatives and reality TV shows spending nights in old castles..I just don’t dig it

I am open minded, don’t get me wrong..always need to hear both sides of a story and make my own mind up. I think the world is full of quite a few psychic/religious charlatans who claim spiritual awareness and a connectivity with the afterlife..I need convincing.

Old welsh farmhouse with Original IngleNook Fireplace

My husband (he who is scarey and hairy) is a total sceptic. But despite this we did experience quite a few episodes of unusual activity in an old farmhouse we lived in many years ago before moving to Nova Scotia. Our old Welsh farmhouse dated back in its oldest parts to the reign of Charles II which made the original dwelling some 325 years old. In the oldest part of the house we had a huge Inglenook Fireplace..you could stand under the ingle beam and look up into a huge open chimney with old beams and hooks, where meat was smoked, dried and cooked and the tar coating was inches thick from hundreds of years of burning wood. I once put a ladder up into the chimney and found artifacts on a ledge…when we left we placed old shoes and pipes we had found in the garden back up into the chimney taking pleasure in the thought that someone else would find them..

We were never scared in our house but a lot of ‘odd’ things happened..or should I say surreal episodes..

Most of the activity occurred in our bedroom ( I know you are sniggering so please bog off). One night I was alarmed to find my husband looking quite scared. He was looking over my shoulder, above my head at something passing through the air through an old papered up doorway and through a false wall. He described it as being a formless grey smokey looking blob just floating through the air in a purposeful manner. I turned around too but didn’t see anything…I didn’t for one minute disbelieve him. He never talks of things like this……

Although I have never experienced anything ghostly, I did have a bizarre episode not fueled by homemade wine drinking I can assure you…in the same room 4 or 5 months later, I awoke with a start and rapidly jumped out of bed seeing the room was filled with dense smoke. As I jumped out of bed I waved my hands in front of me to try and waft the smoke away to try and see (which did clear a little and I remember the movement of the smoke) at the same time as screaming to my husband and kids to get out of bed. Automatically I thought I had left an old stew pot on the AGA and it had burnt dry or something so I rushed down stairs to see what was happening…the smoke cleared as I left the room and remember thinking it odd that the smoke did not smell….

A quick look in the kitchen a few seconds later, confirmed that everything was hunky dory.

Rushing back upstairs I found the kids still asleep, our bedroom free from smoke and a bewildered husband sat upright in bed. He made a cutting comment about me needing glasses and being nuts and fell back asleep to leave me wondering what the hell had just happened…

These weren’t the only strange episodes to happen in this house (every other house we have been in has been fine)

Perhaps the strangest was a visit by an elderly gentleman with a distinguished walking cane, who came over to the farm with his younger male companion to give a home to our Nubian Goats…

As I sat peeling potatoes at the farmhouse kitchen table he told me what my future would bring…..actually he phoned me afterwards to carry on the conversation. I guess he didn’t want to freak me out with a sharp knife in my hands! (luckily it wasn’t anything weird or horrible)

So far its accurate…

Aren’t people weird..in the nicest way of course!

So- for any blog readers out there…do you believe in ghosts?

PS Just noticed my son has uploaded a great blog this week on ‘Global Warming’ and the ‘runaway greenhouse effect’..if you’d like to read it CLICK HERE for Universal Thoughts by Joshua Ekins.

Do You Believe in Ghosts?

I don’t- well not yet.

I have always wanted to experience something beyond birth, life & death but despite the tales since childhood of ghostly tales from well meaning relatives and reality TV shows spending nights in old castles..I just don’t dig it

I am open minded, don’t get me wrong..always need to hear both sides of a story and make my own mind up. I think the world is full of quite a few psychic/religious charlatans who claim spiritual awareness and a connectivity with the afterlife..I need convincing.

Old welsh farmhouse with Original IngleNook Fireplace

My husband (he who is scarey and hairy) is a total sceptic. But despite this we did experience quite a few episodes of unusual activity in an old farmhouse we lived in many years ago before moving to Nova Scotia. Our old Welsh farmhouse dated back in its oldest parts to the reign of Charles II which made the original dwelling some 325 years old. In the oldest part of the house we had a huge Inglenook Fireplace..you could stand under the ingle beam and look up into a huge open chimney with old beams and hooks, where meat was smoked, dried and cooked and the tar coating was inches thick from hundreds of years of burning wood. I once put a ladder up into the chimney and found artifacts on a ledge…when we left we placed old shoes and pipes we had found in the garden back up into the chimney taking pleasure in the thought that someone else would find them..

We were never scared in our house but a lot of ‘odd’ things happened..or should I say surreal episodes..

Most of the activity occurred in our bedroom ( I know you are sniggering so please bog off). One night I was alarmed to find my husband looking quite scared. He was looking over my shoulder, above my head at something passing through the air through an old papered up doorway and through a false wall. He described it as being a formless grey smokey looking blob just floating through the air in a purposeful manner. I turned around too but didn’t see anything…I didn’t for one minute disbelieve him. He never talks of things like this……

Although I have never experienced anything ghostly, I did have a bizarre episode not fueled by homemade wine drinking I can assure you…in the same room 4 or 5 months later, I awoke with a start and rapidly jumped out of bed seeing the room was filled with dense smoke. As I jumped out of bed I waved my hands in front of me to try and waft the smoke away to try and see (which did clear a little and I remember the movement of the smoke) at the same time as screaming to my husband and kids to get out of bed. Automatically I thought I had left an old stew pot on the AGA and it had burnt dry or something so I rushed down stairs to see what was happening…the smoke cleared as I left the room and remember thinking it odd that the smoke did not smell….

A quick look in the kitchen a few seconds later, confirmed that everything was hunky dory.

Rushing back upstairs I found the kids still asleep, our bedroom free from smoke and a bewildered husband sat upright in bed. He made a cutting comment about me needing glasses and being nuts and fell back asleep to leave me wondering what the hell had just happened…

These weren’t the only strange episodes to happen in this house (every other house we have been in has been fine)

Perhaps the strangest was a visit by an elderly gentleman with a distinguished walking cane, who came over to the farm with his younger male companion to give a home to our Nubian Goats…

As I sat peeling potatoes at the farmhouse kitchen table he told me what my future would bring…..actually he phoned me afterwards to carry on the conversation. I guess he didn’t want to freak me out with a sharp knife in my hands! (luckily it wasn’t anything weird or horrible)

So far its accurate…

Aren’t people weird..in the nicest way of course!

So- for any blog readers out there…do you believe in ghosts?

PS Just noticed my son has uploaded a great blog this week on ‘Global Warming’ and the ‘runaway greenhouse effect’..if you’d like to read it CLICK HERE for Universal Thoughts by Joshua Ekins.

UNITED NATIONS- The Girl That Silenced the World For 5 Minutes

Thank you to Rene Thibault who sent me this video clip. Although it is a 16 year old video clip, the speech (incidently written by 12 year old Severin too) has a message to share still today..

CLICK LINK ABOVE TO VIEW

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Cullis-Suzuki

Severin Suzuki
Motivational speaker and Co-creator of the Skyfish Project

At 9 years old, Severin and some friends started the Environmental Children’s Organization and raised enough money to go to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Severin, then 12 years old, gave a closing speech to the representatives from all over the world. Since then she has continued to encourage environmental and social action; the Skyfish Project, started in 2002, is Severin and her friends’ most recent venture. As a part of Kofi Annan’s Special Advisory Panel the Skyfish Project brought the Recognition of Responsibility, a pledge now signed by over 2700 youth, to the United Nations summit in Johannesburg.

Severin received the United Nations Environment Program 500 Award in 1993, has hosted many television programs and lectured around the world, and has been honoured and adopted by three British Columbia First Nations. Severin is 23 now, and she speaks at international conferences and meetings, encouraging young people to speak their mind and to act on a better future.

Holey Moley! Remind me not to consume wine before writing my blog!

After re-reading it I reminded myself that despite the fact that our planet in its place in the universe maybe insignificant (due to the scale of infinity), what we do, how we live, what we cherish is never insignificant itself….

I went to an awards ceremony the other night at New Germany Rural High School…a celebration and recognition of talented students…those who have shown dedication, perseverance, achieved success, helped others, helped the community and have been an inspiration to others. This was quite a humbling experience as many students received several awards for a variety of extra- curricular activities such as sports & the arts.

It was a night where I was really proud of my 15 year old son, JOSH. It only seems a few months ago that he announced he would like to join the drama club. It seemed amazing to me that he would undertake such a feat as he does suffer with a stutter at times. After a few sessions he explained to me that his stutter disappears if he knows what he has to say so learning lines is very beneficial…

So when he was called up to receive his award for ‘Best Junior High Actor of The Year’ my Moms heart filled with a significant amount of pride…

And then I found out that here at Lighthouse Publishing, there was another winner. Susan Toope’s daughter Meghan won an award for the the ‘Best in the Robotics Team’ at the NGRHS awards ceremony..

Looks like there were two of us at work the last couple of days rather proud of our children!

Ok so we’ve splashed out on a bottle of wine tonight and a fruity chardonnay is not exactly ABSINTHE and I’m not much of a poet (Absinthe was the favoured drink among poets and philosophers- supposedly opening the mind for deeper thinking due to the hallucinogenic qualities of Wormwood) but nevertheless a little relaxation has once again drawn me to the great outdoors just before midnight.

This is a common occurance in the ‘Frugal & Greenish’ household…

Whether its -10 or + 30 I’ll always find time to spend sometime at least a few times a week to sit outside quietly in the dark, listening to peepers, frogs, loons, coyotes, deer, racoons and look up at the sky thinking that we are but a ‘grain of sand’ on a vast beach. We really aren’t that important are we?

Luckily, I have a comrade who doesn’t make me feel quite so bizarre in my thinking. I never preach to my kids but its nice to have one that joins me outside quite frequently to marvel at not only our insignificance in the vastness of things but indeed how as a species we are exceedingly memorable even if we are a grain of sand in a never ending universe…

We look at images of our universe on the internet or on TV daily- despite the fantastic images of the planets in our solar system and of galaxies beyond it kind of washes over you. Same happened to us.That all changes when you search out planets for yourself..

In our case, several years ago, seeing the craters of the moon with the naked eye through a telescope was an awesome experience. Our Celestron, with the aid of filters, was able to observe sun spots too…and then we found Saturn. A perfectly formed tiny planet through our lens, complete with rings…..it REALLY was there..

Suddenly the grain of sand wasn’t insignificant enough…..

* Indoor garden inspiration
* Bee Balm is catnip for humans (well for me anyway!)

Look at this indoor garden
Its never too late to start growing a garden….thats what I am telling myself as I look out on a garden devoid of any seeds or sprouting veggies..

This is amazing..

Bee Balm is catnip for humans (well for me anyway!)
There has been a plant/herb in the garden that has been having a weird effect on me for two years now. Just one whiff sends me back to the heady days of youth, when guys wore leather, cheese cloth t-shirts and bondage trousers (pants) and girls wore black, black and more black and we ALL wore PATCHOULI OIL. The wearing of Patchouli Oil was common place during the hippy movement ( I don’t remember my mother wearing it- just a cheesecloth paisley patterned kaftan with little bells on) but this pungent fragrance continued to be championed by rockers & punks into the 80′s.

I digress- the aroma of Bee Balm (Wild Bergamont) is incredible. Strong like patchouli but with a fresh lemon zing. Originally it was used as a medicinal plant by many Native Americans including the Objibwe and others. The Blackfeet Indians recognized the strong antiseptic action of these plants, and used poultices of the plant for skin infections and minor wounds. (I will take a photo of my bee balm tomorrow and post it)

The pleasure herbs give the gardener are incredible…..walking through a lawn dotted with wild thyme is invigorating. Even better that most herbs can be consumed or have medicinal qualities.

Whats your favourite herb?

Spending less was actually harder than I thought it would be…

I KNOW if it had just been myself to take into consideration then it would be much easier but the reality is that the hardest bit is not doing without, it’s implementing and following through with the younger ones in the family. I’ve probably made a rod for my own back over the years, sometimes you give in for a quiet life.

Saying that although it was a daily battle of sorts, I feel the kids did understand what I was trying to point out and that was we survived a week without daily excesses of junk food and more money in my purse.

Although I haven’t carried the experiment through to a second week I have still stuck with some changes, the main one being my daily flirtation with a cup or two of TIMS has still ceased to a weekly clandestine meeting for a brief 15 minutes of pure pleasure….and at the end of the week my pocket has an extra $12 in it which is a days gas!!

The other bit of good news was that when I weighed in at work a couple of days after the end of the ‘spending less week’ I had lost nearly 4lbs….it looks like buying very little junk food did me a lot of good too!

Wonder what experiment I should carry out next?