I flew home on the day of the Summer Solstice. It was hot and humid in Ottawa as it had been for the past three weeks of my visit. I slept through most of the flight and then heard the announcement we’d soon be landing in Vancouver. I opened my window to the delicious sight of snow-capped mountains as far as the eye could see – the mountains upon mountains upon mountains of the land where I was born. The air was deliciously free of humidity (and of mosquitoes). It was a perfect spring-like day without need of a sweater to cover one’s bare arms. Apparently it was also the first day of real sun amidst pouring rain since I’d been away. I like to think it’s because the mountains missed me…
I just rested for a couple of days catching up with the timezone again and then it was back to work cleaning the house and fussing with the garden. I can’t reopen the botanica or buy supplies for it until the Canada Post strike ends, so I’ll be wildcrafting and packaging what I have local access to in the mean time. I’m planning on expanding the botanica quite a bit, but it will take some time.
To get my wild fix my sweetie Mojo and I headed out and about town to look for a pet toad, but alas did not find any (if anyone knows where to get a small American Toad please let me know!). We did, however, fall in love with a tiny rough green snake, named him Plissken (yes, after that Snake Plissken), and brought him home along with an awesome tall terrarium. Today we went to the garden centre for some plants for Plissken; a ficus tree, a fern, and some small vines. I also hope to add some tree frogs and a toad or two to the terrarium in the future.
Green snakes are supposed to be shy, but he doesn’t freak out when we hold him and he doesn’t hide much. So far he’s been pretty adventurous, even digging a bit! He’s very small, about two feet long and the width of pencil and he won’t get much bigger than that. He eats only insects and doesn’t bite. He has pretty yellow eyes and the most adorable bright red tongue. I’m normally not in favour of undomesticated animals for pets, but his enclosure is so huge compared to his size and he will be honoured as a sacred creature and will probably even participate in a ritual or two or more (snakes are sacred to Big D, Papa, the Ram-Bearer, the Tree, and Old Woman after all).
We also picked up three more carnivorous plants (two sundews and a pitcher plant) at the garden centre to add to all the venus flytraps we already have. When we got home I soaked some coconut fibre for the soil and then went out to the forest to collect some moss freshly fallen from the trees due to rain and wind. I rinsed it out to get rid of bugs and debris.
Mojo transplanted all ten of the little carnivores into the aquarium his covenmates passed on to him and then I added the moss and voila, now we have a lovely giant bog garden of death. It should stay nice and humid in there now, but we will probably need to get a uv light that also heats as it’s not quite warm enough for the carnivores yet.
Otherworldly travels, dreams, witchy thoughts, wildcrafting adventures, and garden updates to come once I finish tidying up the house and finding my bearings again on the other side of the continent.
(Plissken is currently staring at me – he does that a lot)
