COI Day today

My coven, Circle of Ivy, met today. I call it a coven because that's the closest term to what it is. Only the HP and I actually do rituals together for Sabbats, but that's because everyone has such crazy schedules and most of my friends are solitaries by preference. We get together once a month to share projects and crafts with a pagan theme.


Today, I made a bread braid as an example of how to do one for Lammas. It's a simple thing. Yes, I cheated and used a bread machine to do the dough. So sue me. Unfortunately, it hadn't risen completely by the time everyone left to go home for their evening meal. Oh, well. It proved the point about how easy bread sculpture really is. I'll make a God Bread for Lammas next weekend.

Then we talked about making a trip to one of the local farmers' markets for cucumbers to make pickles. My friends were shocked to see how easy it is to make refrigerator pickles, especially using the Ball spice bags I picked up in Wal-Mart in the section where they keep the mason jars. Water, sugar, vinegar, cucumbers, and the bag of spices are all you need.

We had a lot of fun running around my yard picking figs off my trees and eating them right then and there, considering there was just enough to do so after the squirrels and birds had got there first! LOL! I don't really mind not having enough to preserve this year. We almost lost one of the three trees to carpenter ants and a winter storm, so we're short this year. Next year, maybe.

So, we've had our fun for this month and discussed upcoming projects. Next month, we'll make our corn dollies. Most of us still need to go get our corn husks and allow them to dry. This will take awhile in Florida, and may require that trick I mentioned about two air conditioner filters and a fan in this humidity! Whoa, it's been sticky here lately!

I'm not too sure what we'll do in September. Fruit preserves, most likely. Another trip to the farmer's markets should provide all we need, but there's always the grocery store. I've got two boxes of fruit pectin just waiting for the fruit and jars. Nothing like preserving a little summer sunshine in a jar for the cool months ahead.

I think we'll do a Smelly Arts Workshop in October. By then, the heat will have broken enough for us to use my gazebo out back. Sometimes those protection incenses can be hard on the eyes and throat, but they're too useful to do without. We might even combine it with soap making. We could all use a little ritual soap, and the craft stores now make it so easy, it's worth the time.

November is a real COI favorite-- candlemaking! We had a ball with this last year. I'm down to two of our ritual candles, so it's definitely time. This year, we've managed to collect a few more essential oils, so we'll have a bit more choice of scents. My aquistion goal before then: bayberry! DH has a family tradition of burning bayberry candles on Christmas Eve, so I'd like to indulge him with a couple of homemade candles.

Now those are just the coven projects! I've much more in the works privately to share, like getting a bit ahead on the holiday gifts. A few pagan friends could use a charm bracelet, my grandchildren need warm Halloween costumes, and of course there's all the holiday mayhem yet to come!

Lena