#tsp corde

[vellichorom]

what is going ON in this x reader, huh ???

// @ihazmunchies91's THE NARRATIVE PARABLE - chapter 10 is out now! have you read it yet?

[sysig]

Silly goofy StanNarrator (Patreon)

[black--sun]

starter for @jaegersol

A drop of rain hits his cheek, and Ichigo wrinkles his nose and scowls up at a sky that can't decide if it wants to rain or not.

He drops is gaze back to the street around him where it belongs before some dumbass can get the bright idea to mug him while he's not paying attention. It’s been weeks since he’s been to this side of town, but it seems like longer. He’s not sure why. It’s the same shoddy businesses, the same aimless people dappling the street, leaning against walls or squatting in doorways before being shooed off by angry business owners, drug addicts with hollow cheeks and vacant eyes. But all the eyes here start to look empty after a while. 

He hasn’t missed it. 

Ichigo pushes his hands into his pockets as he walks, heading toward Renji’s, stepping into a cross street and ignoring the blare of a horn. He hasn’t missed it, not at all, yet it’s hard not to feel the familiarity, like he’s a puzzle piece snapping into a shape he already knows. Even his posture falls to match the slumped shoulders around him. He doesn’t belong here or maybe he does and he’s kidding himself. 

His old apartment is here. The one he keeps for a few bucks paid to a grimey landlord just in case he ever needs a spot to lay low. Like a foxhole, and about the size of one. 

He stops at the corner and pushes his hood from his head, pawing at orange hair that’s getting too long. He’ll have one of the guys cut it. They do a good job. Assuming anyone’s sober.

[harvestmoss]

Mabon

Here is what I have planned for Mabon, just like last sabbath, this includes activities, food, some spells, etc. It's more of a blog type post rather than tutorial. But perhaps this could inspire some of you into what to do today or next Mabon or whatever!

🍞 Foods

Apple Pie:

190c, 20-30 min.

Add 320g flour, 15g sugar, and a pinch of salt. Then add 220g butter. Slowly add 90 ml ice cold water. Careful not to warm up the butter, the crust must stay cold.

Add 6 apples, lemon juice, 130g brown sugar, 2 tbsp flours, cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, cardamom, etc. 

Place the filling inside, then the second crust part on top, brush with an egg yolk.

Coffee:

1 tsp spice mix of cardamom, cinnamon, all spice, clover, a bit of pepper, nutmeg.

1 bit of caramel syrup.

1 tsp sugar.

Pour in coffee.

Top it off with foamed latte milk and a bit of the spice mix for decoration.

Fruits:

Mabon is the celebration of the second harvet, the fruit harvest, so I'm planning on eating lots of fruits like fig, apple, and berries, because that's what I have currently in the fridge. I'll have a glass of wine for dinner as well, my dinner is not Mabon themed this time around so no need to write it here.

🍎Spells

Bury a needle or a knife underneath your front door, it’ll kill anything you don’t want entering and protect your home.

Create a protective belt by cleansing the fabric or cord through smoke. Ornament with bells, mirror, charms, amulets, satchels, beads, etc. If it’s a cord, add 9 knots.

Carve a candle with your information and add desires to it. Dress it with Flying Devil Oil, light it for protection and to rid yourself of minor curses you might have let hang on to you.

🍂 Activities

I'm planning on swimming this afternoon-evening.

I'm planning on watching a movie tonight.

I'll be doing a bit of cleaning.

[disruptivevoib]

Voib I absolutely Adore your aus so far, and I'm incredibly intrigued by the mysterious chatroomverse rp. It reminds me very much of me and my friends' own setup, where we nickname our hms/w variants and have them interact in Discord through the tupperbox bot. The Sun Down names are very similar to my Heart and Mind, called Suture and Cord respectively, lmao. (Soul is Titan, which... doesn't fit in with them very well. Might change that for him, might not. Sorta suits his relationship with them.)

Anyways, ramble over. I'd love to see more, please do share what you're willing to show!

Anon that is exactly what we do LMAO

Chatroomverse/Cjverse is in a private discord server with tupperbots and we have.. WE HAVE A LOT OF GUYS.

I myself am pushing upwards of 20 guys, about 14 of which are from aus where only I own them. A lot of us have made collaborative for fun efforts.

I'm thrilled to hear other folks do it too! Though I know CJFS (the discord server for CJ fans) has an RP section already anyway!

Suture and Cord are.. brilliant names omg.

Yarn, Coil, and Twine came about because they have strings and other Chatroom members thought it apt to dub them as such!

I am always willing to share literally anything about Cjverse/Chatroomverse! I am also, however, unsure what people want to hear in regards to these guys! There is a lot of information about them since this RP began back in April of this year!

We have before considered making a Tumblr blog about Cjverse.. just for funsies mainly too! Dunno though if there's really an interest though for that kind of thing!

I do think I want to share some of the memes I've drawn for it more. Idk if I've ever posted those, actually. In RP Quotes are fun too.

As for the AUs I have in the Rp, it is relatively all of them! Eleutheromania, Sun Down, Lacuna, Swap and even ones I've never spoken about which are collaborative: Syncopation, AI thirds (those no context doodles were them all along), TSP au, Good Day Au (newest one), Labyrinths, and so on.

Which those AUs I love very very much and would be thrilled to explain at least Sync, Ai, and Laby. Good Day needs not to be revealed.. spoilers for chat members, and TSP is the Stanley Parable but thirds! So nothing to.. big there!

This is a long post. Sorry Anon!

[epersonae]

The Cooking Project: Yakitori-don

The next card in the stack was a recipe from a friend who I believe lived in Japan for a year. She shared it in Slack, and I wrote it down on a card because free Slack instances have limited history availability. (there will be another recipe later, I think, with a similar origin) I don't know exactly how long ago I wrote it down (2 or 3 years ago, probably), and I've never made it.

Summary: pretty good, would make again with a couple of mods. Unfortunately, there will be a long digression into rice cooking first.

Recipe text, transcribed

Yakitori-don (from Amanda C.)

2-4 chicken breasts 1 c soy sauce 1/2 c sugar 1 tsp garlic salt 1 onion, chopped

all into crock pot on low, 8 hrs [arrow leads to a notes that says try instant for 10 min & quick release] shred chicken, stir back into sauce serve over Nishiki (?) rice

[Nishiki rice, when I looked it up, turns out to be a medium grain white rice similar to Calrose. we'll get to Problems With Rice next]

Things that happen when you move while Trauma, or: Problems With Rice

So my favorite way to make rice, not owning a rice cooker, is with an instant pot. As it happens, I own two of them, because Ryn brought one when they moved out here. Which, I thought: perfect! One for the chicken and one for the rice.

Except, as it turns out, Ryn's rice cooker has a detachable cord. Which was detached at some point presumably in August or September 2021, and is........ SOMEWHERE. Is that somewhere in the box, which is probably in the garage? Is it in another shelf in the kitchen behind a bunch of stuff? Is it in the landfill? I have no idea (yet).

[the Instant Pot that betrayed me]

Which means there was only one instant pot, which is a lot less fun than there was only one bed.

I didn't buy medium grain white rice for this recipe, because I had long grain on hand, and, eh. But that means that my rice is in a container and does not have cooking instructions. So I opened up my trusty copy of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, which I think I got as a Christmas present like 10 years ago, on the assumption that it would have the usual X rice to Y water for Z time formula that one might find on the back of a bag of rice. Instead, he suggests a method that is "Far easier and more reliable [...] which will work well for any kind of white rice at all" that involves a lot of watching and fiddling with the heat. (which on a gas stove can be quite tricky!) Without getting too deep into it:

I think it might have been cooked properly at the bottom, but the top was almost entirely uncooked. So I started over using his microwave method, which was fine (slightly undercooked) but also got wet starch all over the inside of my microwave. Do not recommend.

tl;dr: If I can't find the power cord for that instant pot, I will probably be buying a rice cooker.

Ok, but how was the chicken?

My one mod in prepping is my standard: I hate the texture of onion, cooked or raw, and at some point I discovered that grating an onion gets the umami of it without the texture. So I did that.

Dumped everything in the instant pot (two chicken breasts, btw), stirred it around a bit, and then set it for ...

Possibly 8 minutes, because I was distracted by all the rice shenanigans, and was just glancing at the card when I set the timer, and uh, may have read the number next to "crock pot" instead of the number next to "instant".

In any case, I did that, set it for 5 minutes before releasing (because that matched the time the microwaved rice needed to sit), and shredded, then let that sit for a little bit while I did a few other things in the kitchen.

[none of the photos I took are particularly good or interesting, tbh]

Final thoughts

It was: fine. I think I just don't really like chicken breast very much; the whole thing definitely needed a fat of some kind to be properly satisfying. But also, it's hard to go wrong with soy sauce and sugar and garlic and onion. I will say that I think cooking the onion raw in liquid made the house smell weird.

It was a decent dinner, made just enough to have leftovers for lunch today. Mostly I wish I'd had some snow peas or something, tho.

I will probably make it again with the following modifications: chicken thighs instead of breast, and either onion powder or saute the onion first for a little better onion flavor (slash less-weird house smell).

If I were being ✨ fancy ✨, I'd reduce the sauce a bit, maybe with a little cornstarch, and I can see where this is probably a big difference between crock pot (which I don't own) and instant pot.

All of that contingent on actually being able to make good rice, though.

[thewhizzyhead]

also i find it really cool how kevan brighting aka the dude who plays the narrator in the stanley parable is quite interactive with the fanbase in contributing to their own works based off the stanley parable. like, he literally lent his voice to a short film inspired by TSP alongside other videos he starred in. that's really really cool

[hellofastudysession]

[I.D.: Drawing of the mannequin that's Stanley's wife (TSP), who's smiling big and cheerful at the camera and standing in its kitchen. She has cartoonish freckles, no arms, no hair, and no eyes. A cord twines around her in loops and curls, leading to a phone seized above her with a floating hand, and a plug in the wall that's about to be delicately unplugged by another hand.

More of her hands are in the background, doing things like adjusting a bucket's tie, carrying a tray of fresh bread, and pressing the microwave's button. The cords, the phone, the plug, and Stanley's wife's freckles and cheeks are all bright neon shades of green and yellow, contrasting the dull olive-brown background, which makes a house-shaped silhouette. End I.D.]

hi, stanley!

[morgandria]

A bit of honey.

I’m late, but this is my #HaggingOut for July on the theme of Honey. It’s more a collection of things regarding bees and some recipes, since I didn’t have any active honey-based projects in July.

I love bees. I always have. I think of bees as a symbol of plenty and fertility, and a sign that a place is thriving. You can’t have a healthy land and a hearty harvest without the work of bees. Like most mammals I dislike getting stung, but it’s rare, and I’m rather content to let them buzz around me so long as we’re not pissing each other off.

Every summer I have a companion spirit that moves with me, who arrives in May and leaves by Canadian Thanksgiving. Grackle is a common guest. Last summer it was Garden Spider. I’ve had Frog, Toad, Snail, Spider, Garter Snake and Dragonfly. But most often it’s Bee, usually in the guise of a bumblebee.

I have made many lovely pieces of jewelry featuring bees over the years, a few of which I’ve kept with me:

And there’s a few that have moved on, but still remain favorites. I made a ritual cord that had bee charms for the tassel ends, and a full set of Aset regalia for a fellow covener’s first time as the vessel in an Invocation ritual that featured bees. I cannot think of things Kemetic without thinking of “They of Sedge and Bee”.

My grandparents always had buckwheat honey, which is strong and dark and thick, and that’s where my palate has stayed. I like most honey, but buckwheat honey from the fields around me sings to me. I buy my own honey from a local farm at the farmer’s market who really work hard to nurture the local native landscape. They also sell a huge bucket of their regular honey that let me bake and Craft with it to my heart’s content for quite a while.

I’m going to share two recipes, and then toddle off:

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/09/majestic-and-moist-honey-cake/

Smitten Kitchen’s Honey Cake is hands down the best recipe I’ve tried. I stud mine heavily with nuts, more than they call for, but it’s equally as good without. I’m sure with some finangling it can be made suitable for various diets (although not vegan). I heartily recommend that you use 1tsp. of baking powder, though, and not 1 tbsp!

And I’ll share a simple Honey and Oat salt scrub recipe for the bath - it leaves the skin glowing and smells amazing.

Honey and Oat Sugar Scrub

2 c. Sugar

1 c. honey

1/2 c. oats

2 tsp. vanilla extract or 5 drops vanilla oil

That’s it from me for #haggingout! See you again soon, hags.

[notpup200]

pup do you have any tsp stanley or narrator headcanons answer quickly (or dont it doesnt matter)

Oh hello! Sorry, it wont be quick bc I just woke up.

Let's see, headcanons huh?

Well, some of these may not be headcanons? Sorry if they aren't:

- Mute Stanley, for one. I know, its basic of a hc, but it's good okay- (points to the Not Stanley ending)(points to the entire game)

- Narrator wears glasses! He reads a lot in the story, plus it's very easy to imagine him adjusting his glasses during that one bit in the matentice tunnel.

- Trans Stanley. Enough said.

- Autistic Narrator. I just enjoy this one. Hehe. (More or less because he states in the Serious Room ending, that he has a hard time reading human emotions. Like hrgrgrg me too.)

- the idea that the Narrator is just a shadow on the wall that follows Stanley. This one is neat to me, because during some parts of the story, the Narrator seemingly can't leave Stanley? Not sure why that is, so the idea that he's attached to Stanley somewhat is fun to imagine.

- In Zending, Narrator can mimic the glowing lights of the colors during it.

- Stanley is either married still, or divorced. (Seeing as Narrator is the concept of divorce.)

- 432 is mostly glitched out, and I imagine they left the office space somehow, and ended up in the files / code of the Parable. (Gaster moment)

- Curator definitely has her hair in a bun, and glasses with those little hanging cord things also.

- Mariella works in the same building Stanley does! Biggest headcanon for me, I feel. I think it makes sense? Plus, I dunno. I think it's fun to imagine Mariella having her own Parable. Perhaps it's the business meeting, when all of a sudden, her co-workers seemingly vanish.

- adding onto the Mariella Parable thing, we see Stanley's model walk past a window in an Easter egg, which is odd, because shouldn't we see a different model? Just saying, I think that Easter egg is meant for Mariella's Parable, but somehow ended up in Stanley's.

- Narrator, while seemingly omnipresent, doesnt know everything in the Parable. (Escape Pod Ending, Confusion Ending, etc etc) So I like to imagine hes just some nerd in a booth, who pretended to make TSP. Just some guy! A stage guy, if you will.

- Narrator is a Theatre nerd. He so obviously is. Theatre kid. (Points) nerd.

Yeah that's all I got for now.

If I can recall anymore, or add on anymore, maybe I'll rb this and add on to it.

Anyways, enjoy that, I guess?

[sysig]

It’s him.......lad...........

[crystalherbalist]

banishment tea 🕯🗡

to banish unwanted energy, advances, conflict, or just about anything else.

water

cinnamon sticks

blackberries

ginger (don’t peel it)

chili powder

black tea

honey

black peppercorn

boil 2 cups of water, add 2 sticks of cinnamon, ~1/2 in nub of ginger, 1 tsp black tea, 3 blackberries, 3 black peppercorns, 2 tsp honey, dip the pad of your index finger into chili powder and rub it off with your thumb into the pot, steep 3-5 min.

optional;

charging with a black candle and/or crystals

new moon water

tie a red cord on your mug handle to further enhance the spells effects

ideal at night or in a dark space

-

as you can probably tell this might not be a flavour profile everyone will love, but its potent as hell and gets the job done, and the taste is not nearly as offensive as you might think, i actually really love it personally!

[annesnevilles]

i watched the second episode of tsp and i’m really glad my mom is cutting the cord on our cable so i won’t be tempted to waste my time on this ridiculous show again. 

[etraytin]

Quarantine, Day 195

September 22

Outdoor virtual school was a rousing success! We packed up a little kit for our journey of snacks, supplies and electronics and hiked a few buildings away to set up on the grassy lawn near the complex's playground. I spread out a blanket like we were picnicking and we got a little work station going with his notebook, pencil and Chromebook. I opened up my hotspot and we were on our way! We made hot drinks because it was about 60 when we went out, so he had his cocoa and I had my coffee in travel mugs, plus I brought all the components for complicated cracker snacks. While he was doing his morning meeting, I slathered butter crackers with cream cheese, sliced up summer sausage and spooned on bits of jelly (apricot for him, lingonberry for me because IKEA is amazing) to make little savory-salty-sweet snacks. The kiddo was skeptical the first time I offered him one of these and he is still not a lingonberry fan, but now they are his favorite. 

The nice thing about virtual class outside, besides the pleasant breeze and general feeling of finally being outdoors, is that when you are a few feet from a playground it is easy to stretch one's legs. I have been keeping an ear on the kiddo's virtual learning session but I hadn't really noticed until today how much of it is still troubleshooting each individual kid's connection/ability to navigate/ familiarity with filling out online forms. It's still the beginning of the second full week of classes and I'm sure it's going to get smoother over time, but anybody who has sat in a Zoom meeting with a non-savvy colleague can understand how boring it can be to listen to somebody else try to fix their computer in real time. This is exacerbated by the fact that they are currently doing a lot of review from last year still and it can be kind of boring too. Letting the kiddo run off and swing on the monkey bars and calling him over when it was time to learn again was very helpful for his energy level and general contentment. 

We stayed outdoors until the lunch break and then went inside to eat spaghetti and feed the kittens. My husband decided that today would be a good day to have classes in the kitten room, which was very funny except I had to be there the whole time they were out because otherwise they were running across his keyboard and chewing on cords and otherwise being very naughty and disruptive to the learning experience. The students did seem amused though. He also gave the rescue a plug for when students returned to campus. It's right down the street from the university, so a nice place to volunteer. Kiddo's afternoon lessons are shorter than his morning lessons, so he wrapped those up and went back outside to play. Outside is fun! 

Here are the furry piranha descending upon a hapless plate of gooshyfood. It never even stood a chance! The rescue coordinator called today and offered to send Sebell and Robinton to another foster and leave me with just the girls until they hit two pounds. I said I would keep the whole gang until everyone is two pounds and can go together. It'll only be a couple more weeks, and I just got a shitton of kitten food in the mail today anyway. They go in Sunday for booster shots and the boys get their flea prevention, yay! Fifty percent fewer kitten baths in our future! In other news, that call taught me that I cannot take phone calls and hotspot for virtual schooling at the same time, which is important to know.

  In the afternoon, I popped down to the city south of us and got some free butternut squash from one of my TNR friends who has many many many. This was amazing because down here in the South, squash never seems to dip below a dollar a pound and that gets expensive! Butternut squash is my favorite, too. In return I traded her my famous butternut squash soup recipe, which may compel her to keep the rest of her squash, because it is just that amazing. Check this out: 

Butternut Squash Soup 3 cups roasted butternut squash (about 1 big roasted squash) 1 cup sweet onion, diced large 3 cups hot water, 3 tbsp butter, 1 brick (8oz) cream cheese 4 cubes (4 tsp) chicken bouillon 1 tsp marjoram, 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper Equipment: Big sauté pan or dutch oven, big bowl, blender, spoon, spatula

In a large sauté pan or heavy-bottom dutch oven, melt butter and sauté onions until soft and semi-translucent. Stir in marjoram and cayenne pepper. Add roasted squash and mix well. Stir in hot water and add bouillon cubes (crushing the cubes makes this step faster.) Allow mixture to come to a boil, stirring frequently.  Put 1/2 brick of cream cheese in the blender, then add 1/2 of hot squash mix (or whatever will fit, no more than 2/3 full)  and blend until very smooth and creamy. Repeat with rest of cheese and squash, pouring all finished soup into a serving container, stir well and heat up again if needed, then serve.  This is very, very good soup, you guys. I almost always double or triple the recipe because it all gets eaten so fast. (And the recipe is kind of small, tbh). I got it from Allrecipes back in the day but have tweaked it over the years. Original recipe called for twice as much cream cheese and white pepper as well as cayenne, but it was not as good.  Anyway, this is turning into a huge monster post so I'll just say that I did a grocery store mystery shop that went well and let me get a lot of things that were deeply on sale, then visited the day-old bread store and because it was discount day got an extra 20% off. We still need lots of groceries, but having stuff like bread, milk, eggs and Hamburger Helper probably means I won't have to do a big grocery thing til payday. Go us! Also the new Allie Brosh book, Solutions and Other Problems, was released today and we got it because we preordered. The kiddo and I are reading it together. It is amazing and you should get it.  

[ihatejess]

Blessed Beltane!

Beltane April 30th - May 1st

Sunset to Sunset.

Beltane honours Life. It represents the peak of Spring and the beginning of Summer. Earth energies are at their strongest and most active. All of life is bursting with potent fertility and at this point in the Wheel of the Year, the potential becomes conception. On May Eve the sexuality of life and the earth is at its peak. Abundant fertility, on all levels, is the central theme. The Maiden goddess has reached her fullness. She is the manifestation of growth and renewal, Flora, the Goddess of Spring, the May Queen, the May Bride. The Young Oak King, as Jack-In-The-Green, as the Green Man, falls in love with her and wins her hand. The union is consummated and the May Queen becomes pregnant. Together the May Queen and the May King are symbols of the Sacred Marriage (or Heiros Gamos), the union of Earth and Sky, and this union has merrily been re-enacted by humans throughout the centuries. For this is the night of the Greenwood Marriage. It is about sexuality and sensuality, passion, vitality and joy. And about conception. A brilliant moment in the Wheel of the Year to bring ideas, hopes and dreams into action. And have some fun..... 

Traditions of Beltane

Beltane is a Fire Festival. The word 'Beltane' originates from the Celtic God 'Bel', meaning 'the bright one' and the Gaelic word 'teine' meaning fire. Together they make 'Bright Fire', or 'Goodly Fire' and traditionally bonfires were lit to honour the Sun and encourage the support of Bel and the Sun's light to nurture the emerging future harvest and protect the community. Bel had to be won over through human effort. Traditionally all fires in the community were put out and a special fire was kindled for Beltane. "This was the Tein-eigen, the need fire. People jumped the fire to purify, cleanse and to bring fertility. Couples jumped the fire together to pledge themselves to each other. Cattle and other animals were driven through the smoke as a protection from disease and to bring fertility. At the end of the evening, the villagers would take some of the Teineigen to start their fires anew." (From Sacred Celebrations by Glennie Kindred) Green Man - Beltane 

Handfasting

As Beltane is the Great Wedding of the Goddess and the God, it is a popular time for pagan weddings or Handfastings, a traditional betrothal for 'a year and a day' after which the couple would either choose to stay together or part without recrimination. Today, the length of commitment is a matter of choice for the couple, and can often be for life. Handfasting ceremonies are often unique to the couple, but include common elements, most importantly the exchange of vows and rings (or a token of their choice). The act of handfasting always involves tying the hands Handfasting ('tying the knot') of the two people involved, in a figure of eight, at some point in the ceremony and later unbinding. This is done with a red cord or ribbon. Tying the hands together symbolises that the two people have come together and the untying means that they remain together of their own free will. 

Another common element is 'jumping the broomstick' - this goes back to a time when two people who could not afford a church ceremony, or want one, would be accepted in the community as a married couple if they literally jumped over a broom laid on the floor. The broom marked a 'threshold', moving from an old life to a new one.

Mead and cakes are often shared in communion as part of the ceremony. Mead is known as the Brew of the Divine, made from honey which is appropriate for a love ceremony (and is the oldest alcoholic drink known to humankind). 

Going A-Maying

Handfasting or not, both young and old went A-Maying... Couples spent the night in the woods and fields, made love and brought back armfuls of the first May or haw thorn blossoms to decorate their homes and barns. Hawthorn was never brought into the home except at Beltane - at other times it was considered unlucky. Young women gathered the dew to wash their faces, made Flower Crowns and May Baskets to give as gifts. Everyone was free to enact the Sacred Marriage of Goddess and God, and there was an accepted tradition of Beltane babies arriving nine months later...

Maypole

The Maypole is a popular and familiar image of May Day and Beltane. A phallic pole, often made from birch, was inserted into the Earth representing the potency of the God. The ring of flowers at the top of the Maypole represents the fertile Goddess. Its many coloured ribbons and the ensuing weaving dance symbolise the spiral of Life and the union of the Goddess and God, the union between Earth and Sky.

The colours of Beltane are green, red and white/silver. Green represents growth, abundance and fertility. Red represents strength, vitality, passion and vibrancy. White represents cleansing and clearing and the power to disperse negativity. 

Nana Violet's Egg Charm For Beltane.

Think carefully what you wish for! The general rule of thumb is a brown egg for wishes involving animals and white for wishes involving people and plants, for example healing a sick animal, person or plant. Eggs with white shells are difficult to come by now as chickens are generally given feed which produces the desired brown shell, but in recent years some of the supermarkets are making white eggs available at this time of year so they are worth looking out for.

1. Blow the egg. Using a fat needle, pierce a hole in both ends of the egg, making one hole larger than the other. Using the needle pierce the egg yolk gently and swirl it around to break up the yolk. Place a small drinking straw in one end and gently blow through the other hole to help gravity do its work.

2. Paint Your Egg Talisman. When your egg has thoroughly dried out place it on top of a little mound of blue tack to hold it in place and you are ready to go! Choose a symbol to represent your wish - a heart for love, coin for prosperity, a candle for wisdom, whatever is meaningful for you. Or you can paint the whole egg in a corresponding colour - red for love, green for prosperity, purple for wisdom and so on. Another way to do it is to stick rose petals on for love, or feathers for fertility - again it is what is meaningful to you that is important.

3. When it is ready find a suitable place for it and prepare for it for hanging by threading a thin thread (embroidery thread, thin wool) through the two holes and secure it with a large knot, a bead, or even a matchstick at the bottom to hold it steady.

4. Clear your mind and focus on your desire for abundance/fruitfulness and its place in your life:

'Little charm made of shell as I hang you here may all be well. May all things grow. May all things flow. Blessings for the turning of the Wheel."

Use these words or any others that you are comfortable with - remember this is all about your intention.

Egg charm donated by our Counter Enchantress from her own family traditions.

Making a Wish Box Charm

Beltane is a good time for bringing hopes, dreams and aspirations to life, and here is a truly beautiful charm to help you bring these into manifestation.

You will need:

A small shallow cardboard box. Shoe boxes are good. Rose petals Sunflower seeds and/or poppy seeds Paper A piece of willow bark or piece of willow, an acorn or oak leaf Something that represents your wish (see below)

Take a piece of paper and write your wish on it while visualizing your wish coming to life and growing. You can do this alone, with friends, or as a family. If you want to, decorate the lid of the box, with a triple moon, pentacle, heart, or any symbol of your choice. Poke a few holes in the lid - this will help your wish/plants, to grow. Take your box and sprinkle some earth into it. Put in your paper wishes, wish symbol (see below), and seeds/bark/acorn. Cover with another layer of earth. Mix the rose petals with the seeds and scatter them on top. Cover with a final layer of earth and place the lid on top, leaving enough of the rose petal/seed mixture to scatter on top of the box when you are planting it.

Planting Your Wish Box

The best time for planting your Wish Box is just after a fresh cleansing rainfall as this gives you a bright new start, but if the season is dry just give the earth a good watering the night before. Dig a hole two inches deeper than your wish box and lower it into the earth carefully while concentrating on your chosen wish, visualizing it coming to fruition. Imagine your wish growing with the flowers reaching skyward. As you cover the box with earth say:

"Dream that lies within the earth awaken now. Hope that sleeps awaken now. The stars await as so do I. Grow true, grow strong, toward the sky."

If you don't have a garden you can make a mini wish pot that can live on a window ledge and it works just as well. Just replace the box with a terracotta pot - one wish and one symbol per pot following exactly the same instructions as above. Remember that wishes are only to be used for positive motives.

Suggested Symbols For Your Wish Box:

Love & Marriage - gingerbread New Job - copper coin Abundance - silver coin Difficult Task - glove Hearth & Home - thimble Seeking the Truth - sprig of rosemary Health, Healing, Renewed Strength - blue & green ribbon entwined Happiness, Good Luck - cinnamon stick Seeking Knowledge - apple To Find A Lost Item - feather Protection - key (an old iron key is best if you have one)

Charm donated by our Counter Enchantress from her own family traditions. 

Beltane Bread As Only Debs Knows How

You will need: 3 mugs of strong white flour 500 mls of buttermilk 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 3 tbs clear honey 3 tbs golden syrup 1 pack dried strawberries 3 drops vanilla essence 1 small beaten egg for glazing soft brown sugar for sprinkling

Place the strawberries and flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk, blended golden syrup, honey and vanilla essence together with a wooden spoon - or your hands if that is better. As you mix, feel the pulsing vibrant Beltane energy and let it run through your hands and out through your fingertips. And as you mix, say:

'As we light the Beltane flame, I make this bread in Love's sweet name. Two halves together bound as one, Beltane's dance has now begun!'

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and pat it into a circle. With a sharp knife lightly score the bread into two halves to represent The Lord and Lady. Glaze with beaten egg and sprinkle sugar over the top. Bake in a moderate oven for about 20-25 minutes. When the bread is cooled break it into two halves along the score mark. Repeat the words of the charm and tie with purple ribbon. Purple represents the union of red (love in all its forms) and blue (unity and harmony). Enjoy. Brightest Blessings. 

Things To Do

Whatever you do, remember this is the Great Wedding! Dress in your best, especially in green, and wear a flower crown.

Stay out all night, gathering the green, watch the sunrise and make love. Wash your face in the morning dew.

Conceive a new project, grasp that idea, and get on with it.

Dress your home and/or altar with greenery - especially with hawthorn, rowan and birch branches. Ask permission from the tree before you take anything.

Dress a tree. This is the perfect time to go out and celebrate a tree. Especially a hawthorn, rowan or birch - but the tree spirit will welcome you attention whichever kind of tree it is. Sit with it, talk to it, dance around it (maypole), honour the tree and its fertility. Hang ribbons from its branches, each ribbon represents a wish or prayer.

Flowers, flowers and more flowers. This is the festival of Flora. Make a flower crown to wear - the daisy chain in the simplest of all. Make a traditional flower basket. fill it with Beltane greenery and all the flowers and herbs you can find. Think about, and honour, their magical and healing properties while you do so. Give it someone you love.

Make some Hawthorn Brandy. You will need a bottle of brandy and at least one cup of hawthorn flowers, plus a little sugar to taste. Mix the ingredients together and leave away from direct light, for at least two weeks. Shake occasionally. Strain, bottle and enjoy. Hawthorn is renowned as a tonic for the heart. 

Trees of Beltane

Hawthorn

Hawthorn is a deeply magical tree and is one of the three trees at the heart of the Celtic Tree Alphabet, the Faery Triad, 'by Oak, Ash and Thorn'. Traditionally Beltane began when the Hawthorn, the May, blossomed. It is the tree of sexuality and fertility and is the classic flower to decorate a Maypole with. It was both worn and used to decorate the home at Beltane.

Birch

Birch is regarded as a feminine tree and Deities associated with Birch are mostly love and fertility goddesses. It is one of the first trees to show its leaf in Spring. Eostre/Ostara, the Celtic goddess of Spring was celebrated in festivities and dancing around and through the birch tree between the Spring Equinox and Beltane. Birch twigs were traditionally used to make besoms (a new broom sweeps clean). Maypoles were often made from birch and birch wreaths were given as lover's gifts.

Rowan

A tree of protection and healing. Branches of Rowan were placed as protection over the doors of houses and barns at Beltane to protect from increased Faery activity as they woke from their winter slumber. Sprigs were worn for protection also. Rowan berries have a tiny five-pointed star on the bottom reminiscent of the pentagram. Colours of Beltane

[latristereina]

Katherine of Aragon’s blue dress in TSP S01E03 + some contemporary descriptions of Katherine’s outfits:

After the King came the Queen (who is pregnant) clad in ash-coloured satin, with chains and jewels, and on her head a cap of cloth of gold, covering the ears in the Venetian fashion.

The Queen wore a petticoat of cloth of gold with a black ground, slashed and laced with gold and black cords, at whose extremities, in lieu of tags, there hung pearls and jewels, her gown being one half of cloth of gold and the other half of violet velvet with a raised pile, the flowers in relief being embroidered with gold thread and pearls. Her head dress was in the Flemish fashion with a long veil and no cap, which gave her additional grace. Round her neck were five large strings of pearls, with a pendent St. George on horseback slaying the dragon, all in diamonds.

The Queen’s petticoat was of silver lama, and the gown of cloth of gold lined with violet velvet, with raised pile, on which the roses of England were wrought in gold. She wore a necklace of very large pearls, from which hung a very valuable diamond cross. Her head gear was of black velvet striped with gold lama, and powdered with jewels and pearls.

May 1520, 21-25

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