Witchy Nyx

But still interested in feeding yourself? What if I told you that there’s a woman with a blog who had to feed both herself and her young son…on 10 British pounds ($15/14 Euro) per week?

Let me tell you a thing.

This woman saved my life last year. Actually saved my life. I had a piggy bank full of change and that’s it. Many people in my fandom might remember that dark time as when I had to hock my writing skills in exchange for donations. I cried a lot then. 

This is real talk, people: I marked down exactly what I needed to buy, totaled it, counted out that exact change, and then went to three different stores to buy what I needed so I didn’t have to dump a load of change on just one person. I was already embarrassed, but to feel people staring? Utter shame suffused me. The reasons behind that are another post all together. 

AgirlcalledJack.com is run by a British woman who was on benefits for years. Things got desperate. She had to find a way to feed herself and her son using just the basics that could be found at the supermarket. But the recipes she came up with are amazing. 

You have to consider the differing costs of things between countries, but if you just have three ingredients in your cupboard, this woman will tell you what to do with it. Check what you already have. Chances are you have the basics of a filling meal already. 

Here’s her list of kitchen basics. 

Bake your own bread. It’s easier than you think. Here’s a list of many recipes, each using some variation of just plain flour, yeast, some oil, maybe water or lemon juice. And kneading bread is therapeutic. 

Make your own pasta–gluten free. 

She gets it. She really does. This is the article that started it all. It’s called “Hunger Hurts”.

She has vegan recipes.

A carrot, a can of kidney beans, and some cumin will get you a really filling soup…or throw in some flour for binding and you’ve got yourself a burger. 

Don’t have an oven or the stove isn’t available? She covers that in her Microwave Cooking section. 

She has a book, but many recipes can be found on her blog for free. She prices her recipes down to the cent, and every year she participates in a project called “Living Below the Line” where she has to live on 1 BP per day of food for five days. 

Things improved for me a little, but her website is my go to. I learned how to bake bread (using my crockpot, but that was my own twist), and I have a little cart full of things that saved me back then, just in case I need them again. She gives you the tools to feed yourself, for very little money, and that’s a fabulous feeling. 

Tip: Whenever you have a little extra money, buy a 10 dollar/pound/euro giftcard from your discount grocer. Stash it. That’s your super emergency money. Make sure they don’t charge by the month for lack of use, though.

I don’t care if it sounds like an advertisement–you won’t be buying anything from the site. What I DO care about is your mental, emotional, and physical health–and dammit, food’s right in the center of that. 

Here’s an up to date link

Jack’s site is now a wordpress, which can be found here:

If you feel like you are not doing enough please give yourself some grace. We are all doing so much just to barely get by, to keep our heads slightly above water. We live in a very different world from our ancestors and the worshipers/practitioners that came before us. It’s not realistic or sustainable to try to approach your practice the same way as those who don’t have the same struggles or responsibilities as you (and this goes for the current world as well).

My journey in forest mapping has brought up a lot of these questions. It's not just learning the names of plants, it's also learning about their growth environments and what makes them different. Some plants are indicators of a specific forest type. It's learning about the relationships between different species; some of them like to grow together. I have to look at the history of the forest and the structural features of it... etc.

What if the children go to schools unafraid of tear gas and bullets?

What if the birds come back, and the bees are healed, and every species moves from endangered, to threatened, to thriving?

What if the rainforest ADVANCES?

What if every parking lot had solar panels? What if every structure had solar panels? What if we built climbing gyms and terraced gardens in the skeletons of old coal power plants?

What if you baked your neighbor bread, and they shared their home-grown blackberries?

What if every person who needed a home, had one? What if every person who needed healing was healed?

What if every body was treasured for what it was, not what it should be?

What if every trans child's parents attended their graduation, their wedding, their new-name-day?

What if every warehouse became a closed-circle repair station? Goods flowing out, and back, and out again? What if landfills started to SHRINK?

What if the water and air were clean? What if there was enough public transit that the cars dwindled, leaving the streets safe for kids on bikes, evening deer, midnight cats and foxes?

What if we win?

You’re allowed to care even though lots of things are going bad. Some things can’t be fixed or saved. But it’s okay to hold onto hope for something good to happen tomorrow. Good things are always going to pop up like flowers in war zones.

“The world is not on fire, there are just lots of fires.” Don’t lose hope that some fires can be put out. So much is still easy. Build a safe zone within the flames, and persist putting them out. Accepting we are in a bad place does not equal rolling over to let it get worse. No matter how bad things will get, you can still put out flames in different spaces.

You can give yourself the freedom of acknowledging life right now is in a state of unrest and we don’t know when the chapter will close, while also being happy we are here with other people and things that make it worth it. Because it is worth it. All hard things are worth it.

transition

bdsm

ADHD medication

go outside for an hour and observe birds

I just want to remind everyone (esp w summer approaching in the northern hemisphere) that when you are looking for shells on a beach that you are doing so ethically.

Many beaches currently have a shelling ban, meaning if you find one, leave it there. This is because shells greatly impact the coastline ecosystem, offering homes and latching points to many organisms, offering minerals as they break down, and creating sand in the middle of a global sand shortage.

Additionally many countries have bans on taking shells in luggage, even by car. It’s important that you ‘know before you go’ on vacation. You can look up a specific beaches laws prior to your visit, and when in doubt leave shells where they are.

For my witches: I know many posts suggest taking shells home as offerings, esp older sources, however due to the nature of the situation it’s best they are left where they are. Rather than taking them, bless them, skip them closer to the waves as offerings, make fun sigils around them in the sand before they are washed away, honor the species they came from as a muse, charge shells in sunlight or moonlight before placing them back. Ideas are infinite, so depending on what you need them for there are beach equivalents that are ocean friendly!

Finally: please don’t introduce foreign materials into the water systems, buying commercial shells just to put back, adding random crystals to beaches, buying shells from beach shops (unethical to begin with) and trying to put them back. Many of these objects either are not native to the area, or have been treated for craft purposes, or like in the cases of beach stores have been brought from international sources. These shells are no longer beach safe, and risk introducing things into the water ways that don’t belong.

We can respect these beauties from a distance, our water ways need us 🙌