Good Coffee,
It's a gray morning here. After a span of days with high temps and a magical thunderstorm, Mother Nature is taking the weekend off to relax. The highs are twenty degrees lower, the sky is overcast, and it was so chilly last night Friday curled into bed with me and I fell asleep holding her barrel chest like the little spoon she was born to be. Felt like camping in the best way. Like when your environment is just a tad less comfortable but you still can sleep in surrounded by soft things and warm fur.
I should really do some backyard camping soon. I've had my backpacking gear collecting dust since I injured my ankle, but I can certainly still use it. I own woods and fire pit, for Brigit's sake. If 13-year-old me knew I wasn't sleeping outside every night with my dogs and a campfire with s'mores in my belly... she'd be so disappointed.
I'm writing while my stovetop esspresso apparatus builds pressure on the range. My good friend Patty was cleaning out her mom's closets when she found a vintage Bellman espresso maker still in the box. It's not exactly convenient. It's a pain to dissemble and clean and touchy as hell, but it seems so fitting that I am still using this unwanted, analog, contraption in 2023.
But hey, after a bunch of youtube videos, a few minor steam burns, and very messy experiments (read; explosions) over the years, I have it down. It's basically a pressure cooker that steams milk and pushes out that holy bitter delight, and that's good enough for me. Do you have any idea how fancy it is to start a Sunday morning with a vanilla latte that no one can witness how much sugar you put in? Criminal activity, absolute bliss.
*takes 5 min break to fix my coffee*
Folks. Worth it.
It's Sunday. I try to take the weekends off. "Try" being the key word. When you're self employed and the people hiring you only have time on the weekends to address logo changes and talk business, I find myself constantly checking emails and working. Today, however, I have a friend visiting from out of town and we have plans to go fishing and I'm making us a pizza. Sometimes you need (I am talking to myself here) to put down the phone and put aside every responsibility and give yourself a day to splash around a river and eat pizza without feeling like it's something you have to earn.
This week I'll be working on the Holly and Oak King play for Litha. Later this month our growing pagan community is having a big bonfire celebration at a local farm, and I'm taking on the job of organizing and writing the play for the kids (and adults!) there will be costumes and a fun narrator and a little stage. There will be a big feast and potluck, a roaring bonfire, lantern-lit paths, our farms and homesteads to gossip about. It's a lovely community, and it feels both amazing to share my faith and fellowship with other people living with and through the seasons.
Oh, and I'm still happy to accept any questions or daily writing topic requests if you have them? Another idea I had was CAF Confessions, which is a sexy way of you sending me an anonymous letter asking for any sort of advice you want from a feral mountain lesbian. Ask about coming out, relationships, cats, dreams, anything you don't want necessarily attributed to you, but want to read about. (Just please, be kind because I am a cancer sun with a pisces moon and my sag rising can only do so much with those two) I would really appreciate the prompts actually. I mean, without them you heard about the weather, a temperamental espresso maker, and a pagan folk play...
So far at least one person has sent one dollar since this experiment started, and it makes me believe it will continue tomorrow, too (If I didn't just jinx it!), so do let me know if there's something you want someone like me to yip yap about. I'm hell at yapping.
Alright folks, you have a lovely Sunday. I wish you all strong coffee and warm light and good company. I wish your farms and livestock a gentle day and parasite-free pasture rotation. I wish your dough a good rise, your squash free from beetles, and your lettuce a slow bolt. Mostly, I wish you come back and check in on me again tomorrow. It feels good to be checked in on, even if it's just us.
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If you appreciate what you read, I encourage you to contribute towards my writing with a tip. To be clear; no one has to pay anything. I will still write here and it's always available for free. But if anyone wants to volunteer to venmo/paypal at least one dollar, it means I will write a post the next day. If no one does, then I'll update when I feel like it. Might be the next day, might be in a month.
Please understand, that I do not mean a dollar for every post or from every reader! I mean, quite literally, if a single person anywhere in the world sends a single US dollar, and that's all the money I earn that day, I'll write tomorrow.
Venmo: jennawog (preferred)
Paypal: dogsinourparks@gmail.com