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The last full moon of 2025

I went to a meeting of the charity with the local museum regarding a potential exhibition. The chap with there were difficulties over the Local Place Plan is, I think, the chairman or something, and I hoped he had forgotten. Kudos to him, apart from an involuntary spasm of 'Huh!' when writing was mentioned, he was positive and affable. We shall see how this develops. All went well, though my wobbles still aren't done. I hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch, so grabbed a steak slice from the local Greggs as I ran to the meeting but it can't have been enough, cos the room was whirling around me as everyone talked. Managed not to embarrass myself but was very grateful for a lift home. Low blood sugar I think.

We are painting our bedroom. R fancies gold, though I have my doubts, cos I've had mustard coloured walls and they really don't work for me. Still, we can always repaint if necessary. I will try to get the second coat done today.

Yesterday was clear enough to see the moon all day and then by evening it sat in the trees as we lit them up for the season. Later to the south west, the clouds rose and I saw a point of light, Saturn I think, shining through the dismal. In astrology Saturn gets a raw deal which is weird because it's beautiful. Tonight will be the last full moon of 2025, and soon the longest night will be with us. At the risk of sounding like I'm 104, everything is moving so fast!

The Instinct and The Message

I pay attention to this, my animal self has all sorts of smarts. Intuition? These things blend. The instinct, a feeling that something is... off? Wrong? Unshakeable. Had it for days. And yet everything else is marvellous right now, almost Spring-like for all the wuthering weather. It's just this strange undertow. Now I hear of a dear friend's difficulties and am concerned though relieved things turned out well. This morning, I found a bracelet sent to me by another dear friend when I first got my cancer diagnosis. I wore it every day then it disappeared for ages. Turns out it was in my bedside drawer all the time.

To anyone, including my valiant friend across the water.

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The Dead Go Shopping, also the Tree begins.

Right now the dead are busy in my dreams. Last few days it was Aunty, this time it's Dad. I can't help being superstitious about such dreams, they make me worry for Mum, but then that's what they are, anxiety wrapped up in fancy. I've spent the last two months worrying about her. Dad had done a lot of grocery shopping, bags of which were all over the floor waiting to be put away into cupboards etc. I was bewildered by all this activity, I don't remember my father ever shopping in his entire life. He gave me some teeny gold beads to eat, like breadcrumbs rolled in gold. I tried them and they were sweet, but nothing special. There was some black and white footage of me but much prettier and young, it was very 1940s/50s. When I turned my back, you could see something like a big mole/scab/wound to the left on my lower back. It was the kind of distracting thing one would edit out of a photo today.

Meanwhile, the tree is nearly finished. One of the old masks needs fixing but some are in place. R loves them and they'll entertain our guests. I like them too, even though the Prince at the top makes the whole thing look somewhat sinister. Mum thinks we should bung a star there, and she has a point. He does have this habit of significant looming.

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First of December

Advent calenders! I will dig out Nakatomi Plaza again, but as an extra, got R a coffee testing calender. Today he starts with a silky Colombian. See, see how I resist the jokes! He got me a perfume sample calendar too, so my reviews will start early.

December has started off by giving me the gift of a peculiar dream.

I was with someone unknown/vaguely familiar in real life, part of a group who had hired a house. My companion was flapping wildly because a key had been lost, not to the whole house, but to part of it. Either the key or the room it opened was labelled '2'.

I couldn't see what the problem was; all they had to do was ask the landlord for a replacement key. The person gave me instructions indicating that I should take the basin out of the sink and pee in it. It was full of crockery. I did what they asked but looking at the urine sloshing around the plates, decided this had to be wrong and drained away the pee. Did I then clean the plates? I don't think so. I had it in mind to just throw it all away and let no-one know how totally I misunderstood instructions/ followed them even though they were clearly stupid. Then I was with the panicking person again, and we were walking uphill through a street. An uphill motif has been very clear these past few dreams. The person was going back to the house lacking the key, and talked about how the group as a whole was unhelpful, hadn't followed house rules, couldn't tidy, lost things. My own house was back down the hill, the person's furore was not my problem, though I felt sympathetic because they were extremely agitated. I was on the pavement to the left of this person, and knew we would reach the top of the hill, then they would have to turn right towards another road when we got there.

Bizarre.

But hello December! I promise not to pee on any plates!

Frankenstein

Great until the last ten minutes. Here's how it should have ended:
( Hidden for spoilers )

We enjoyed this film, even R who is not a fan of horror, but agreed that the ending was unsatisfactory. Then for true horror, we turned to the Wales/South African Rugby match.

Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!

Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means

karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )

Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.

On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.

The Witch

Longer version with note and explanation here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/smokingboot/p/maybe-you-didnt-stay-long-enough?r=1r9jj7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

But short and to the point, I remembered this today:

The Witch⁣
　⁣
　No cauldron crafter, gatherer of herbs,⁣
　No broomstick, poppets, pumpkin by the door.⁣
　I am that time the clouds looked upside down,⁣
　The quizzical expression of a stranger,⁣
　The message for you chalked on a pavement⁣
　When you remembered what was going to happen.⁣
　I am what rolled the escalator backwards,⁣
　Graffiti at the bus station deserted,⁣
　Giving you directions before you blinked,⁣
　Found yourself atop a rodeo steer, blinked again,⁣
　Passport checked, flying to another country.⁣
　I am a scrabble tile for no word ever.⁣
　I am the wiring in this elevator.⁣
　The city in the tesseract and its guide,⁣
　Storm of the air, sand whirling in the heart.⁣
　A voice will say, 'we don’t know what this is⁣
　so til we do, best call it a witch.'⁣
　But you know better when you hear my name⁣
　among the murmurations on the wind.⁣
　⁣⁣

Trial By Jury

It's like our government is absolutely determined to shoot itself in the foot.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy7vdvrnnvzo
Nobody wants the jury system scrapped, in fact suggesting it is likely to bring out every Magna Carta blatherer in the land.

XXXIX
Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel imprisonetur, aut dissaisiatur, aut utlagetur, aut exuletur, aut aliquo modo destruatur, nec super eum ibimus, nec super eum mittemus, nisi per legale judicium parium suorum vel per legem terrae.

39
No free man is to be arrested, or imprisoned, or dispossessed, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any other way ruined, nor will we go against him or send against him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

And yes, they can change the law of the land so that judges alone get to decide most cases, but this will just look like an assault on basic Brit principles. The horrendous backlog in court cases can be blamed on many different factors, but the key isn't to remove what is perceived to be one of our founding rights, even if it's been weaselled around many times.The key is to invest in lawyers and courts and infrastructure.

Talk about throwing red meat to the foe. This government is leaning way too hard on its majority.

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Red sky at morning

Shepherd take warning, it's going to be cold (going to be? I already have my endless winter headache,a tightening across my forehead that makes me feel like I am squinting at everything) and I've had a ginger shot to boost my, ugh, I don't know, powers of enthusiasm or something. But in fairness, these late sunrises are worth it, bands of orange and pink all across the sky. I cannot love Winter the way I love Summer, but I do love it. From afar.

Strange dream, Mum and I sitting in a cafe somewhere, suddenly up pops my dear dead aunt, she comes to the table and kisses each of us, says something I can't remember, then goes into a back room. I don't follow her there, partly because Mum and I are astonished saying 'Did you see? Was that her? What the -?' and it never occurs to me to follow because she's a ghost until I remember that I'm dreaming and there's no reason why a ghost can't appear in a dream.

Here it comes

Today we had our first real frost. There has been snow too, a light pointless sprinkle meaning little beyond jammed car doors, but today the wild weeds bend heavy under all that white sparkle, interspersed with cow parsley skeletons making disco shapes. The leaves crackled under my feet and when I looked at the meadow, everything was silver til the sun shone and all beyond was gold.

Yes very beautiful
And yes, time to stay indoors.

Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes

And there we were. Excellent mate's 50th, total lack of responsibility all around, a lot of booze occuring. My recipe for staying power was plenty of prosecco in the pre-party, then when we got to the room nothing except alcohol-free hydration. This meant I could keep going until 1, but even with added virtue power, no way could I stay on with the clubbers, who only disbanded at 6. Looking at the faces of long missed friends, laughing but listening too. I know we all have our problems but it became clear how for so many these last few years have been harsh times, personal wars of attrition. People are climbing out though; there was great cake and four DJs who played blinding sets; haven't seen this much leather and velvet in years as everybody got the hell up and danced.

Austin

Next Summer we're busy with family, so R suggested somewhere a bit different for a possible Autumn break; Austin! I remember

mallorys_camera telling us about the Texas Book Festival, but believe R's thoughts turn more to sunshine and live music. We could get a house and a car for a couple of weeks, maybe do some exploring. Today, there are pink warning clouds in an icy sky. It snowed, not much but by god I felt it. I have been miserably cold, even in the house, though now the thermostat has cranked up. Heat and music sound alluring.