Last week I was visiting friends who had just added four kittens to their household. They also have five other cats and two dogs. They are so adorable, I just had to share some pics I made!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
COT #19: cute kittens
Last week I was visiting friends who had just added four kittens to their household. They also have five other cats and two dogs. They are so adorable, I just had to share some pics I made!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Why are we here?
Sooooo, I was wondering...
Do you know your personal answer to this question?
How did you find out?
Please enlighten me and share your thoughts! Whether you say one sentence or want to share a complete essay about your ideas on the subject... Feel free!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
TT #91: online purchases
Thirteen online purchases
Do you buy online? What? Where? |
Monday, September 22, 2008
Ara in Artis
Last Saturday there was an Ara-meeting in Amsterdam. We had planned to meet in front of the Artis entrance. Artis Royal Zoo is the oldest zoo in The Netherlands (founded in 1838) and situated in the heart of Amsterdam. Zoos always give me that ambivalent feeling: on one side I love to see the animals, but on the other side they are in captivity.We had decided to go to the zoo, because we wanted to observe our power animals. Although we had planned this meeting months ago, half of the group couldn't make it. I met Sorcha at the entrance and Kat joined us somewhat later. Sorcha has a wolf totem. The two wolves in Artis have a great place to live with a lot of privacy. Unfortunately there are no bears in Artis anymore so Kat had to turn to the raccoons to watch them. We all spent time observing our animals.
Artis has a black panther called Inaia, who shares her habitat with her spotted sister. I was glad to read that their space will be much bigger in the near future. Artis can't expand because it's in the city centre, so they have chosen to keep less animals in bigger habitats. Inaia was pacing at the front of the fence, difficult to look at... Later she went to a corner to lie down and enjoy the sunshine. I made lots of pictures. In many ways a panther really is a big cat; I saw so much I recognised from my cats at home. Inaia is beautiful and she moves in a soft and smooth manner.
When we came back together we sat down on a stretch of grass. We cast a circle from hand to hand and passed energy. Then we went into a pathworking (the same one but on our own) to do a cone of power for the animals. It was a wonderful experience for me.
We were sitting in a circle and our animals were around us. Bagheera, my black panther companion, was lying half behind me with her head next to me and a paw in my lap. We built up the energy and released the power of the Cone in a bowl of water. From there a fountain formed until high in the sky and came down covering all of Artis, including us. It was a wonderful sight. After that I walked with Bagheera to Inaia. We went into the cage. The two panthers touched noses. I put my hand on Inaia's paw and Bagheera put hers on top. Together we exchanged energy and connected on a level we could all feel, connecting to all the panthers on the earth. It was a very magical and touching moment. I returned to the others and in an instant I was really back in Artis.
Artis was closing, so we slowly walked to the exit. In another part of Amsterdam we met with two of the others to have dinner and catch up on things. It was good to see eachother after quite some time! In October we'll have a workshop weekend in Otterlo again and we are already making plans for our initiation in Italy in May next year.
my Artis pics
Friday, September 19, 2008
Full Harvest Moon
With Ostara (March 20) I had planted an acorn in a flowerpot. It grew pretty good and had leaves in no time. Unfortunately the cats discovered the leaves tasted good... Nothing left but a pitiful stem... I wasn't prepared to give up though. Ron thought I was being silly. I watered the stem and talked to it, even gave it reiki. It helped! Last week I noticed a little green sprout and today it looks like this! Ha!
Monday, September 15, 2008
Robbie always does the trick! :-)
This morning I was feeling down. Not sure why, just woke up that way. Happens sometimes. After my Wii Fit training and breakfast it wasn't much better. I decided to appeal to Robbie Williams and his music to crack me up! Often I go for a DVD Robbie-marathon, this time I plunged into the 100+ GB of Robbie on my computer.I started with a (slow) live performance of Take That's version of "Could it be magic" followed by a (upbeat) remix of that same song mixing TT and Donna Summer. I never was a huge TT-fan, I just liked a few songs especially. Later I discovered those were exactly the songs in which Robbie did the lead! I watched some videoclips, listened to a lot of songs, sang along, danced... Of course my favourite "Feel" but also less-known ones and golden B-sides. And yes... in the end I felt sooo much better! Thanks, Robbie!
Unfortunately most of the news we hear about Rob these days is gossip and paparazzi stories. If we're "lucky" it's new gossip, but most of the time it is news with a beard as long as Methusalem's... You know, if Rob himself tells something I'm always interested. For the rest, let the man have some privacy! It would be great if he found the love of his life, but I'll wait until he introduces her. His spare time is just that, HIS spare time; I hope he enjoys himself. :-)
I often visit his official website to see whether there is real news, I'm also an Inner Sanctum member. Last week I read that a famous Dutch DJ (Sander van Doorn) reworked one of Robbie's songs. The new track is called "Close My Eyes" and I could download it for free.
Sure, I'm waiting for really new material. A second swing-album would be great, any new album and/or single would be very welcome, a new tour would be fabulous... I'll just sit and wait! ;-)
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Meet my Dolly!
This is my RSS-Dolly. Perhaps you already noticed her in my sidebar, where she is linking to my RSS-feed. She is made by Emila of Emila's Illustrated Blog. I found her blog while dropping my Entrecard some days ago. She has made a lot of these Dolly's already. I liked them a lot, so I decided I wanted one too! :-)Do you like them too? Go over to Emila's blog and order one for just $2,- or 500 Entrecard Credits. You'll find the instructions in her sidebar. She works very fast and you can tell her exactly what you want.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
TT #90: birthday presents
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Partyyyyyyyyy
I had asked for money because I want to get a particular meditation chair I have seen on a fair. Everyone was very generous and we have already ordered the chair; it will be available in a few weeks. I even have money left. I also got a lot of cards, flowers, Tink stuff, a 2009 calendar, a book, a selfmade "bonbonnière" with chocolates, filled medicine bag... I'm making a Slide-show of my gifts for the Thursday thirteen tomorrow.
IJs of LeukeMensen.nl took great care of the music (much Robbie of course, 80's and lots more). Singer Rudie Crossman did several performances, he's an entertainer pur sang. I have uploaded a 2 min. video to YouTube. He also sang "Proud Mary" where Ron did the low Ike-voice; unfortunately that's not on video! With Gerard (who is a Rod Stewart fan) Rudie did "Sailing" and I did a bit of singing along too. With friends I also did the backing vocals and dancing, *lol*!
About being 40, Audrey Hepburn was right: nothing changed. :-) On the party some people asked about it. My answer was: you know, I'm feeling better and happier with myself than when I was 30. Life goes on, any age!
All the pictures are in a Picasa webalbum. Enjoy!
Thursday, September 04, 2008
TT #89: Life begins at forty!
Thirteen quotes for my 40th birthday
What's your favourite? |
Monday, September 01, 2008
Awards!
I'm honoured to accept this beautiful award from Lady Rose of Stir The Cauldron. Thank you!
Winners of this award are asked to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language. Each award, if possible, should include the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog. Each award winner is asked to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself. Award-winner and the one who has given the prize are also asked to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
My five picks are:
- Leanne Wildermuth: Artist By Nature
- Thyme2dream
- Artbeat Inspirations
- Suzie's Sacred Space
- Tales of Magick
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I'm ashamed to admit I don't remember who gave me this award... If it was you, please forgive me! Make yourself known and I'll give you the credit and linky love you deserve!
Here are the rules for this award:
(1) Put the logo on your blog
(2) Add a link to the person who awarded you
(3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
(4) Add links to those blogs on yours
(5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.
My seven winners are:
- Purrchance To Dream
- Twilight's Muse
- Daisy the Curly Cat
- Miss Peach
- KaTtEnPrAaT's CaTWaLk
- Jeter Harris
- Chica & Pumuckl
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I Love Your Blog Award
I'm proud to be honoured with this award by Mike from Rambling Stuff and Luxor from A White Cat. Thanks, my friends!
These are the rules:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog
2. Link the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours, and
5. Leave a message on the blogs that you've nominated
I'm giving this lovely award to:
- RennyBA's Terella
- Dog's Eye View
- Writer Cramps
- Holy Cuteness
- Stir The Cauldron
- Moongazy Girl
- Magic & Moments at Dragonfly Cottage
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Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Getting fit, Wii Fit!
Some time ago Ron discovered the Wii (esp. Wii Sports) and it was love at first sight! :-) It was inevitable: we had to get one too! We made a 'deal': Ron got his Wii Sports and I got Wii Fit with balance board. I had read a lot about it. The board had to be ordered; it is very popular. Last week we got a call: the no. 1 and 2 on the waiting list didn't answer, so we could come and get it. Yay!

We installed it that same day and I started immediately. There are 4 exercise area's: yoga, muscle, cardio and balance. You can set goals, keep track with graphs and lists, do a body test, etc. It has so much advantages: I can do it in the privacy of my home, do it at my own pace and most important: it's fun! I like exercising this way. Since we have it, I've used the board every day and I plan to keep on doing that. Even if I'm very tired, I try to do at least some exercises taking it easy. There are many to choose from. The guidance of the personal trainers (a male and a female one) is good and clear. I'm not that bad at the yoga and cardio, muscle is very hard and balance varies. I have my favourites, but I try to do all the exercises regularly. I'm really happy I have the Wii Fit! I'll keep you posted about my progress.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
COT #18: Freyja's places
Freyja always wants to sit and sleep in strange places. When she was a kitten, she liked to play and sleep in Boris' trough (feeding bowl?):
When we adopted Maia she came with her own sleeping basket. She hardly ever sleeps in it though. Freyja and Foofur take turns in it, although they both only just fit in it.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Cone of Power
Last week Ara Lowlands had a Ritual Apart Together planned (each at our own home doing the same ritual at the same time in a meditation). Because of my recent health problems the group, together with several people from Phyllis' group in New York, wanted to do a Cone of Power for me. When it was proposed to me, I was ready to trivialise my problems and say it wasn't necessary. My usual pitfall peeped around the corner. But no, not this time! I accepted the offer and looked forward to it. I felt very honoured and happy about it.I went upstairs early to prepare and get myself in the right mood. The music I chose was "Terre Celte"
We made a circle on the meadow west of the temple. I was sitting with my back to the temple, overlooking the sea in the distance. Bagheera was lying behind me, Yin and Yang were sitting on either side of me. We cast the circle from hand to hand, I could see it manifest beautifully. After calling the quarters I invited the goddess Sulis Minerva in our circle to bless us with her healing powers. The God was invited in his guise as Green Man for strength and perseverance.
The Oak Grove grounding exercise was very powerful. My roots made contact with the roots of everyone around me deep in the earth. We all became one and I didn't want to withdraw my roots. I tried to hold on to that wonderful feeling when I finally did withdraw.
I sat down comfortably in the middle of the circle. Around me everyone was preparing. When they held hands I saw the energy pass through the circle and became part of it. After a while everyone picked up their rattles and drums and started walking. Slowly at first, than dancing and finally running around. The energy built up. When one of them gave the sign, the energy reached to me in a shower of splendid colours. It formed an egg of light around and inside me. Sulis Minerva poured a waterfall of green water over the egg. As the energy rushed through me I felt warm and sparkling. The energy I couldn't take up myself I directed into the chakra crystal I was holding. I stayed in the circle for some time to enjoy the energy, warmth and love I felt. Slowly the egg withdrew into my body and the crystal. Wow......
The cake and wine helped me to become grounded again. Especially for me it was chocolate (I'm a chocoholic *lol*) and appel-lemon juice (I don't drink alcohol). Meanwhile we were talking, getting acquainted and exchanging experiences. After a while it was time to say our thanks and close the circle. We danced and chanted on our way down the hill. There we stayed for some time and sat around a fire. Then the "New-Yorkers" walked into the guest hut and we went in our own huts.
Back in my room I just sat and enjoyed the wonderful feelings. I felt reborn, full of energy. I wrote everything in my Ara-book and went downstairs to tell Ron all about it! I felt blessed and loved after this anazing experience.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
TT #88: Entrecard blogs
Thirteen blogs I got to know through Entrecard
Just 13 don't do Entrecard justice. There are so many more interesting blogs - I could make a lot of TT's! Check it out for yourself at Entrecard. You can find some of my favourites here. |
