Hello and Happy New Year 2026

Hello my lovely Green Guru's, Magical Folk and Mystical Creatures,

I hope you had a wonderful end to the 2025 year, and that your start of 2026 has been so far - Bloody FABULOUS.

It's been a hot minute since I put finger to keyboard and had a catch up chat (in writing) with you all so I thought it was about time I did, especially seeing this is my first post of 2026.

Not to be a total downer - but...... (WARNING: My miseries are following)

Our end of 2025 was a bit of a fizzle as none of us were feeling well or in the mood for Christmas/New Year celebrations - even my Litha celebrations were rather lame - I did manage to make a twisted loaf in celebration, which we all enjoyed - but that was about it....

I even missed the Full Moon on 3rd January - so nothing was done for that either...

I have not been well at all, always sad and exhausted (go to bed tired, not having a good night's sleep, waking up more exhausted than you went to bed).

My stomach has felt very bloated and inflamed and my IBS has flared up which makes you feel like your body is toxic.  You just hurt all the time.

I must admit I have eaten WAY TOO MUCH chocolate (Maybe I should join Chocoholics Anonymous.......    Hello - My name is Annette and I am a Chocoholic...   it's been 4 hours since my last chocolate...   hahaha), which no doubt has caused most of my stomach issues. So hence my weight has gone up to a whopping 73.2 kilos.... which for my height, is bad for my back.... and my self image is at an all time low as nothing looks good on me and everything feels wrong.

I had a week off work for my birthday and all I did was rest - and I still felt exhausted when I went back to work.  I wondered if this is what 65 years old looks like - a permanently exhausted pigeon.

2025 was a bit of a hard year for me - physically, emotionally, spiritually, work wise and health wise as well.  It was kind of a bad year for all the family really ~ Paul got very sick in August with his Heart, and he has taken precedence over everything else, as he is the most important person in my life and I don't want to lose him.  Caetlyn who had laser eye surgery a few years ago is getting cataracts in both eyes again and will need surgery to remove them, she also suffered with sinus issues for the last 6 months and finally went to the doctor to get something for it.  Poor Mavis hasn't been for an actual walk since we all got unwell, she is very difficult to walk at the best of times as she wants to attack everything and is like a bull at a gate, pulling on the lead - we haven't been able to break her of those habits yet.  We try to play with her to keep her happy.

My garden is a mess.  All the things I tried to grow have either been eaten by birds or rats, or have died in the heat because I have not had the energy to do anything about it.  My work life is very stressful as we negotiate systems that do not work well together with the demands of the people both in and outside of the organisation.  I have not had any time (or energy) to do any witchcraft or work on my spiritual side either, and I have not had the time (or inclination)  to exercise. And whilst my house doesn't smell, housework has taken a backseat - everywhere could use a good dust, but that will come in time...

The summer heat is making me miserable too as it is too hot for me to go outside and garden, I can do it for around 10 minutes and then I start to feel nauseous and giddy.... I can't wait for Autumn.

I feel like a hollowed out husk, out of energy, out of the will to do anything about it, ready to be blown away by the next windy day.

SO after all that whinging I hear you say "Well, what are you going to do about it?"..

I dunno - maybe moan, whinge and complain more??? (LOL).

For the last month I have been off of all my socials as well - no Blogspot, no Instagram and no YouTube, and I must say - I have thoroughly enjoyed it... I am thinking of getting rid of Instagram as I went on there yesterday to see if I had missed anything and found myself feeling very depressed after 15 minutes....

I have tried to put together a video for my YouTube channel - but I can't seem to get enthused about it - I know there is another channel on there that wants to collaborate with me this year, but I don't know if I have the "right stuff" to see that through.  My channel hasn't got many followers - after 2 years I only have 74 followers, hardly any views on my videos and I don't get very many comments at all - I have to wonder if all that hard work is really worth it, do I really have anything worth saying - or more importantly, are people even interested in what I have to say - do I need to come up with a new angle? 

I don't know - I guess I am questioning everything at the moment...

I do know one thing that is going to make me immensely happy this year - RETIREMENT...

YES - I will be retiring from work on 30th June 2026... I have worked since 1976, and I think 50 years is long enough to dedicate to working and paying taxes in this life, I want to see if I can enjoy the time I have left on this beautiful earth before it's my time to pop off...

I am SO looking forward to that I can tell you (retiring - not popping off).

Hmmm well - Looking back on this travesty of a blog I must try to do something to get myself in a better place - any suggestions?

I don't know if any of you lovely readers have been in this situation before - or are going through the same or a similar thing right now... let me know in the comments below.

I know I DO want to feel better, I know I HAVE to sort out my priorities especially for where my health is concerned - it's just a daunting task when you are too tired to get enthused! Anxiety hits a new high when you feel overburdened and overwhelmed with the things life throws at you.

Sorry about all this - I basically had to get this off my chest so I can start to heal, I think acknowledging your faults and/or issues is the first step to going in a positive direction - then the only way is UP.

Anyhoo - thank you for sticking with me and listening to me whinge... I promise this will be the last time for a long while and normal blogging will return next week with herbal and flower profiles (which I have been working on).

I DO hope you are all doing well, that you are happy, healthy and kicking life in the balls.

Until next time,

Many blessings to you all....

Annette )O( xxx

Garden Vlog - 5th 8th August 2025 - The weather, Jobs to do, Sunshine an...

Hey hey beautiful people,

How are you all going today?

This week is just a little catch up with me in the garden - from the grey and rainy start to the week, to finish with a nice Spring like day in the sunshine.

Just another chat and a cup of tea, to tell you what is happening in my world and to show you a couple of items that I have bought.

Please enjoy this video and give it a thumbs up if you like it, plus hit the subscribe button and notification bell, to get more of my content.

Have a great week ahead,

Many Blessings,

Annette )O( xxx

Gloomy's Garden & Witchery - Garden Vlog # 18 26 31st May 2025

Hi my Little Lovelies,

Wow - what a week it has been.  Not the best week to end my holidays on, but there you go:

As I say in the video, I don't know when I will be able to do another garden video due to work - but we will see, you never know!!

I hope you enjoy it my lovelies - ALSO there is a herbal remedy one up as well if you want to take a look at that one - all to do with Four Thieves Vinegar...

Have a great week and I will catch you next time!!

Blessings to you all,

Annette )O( xxx

Gloomy's Garden & Witchery - Garden Vlog # 17 (20th 24th May)

Hello Everyone,

Just following through with another gardening video for my third week of my holidays - it can be viewed here on my YouTube Channel:

Don't forget to like and subscribe as this really helps my channel grow, and just like a garden, I am planting the seeds in hope that the internet gods will be kind to me and grow my channel into a flourishing community of like minded individuals who cherish Mother Earth in ALL her glory.

So tell your gardening or witchy friends about my channel, hell - tell your neighbour, your grocer or even your pool guy hahaha..... just kidding, I really do want to grow this channel so I can keep making videos - my channel isn't monetised, I am not in it for that - it's just to show you all what I do in my garden and witchcraft practice, plus my herbal remedies, my sewing and crochet projects and any other things that I can come up with along the way - it's a Journey, and I hope you will come along with me on it!!

Anyway, I have one more week of holidays left and if I do not win x lotto, I will have to go back to work on the 2nd June.

I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead.

Blessings,

Annette )O( xxx

Garden Vlog # 16

Hello my lovelies,

Here is just a quick catch up video of what is happening in the gardens at the moment.

I am on holidays, and have another 2 weeks off - so hopefully I will be able to do a couple more videos before I have to go back - maybe a more witchy one!!

I hope you are all doing well and I hope to catch up with you all soon.

Blessings to you all,

Annette )O( xxx

Gloomy's Garden & Witchery - GardenVlog # 15 ~ 1st - 4th May 2025

Hello my Green Thumbed Guru's,

I hope you are all keeping well....

I have done another Garden Vlog on my YouTube channel, just to keep you in touch with what is happening in my little part of the world..

Please leave a comment and tell me what you are up to...

Also, if you like the type of videos I am doing, please feel free to like and subscribe - I am trying to build my channel up, but don't have the algorithms working for me yet to get me out to the millions of folk out there in cyber land.

Your help with this would be greatly appreciated!!

Anyhoo - here is the video....

Enjoy,

And I look forward to catching up with you all soon.

Cheers for now,

Annette )O( xxx

Gloomy's Garden - Vlog # 14 - Easter

Hello my lovelies,

HAPPY EASTER if you are celebrating..

I have another Garden Vlog Catch-up thingy video on my YouTube channel...

I hope you will enjoy it!!

Catch you next week,

Annette )O( xxx

Autumn in South Australia 2025

Hello my little Magickal Unicorns, 

Well here it is the 15th of March and we are supposed to be in Autumn now. 

Mabon is upon us next Friday (21st - is usually when I celebrate), and nobody has told the weather that it is no longer summer. 

We have 39 degrees Celsius today, so I am sitting in my witchy room under the fan - trying desperately to keep cool. I'm not a fan of the heat. I used to be when I was younger - pre going through menopause. But now I love the cooler months (still not liking the heart of winter when it is too cold hahaha).

Spring is my ultimate favourite season - when everything starts to burst forward with life. Secondly is Autumn (if one should ever get an Autumn that is) then I guess I would have to then take Winter over Summer. 

I find the heat of Summer drains the energy out of me - most days all I can do outside is water my gardens.... and then.... collapse!!! For me, it is easier to keep warm than it is to keep cool - yes we can put the air-conditioner on, but that dries the air out and causes breathing difficulties (though it is nice at night when it is still in the high 20's and you need to sleep). 

Just a quick catch-up - So this year - 2025 - is there any signs of Autumn yet? 

Yes there are - even though most of my garden is still quite green (other than the plants that have died in the extreme heat we have had), some of the leaves are starting to turn yellow. The trees are a bit confused though as they are starting to bud!! 

We have not had any rain for 4 months now, so I lost a lot of plants even though I have watered sometimes twice a day to keep them alive. 

Some of my produce I grew this year was disappointing - small and bitter. And everything in my top garden beds just turned up toes and died there maybe something wrong with the soil up there, so I am going to do some testing and amending of soil, plus put in some green manure to grow over winter - just so those beds will be ready for Spring planting. 

My greenhouse is still WAY TOO HOT to start any seeds off yet - it's going to be late planting this year.  

On Sunday there will be another Gloomy's Garden Vlog coming out with a little tour of my garden and all its issues.... I hope you enjoy a sneak peak into my garden world. 

PLUS - hopefully, if all the stars align, I will have a witchcraft video out for you the very next weekend to do with Mabon...

My Autumn Altar 2025

Until then - I am just about to go and process my pomegranates (which we harvested a couple of weeks ago and had so many that we have fed 6 families with them), so I can make some apple & pomegranate jam.  Plus I am hoping to save some of the peels to dry them out for tea making purposes.

I hope all is well wherever you are.

Have a blessed week ahead, thanks for catching up with me today!! 

Annette )O( xxx

Gloomy's Garden - Vlog 11 - End of Summer Catch-up

Hi Everyone,

Just another Gloomy's Garden Vlog for end of summer...

I hope you enjoy it!!

Looking back at 2024 and what is new for 2025, (Last BLOG of the year)

 Greetings all,

Merry Christmas Eve 🌲🔆🌟🔥

What a year 2024 has been!!

I was going to write about what a crap year it has been, but I didn't want to leave a whole bunch of negativity here, there is so much of it in the world these days that I don't want to encourage it here on this platform, so I have taken a "well needed" step back to reflect on the year that was, and found that there were a few things that threw the curve ball at us - like losing our beloved Rudy boy, ongoing health issues, work issues etc - but there were also good things as well, like enjoying nature, the garden and adopting our Mavis from the Animal Welfare League...

Mavis and I doing a selfie...

Whilst work has given me the absolute heebee-geebees (I cleaned that up pretty nicely!!!), I was blessed  to have a whole month off in September - part of my long service leave - and in that month we redecorated parts of the house, did some planting in the garden, relaxed and just enjoyed life.

My home life has been great, we have it good, and are very grateful for what we have as we know we are in a good position financially and do not want for anything in particular (we haven't always been there so we know it is a hell of a good place to be in) and what with my garden coming to life in spring and summer, good food and also benefitting from a daily witchcraft practice. 

We do all have our moments of depression or sadness, which has only been so predominantly around us since we have had the C Virus shots in 2022 (I know, I sound like a broken record - but honestly, if I knew then what I know now - I would NEVER have got them).  We all struggle on a daily basis - sometimes we feel good - other times we feel ill, and very, very exhausted (we can have a good night's sleep and wake up SO tired) but it's nothing you can put your finger on and honestly - the Doctors are no good in this situation because they do not know anything but taking a guess at what's wrong and loading you up with pharmaceutical drugs, which cause more harm than good - and we do not want to go down that Merry-Go-Round.  Most of the time we all suffer from varying issues - differing body aches and pains, headaches, earaches, itches, migraines, constipation, diarrhoea and just an overwhelming sadness that prevails even when things are going splendidly.  It feels as though your very soul is too heavy to carry around - Sometimes it is very hard just to get up of a morning...

We are trying to keep off of junk food, sugary items, salty items and cooking things with too many oils - eating healthier foods and getting adequate exercise and rest to see if we can combat these issues and bring in a change of good health.

To try to conquer these feelings -most mornings I light my candles on my altar, light some nice incense to cleanse my space and pull an oracle card for the day.  It has been very insightful, and has helped me gain a wee bit of confidence in my abilities as a witch.  It helps me focus for the day and gives me some sort of calmness before all the madness begins (especially my work day!)

I have also started to 'craft' things and was able to make a few witchy items for a friend that was moving interstate - I made her a goodie spell bag with lots of things in it, like a protection jar spell, a protection sigil, some herbal tea, some bath salts and soap (all crafted by me), some seeds for her garden when she gets established (Sunflower and Calendula from my garden) - she was so happy with it all....

I have been making more of a connection with my plants and insects in my garden too (yes I talk to them hahaha) - which shows as the garden is looking very lush and green

Looking through the portal....

I purchased a new greenhouse this year as my old one kind of got demolished in the very strong winds we have had this year (and continue to do so):

Gloomy's Greenhouse....

I will be doing a product review of the new greenhouse on my YouTube channel in 2025 - so stay tuned for that one if you are thinking of getting one of these types of greenhouses - (there have been many learning curves with this one) - so maybe you will learn some tips and tricks!!

Speaking of YouTube and my channel, I started uploading Gloomy's Garden Vlogs in 2024 - something I spent many years wanting to do but didn't have the courage, I thought I was too ugly, fat, old etc and could think up any excuse not to do videos.  Then one day I thought "why not", other people do it and they are just themselves, I could do that too... I have started out doing a VLOG every so often and am up to #9 at the moment.

I wish to keep doing more videos in 2025, but expanding the repertoire to not only do garden vlogs, but to do other things such as monthly herbalism posts, Q&A's, Product reviews, Herbal Remedies, Health Tips and Tea & Chat type scenarios.  So if you are interested in any of this - please hop over to my YouTube channel and Hit that SUBSCRIBE button and the bell notification so you are advised when I put a new video up - Hopefully I will get a few more followers, I think I have around 20 at the moment.  I have to wonder how people get hundreds of thousands of followers!!!???!!!

Gloomy's YouTube Channel

I will also be doing a book give away in late January 2025 - as I received a book from a relative for my birthday, but I already have it, so I thought a nice give away would be great.  I will advertise it on Instagram and YouTube - the proviso is that you have to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel to go into the draw.  After a month, I will do a video of the drawing of the name - hopefully with my trusty Super-Hubby sidekick, and then make someone feel good about themselves for getting a free book!  I will advise when I have that all organised so you can follow the links and put your name in if you want 😁

So there are a lot of plans for the future of my YouTube channel in  2025!!

In the meantime, I have two weeks annual leave and we still have around 7 days left in 2024 - Christmas Day is tomorrow - we will have our own little celebration as we are not Christians, so we will do something Witchy and make good food and just be together with our pupster Mavis.

What ever you are doing or celebrating, I hope you have a wonderful time and feel very blessed that you made it through another year, looking forward to the new year ahead.

Until next year my friends,

Blessings and Good Health to you all,

An Irish Blessing

Cheers,

Gloomy )O( xxx

Let's have an end of Winter/ partly through Spring catch up....I'm on holidays!!

 Hello everyone and blessings to you all....

It seems as though I am pretty useless at keeping track of my time, and once again it seems as though I have neglected to post more blogs this year....

Winter has come and gone and now we are in the midst of the start of Spring (though the weather lately has been more Winter than Spring), the buds on the trees are bursting, blossoms are abundant on the fruit trees and everything in the gardens seem to be plodding along quite nicely, even after the neglect that I have given them.

You see, this Winter we suddenly lost our beloved Rudy - one minute he was fine and chasing magpies in the back garden then the next day, he died.  It was a traumatic time for us all and it took weeks for us all to stop crying - we loved him greatly and neither I or my family were ready to say goodbye to our special guy... but nature has a way of taking it's course doesn't it?

This is the last picture I took of Rudy on 18th June 2024.

There was a period of a month where the house was just so quiet and all we could do was miss our boy, talk about him and cry a LOT.... we were just SO sad...

Hubby decided he couldn't take it anymore so we discussed rescuing another dog, we started searching the RSPCA and AWL sites for likely candidates.  We got Rudy from the RSPCA when he was approximately 5 years old and we had him for 8 1/2 years before he passed - so I said I wanted a younger dog so that we had more years to love them (I know that doesn't always work out, but all of our dogs have been 13+ before they passed over the rainbow bridge - so I was going on that).

We then found a 2 year old little brindle Staffy x Shar Pei called Mavis that seemed to suit us - we went to the AWL to see her and instantly fell in love - bought her home and boy, is she ever a bundle of energy.

Meet Miss Mavis Bramston "Wiggle-Butt" McLean aka Mavey-Wavey full of Gravy:

She is a terror on 4 legs hahaha - very excitable, very puppy'ish, but learns very quickly.  She doesn't like other dogs or cats (we seem to always get those type!!) and chases birds in the garden (so there goes my hope of eventually getting chickens hahaha!!).

She is going through the terrible two's at the moment - but it's all a learning experience for both her and us.  Mavis has bonded to Paul and he is her favourite Hooman!! (she gets jealous if Caetlyn or I get too near her Hooman - and herds us away) She loves to dig in the garden, so I have had to put a guard around my new apricot tree, so she wouldn't dig it up - she also tried to dig out the peach tree, which I have successfully put a load of compost around and tried to rescue it LOL.  I have made a spot in the garden for her to dig her heart out!

Speaking of the garden - I am amazed that things are still alive as I haven't really been hands on a lot of the time.

A mixture of Mandarin tree, Thyme, Calendula and Juniper

I had to pull my cauliflowers out as they went to seed and some got eaten by critters in the garden, I also had to pull out the kale as it was infested with scale - which is too hard to get off, so I just got rid of the whole lot.  We did get some food out of it, a couple of cauli's, broccoli and kale plus one small cabbage that hadn't rotted to it's core.  A few swede and beetroot, some carrots, lettuce, spinach and snow peas.. so there has been some success.  I have planted out my spring seeds late July and they have been up-potted in my greenhouse - can't plant them out yet as the weather is still too cold at night, I don't want to risk losing them.

Our bathroom being painted

  

I started my month long holidays on the 1st September and we have been painting a couple of rooms in the house to make it more colourful - it is now the 26th September and I have another 6 days before I go back to work... but my holiday has been quite full and I haven't even gotten into the garden much yet, except the occasional weeding frenzy and watering/fertilising the herbs and plants.

    

Our Fairy Hallway

          

Or Fairy Lane... as we call it!!

I did a mini Herbal Energetics course with Rosalee De La Foret, who is one of the leading herbalists in the world today - which was lovely and just reminded me why I grow herbs (not just for medicine and wellbeing, but also for the witchcraft side of things too). I got a lot of good information out of it and spoke to a lot of nice people in the course community as well.

I also bought myself some new clothes - a couple of dresses for summer, a skirt and top, and a pair of jeans. Plus a new Book to read - How does it feel? by Jeneane O'Riley. It's about an environmental  biologist Callie Peterson, who finds herself falling through a fairy portal in the woods and ends up in the realm of the Unseelie Fae - with a Prince Mendax who wants to kill anything human, he wants to be rid of her so he challenges her to three deadly trials - if she survives, she gains her freedom - if she doesn't...... His wrath is only the beginning. I only started it two days ago and I am three quarters of the way through - quite a good read so far...  I can only presume she survives as there is another book in the series, plus one being written at the moment.

I was supposed to be getting my health in order and making myself exercise to get a bit fitter - first day of my holidays I hurt my ankle (pffft - always happens when I have holidays, it's like my body goes "OK everyone off their feet for a few days!!").

So yeah - it's been an interesting, sad and happy few months of winter and early spring.

I might even do another YouTube video on how the garden is progressing soon - but don't hold your breath - I am pretty dreadful at doing all these social media type of things aren't I???

Anyway, if you have made it this far without falling to sleep - thank you!!

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Until next time,

Annette (& Mavis) xxx