Greetings and Salutations All & A Happy New Year!!
I bet a few of you have hangovers today hahaha - a few parties and few too many drinks later!
Did you make any New Year's resolutions?
We spent our New Year's Eve at home, nothing special really - I managed to clean out my Greenhouse of all plants and give it a good sweep through. We then sat under the gazebo and Paul wrote a couple of new guitar tracks, so we listened to him and sang along whilst I was repotting a fern and ripping up cardboard/paper for composting. Caetlyn was doing her knitting (swearing a lot because she miss counted or dropped a stitch... hahaha) and Mavis the dog was just following anyone around to see if she could help or sleeping under the table!
Later in the day we just had a normal meal, watched a bit of telly and then played scrabble until it was time to wish each other a HAPPY NEW YEAR. We did consume a lot of sweets and biscuits/cookies though - which we con't normally do as we have reduced our sugar and salt intake over 2024 quite substantially, so when we have a burst of sugar like this, it does disrupt our bodily patterns somewhat!
As it was also the New Moon, a time to start something new, a fresh beginning as it is the start of the new moon cycle. I did light my huge candle and some incense to welcome in the new year - however, I don't really get excited about it because our (witchy) new year isn't until Samhain on 1st May.
This year in the Chinese Horoscope it is the year of the Wood Snake (which means it's Paul's year this year). That doesn't come into effect until 29th January 2025.
Thinking of 2025 - I do hope that this year will be a better year than the previous 3 years, which have been a bit rough - and even though I do not make resolutions (as I am always disappointed in myself when they all fall apart), there are a few things (goals perhaps?) I would like to do:
1. Keep trying to get fitter and healthier - as I am getting older I need to make sure that I maintain my flexibility and fitness levels so that I don't end up on the "Medication Merry-go-Round". I believe that Mother Nature has provided us with all the help we need in the forms of herbs and food for medicine. I have created a spreadsheet for the next 6 months with every detail I need to form an opinion on patterns (good or bad) so that I can tweak my fitness progress:
 |
| Front Page of my Fitness Plan |
I have included things like exercise, rest, daily health assessments, supplements taken, fortnightly weight and monthly body measurements. With this information I should be able to see what progress I am making, and if I am not making progress, I should be able to see where I am failing with all the collected information. I also have a page for NOTES after each month and on there - well it's like a journal - I put my feelings on certain days so I can see if there are any cycles or patterns there.
It should be all very interesting!!
2. I would like to progress my YouTube channel by varying the content on there, hoping I will get more followers (but if I don't, ah well C'est Lavie), I will still have fun documenting my journey in life...
 |
| My YouTube Banner Annette McLean's YouTube |
3. I would like to learn how to make my own soap - from scratch - right now I have done the melt and pour soap, and I am about to embark on the reusing the old soap bits that usually get thrown away - to make soap bars... but I would really love to learn how to make pure soap from scratch, using the oils I have infused with herbs and flowers from my garden. I am a bit wary about the Lye though - I have heard that can be quite a thing to get used to!!
 |
| Melt & Pour Lavender Soap |
4. I want to repaint and redecorate my witchy room come office.... I want to make it feel more mystical and magickal, full of beautiful things that make me feel peaceful and joyful.
 |
| My messy work desk and Altar |
 |
| My witchy cupboards and a load of mess |
 |
| My bookshelves filled with odds & sods (mess) |
However, if I don't get to these things this year - there is always a next, I am not going to be putting undue pressure on myself just to prove a point.
To do my room I will probably have a month off in either April or May so that I can take my time and get it how I want it.
Isn't it lovely to have a new year, a fresh start? To get rid of ALL the negative aspects out of your life (as much as possible - unless you live in a cottage deep in the heart of a wild forest somewhere, where nobody visits and you have no media to drag you down, just nature) and just breathe a sigh of relief, knowing YOU are in FULL control of what happens in your life - sure, those around you or situations can influence that and how you react, but at the end of the day - YOU are the one who makes the decisions for YOU!!
Take control of that aspect this year - say NO more to things that you don't want to do - even at the risk of upsetting someone you love or the boss at work!
This year is a time of YOU
Now you might think that this is self-centred... and maybe it is to a point, but we have all been living under a man made stress for so long despite our mental and physical health. Self Care is NOT self-centred, it is hard to be everything to everyone if your health is on the brink of crumbling around you.... To be strong, you NEED to concentrate on getting YOU right FIRST. That is why NO is going to be the word of 2025....
If you don't want to go to a party and you would rather stay home in your PJ's with your cat/dog, watching something on TV or reading a book - then say NO.
If you don't want to take on more responsibility at work, tell them that you don't have the capacity to do that - say NO.
If you have a gut feeling that something isn't right and you don't want to proceed - then NO!!
It just amounts to prioritising YOU first.
Anyway, enough of me ranting - I'm off to spend some time in nature (my back garden), so have a lovely first day of January 2025 - get some rest, eat well, spend some time in nature and breathe in all that goodness, and I will catch you in the next blog or vlog on YouTube.
Blessings to you all )O( xxx
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
