So, I have cancer.

I found a lump in my right breast on the 28th of February, saw my GP on the 3rd of March, was referred to the breast clinic at the hospital where had a biopsy on the 11th, and got the biopsy results back yesterday afternoon. I have breast cancer, and cancer in one of the … Continue reading So, I have cancer.

Petrol and amphitheatres

Last year I wrote a post about how I was offered this amazing opportunity to work on an unexcavated Roman amphitheatre, why I turned it down, and how I was given a second chance after I realised I’d made one of the stupidest and dumbest mistakes of my life - and no, I’m not exaggerating. … Continue reading Petrol and amphitheatres

Reblog: Help Nicole Cover Emergency Expenses – EmberVoices: Listening for the Vanir

While I haven’t been writing posts here for far too long, for many reasons (most of which are actually bad excuses), I have been keeping up with my WordPress Reader. Hence this reblog and the one previously.

When Freyja came abruptly into my life I relied heavily on Ember, both on her blog posts and on the lovely replies to the flailing emails I sent. And I’ve utilised her blog many times since then as a source of inspiration and guidance. For that alone I’d help boost this signal, but it’s not the main reason – not by a long shot.

This is very much a personal thing for me, even though I don’t know the unnamed friend, or Nicole, and I’m only acquainted with Ember through blogging and emails. It’s not the people – it’s the situation. I was in an abusive relationship for a year and a half, and while I was lucky that it never got this bad, it has left me with a lot of issues and unhealthy coping mechanisms. It’s why I’ve donated to Ember’s appeal for help, and why I donate monthly to Refuge, a UK charity that helps women and children escape abusive relationships of all kinds. It’s a ‘there but for the grace of God go I’ situation twice over for me – what with the abusive relationship in my mid-twenties, and my father being an alcoholic until I started high school when he went into rehab. Because if Dad had been a violent drunk as opposed to an uncoordinated, incoherent, melancholy one…

So yes, this appeal hit home. And while it is a request for funds to repay money already spent, had circumsatnces not been rushed this would have been to raise money to help someone escape an incredibly abusive situation, which is what I still see it as.

And as Ember said, if you can spare even a couple of dollars (or equivalent local currency) that would be awesome, if you can’t but can signal-boost that would also be awesome, and if you can do both that would be awesome too. Awesomeness all round!

EmberVoices: Listening for the Vanir

Hello everyone!

It’s been an absolutely exhausting trial of a year-plus for everyone I know. My households shared a bubble for 14 months of lockdown, which we are cautiously emerging from one step at a time. Everyone I know is facing some kind of personal trial or other, myself absolutely included.

I want to ask your help with one of them, today, please – if you can’t contribute directly, at least share the link along:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-nicole-cover-emergency-expenses

My friend Nicole and I, along with others in Treebridge coven, helped a mutual friend out of an abusive situation. It was handled on very short notice. I handled much of the logistical wrangling, while Nicole dove directly into the fray, hopping on a plane to collect our friend and drive her and her two cats across several states to live in the safer place we found for her.

Nicole floated the cost of…

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Reblog: So, Neech died. – Strip Me Back to the Bone

Reblogging because Jo and Beth are lovely people, and because personalised story from a wonderful writer, and because I had to have my cat put down when he suffered a stroke so know what they’re going through.

Strip Me Back to the Bone

Neech died. This isn’t Ode to Neech — that’s coming, really, but I want to get pictures to go along with it, and looking at the pictures right now is that sort of painful that I just can’t bare to share yet. I’m here asking for help in offsetting the cost of the emergency vet visit ($349) and the end of life emergency vet visit ($350) (priority #1, because I want those remains back stat.) Am I nervous about having just relocated across the country, become unemployed, and then have unexpected vet bills crop up? I mean, what’s scary about $700 in vet bills when you’re out of work? Hooray adventure!

ahem

(This was not the adventure I was hoping for.)

So I’m here asking for help, and offering my favorite thing of value, something I love, and something I’m fairly good at: stories. Want a story? Cuz I’ll write…

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Regarding Freyja, the Eight of Coins, and putting in the hard work.

What with Fridays being Freyja's Day, I try and do something for/with Her on that day. Emphasis on the word 'try', because most weeks I seem to fail miserably at either doing a tarot reading or using one of my sets of Freyja-related devotional beads. I know I can do things like that on other … Continue reading Regarding Freyja, the Eight of Coins, and putting in the hard work.