Do Ye Know "The Wellerman"?

[Hand-painted miniature of 

HRH the Pirate Queen

© Anne O'Leary, 2012]

Avast, ye swabs, aye, 'tis me, 

Her Royal Highness the Cat, 

Pirate Queen and Scourge of the Seven Seas!

A mighty sea shanty called "The Wellerman"

has been taking teh interwebs by storm for the past month.

This phenomenon started with a video of one guy singing

a cappella. His video was then modified by other video fans

who later added bass lines, harmonies, and fiddle music!

And I got in on the act too!

I love this shanty so much, me hearties, that I actually had a bath, 

cleaned myself up, and joined in right at the end of this video!

Now, if I were a pedantic bore like my tiresome human, 

I'd explain the meaning of all these odd lyrics, 

but lucky for you I'm not. 

However, if you do want to know more, go watch 

the first two-and-a-half minutes of 

this video right here for an explanation.

Alas, my landlubber human has completely

gone off the deep end over this song and has

obtained the sheet music so she can learn to play it.

An intervention is necessary and 

I'm just the cat who can do it.

January Full Moon Altar: Lakshmi

My first altar of the new year honours Lakshmi, Hindu Goddess of Abundance. She confers wealth and all the good things of life -- everything that money can and cannot buy. The way to honour Lakshmi is to display gratitude and thankfulness for what she has already given us, not to complain about or focus on what we lack.

Her sacred colours of red and gold are reflected in the red satin altar cloth, the white candles wrapped with gold ribbon and the gold (chocolate) coins which surround her.  Two tarot cards complete the altar, each one being the Nine of Pentacles, often called the "Plenty Card." The left card is from the Morgan-Greer deck and the right is from the Triumph of Life deck.

A friend gave me this lovely statue of Lakshmi about 12 years ago. She had bought it at an auction, thinking she was buying only one statue but then discovered she had, in fact, bought a case lot of twelve! Talk about abundance! So she had a lot of them to give away, LOL! I wrote a poem about it which you can read here, if you want.

May Lakshmi shower us all with abundance this year and every year!

But don't worry, she is firmly opposed to any spread of Covid-19 abundance, because it is most certainly NOT a good thing of life.

[Photo of Lakshmi Altar © Debra She Who Seeks, January 2021]

Och Aye, It's Robbie Burns Day!

And always remember . . . .

The Best "Cold Bernie" Meme EVER

This has won the internet.

Thank you and good day.

Full Moon Altars: Introduction

I had so much fun in December creating my Winter Solstice Altar that I've decided to continue making new monthly altars as a kind of spiritual practice. Now that I'm no longer facilitating my drumming circle and my favourite local labyrinth has ceased being available for walking, I'm feeling the need for another outlet through which to focus these energies.

Each monthly altar will have a theme built around an aspect of the Divine Feminine or a spiritual value of some description. And I'm just bursting with ideas! Also, bursting with Goddess statues -- I'm a collector and currently have about 75 to choose from. I won't run out for a while, LOL!

I intend to post a photo and description of each altar on that month's Full Moon. So January's altar will be posted next Thursday, but I just wanted to give a little introduction first as to what I am doing in this new blog series.

May Sanity Prevail Once More

Happy Inauguration Day, America!

Whose Side Would Captain America Be On?

[First edition comic,

March 1941]

And now here's an updated 

first edition comic cover

created by Jon Wesley Huff --

Remember This Little Guy?

My Nordic gnome objected very strenuously to being put away until next December. He wanted to remain out and about, so I had to find a new household job for him to perform, in order to prevent him from simply running amok making mischief. Wrangling Christmas cards is a seasonal task only.

Therefore, he is now the Permanent Official Guardian of The Big Basket of Cushions in the living room and has settled into his new responsibilities quite well.

And he is no longer nameless. Because of his rather magnificent beard, he has proudly taken the moniker of: 

Fearsome the Fierce! 

He chose this name because he is a great admirer of the blog Fearsome Beard and checks out the featured "Beard of the Day" regularly, if you know what I mean.

[photos © Debra She Who Seeks, 2020 & 2021]

Thursday Art Date With Rain: "Birds and the Sky"

Rain's art theme for this week 

inspired me to finally finish 

one of my long-neglected assignments 

from the "Art of Coloured Pencils" 

class I took in the Fall of 2019.

Our subject was a cheery little warbler 

of some description or another 

(hey, I'm no birder, LOL!)

Here's the assignment at 

various stages of completion:

A word about the twigs --

the three completed ones

in this next photo

are meant to be bold, clear

and in the foreground.

All the rest are meant to

be fuzzy, indistinct

and in the background.

I'll let you judge whether I 

successfully accomplished that 

in the final version.

This is where I left off --

And here's the final version,

created from 17 different

colours of Prismacolor pencils.

I'm not thrilled with the background twigs

but I'm happier with them than with that

goddamn leaf beside the bird's body.

It's the worst fuckin' leaf

in the history of leaves

and I ain't lyin'.

But before everyone tells me

I'm too self-critical,

just let me say that

I'm very happy with 

my rendition of the bird

and the foreground twigs.

[Art and photographs © Debra She Who Seeks, 

December 2019 and January 2021]

F.U. Déjà Vu

And of course, HRH must have the last word --

2020 Book Reading TRIUMPH!

After 2019's dismal showing 

of only one (1) book read, 

blogging buddy Old Lurker 

challenged me to up my ante 

to at least my pathetic 2018 level 

of seven (7) books.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

IN FACT, IN 2020 I READ

ELEVEN (11) BOOKS!

I'M BACK, BABY!

So here's the list of books I read in 2020 --

1. Andrew Shaffer, Hope Never Dies: An Obama/Biden Mystery

2. Andrew Shaffer, Hope Rides Again: An Obama/Biden Mystery

3. Liz Hinds, This Time Next Year

4. Rick Riordan, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Ship of the Dead

5. Teemu Selanne with Ari Mennander, Teemus Selanne: My Life

6. Ross Matthews, Name Drop: The Really Good Celebrity Stories I Usually Only Tell at Happy Hour

7. Hiro Arikawa, The Travelling Cat Chronicles

8. Catherine Gildiner, Good Morning, Monster: Five Heroic Journeys to Recovery

9. Jane Routley, Shadow in the Empire of Light

10. Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing

11. Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

BONUS LIST

OF BLOGGING BUDDY

PUBLICATIONS

I READ THIS YEAR!

My book list already mentions 

Liz Hinds' book, This Time Next Year. 

Liz blogs at Finding life hard? 

I also read two short stories

penned by blogging buddies, 

both of which were published in 

2020 anthologies.

All are highly recommended!

1. Louise MacBeath Barbour, "Dare, Double Dare" in Insecure Writer's Support Group Anthology, Voyagers: The Third Ghosts. Louise blogs at Standing Into Danger.

2. Sue Bursztynski, "Red Sky at Morning" in Phyllis Irene Radford (ed.), OZ is Burning. Sue blogs at The Great Raven.

2021 At Last!