December 30th... A nod to Libra but not really ... as an influence for the

New Moon September 11 - October 8, 2026

because Libra is really September 23 - October 22nd - it's now 12 days off - More like Virgo-Libra...

THIS YEAR, WE HAD A NEW MOON ON THE WINTER SOLSTICE!!!

I think I will switch to TREES as the influence...Vine Moon...& Ivy Moon...

Today my influences was that I baked Sourdough... using this high altitude recipe...
(see below)

and it never congealed into real dough - it was always "the Blob" - and then it refused to go into the Dutch Oven inside the Parchment Paper... it kind of leaped out and went directly into the Dutch Oven... and then I had to rebake it at a higher temperature to get it to finish...I prayed all the way through and burned my thumb - again - but it still tastes really good!

And my cat - who wanted to go out - but was grounded from his escapade outside for 24 hours! Now he is asleep finally after bugging me on and off all day to go out.

Black Canson Mixed Media Paper 11" x 14" with Acrylic, Monoprint on Gel Plate

According to the poet and scholar Robert Graves in his book The White Goddess (Faber & Faber, 1988), the thirteen major consonants of the Ogham alphabet equated to the thirteen lunar months that occur in a year, forming a calendar of seasonal tree magic

From the book, Enter the Wildwood, by Theresa Delbridge...

"The Celtic Ogham alphabet was discovered,according to legend, by Ogmios, God of writing. This script encoded the wealth of tree knowledge believed to have been possessed by the Druids,
and it is still attended by mystery and controvery. Ogham was inscribed on
stone and wood, and may well be pre-Celtic in origin. Each stroke of the
Ogham script corresponds to a letter in the alphabet, and represents the first
letter of the corresponding tree. The listing given here includes trees and
plants held especially sacred by the Druids, as explained by Philip Carr-
Gomm in The Druid Tradition (Element, 1991)."