The Future Just Called

and it wants it's promise back

I like to say "Houseleek" because it sounds wet and sharp and pungent. This plant goes by other names as well but I don't know any of them except it's Latin name: Sempervivum Tectorum. Houseleeks can be used the same way the Aloe Vera can, sharing many of the same cooling and astringent properties, as a poultice for burns. They can also be applied to the forehead for migraines and feverish headaches. They are growing in the future for me where this snap shot was taken. Aloe Vera doesn't grow outside here so this is a great alternative.

I don't know how often I'll find myself grinding up the leaves for cold poultices, but I know I'll be saying it's name all the time, just for the keen satisfaction of hearing it ring around in my head. Some words are like that. I like how it could be misheard as "How Sleek". Or as "house leak" which is so much more calamitous than thinking of mild onions and succulent cool crushable leaves.

There is a cornucopia of wonderfully fragrant and amusing plant names in my Culpepper Herbal such as: Hound's Tongue, Goutweed, Dropwort, Clown's Woundwort*, Root Of Scarcity**, and Scurvy Grass. I could say those names all day. How excellent to let the names of things say something solid about their usefulness.

Today I deliver tax papers. Papers I labored over all night. I hate doing taxes. It forces me to look at how bad I am at organizing my life, at sorting and dealing with the incessant paperwork that living guarantees us in this country. Especially if you have your own business. I shake the depressing aura by saying "Houseleek" over and over and over.

The good thing is that I can now move on to the next thing. The next segment of the immediate future that I'm allowed to step into just as it becomes the present. I am living day to day right now. It's a little tense around here. Things haven't gone quite as planned so our comfort level has been reduced quite a lot, quite suddenly. Still, I have the sense that it's all going to come out right in the end. I hope I'm not horribly mistaken. I've been horribly mistaken before.

The kittens are getting bigger in their confinement. The bare patches on Penny's face are filling in with new whiskers and fur. Her scabs are gone. She doesn't purr as much as Pippa does. Penny is more like Max, a bit wild and frisky and funny. Last night she purred for me and it was so wonderful to see her face looking so bright and clean and healthy and to hear her motor kick in. It took all my strength not to nuzzle up to her. Pippa is clearly going to be my forever baby. She purrs the minute she sees me and would obviously prefer to snuggle up than to play- so it's making me crazy not to be able to indulge her sweet sweet nature and snuggle. Penny will hunt and get rodents and Pippa will hunt and bring us earth worms. I can tell already.

We had another good day yesterday- in spite of all the chaos around here and my stress- Max got to go to another friend's house to play for a few hours and got lots of fresh air and fun. Then Max and I went out to dinner just the two of us and drew pictures and chatted. Then we snuggled while watching some Poirot. Then I put in a few hours of work on taxes. That was not fun. But I was satisfied that my boy didn't spend all day playing video games.

It's raining and I'm still in my pyjamas. I am going to go crawl into bed with Max for a little snuggle before taking a bath and getting on with the day which must include a lot of boxes and crap. I'll take this quiet moment to snuggle in. How about you?




*Really? Clown's have their own special healing plant? Does it remove their awful awful awful make-up? Does it magically transform them into something less depressing?

**Otherwise known as the Mangel beet which my book considers only fit for feeding to livestock which I find fascinating since it is enjoying a renaissance as a gourmet vegetable right now.