I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been feeling something extraordinary and rich in the air and seems to be reflected all around me, quite literally showing up in the outer landscape as it feels within my inner landscape. And I don’t get the sense that it’s just my own experience I’m sensing, but a bigger picture one.

It’s very different and it feels edgy if that makes sense – and I mean edgy in the sense of the definition that means “being at the forefront of a trend, experimental, avant-garde, or unusual in a way that is fashionable and exciting.”

Again, it’s that walking in the in between realm as creatorship is weaving a whole new web of experience into being. Although unknown, it does feel good and today’s blog shares some of the things appearing in this neck of the woods that accompany this feeling.

As always, I may not share all the detailed messaging or symbolism, but perhaps you can intuit that for yourself along the way.

I’ve been sharing and documenting indoor mushroom growing that has been rapidly unfolding in my world. Of the three mushrooms, the Giant Pink Oysters were harvested and enjoyed first and now the second bunch has been too.

I harvested my Lion’s Mane on Friday evening and Saturday’s lunch was another mushroom delight featuring these beauties.

The Latin name for Lion’s Mane is Hericium Erinaceus. Erinaceus happens to mean hedgehog and therefore they are sometimes also called Bearded Hedgehog, which I love. Some other fun names include Monkey Head, Bearded Tooth, and Pom Pom.

I think you can see why from its appearance.

Look how gorgeous and large my Lion’s Mane is. It was easy to twist off the substrate and I do hope that I will get more flushes, as they say you can get 3-4 maybe.

Fingers, toes, and wings crossed.

Lion’s Mane, or hedgie as I love to call it, has both culinary and medicinal uses. I learned that it works fantastic as a faux crab meat, which is awesome for vegans like me. And you can see from the texture above, after I broke some apart, and below in the bowl after I tore off small sections, that it actually does look like it too.

It even feels like crab meat in your hands and has a subtle fishy smell. So, I decided to make a special crab cake meal with it yesterday. The following photos share the process a bit, which was super easy.

I found an online recipe that I tweaked, of course, and look how they turned out.

Dave was actually skeptical, but when he tasted these he loved them, which is a big win since he isn’t that much of a crab cake person in the first place.

I made them in the air fryer once I blended the ingredients and formed them into cake patties. Then placed them on a bed of greens with some air fried potato wedges I coated in nutritional yeast and spices.

I then decided to chop up some sweet pickles and add them on top. They were amazing as is, but I did add a tad of shiitake sesame dressing to the mix.

These were SO good I’m definitely making them again. I still have half of the first harvest so it’s a done deal! Some of them I will also dry and blend into a powder for smoothies and baking.

So far, my experience with both the Pink Oysters and Lion’s Mane “hedgies” is DEE-LISH!

In the meantime, the third mushroom babies, my Reishi (it’s so funny that literally every time I go to time Reishi I type Reiki instead) are coming along great.

Here’s an update on their growth cycle so far. They still have a way to go, but looks like I should have quite a little Reishi forest. Yay!

And speaking of forests, we’ve been drawn to hikes lately that wind through forests along, above, and then down to the lake the last few days.

We loved the area I shared in my last post so much, that we went back to explore more. The following photos are of different little coves and areas we discovered, as we extended our hike along the web of trails.

Everything is just so vibrant and richly layered.

The outcroppings of ancient stones adding extra mystery to the mix.

It’s so beautiful it almost seems surreal.

And then we came upon this little beach, which was pure magick.

Another enchanted cove and sacred pool where of course my socks and shoes flew off so I could refresh and allow the crystalline water to wash over me for a reset.

The water is quite invigorating at this time of year, which is like an activation itself.

It will be warming up as the season goes on, but right now all that snow is adding Jack Frost’s kiss to the liquid silk.

But isn’t this little pool and view just dreamy?

As I mentioned, something feels extraordinary and rich, which is being reflected all around me.

What I feel, I am seeing.

The Tahoe blue waters are like that of tropical destinations, varying in sea green, aqua, turquoise, cerulean, and cobalt shades. They are pinch-me kind of colors that melt your entire being into surrender.

And we are definitely embracing what is showing up in this literal in between time before tourists flock to the area.

Then we set off for more desolate adventures where most people don’t go – always following our own inner navigational pull and creating our own experience and life as we go along.

I feel this is something we each can do relative to our individual desires, path, and creative expressions – become master builders of our experience.

And someone else who is a master builder of their own world is beaver.

We have a family of them not far from the house, along another hike we do on our way to the lake.

They have been expanding the wetlands in this one area and are creating quite the network of waterways. Beavers keep ecosystems healthy and increase biodiversity. You can see the fresh evidence of this family from the photos I took yesterday.

Of the many animals Astrid reminds me of and carries essence of, beaver is one of them. She has similar teeth, loves to chew wood and leaves marks just like this, and even her fur is very beaver in color. She also has the heart of a beaver with her diligent focus and master creatorship.

Beavers speak to the visionary dream makers in all of us and truly speak to that master architect within that we can call upon to make things happen. And since we are building and creating a new on and off Earth experience, the never-give-up-attitude of beaver feels like a potent message to help with that process.

Beavers have astounding foresight to envision what they want to build, are extremely resourceful and find what they need to ensure both the building and sustaining of their life, have the tenacity to round up and grind down the building blocks for their master plan, and then implement a complete change of the entire environment in order to create the vision for their new life, home, and family – in essence they build a whole new world.

Beaver reminds us that we actually have to work at making our dreams a reality. It’s great to have them and imagine what you’d like, but you have to take action in some way to make them real.

I just love that reflection for us all right now.

On this same hike I also found the softest little tuft of black, white, gray, and yellow feathers. They were in a perfect bundle that resembled a soft flame, but the wind had blown them around a bit so this is the photo I ended up with below.

I believe they are from the Western Tanager, one of the birds here that is rare to see with beautiful yellow feathers. I’ve seen one only a few times.

This beautiful song bird carries a feeling of comfort and security, as well as an abundant home and life. I love the duality feather contrast, with the gray area integrated by vibrant yellow tips of optimism, joy, creativity, sunshiny warmth, and possibility.

A song of hope is in the air.

And then I found this transitioned vole – a second deceased animal of recent (remember raven on Spring Equinox?). I seem to always be led to find things, even what is hidden away from the more traveled paths. I’ve found quite a few voles over the course of the last couple of years and its appearance now also carries a message.

Voles speak to destruction and rebirth and so they ask us to look at what we can leave behind, change, and let go of in order to have the dream life and experiences we want.

Like beaver, vole also speaks to our ability to go after our dreams and make them happen, but that we have to actually take steps, use creativity, and persistence in order to move forward. Small steps are just as powerful, as things are a process. Just as the endless tunnels and burrows vole creates underground don’t happen overnight, they will happen if you keep at building and creating.

Remember also that the process is where the magick happens and although we want the end result, don’t forget the fun of creating that happens in every moment along the way there.

Feel the bigger picture, but then enjoy the present and your creative power that is accessible now.

A whole new moment awaits each of us that we can choose to experience from a renewed sense of perspective and perhaps even wonder.

And in the essence of wonder, take a look at this little quartz I found just behind our house when we went for our hike yesterday. It was unassuming and hidden mostly in the dirt, but I was called to it and picked it up.

I took it to the beach with intention to cleanse it in the Tahoe water. And as I sat there immersing it in the invigorating renewal, I was amazed at this little one’s spectacular brilliance.

It was so sparkly with a hint of pinky hue overall and then as I turned it, a gold flash amidst the faery dust burst forth and then a rainbow that morphed in shape…at one time to a tiny butterfly.

Hope, creative magick, and the promise of a renewal of experiences seems to be the recurring pattern of messaging.

And speaking of rainbows, take a look at this faery portal I discovered on Friday on the hike down to the enchanted Tahoe coves.

Rainbow veils spread across it and invited me in. It was quite large and was the perfect width on both ends for my body to fully cross through. And cross through I did.

Again, this portal was hidden out of the way so it spoke to trusting the inner voice and intuitive senses, while keeping the hope and vision of what you want to create, just like vole does underground in the darkest of depths, to navigate the journey of life by – especially these days.

It is a marriage of intuition and wisdom that will carry us through and the implementation of our creative strategies that will carve out a whole new world.