October is truly a beautiful month of the year. And up here in the alpine region it is quite splendid in temperature and colors.

We’ve been continuing to enjoy where each day takes us, while traversing both familiar and new trails each day.

I love discovering new things and that includes hikes. Even though we’ve lived in this area nine+ cumulative years, we continue to find fresh adventures around every corner. It’s such a vast region that one can never get bored. Between back country areas and little hidden local spots, it’s a treasure trove of beauty and bounty that evokes tons of gratitude. That said, even the same spots feel new in every season and by the light of each new day.

Even when we think we’ve reached our limits, we can stretch ourselves into new landscapes of experience. Our hearts are resilient and limitless. Trying something new in any area of our lives can support fresh perspectives and foster hope. It may even just help us realize that there is actually much to be grateful for.

We always enjoy and find gratitude in new discoveries and sacred little realms like this forest pool and tree portal, large enough for big faeries to pass through.

And relish in serene days to ourselves on secret coves with only ancient rocks, crystalline water, and expansive sky displays to accompany us. I’m sure you can glean your own feelings or inspired messages from these wondrous windows.

Mystical sun halos greet us by day – perhaps foretelling a hard Winter…or at least that’s what weather lore whispers.

And mysterious, dramatic sunsets tuck us in at night with the crescent Moon ready to sing us lullabies.

Just look at these colors bursting from our back deck – and to think that in person they were even more spectacular and vibrant!

And all the while our big, wild rabbit friend continues to visit us…hanging out by each of the sliding glass doors along the garden. And while I’m not always prepared with camera in hand to capture him peeking in on me, you can see evidence of him here by his little droppings on the rabbit mat outside our Wonderland indoor realm.

A wonderful messenger for me right now and harbinger of creative flow.

Alongside some creative fertility that’s literally been pulsing from the inner womb, there continues to be a lot of organizing and clearing going on here, although I’m waiting until late November to finalize clearing of the garden and yard for Winter.

In the meantime, Dave and I both received refresh trims on our crown – by each other! Yep, not only have I been cutting Dave’s hair now for the last few years, but he’s now become my official bang trimmer and he’s doing a great job, don’t you think? I can wear them straight across or however they organically fall, like here.

My hair has been growing extra fast these days…perhaps part of the creative thrust oozing all over, but he’s had to cut my bangs now within just over three weeks because they start to go into my eyes and I prefer them shorter, rather than brushing them to the side.

Making life simple has been the focus and cutting our own hair just organically kind of happened as part of that.

We’ve had a full month, which has included celebrations of our first date fourteen years ago, as well as Mr. Scorpio’s birthday. Yep, Dave just enjoyed another vibrant year on Earth and we’ve been continuing the fun with feastings that showcase his favorites. This included home made waffles by me, loaded with mashed potatoes in between and topped with air fried Gardein’s Ultimate Plant Based Chick’n Filets and gravy. He was a happy boy!

Our friend even brought him over this giant, vegan cake.

But in between it all we’ve also had some bitter sweetness, as giant excavators (huge bulldozer-like vehicles) have been in our backyard the last few days clearing more trees and taking away the dead. We’ve had as many as four of them at once and it’s like watching live, steel monsters in a kind of apocalyptical world, as these machines not only take down and haul away, but also remove branches, bark and cut trees with their large arm and claw. It’s quite something to witness, which I never have in person before until now.

While it’s part of the now-necessary fire prevention in a world quickly changing, for creating a safe line and defensible space area lining the homes along the forest, it’s also sad to watch over 100+ year old trees go down. It’s a mixed bag for sure that is fitting with the Scorpio season right now, so we’ve just been mourning and honoring the trees, sharing our gratitude for their presence, wisdom, guardianship, and sacrifice, as well as honoring the new cycle of rebirth and tree offspring that will rise again.

In fact, we plan for Samhain to be an extended ritual for this and we’ll hold vigil in our backyard for the tree spirits.

I’m grateful to be able to repurpose some of the wood wedges, as I’ve shared in previous posts of our nature scape yard displays and other artsy things I have in mind.

I always look for the ways to recreate things and flip perspective to find the gold alchemy within the less obvious.

This may come by way of taking pause – something that can help most situations where we feel triggered.

There is so much stimulation coming at us increasingly these days from all sides…taking pause and breathing becomes a necessity to create stability and peace of mind.

Nature is our best friend in these times – bringing us back to the nature of our own humanity and the wisdom of spirit in flesh.

Even our animal companions, plants, minerals and crystals, and our own bodies are there to reflect to us this vital aspect of life many of us are missing or could use more of. 

And speaking of animal companions, with Halloween and Samhain right around the corner, look at how these two kitty beauties fit in with the season.

We’re grateful that we have our very own honorary black cat – the loving and wily Boojum, as you can see up to his usual playful antics with somewhat mesmerized-with-mom-googly-eyes.

As well as our black and white cat – the sensitive and mother hen Sweet Pea whose looking quite the royal princess here with a little mischief behind those deep eyes.

And then of course the magick rabbit queen of the in between – Astrid.

That’s a little update of things lately here, woven in with what ever little tidbits you might find speaking something just for you.

Halloween is tomorrow and for some you may celebrate Samhain – an indeed magickal time of the year, rich in lineage and expansive enough to invite you to add your own to it.

Samhain means “Summer’s end” and it kicks off the Celtic New Year and marks the midpoint between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice. However you choose to celebrate this day, it is a special time of year to be conscious of and honor the other side of the veil – the unknown and unseen realms – while tuning into the subtle energies.

This is a time for celebrating the bounty of the Earth and the passing of one phase of life to another.

I know how I’ll be focused, in sacred presence and heart offering, including celebrating my sweet boy and powerful love wizard Cosmo (one of my powerful rabbit companions, for those of you new here) who slipped through the veil on this very day – Samhain – six years ago.

This is the two of us on that very day, on the shore of our beloved Lake Tahoe.

And that brings me to these.

You can read about these four Autumn and Samhain inspired bottles of magickal goodness, and even bring one home if they call to you, here: Sacred Offerings