Heddy M. Johannesen's Blog, page 23

Faery Woods

Merry meet all,

Pleasant Bay is so beautiful and magickal in the woods. The woods there are so ancient and so full of light and so aged, you would think Ents may feel��right at home. In the summer, I see sparkling dancing balls of light and I know they are the faeries. It makes sense faeries would dwell there.��

Look hard at the above photo of the trees there and see if you spot any faeries. I love that spot. Don’t be fooled though. The earth there is soft and one wrong step, you could fall 300 feet to your death to the rocks below. But don’t worry.��

The view from the cliffs is stunning. The Gulf of St. Lawrence ��opens into the Atlantic Ocean. I have seen blue lightning flash over the ocean, watched whales splash in the ocean, and eagles soar over the ocean- and seen a school of mackerel on the ocean surface. That’s not something you see every day. The fishermen get their catch and donate a bit of their catch to the local hall where we all gather and hold a crab fest. The lobster is awesome too.��

Pleasant Bay is a pristine wilderness. The air hums with buzzing bees and the air smells of spruce trees, sea salt, and wild roses all at the same time. That takes some beating. Hawks circle the skies above my sister’s free range chickens. It is paradise. There are faeries, because once I accompanied my ex-friend Geoffrey to a spot in the woods where he was painting. I felt an invisible tug on my hand. I was led to a clearing where I saw some birds. (I know I have faeries in my garden in Halifax, too.) ��So I believe that faeries exist. You are never too old to believe in them.��

Owls, bats, bobcats, moose, foxes, deer and coyotes, bears and eagles roam wild in Pleasant Bay. If you visit, I highly encourage you to respect the wildflife. There is no hunting. Go for the chance to view nature in her glory.��

You can go kayaking, hiking, and stroll by the ocean shore there. There are many lookoffs points and the panoramic view is nothing short of beautiful. Hike the rugged mountains and hunt for seashells. Watch out for the jellyfish! and the poison ivy, and the dreaded mosquitoes and black flies.��

Leave an offering for the faeries. Or your keys may go missing. Unless you decide to stay a little longer. Enjoy the video!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6MhohfiF6k

Blessings, Lady Spiderwitch )O(

Wild Trees

Merry meet all,

I see a gorgeous birch tree trunk outside my window. The tree trunk arches gracefully toward the blue sky. The bark is torn in patches and peeling. The tree shelters birds and various insects. This tree weathered many storms. Chickadees and woodpeckers visit the tree and cats climb it. The white and grey bark is beautiful and aged. I love this tree. It is a symbol of endurance, strength and beauty. The bare branches arch above the trunk, shivering in the harsh cold wind. They resemble twigs more than branches. Spring is not far away and soon new growth will crown the tree. The photos are from Pleasant Bay.��

I find something creepy about trees when night casts its cloak over the city. If I walk alone at night, as I walk past the Bengal Lancers horse stables, the new high school and the museum, I pass a row of intimidating trees at night and they look much different than under the harsh sun’s eye. ��I feel almost watched by the trees. Their bare appearance gives them an sinister look. I purposely walk fast down that long street past those bare trees. No leaf or bud on the branches. But in the summer. the trees at night look normal.��

In Pleasant Bay, there is an area of trees and in that area, is some seriously creepy energy. Pleasant Bay is an ancient place. For those who are sensitive to energies, you can feel it in your bones. It almost makes me think of the Mirkwood from The Hobbit.��

I have walked there many times and know the trees. The spruce trees grow plentifully there. The branches are like barbs. The scent is heaven. The trees grow thick and are very old. Some tree trunks have fallen and make walking difficult. I actually photographed an orb. Moose visit the trees and eat the bark and leave their dung on the ground. Pinecones and pine needles litter the forest floor. Squirrels chatter, breaking the silence.The air is clear and this is the magic of a pristine forest.

 

I feel the energy when I sit there. Birds make the tangled dead brush their home and nest. The ecosystem there is undisturbed and is in holistic balance. Everything helps everything grow in this sacred area. The creepy energy doesn’t scare me but it is present. I feel the age of that place. And for all that it seems odd to some people, I feel right at home too. All right, I wasn’t too happy about the dead headless squirrel but it must have been eaten by a fox, bobcat, hawk or crow.��

I sat on ��a dead fallen log and just sat there for a long time. I heard the boughs creak and sounds of very much alive squirrels. They are very competitive with birds for seeds. I love nature when it is unsettling and peaceful, cruel and loving. A person is at the mercy of nature’s elements there. You have to work with the land, not against it. I’ve seen the Northern Lights, whales up close when I was on a whale cruise, when the ice on the road forces us indoors and off the roads, been ten feet from a full grown moose, and gone on a four-hour mountain hike with friends at Fishing Cove. Bears roam freely, as do moose, and bobcats and coyotes. I have lived ��among them and never been hurt. I keep a distance but stilll. When you are very very very far from a hospital, it makes sense to Respect the Wildlife.��

Since Imbolc is near, I hope you take the time to appreciate the wildness of nature while we still have it.��

Blessed be, Lady Spiderwitch )O(

 

Memories of winter visits

Merry meet all,

Winter is upon us. It must be freezing in Pleasant Bay. I recall a time I visited it and my family stayed in a chalet. Well you want to talk cold weather? Let me tell you about it.��

It was so cold when we arrived at night that we had to put sheets on the large windows to contain the heat. We wore mitts as we unpacked. After turning on the lights and the kettle, we settled down ��for a well-earned rest. It is 450 km s to the beautiful small fishing village. We started a fire in the wood stove. The room slowly warmed up. When I stayed in the other house, my lips were blue in the morning and that was in April!��

But if you have a hardy spirit and breeding, you should do just fine. Imagine being in the Shire and that sums up Pleasant Bay. There are fun things to do there in the winter such as skiing, snowshoeing ( I tried it once and was in too much snow and panicked), hiking, watching the wildlife, painting, or just meditating and observing the beauteous bounty of nature. You can catch up on sleep and for once be able to hear yourself think. How precious is that?��

The rabbits grow in their white fur to camouflage from predators in the snow. The seals give birth on the pack ice. The moose feast on wood bark in the woods. The spruce trees are home to hibernating squirrels and eagles swoop over the ocean, hunting for fish. The wild brush looks more gorgeous in the winter and animal tracks are everywhere. I often see more moose dung than I do of the moose. They are elusive beasts.��

People become scarce in the winter. The locals hide in their hobbit holes as smoke drifts from the chimneys and lights glow in the windows. That is the only sign that anyone is home. Winter is harsh in Pleasant Bay. It is the heart of the wild wood. If you can’t take the isolation, don’t visit. It is where I grew up. You are at the mercy of nature’s elements. The snowplow doesn’t come often to the town to rescue people from mountains of snow. Isolation is a reality in the winter.��

For all that, it is still a magnificent place. My grandfather ran a farm without electricity in the 1920s. See how much we take for granted these days? It does get cold. It��does get lonely. But it is so amazing. Pleasant Bay can take your ��heart without you being aware of it.��

I miss the smell of wood smoke from the woodstove. The sound of the kettle rattling on the wood stove, and woodpeckers pecking on the house outside. I hope to be back there soon. Till then, be well.��

Blessed Be, Lady Spiderwitch )O(

In memory

 

Merry meet all,

I announce with some sadness that the president of the HWA, or the Horror Writers Association, has passed. He seems to be missed by many and remembered well. I never knew him but since this blog is about the paranormal and I am a member of the Horror Writers Association, it deserves mentioning here. Last night, I read the entirety of the Horror Writers Association newsletter which focused mostly on Rocky Wood. It is understandable. He made great stride in helping this genre remain afloat alongside the more common genres of fiction. We owe him a lot.

 

Blessed Be, Lady Spiderwitch )O(

The Birthday of a Giant- Tolkien

Merry meet all,

Yesterday, January 3 marked the birthday of a literary giant- Tolkien. I am an avid Tolkien fan. Naturally, I had to post this here. I love his books The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy. There is no other fantasy story that can compare to it. None. He has never been beaten. So celebrate with some elf bread and hobbit ale!!!

I wish I lived in Middle-Earth. I would just have to get real good at slaying orcs, battle dragons, and be able to combat whatever other dangers lurked out there. I think though, that I will curl up in my hobbit hole, sip coffee, and work on my own literary masterpiece here. I am not trying to be Tolkien but if he doesn’t inspire you to work harder at a passion, what will? I LOVE the movies too. I think the movies more than just did the stories justice. Thanks to the movies, I can now more easily picture everything the way it would have been. I love the movies so much. I have seen them a million times. I have to reread The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion. I have a beautiful small book of the poetry from the Lord of the Rings. It is beautifully illustrated by Alan Lee. I also own a hardcover copy of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I have to reread them now. I have lots of time. 

The ending to the third and final Hobbit movie shocked me. While I found most of the movie to be violent and scary and fast, the ending was slow and well-done. I had to reread the ending in the book which was close to how it happened in the movie but I cried. I cried because Thorin Oakenshield sacrificed himself to kill the Azog. Bad Azog!! lol

So let us take a moment to acknowledge the gift left by Tolkien and the movies too. Hmm I think I’d like to take a Gaelic-speaking course now. Tolkien was a linguist.!! I know a little Gaelic but it would be cool to learn more. I am sure by now you can all tell I am a huge fan. If I had my choice of a place to live in Middle-Earth, it would be the Shire followed by Rivendell. 

Blessings, Lady Spiderwitch )O(

Top 13 Horror Movies of 2014

Originally posted on Hunter Shea:

This is the second go around with this post for me. You see, I spent 2 hours this weekend putting together a comprehensive list of my 13 favorite horror flix for 2014. The kicker is that WordPress lost the post entirely. To my credit, I didn’t cry or curse or break anything.

So, here I am again, once bitten, twice shy. My reviews are short and sweet this time around, but you’ll all get the point.

I was very worried that I wouldn’t be able to find 13 horror movies worth noting this year. As of July, Oculus was my top pick. Egads! Thankfully, things picked up in the second half and I had a good group to choose from.

So, before WordPress deletes this post and me in the process, on with the show!

#13 – ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE

Funny, dark, twisted and downright strange at times. Come for…

View original 650 more words

In Memory

Merry meet all,

I announce with some sadness that the president of the HWA, or the Horror Writers Association, has passed. He is missed by many and is remembered well. I never knew him but since this blog is about the paranormal and I am a member of the Horror Writers Association, it deserves mentioning here. Last night, I read the entirety of the Horror Writers Association newsletter which focused mostly on Rocky Wood. It is understandable. He made great stride in helping this genre remain afloat alongside the more common genres of fiction. We owe him a great deal. A new president is appointed now and she has big ‘horror’ shoes to fill. I am sure she will prove herself quite capable.

I have a fresh print out of my novel and I am already bleeding red ink all over it. I have a lot of work to do in a short time since a publishing company is opening for submissions in February. I have hard work ahead of me but if I devote my every minute of my life to this task, I shall hopefully be a success and make it in time. That is my plan. Like Rocky Wood would have wanted, since he championed young hopeful writers, I shall work my hardest. I am inspired besides the tedious editing I have to do. I think a writer has to be in love with his or her story to be able to work this hard on it.

I have a few ideas on what I might write after I finish this project. I usually have many projects I work on at the same time. I’d like to write something apocalyptic set in the future, more poems, more non-fiction for the pagan publications. I don’t know why and not questioning it too deeply, but it comes naturally to write about witchcraft. I go with it. Why resist it??

In Pleasant Bay, the rabbits’ fur has turned white, the moose are past rutting season, some of the critters are hibernating and some are migrating south, like the geese and the whales. The snowy ice packs drift over the ocean surface. Winter, the time of the Crone, has arrived. There is no snow here in Halifax but I know that in January, we will see snow. Dress warm, sip organic sider and hot chocolate, and return to this blog often for more exciting posts.

Happy New Year!!

Blessings, Lady Spiderwitch )O(

http://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/2473

Edits

Merry meet all,

Merry Yule everyone!! I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday. Mine was quiet but I had a lovely dinner with my family yesterday. 

On Yule eve, I received the final edits from Nathalie, the owner of her business Girl & Cat Publishing. I was elated to receive the final edits from her and to also receive a huge two-page long email from her detailing the ways I can improve the manuscript. I am very grateful to her for her assistance. I am also grateful that she worked on Yule eve to get the edits to me. Wow that was nice of her when most people wouldn’t do that for you- let alone for free. 

I have a lot of work to do on my final revision on my novel. But it is a good kind of work. If I do all the edits she recommended, I will have a GREAT book. I look forward to getting started very soon. I have a lot of work to do in a short time. Maybe  I shall hide out at the new library here in town. That’s a great idea. 

I also want to recommend Nathalie Andrews of Girl and Cat Publishing to anyone who is penning their own masterpiece. She is amazing, elegant, honest and comes with a razor sharp insight into your writing. So mean business when you deal with her!! 

I’ll keep posting here on updates about how my novel is going. I wish you all a Happy New Year!! 

Blessings, Lady Spiderwitch

http://www.girlandcat.com/home.html

Story of the Paranormal

Merry meet all,

 Now that you are more familiar with this amazing tiny fishing village and all it has to offer, I am going to focus more on the story itself and show more of how it relates to the town. Pleasant Bay is where I spent most of my life. So naturally I would be inspired to write a story there. I am the first one to do set a novel there. I felt that a lot of the same old folklore had been told about the ghost stories in Halifax. We needed a new transfusion. I hope this novel is that transfusion. 

I have nothing against the local folklore. It is great but it is the same tired story every time. That is also one reason why I wrote this story. I wanted to tell something fresh and new. I didn’t know I had this story: the plot, the characters, in me. It came as a total shock to me. I never planned it. 

The story came to me as a flash of inspiration. In my mind for some reason, I pictured a woman running from a ghost in a house in Cape Breton then I sat down to figure out why I had that image in my head. Two years, lots of coffee and thought, and some drafts later, here I am. 

I am happy with the way it is going. I still have some kinks to work out but that is the trial of an author. It’s a good problem to have. Like having 50 books in your personal library but you try to have time to get to them. Like I do. 

The paranormal is a hot topic today. My story deals heavily with the paranormal. You can’t take the ghost out of the story. Or there is no story. Yes my ghost (Jonathan Fraser) has something to say. So I let him have his day. I don’t know why it is such a hot topic right now but it’s cool. A shift in the global community perspective? I can’t think of the word right now that I want but I think you’ll know what I mean. I know people seek fantasy for an escape. It’s hard to say why the paranormal is so hot right now. 

Magic, witchcraft and Wicca are of course, very popular right now too and I hope it stays that way for years to come. That is also another important part of the story. Rosemary uses magic to help her solve the ghost’s death mystery. She also uses magic to deal with, converse with, and learn more about the ghost. She uses a magic candleholder that can ignite without a match or lighter when she says magic words.

 

The ghost Jonathan Fraser haunts the basement of the house. He hides a horrifying secret and it is up to Rosemary to discover through the course of the novel just what is hidden in the basement. Why the leaking water drips on the floor and why something hard and white is starting to show through the floorboards. Will she find out in time? 

The freedom  an author has…. it’s seductive. There are so many ways to tell stories and so many ways to write them. If you don’t believe me, then browse the shelves of your local bookstore and you’ll see what I mean. 

I just think that, and this is just my opinion, that unlike strictly literary fiction, you have so much more freedom within the genre to write a certain genre paranormal story. I think any author can write something special. I love my story and I know I have to work on it, but to have discovered this story was within me was an eye-opener!!!

Stay posted. 

Blessings, Lady Spiderwitch )O(

The Wild Life

Merry meet all,

Today I’m going to talk about the different types of wild life out there. The range in the wildlife is one of the chief reasons why I visit.

 

Moose

This photo is courtesy of http://www.aspybay.ca. Moose happily inhabit the woods. They graze peacefully, on the trees’ bark and grass. I have seen lots of moose, young and old, in herds or alone, and during the day and at night. They are beautiful, majestic, and peaceful. I have never been harmed by a moose. I have seen them a lot in the woods. Their young are cute and the adult moose are a wonder to behold.

Foxes

I have seen a few foxes in the woods. They are small, with red fur and bright eyes. They hunt rabbits and one of them even befriended my grandfather. I am not kidding. Foxes are small, cute but please do respect wildlife.

Rabbits

I have seen rabbits during different times of the year. They change their fur colour according to the season. They are so cute and likely quite happy to be living in their element. They come close to the main house like the other animals that live in the forest.

Bobcats

I have seen a bobcat once. The bobcat posed for then disappeared into the trees’ shelter The bobcat was beautiful and blended in well with the natural hues and shades of the wild brush. You almost wouldn’t have known it was there. The bobcats hunt rabbits, mice, voles and birds.

Coyotes

I have not seen a coyote mercifully. These critters are not as friendly. A coyote ate a woman who was currently at that time well, you know, at that time of month. They do small blood and that alerts them to prey. It is best to keep a healthy distance from coyotes. Whatever you do, stand your ground.

Squirrels

Nova Scotia itself is overrun with squirrels and cute birds too that happily and greedily compete for seed in the feeder. They do it here in Halifax in my garden and at the feeders in Pleasant Bay. Out there, there is no shortage of food for them. The squirrels even plant seeds in the ground, a storage system that my sister often benefits from, amused by their antics.

Eagles and Hawks- and Owls

The eagles soar over the ocean for fish. The hawks circle above my sister’s chicken coop, plotting to catch an unwary hen. Hawks are smaller than eagles. Like moose, eagles are majestic and strong. I have never seen their nests but the nests are probably up somewhere high. Eagles are easy to identify by their remarkable wings. They too are a sight to behold. Pleasant Bay has also been visited by rare birds. I will try to get the photo to show you.

Whales and Seals

Whales frolic in the waves and show off for the tourists during the whale tours. I have had the chance to witness these beautiful creatures when I have been out on the tours. They play, splash, dive, leap and soak up the sun. This was my experience when I was on the whale tour:

I was out on a whale-watching cruise years ago. I stood on the boat and looked out around me. The sky was clear, the day was warm, and the calm ocean waves lapped the boat. I surveyed the looming mountains above the shore. The mountains stretched three thousand meters into the sea. Cows grazed in the field. Gannets dove over the ocean surface. The deep cool ocean water surrounded us. I was suddenly gripped with a feeling. I felt small, tiny even, in the midst of the ocean and the mountains. I did not want to know how deep the ocean water was. If whales swam its waters, then I assumed the ocean was extremely deep.

The seals give birth on the ice. The ocean is always covered with ice in the winter. If it is quiet at the beach, you can hear the ice packs bang into each other.

Bears frequent the woods out there. My sister also keeps chickens and raises some of them for meat and some for their eggs. They are free range and will let you pet them.

 

There are horses, dogs and cats too. Here are some photos:

Cows, too:

I saw a salamander in the basement. We rescued him.

I fully acknowledge the copyright of these photos. Not all of them are mine. 

I hope this encourages you to visit the strange and beautiful fishing village of Pleasant Bay. Blessed Be

Lady Spiderwitch )O(