Let me start off with an apology for my absence this past week. I am sorry. No matter the reason for it, a missed post never sits well with me. Missing a post is missing you, and I greatly dislike letting you down.

Tomorrow – this whole weekend, actually – is the northern hemisphere’s Ostara, the spring equinox and spring sabbat… a joyous celebration in the Wheel of the Year! My spring flowers have dried beautifully, and I kept them to adorn my second altar. May we all revel in the season’s energy and abundance as it comes to us in various forms.

I love the spring equinox. It’s a transformative time during which nature gives us blessings of opportunities; it’s a time of renewal: new growth, new beginnings, fresh starts, and fertile ground for change. Late in the week I was suddenly overcome by the strong feeling that this weekend I should finally paint the wall I’ve been thinking about painting for months and months. I’m ready to do a thing that I don’t like to do in order to charge my space with fresh energy.

The wall in question is the kitchen side of the floating wall that separates the living space from the cooking and eating space. I chose a deep purplish-brown gray shade called Expressive Plum for this accent wall. It’s time to throw some color into that area of the house!

I’ve been in serious nesting mode lately. Spring is a time for nesting, after all.

Speaking of nesting, I didn’t see Geronimo for most of last week, as we’d been in the throes of a cold spell. Snow up in Flagstaff means nighttime Phoenix lows in the high 40’s/mid-50’s, and that, my friends, is a scenario that will return a desert tortoise underground to his cozy winter nest for a few more days. Geronimo went back to sleep and hit the snooze button.

It’s warmed up these last two days, though, and I got to see the back end of his shell when I looked into his burrow the other evening!

This is what I see when he’s deep in the back of his burrow on his way down into his subterranean palace :

Back end of a tortoise disappearing into his tunnels.

Can you see him back there?

So I missed him yesterday (and the day before), but today was Saturday, and I was home to bond with my precious scale-baby.

A spring tortoise is a happy tortoise!

And a spring tortoise with hibiscus petals stuck to his mouth is an even happier tortoise.

On that note, I’ll leave you to your spring equinox celebrations, however that looks in your worlds!