Signs of Spring

Spring here seems far away.  Living in Alberta is like rolling the proverbial weather dice everyday; yesterday I came out to the living room to see sunlight streaming in through the blinds.  "SUNLIGHT!!" I exclaimed and ran over to open the blinds.  I had been blizzarding for 2 or 3 days.  While it was still cold yesterday, at least it was sunny.  Today?  Back to cloud cover and snow.  Every Albertan knows the saying, "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes."  And it is so true!  It is so hard to get into the mood for spring when you are staring and swirling snow out your window and still having to shovel off the steps to get to your car. And we had just brushed a foot of snow off of Sean's car, too.

See?  SEE?

So what can you do, or have, around the house to get you into the mood for Ostara?  A great thing to have is a plant.  A live plant, not just cut flowers.  Something that will grow for you.  An easy plant to start with is Aloe Vera, they are very difficult to kill so even those without green thumbs can manage! 

Ostara is also a time of new beginnings, so this would be a great time to start something new.  Sign up for a class, start reading a new book, or put into place a new habit you want to have.

Have a spring feast.  Even if it still feels like the dead of winter, with today's grocery availability you can get spring food just about any time of year.  Lamb or veal, fresh eggs and cheeses, lemon bread.  Nothing gets you into a mood for the warm half of the year like a sip of lemonade that isn't from a bottle!

Children can start making decorations, or decorating eggs.  A wonderful mess free way to do both is to egg shapes out of foam board (from your local craft store) and have the children decorate the "eggs" with ribbon and markers.  They can also make garlands from construction paper, just like paper yule garlands but in Ostara colors.

What do you do to get in the mood for Spring?

Goddess Bless,

Stacy