snake

For Sagittarius in 2014

Sagittarius

General 2014 Overview:

That rowdy and restless reputation of yours? You’ve definitely gone “off brand,” Sagittarius. Since last year, a clutch of planets has been in water signs, pulling you into more emotional and even solitary realms of your chart. This inward-facing vibe carries into 2014, especially since your ruling planet Jupiter is in Cancer, your intimate and soulful eighth house, until July 16. Not that exploring your inner landscape isn’t its own form of journeying, but you won’t get back to the actual globe-trotting until mid-July, when Jupiter moves into fiery Leo, your ninth house of travel, study and new horizons. Your enthusiastic personality won’t be so muted once that happens. However, you’ll still have to contend with stern old Saturn. The cosmos’ curmudgeon is in Scorpio, your twelfth house of hidden agendas and closure, until December 23. Saturn has been here since October 2012, doling out a few tough lessons about being overly trusting—perhaps even vis-a-vis a snake in the grass. If you’ve been betrayed by a frenemy or loved one, Saturn challenges you to practice a new form of forgiveness. You never have to be okay with what happened, but you don’t have to take it personally either. If you do, you make it about you (“what have I done to deserve this?”)…when really, it’s about them. It’s the equivalent of saying, “I no longer wish to be the dumping ground for your ugliness and wounds. Take them back and heal them somewhere else.” Shed that darkness, Archer, because on December 23, Saturn enters Sagittarius for the first time since 1985, setting off a three-year reinvention tour. All that is beneath you will be stripped away. It’s time for your own light to shine.

Related: Read ‘Jujitsu Rabbi and the Goddless Blonde’

Love:

Merge, baby, merge. Your ruler Jupiter is in Cancer, your zone of intimacy, sex and permanent bonds, until July 16. Steamy erotic encounters? Sure, why not. Discovering the joy of waking up with the same person day in and day out? Yeah, that’s a tougher one for your independent sign, but with expansive Jupiter here, you’re so up for it. Sexy Mars in your collaborative eleventh house until July 25 further helps you reap the rewards of being a true team player. From September 13 to October 25, Mars will be in Sagittarius, giving you dazzling powers of attraction. On October 8, the Aries total lunar eclipse ignites your house of passion and fertility. Lusty adventures and even a pregnancy could sweep in unexpectedly with this eclipse.

Career:

Takin’ care of business! As 2014 begins, there are five planets in Capricorn, your money and work house, putting you in productive spirits. Since January 1 also brings a new moon—conjunct soul-plumbing Pluto—you want purpose with your paycheck. Check out Danielle LaPorte’s The Desire Map to craft some goals with soul (http://bit.ly/odesire). Technology and teamwork hold the keys to success, with go-getter Mars in Libra, your collaborative eleventh house, until July 25. The April 15 Libra lunar eclipse could invite you into a powerful cadre of movers and shakers. With your ruler Jupiter in your eighth house of wealth and assets until July 16, you might invest, buy or sell real estate, earn affiliate income or welcome a windfall.

Read more: 2014 Horoscope Forecast from the AstroTwins – 2014 Zodiac – ELLE
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How to Build a Snake Hibernaculum

snakehibernaculum

I’ve been watching one of those animal shows today and they were talking about snakes. At one point they showed a hibernaculum of garter snakes leaving in the Spring. Made me think about how we could encourage garter snakes or at least help them to survive by having something like that in our garden. I’d also like to build a bat house to encourage more of them too. We used to get a lot when we lived in Alliston. They eat a ton of bugs and only come out for about an hour just as the sun is going down. All the rumours about them being dangerous are a bit overdone. They may have rabies true but that is the extent of the danger.

Meanwhile, back to the garter snakes. I found information about building a snake hibernaculum on the Toronto Zoo website. I don’t know if my Mom would be interested. Not that she is afraid of snakes at all but her garden space is mostly spoken for with all the plants she already has and those she is more than likely to find to add during the garden season.

Would you build a winter home for snakes? In Ontario we don’t have to worry much about poisonous snakes or any other kind of poisonous creature really. Rabies are a bigger worry.

How to Build a Hibernaculum
1. Select a well-drained site protected from cold winds, with good sun exposure (south-facing).  Ensure that surface and ground water flows away from the site (i.e. build on upland areas).  If not, drainage pipes below the frost line may be required to prevent flooding.
2. Your snake hibernaculum can be sized to fit the available space, but it must be deeper than the frost line (at least 2 meters deep).  Snakes prefer an overwintering site that is close to the water table, but not flooded.  Moist air ensures that snakes do not dehydrate over the dry winter months.
3. Place rubble in the bottom to create chambers for the snakes.  Chambers created at different depths allow the snakes to move vertically and horizontally to select a preferred temperature/humidity microhabitat.
4. Concrete blocks or PVC drain pipes (with holes cut into the sides along the length of the pipe) can be used for entrances and passages to allow the snakes multi-level access.  Snakes use these passage ways to move to the bottom of the pit and into the underground chambers.  It is necessary to hand place the concrete blocks to ensure that a space or tunnel extends down into the bottom of the pit at each of the corners.  Continue to fill the pit with larger rocks, old concrete blocks and slabs, maintaining as many openings and chambers as possible.
5. Cap with an insulating layer of smaller rock rubble.  Be sure to leave the entrances open and keep the top clear of shrubs that may grow as the site matures.
6. Protect emerging snakes from predators by having cover objects such as logs, rock piles, brush and uncut grass nearby.
7. In the spring (mid April to late May), monitor your site to determine if wildlife are using the hibernaculum. Don’t get discouraged, it may take several years before snakes “discover” your hibernaculum.

Wild About Gardening has more information about building hibernaculums for toads and how to keep frogs in your pond as well.

The Evil Eye of Rogers Cable

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Rogers is gone! I’m back to using Bell for the Internet again and it is faster, again. This is some of the Rogers stuff I pulled out from the back of the phone, computer and TV. The technician came and only took the boxes and TV remotes. Even he didn’t want to mess with that snake nest of cables and wires. I did though. Now I can plug in my radio again. Missed having it when Rogers took over every last plug in my power bars (2 of them). Now I could plug in several radios if I really wanted to. Nice to have Rogers gone and not feel so caught by all their cables in my room. I took this photo cause that last box was weird. It had no source of power, all the plugs and cables were disconnected yet that last evil eye from Rogers gleamed for hours and hours. I gave up checking it when I went to bed. In the morning it was finally out.

Bye bye Rogers. Don’t ever darken my door again!

See the World While it's Still Here

Do you ever think like that when you take pictures? I sometimes do. So much of the world is disappearing for all sorts of reasons: environment, population expansion, death, taxes and the passage of time, among others. It’s lucky we can capture things (on cameras) while they are still here, fresh and real. It’s a privilege. Really it is.

Think of how much our ancestors have seen and wished they could save or remember for others to see. People wrote books and drew pictures but it’s only recently (when you consider all the thousands of years) that people have been able to take a photograph and preserve what we see exactly as we see it. Yes, the pictures aren’t perfectly exact but they are near enough to exact that our Grandchildren will be able to see frogs even if they have become extinct by then.

We can show the house we grew up in even if a highway has long since overgrown it. So many other things. I mostly think of nature though. So much of it is already lost. So much more is likely to be lost. When did you last see a garter snake, a frog, a snail? They are much rarer than they were when I was a kid, not hugely long ago.

Take your pictures while ye may.