There is a website with mostly new age, ambient albums, and most of them are free.  The music is really good, beautiful, perfect to relax or to do meditation.

https://www.altusmusic.ca/

And here is one album perfect for the coming winter that has started:

https://altusmusic.ca/we_15th.html

There are beautiful screensavers in 3D by 3Planesofft.  Some are nature scenes, some are fantasy, some show real places, like Stonehenge, some are festive (Holiday scenes).  They cost less if you buy a few at once, instead of buying one at once.

https://www.3planesoft.com/

I live in a city and I’m sick and disabled, and my capacity of movement are limited.  The money I have is also limited because of that.  I don’t have much opportunity to travel, go the country for a week-end.  I’ve thought in the past to move and live in the country, in a small town perhaps, but that never happened.

Also, because I live in a city, the light pollution prevents me to gaze at the night sky and look at the stars and the moon, the moon looks a bit blurry here.  I’ve always prefered the night over the day, the night sky, the stars, and the moon.  I lived in the suburbs for some years and I could see the night sky without problems.

Now these screensavers make me dream of other places, in nature, listening to the birds, animals and the insects.

Keep the Summer Time all year long Canada and stop following the Americans whims.  Most of U.S.A. States don’t have winters like ours, or even a winter at all.  The changing of time in october/november ONLY benefit them, not us at all.  They’re not the ones suffering from Seasonal Depression per example, caused by the lack of light in winter.  Canada is a Nordic country in America, and as such should get inspirations and help from the other Nordic Countries in Europe, not from stupid Americans.  And they keep the Summer Time all year long.  Just stand firm and be proud of being a Nordic country, but winters would be easier on us if we did some of the things people do in Nordic Countries.  I’m definitively NOT the only in Canada who wishes to keep the Summer Time all year around, we are many, and the political parties don’t listen to us on that matter.

I’ve been feeling worse these past months.  My health has degraded, I’ve lost some autonomy, I don’t have any energy for anything, except to watch tv and animes.  The only upside is that I’m finally getting help for chores in my apartment, so that makes less things to do on my part, the gouvernement is the one who pays the fees.  I’ve not touched my decks as well.

I’ve bought a domain, strangerealms.ca, so that the old link goes there.  I think it makes my blog look more professional.

I had in the past a few blogs running at the same time on different matters, and I found that, on the long term, too complicated and exhausting.  Unlike some, words don’t come to me.  It can take me hours just to write a paragrap, so working on writing 3/4 blog entries every day on 3/4 blogs is impossible for me.  I ended up not posting much on all of them in the past.  People don’t realize the amount of work and time it takes me to write, not physically, but mentally because I never know what to say and I don’t have any inspiration.  Yet I much prefer communicating in writing.

From the Fall anime season from Japan, one of the series I’m watching, Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, has a beautiful end credit song:

https://youtu.be/2QGSjgfGTBU

I’ve taken a break from Final Fantasy XIV, I played a lot to level up to max level the classes I wanted to play before the expansion launched, and when the expansion launched I felt I had reached the limit.  The new content of the expansion is also much harder, which is difficult for my main class black mage, so it’s back to doing daily duties and expansion… oh wait I cannot, because SE has removed temporarily the XP gained for those whose class is max level when the expansion launched, and considering I’ve already reached my limit about the daily duties…  Anyway, so I figured I should take a break from the game for a while.  My room is part of the guild house so it will still be there when I come back.

I’ve dabbled back in Guild Wars 2 and played my necromancer, managed to get her to max level, and since the expansion was launching in october when my necromancer was getting to max level, might as well buy the expansion to get to the new areas and access the new traits system.

As for my Pagan life, the coven I was a part of has dissolved and no more.  Quite a few are moving away, for studies or work, so it was decided to end the coven.  It was quite a journey  and I learned so many things in the coven and it made me a better person as well.

I was aimless for a short while.  I’ve had interests into Druidry, and The Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids in particular, and I bought their bardic course years ago but never got around to do the course.  So now I’ve decided to make it my main focus for a while.

I want to have a Druid altar but my cat who still climbs, does not listen to me, destroys my stuff, chews and destroys my stuff, and plays around, it’s very hard to keep anything from Percy.  He even chew a box I had put the documents in, now it has a few holes, so I changed the place I kept the box and put it higher. 

Since I keep a few things on a place next to my kitchen and the alleyway, like the autumn decorations, my Brighid statue, my witch/mojo bottle, a gargoyle and warrior in the entryway, I’ve placed them closer to the kitchen so I could use the rest of this small space for my Druid altar.  So far I put there my wand, my athame, a rock, my favorite candleholder,

I’ve already found a few items and bought: a Mint-Tin Altar, a Mini Chalice with Symbol (wood w/stainless steel and Awen Symbol), an Awen Box, an Irish Harp pendant.  I plan to add more items later, like a tree like that one, but now these will do.  As for the pendant, I’m inspired by the witch.s pouch concept so I plan to get “druid” pouches, one for each rank, so I plan to put the harp pendant in my bardic pouch once I get one.

I want to wish Merry Yule to everyone .

Since this year has been hard for me and depressing, I quit the dark setting of the MMORPG The Elders Scrolls Online to go back to a more cheerful setting MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

Happy Winter Solstice!!!

That is my character in the game Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

I really love spices cakes, it’s one of my favorite desserts, along with Pouding chômeur with maple syrup.  Autumn and winter are two seasons that are perfect time to bake and eat spices cakes.  I went looking for traditional spices cakes recipes for ideas for my recipe so I’ve been working on my recipe, adding things, removing some.  I used before nuts, but I’ve developed since food intolerance towards nuts so I removed them and replaced them with dried sweetened cranberries.  After that I tested the right amount of dried sweetened cranberries and I think over 1/4 cup the cake gets too sweet.  Allspice and nutmeg have both strong scent, so it’s important to only put in small doses.

I’ve been trying to translate it from French so bear with me.  I hope you like it, if you ever try it.

Spices Cake

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 dash of powdered allspice
2-3 dashes of powdered black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/4 teaspoon powdered nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon powdered clove
1/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1/2 cup grease
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup boiling water

Add the baking powder, soda, the salt and the spices into the flour and mix. Turn into cream the grease, the brown sugar and the eggs, and beat well. Add the molasses and mix well. Add the flour with the spices in it and mix well. Add the boiling water and dried cranberries and mix well with a spoon. Put the dough in a 9 inches square in a greased mold. Bake at 350 degrees, for around 40-45 minutes.

P.S.  Since I don’t like butter I use margarine for the recipe.

I got another black kitty, but this time I went to the SPCA because their pets are always supervised by vets and I did not want to lose that one as well.  He was too young though to be sterilized so I became his guardian for a month instead.  I bought him in october, but he’s still too young to be sterilized yet.

I did not dare mention it here because I was so excited about Merlin then he died a few days later.  I feared the same thing could happen to Percy.  But Percy is packed with good health and energy, and he’s a little imp.

This year has been tough for me and I got somewhat depressed.  Percy has brighten my days.

Here is a picture of Percy:

Here is his profile on Catster:

http://www.catster.com/cats/1327952

And his YouTube page:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5FbcjXpH7mS2HJwmWlnMmTnrIw0mi3as