In the bath house

Hello Fearless Journeyers

It will be at least next week before we take off to the Amazon Camp, but knowing the Enchantress we could get waylaid. Mercifully she is busy organising donkey rides to the House of the Serpents so that should give all of us time to consolidate. Of course, it is about right that we should end up with Baba Yaga herself but personally I have found her to be just like Mrs Hair, an elderly woman I loved as a child. Coming to Baba Yaga's has been a bit like returning to the Arches and sitting with Edna for a few hours. She was the only grandmother figure I knew and she was there on the Ancestors Isle along with figures I did not really recognise but just knew to be related to me.

Anyway, the Gypsies have clearly heard that we are here for they are camped nearby and Gail tells us are planning a night of song and dance. Perfect!

In between visiting the Gypsies take some time to write some mail or articles for the Raven Courier. You can always hire a Raven to take you up to the Hermitage and that lovely Art Room or back to the House of Serpents, to Duwamish for a visit to the bookshop or to those stables that provide horses for night rides.

The Bath House is a tiny bit sparse, my dears. I have prepared a special treat: A Remembrance Bath. Soak in a rosemary infused bath which will return to consciousness one of your favourite memories. During this time of consolidation, if you feel you have the time and energy to share this remembrance, please post it at the Bath House.
Many Thanks. Your bath awaits...Eclectica

A mosaic for the bath house




(I made this mosaic some years ago at a mosaic course)
I lay soaking in the rosemary bath in the recently opened bath house, run by the expansive Madame Eclectica.

It was just what I needed after a somewhat stressful day, spent running hither and thither and seemingly not achieving very much in relation to the effort expended. Here in the baths all you had to do was lie back and allow the water to wash away all the physical and mental dirt accumulated over the last few hours. It was bliss. The smell of the rosemary oil from the crushed leaves was intoxicating. I had been looking at one of the mosaics on the wall and drifted off into a dream. The mosaic was a modern copy of a very ancient original, depicting two fish. Pisces. My zodiac sign.

Pisces, oh pisces
where are you going
drifting along on the crest of a wave?
I´m going to see what my true love will bring me
when I greet him at dawn on the sands of the brave.
What will you wear my fine fishy friend
when you slip out on to the strand?
why, a tail of sorts,
no need for shorts,
and a starfish to put in my braid.
What will he give you, my sweet mermaid,
as he touches the shells on your breast?
why a necklace for sure, from the isle of the blest.
A necklace of coral, beyond compare
that he stole from King Neptune´s lair.
And what will you do in return?
I will give him the moon and the sun,
a garland most rich and most rare,
to wear for a year and day
for we may not meet
each to each for to greet
without the enchantress shall say.
Are you sad
are you glad
are you mad
are you bad
tempered?
I will temper myself as hot steel
and cool my heels
in the shallows
until Lethe allows
our return.