Venus square Jupiter

I fully intended to spend another hour or so painting the front steps this morning, but waking up and finding myself with nowhere I had to go felt so good after being out of the house by 8:00 am three mornings this past week I was overcome with inertia and let myself enjoy having nothing to do.

Not that I did nothing; there's always watering to do, which takes an hour and a half, and will do so until I either get myself a cup of white vinegar and a toothbrush and scrub all the minerals off the holes in the irrigation system they're plugging up or pay someone to completely redo the irrigation system, which is the way it's been for about two years.

There were plants I bought on Friday to put in and shade cloth to wrap around the ones I put in yesterday, rocks to gather to construct what I've decided will replace the bit of the rock wall that caved in last year, many weeds to attempt to pull and much pondering over what to do with the *upper garden* I had enclosed two - three? - years ago, but by staying home and staying off the Internet I managed to avoid the spending lots of  money trap and all I bought was another year's subscription to astrodienst, which is the main engine behind my being able to write this sometimes less-than-fascinating blog.

Mercury conjunct Uranus

Scattered and hasty thinking, eh?

You mean like going out for groceries and leaving your wallet next to the computer at home because you've been trying to find a pair of chukka style tennis shoes online which don't exist and then having to drive eight miles back to the house to get the wallet and then driving back to the store with your wallet except the card you want to use is STILL next to the computer because this time you were sure you would find them SOMEWHERE.....

Sun conjunct the Ascendant and trine the Midheaven

May 15th is the day every year when the Sun comes out of its two month passage through the Twelfth House (where it lives) and gets to the Ascendant, trining the Midheaven a few hours before.

(1984, the year it happened by progression, I finally made it to California after moving to New York in 1963 with the vague idea of living there for a year, hitchhiking to California and then continuing on around the world, ending up back in England. Quite how I thought I'd achieve that I have no idea, and as once I did get there 21 years later all I could think about was getting back to New York as quickly as possible, it was never put to the test.)

Nothing quite as exciting last Friday, but I did get a phone call from the head of an organization I've been asked to be on the board of, pardon my syntax, bringing me up to date on the doings and plans of said organization - zilch and zilch - and in the evening a friend who is determined to chronicle the events of my life post 9/11 (I think) facetimed to ask a few more questions.

Oh, and a notice appeared in the local paper announcing an online art exhibition I shall be part of, but being the local paper of the town in which I live, no dates were given and there is nothing online.

Mercury trine Neptune

Well if there's to be a day when you decide you can't go on any longer without watching Withnail and I, this would be it.

Found it for free on Daily Motion in two parts and no ads. Now I know why people think it's so good, except I have to watch a couple more times as I couldn't understand half of what was said.

Mars sextile Venus

So I got my reward today for all the replenishing the soil with steer manure I've been doing for what seems like and probably is weeks - off to Ace for yet more garden soil and steer manure and then to Country Girls - no website but I think they're on Facebook - where I made the mistake of walking straight into the greenhouse before being told very nicely that there were already the lawful number of people inside and I'd have to wait until one came out. Ah yes, COVID-19. Affecting the lives of people everywhere.

Anyway, as is usually the case when Mars and Venus get together for me with no drug addicts, alcoholics or homeless people in sight (Natal Mars in Pisces), something creative gets done, and if it isn't that creative to plant annuals in a garden, the end result is pretty to look at and tomorrow I need to go and get some more.

This is probably the lamest post I have ever written. Hope so, anyway.

Chiron trine Pluto

OK, so even I know this is one of the biggies working away in the background and there's not going to be any *manifestation* at the time of day it's exact, which is a good thing as otherwise I'd have been really disappointed.

Astrodienst calls it "Learning to Trust" and it's something about realizing that most major events in your life have come about with no conscious effort on your part to make them happen. Must be a bit more to it than that and I can't say I've actually grasped it, but whatever it is it's pretty nice, wafting away there in the background with day after day of beautiful weather and nothing to do but work outside and slowly turn neglect into benign neglect, this year's aim for the look of the *gardens*.

Sun Square Moon

Gorgeous weather and outside all day trying to make neglect look like benign neglect. A long way to go before that happens, as it takes me 90 minutes every day just to water and it's been so hot already this year I have to keep coming inside to cool off, but today was cool enough to keep going and I did, for about eight hours, with not an argument or disagreement in sight.

Still looks like neglect as I've attempted to *cultivate* more than I probably should have around the house, but the basics got done years ago when I could still cart around rocks and tree stumps to *landscape* and a week or so of eight-hour days now will get all the fallen leaves raked up and dumped and there's only a few flagstones to move from the back to the front and the bricks that G gave me to figure out what to do with and .....

Now I have to figure out how to get images on here without using the dreaded google photos. I'm old enough to remember when you could upload images directly from your computer, in those days of innocence before google ruled the earth, which reminds me that for someone who made such a fuss about finally gaining access to this blog after years of trying I haven't exactly lived up to its title.

But these are challenging times and we are in uncharted territory in these unprecedented circumstances for all of mankind, and if I had paid attention I'd have realized the sun was about to trine Jupiter in the early hours of Saturday and THAT had a lot more to do with my eight hours of labour than its squaring the moon.

Retrograde Pluto to the Midheaven

Pluto's been hovering two seconds off the Midheaven for the last three weeks or so for me, during all of which time I've been sheltering in place at the house with very occasional visits from friends who are doing the same in their houses except when they come over here of course.

With it (him?) exact to the MC again today, yesterday some of those friends came over and were critiquing the beginnings of my makeover of the living room, in progress since last Christmas.

Looking at the black and white irregular polka-dotted fabric draped over the curtain rod to see if it would work (it does) against the one wall papered in smaller irregular black and white polka dots, one of those friends was prompted to say "Very original", which I suppose pretty much sums up my, er, public persona.

That's what you get when you have Uranus in the First square Mars in the Eleventh.

Venus Square Jupiter

Well I don't think I bought anything extravagant unless you consider $2.97 on a tension rod to put in a doorway for a little bit of extra privacy for me and my new camping-out tenants to be excessive, but it was a much better than normal day as I discovered I can still play tennis.

It's been in doubt for six months or so, ever since the pain in my left calf came back soon after I had the *procedure* to cure it - a kind of roto-rooter-outer  to blow out the accumulated plaque from the partially blocked artery. Six months to four years, the surgeon said it lasted, and I automatically assumed I'd be one of the lucky ones.

I wasn't. It took a record-breaking four months before my calf started to hurt again when I took more than 50 or so steps, which began to happen when I was on vacation in Hawaii in February while Saturn was squaring my Mercury, which just happens to rule my Sixth House. Astrologer, glance at the ephemeris when making plans.

Because I didn't finish this this morning when I began to write it I've now completely lost interest in it. I may or may not add to it tomorrow.

Monday May 4th

Not even the tomorrow. Three days later. Wrap-up - got myself a stair step machine, used it and think I have actually *cured* (or enabled myself to be better or whatever you want to call it) myself enough that I can play tennis again, which I just did.