see saw

Crow, my cat, wanted to sleep in the greenhouse last night. We have had some mouse sightings in the greenhouse, so I let her.  She had gotten into a what I thought was a small fight with some other animal early last week, and I thought she had recovered. The scab on her lower back was healing, and she was behaving cuddly with me and the other children around town. When I walked out into the greenhouse this morning early with the sun, she didn't come running up to me, I didn't hear her frolic out from the mouse meals into my arms. I called her, and called her. No Crow. I began watering and continued the whistle, and I saw her like a zombie cat with constricted pupils moving back and forth like a sloth out from under a greenhouse table. Her whole backside was wet and soiled, and as I picked her up, she had no control of her bowels.   I called the vet to bring her in, and called upon this calvalcade of seeing saints:

 patron saints for agricultural workers. 

Benedict 
Bernard of Vienne 
Botulph 
Eligius 
George 
Isidore the Farmer 
Notb

urga 
Phocas the Gardener 
Walstan 

Patron saint of gardeners 
Adam 
Adelard 
Agnes of Rome 
Christopher 
Dorothy of Caesarea 
Fiacre 
Gertrude of Nivelles 
Phocas the Gardener 
Rose of Lima 
Sebastian 
Tryphon 
Urban of Langres 
Werenfridus 

 a list of patron saints for animals:

Anthony of Padua 
Anthony the Abbot 
Blaise 
Nicholas of Tolentino

St. Francis of Assisi

 a Patron Saint of cats:

Gertrude of Nivelles 

And even a patron saint of sick animals 
Beuno 
Dwynwen 
Nicholas of Tolentino 

Today on the Eve of Beltane, my fire for Crow burns brightly. Today is the Feast Day of Blessed Hildegard. In one lovely story of Hildegard a sick woman's family approached her and asked her for help. She took a piece of Bread from her table, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the family to take to their sick family member. The woman was cured. Blessed Hildegard set free the possessed, the mentally disturbed and the blind. She prophesized widely in deiner Muterland, Deutschland, and birthed 9 children of her own before entering the convent.  She was a culinary expert and enjoyed the use of herbs.

Today we planted parsley, dill, and cilantro outside, and fought back the spreading oregano, tickled the thyme, and layed ourselves down in the healing lavendar. The children learned a lot today about the herbs. As I pointed out the lavendar one of the 12 year olds, named Loius said, "Lavendar, as in the natural ingredeant, as in the scent, as in the dish soap."    

We transplanted the cilantro that we planted from the over 10,000 seeds we ordered this year. We intercrop the cilantro with our brassicas, as it disguieses the scent from the cabbage moth. What predatory insects can't smell, they can't eat.  Spread, cilantro, grow and nourish us, sofrito, flavor our beans, and drop your seeds, become our naturalized herb our in-house pest management and Latino flavor.

I didn't have time to thin out the carrot seeds today, I took crow to the hospital. She had been attacked by some other animal, and we are not sure yet what her chance of survival. There is a time for everything, and in going deeply into seasonal intimacy we find that there is a little bit of every season within each and every other  season, like a rainbow, like  leaves falling from trees in the springtime. Rhythms and colors, like a      

 See Saw of joy and sorrow.

Advent - The liturgical season of four weeks devoted to preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas (524).

Annunciation - The visit of the angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary to inform her that she was to be the mother of the Savior. After giving her consent to God's word, Mary became the mother of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit (484, 494)

Ascension - The entry of Jesus' humanity into divine glory in God's heavenly domain, forty days after His Resurrection (659,665).

Assumption - The dogma that recognizes the Blessed Virgin Mary's singular participation in her Son's Resurrection by which she was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when the course of her earthly life was finished (2124-5).

Christmas Season - From the Christmas Vigil (Dec 24 eve) to Epiphany (Jan 6) to the Baptism of the Lord (mid-Jan).

Easter - The greatest and oldest Christian feast, which celebrates Christ's Resurrection from the dead. Easter is the "feast of feasts", the solemnity of solemnities, the "Great Sunday". Christians prepare for it during Lent and Holy Week, and catechumens usually receive the Sacraments of Christian Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist) at the Easter Vigil (1169; cf. 647)

Easter Season - 50 days (7 weeks) from Easter Sunday to Pentecost.

Epiphany - The feast that celebrates the manifestation to the world of the newborn Christ as Messiah, Son of God, and Savior of the world. The feast of Epiphany celebrates the adoration of Jesus by the wise men (magi) from the east, together with his baptism in the Jordan and the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee (528; cf. 535).

Feast Days - The annual cycle of liturgical celebrations commemorating the saving mysteries of Christ's life, as a participation in the Paschal Mystery, which is celebrated annually at Easter, the "feast of feasts." Feast days commemorating Mary, the Mother of God, and the saints are also celebrated, providing the faithful with examples of those who have been glorified with Christ (1169, 1173).

Holy Days of Obligation - Principal feast days on which, in addition to Sundays, Catholics are obligated by Church law to participate in the Eucharist; a precept of the Church (2043, 2180).

Holy Week - The week preceding Easter, beginning with Palm (Passion) Sunday, called the "Great Week" in the liturgies of the Eastern Churches. It marks the Church's annual celebration of the events of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection, culminating in the Paschal Mystery (1169).

Immaculate Conception - The dogma proclaimed in Christian Tradition and defined in 1854, that from the first moment of her conception, Mary -- by the singular grace of God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ -- was preserved immune from original sin (491)

Lent - A season of penitential preparation ("forty days"), from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday morning

Pentecost - The "fiftieth" day at the end of the seven weeks following Passover (Easter in the Christian dispensation). At the first Pentecost after the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus, the Holy Spirit was manifested, given and communicated as a divine Person to the Church, fulfilling the paschal mystery of Christ according to His promise (726, 731; cf.1287). Annually the Church celebrates the memory of the Pentecost event as the beginning of the new "age of the Church", when Christ lives and acts in and with His Church (1076).

Colors of the Seasons   

Advent - Purple, except for Rose (optional) on the Third Sunday of Advent ("Gaudete Sunday")

Christmas - White or Gold (not red and green)

Lent - Purple

●  Rose (optional) on the 4th Sunday of Lent ("Laetare Sunday")

●  Red on Passion/Palm Sunday Easter Triduum

●  White or Gold on Holy Thursday and at the Easter Vigil

●  Red on Good Friday

Easter Season - White or Gold, except for Red on Pentecost Sunday

Ordinary Time - Green, except for special colors on particular feasts or occasions, as follows:

●  White - Solemnities of the Lord and the Saints; major local feasts; funeral liturgies (Black also allowed)

●  Red - feasts of the Apostles, Martyrs, or the Holy Spirit

Here's the Vatican's official interactive Liturgical Year webpage. 

note to self: other saints to consider for Soil and Saints

and  Patron saint of geologists 

Barbara 

 and Patron saint of harvests 
Anthony of Padua 
Florian 
Jodocus 
Medard of Noyon 
Walburga 

Patron saint of millers 
Arnulf of Soissons 
Catherine of Alexandria 
Christina of Bolsena 
Leodegarius 
Victor of Marseilles 
Winnoc 

The lists go on and on, carpenters, bicyclists, job seekers, house hunters aviators, lost objects, law suits, cemetery workers, cooks and chefs, cancer patients, chastisty, clock makers, clowns, drought relief, even patron saints against cold weather.

I made the See Saw video to make myself feel better about crow: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVGL1hLDGvk&feature=channel_page