Full Moon (and New Moon) – Blood Moon Crests (and Begins)

So I never posted an entry for Blood Moon’s new moon. Woops. Things have been a little busy around here.
At the moment, we’re about (probably just shy of, really) half-way through the move. We’ve got a little bit of furniture left to bring over, but most of the stuff that’s left is stuff that has to be sorted and weeded and Dealt With in a time-consuming manner.
We’re already living at the new house, which is WONDERFUL. The difference, just in terms of my general well-being, between the beginning of Blood Moon and NOW has been imense. Two weeks ago, I was in the middle of a full-time temp contract, trying to get the hang of running a busy front desk during the day, and trying to cook in a desperately pared-down kitchen – most of-which was in bags on my living room floor – as soon as I got home, whilst packing and moving stuff as quickly as two exhasuted and frazzled people are capable of moving it, once the dishes were done. Now, I’m finished my contract and, while things are still on the hectic side (we’re going out of town, the day after tomorrow, for An Unholy Harvest – I’m quite looking forward to the ritual workshops that I’ll be attending, for example – so there’s a lot to get done in terms of packing and prep on that front) at least we’re in a roach-free house (knock on wood…) and I’m cooking in a kitchen where I’ve got all of my equipment and most of my food supply (we haven’t transferred the contents of the fridge/freezer unit yet, since we still have to give the new-fridge shelves a good, thorough wash before installing them) and that makes a hell of a difference, even if my studio (I get a studio!) and half the kitchen are still full of boxes and bags that have yet to be unpacked.
Things are going far more smoothly, and its showing in our tempers, which is wonderful.
Today I bought (a) daylight-spectrum 1450-lumin CFLs (“100 watt” if we’re talking incandescents, but only 23 watts in this case) to put in my studio, the living room, and the kitchen, as well as flower bulbs (two kinds of purple-themed tulips (one solid, dark purple and one white with purple stripes), some blue hyacinthes, and some kind of tiny, super-pale-blue (almost-but-not-quite white) flower that should come up around the same time as the snow-drops, chionadoxa, and scilla do (still need to get scilla, for sure). I also bought Quebec cranberries plus Ontario pears (I was so worried that I’d completely missed the season, but Nicastro’s still has them, so YAY!), garlic, and tomatoes for making cranberry curd, pear butter, and roasted-garlic-balsamic tomato sauce, respectively. I’ll be picking up a few pie-pumpkins some time late next week for pumpkin butter (and jack-o-lanterns!), too, but I can hold off on that for a little while yet. I’m already planning the garden that we’ll put in once May rolls around – a 2×8 perennial bed (rhubarb, sea berries, sun chokes (provided I like them – I’m about to give them a go, so we’ll see), red currants or raspberries, ground cherries (an annual, but they self-seed) peppermint, lovage, sage and thyme, and a common mallow if I can swing it) plus three or four 2×8 annual beds complete with arching trelisses between them for climbing crops like squash and pole beans, and hanging baskets for vining tomatoes plus chard and kale (to keep the slugs from getting all of it).
 
Blood Moon (Harvest Moon, Ancestor Moon) is the moon of the Last Harvest, the moon of Slaughter, the time when we make the switch from shoots-and-fruits to Root Time. With the count-down on for getting out of the old apartment, I’m feeling the anxiety that comes – the squirrels are feeling it, too, I’m sure – with shorter, colder days and the very real need to get everything Done, get everything In before the ice is on the puddles in the mornings and even the kale is keeling over (although, realistically, we’ve got another two months for the kale, which grows into early December here, before the cold and the dark say “Time’s Up”).
For the rest of us, though, Time is definitely running out. The leaves of my neighbour’s asian fuzzy squash plants are wilted and brown, and our own hardy plants (jade, philodendron, hens-and-chicks) are coming in off the porch this evening, lest the frost take them in the night.
I have offerings to make the the land, before it goes to sleep for the winter, an altar or three to set up, an apartment to leave behind (and a lot to move before then), and a squash-heavy feast to plan before this lunar cycle is done.
 
Wish me luck!