Hey y'all!  Good Morning to you ... it's amazing to me, as many of you know, I am NOT and early riser in NM ... what with TV and sewing and reading, etc I am usually up very late.  Well here, when the sun goes down, most close up for the night.  By 8:30 or 9:00 we have 'viewed' our Modern Family episodes, or Firefly episodes, or movie for the evening on my trusty laptop and Zane is ready for bed.  I read for about another 1/2 hour, get sleepy and then shut down my reading light and go to sleep too ... thus, when the coffee is made in the morning, Jay is here for coffee and the sun is not yet up, I too am up and about ... very different.  Anyway, I do love the morning breezes and sounds of the birds, the mullet splashing in the lagoon as the barracuda chase them and the quiet village before all is up, about and busy.

I have been looking through my pictures to share things and thought that today I would share the ancient Christian/Pagan symbol that is very alive and well here in Belize and I have proof.  As many of you know, I am Wiccan, but before that, I was raised in the Christian faith and still hold much of that spiritual bent within my current spiritual practice. 

As history will show, on the ancient cathedrals in Europe the Gods of old were pictured as a way of bringing the Pagans into the folds of the newer religion.  Not an unwise thing for the new church 'fathers' to do ... to incorporate the old into the new and attract the peoples to the 'newer' beliefs.  At any rate, one of the images on the churches was that of the Greenman ... (like my tattoo that some of you know) ... Also known as Jack 'o' the Green, and by other names, this Greenman was the God of nature, the greenwood and the wild things.  Well, here in Belize is yet another proof that this God of Nature is alive and well ... I give you ... Ta Da ... the Greenman!

This was found by my camera and me on Solstice day in the archaeological park of Actun Tunichil Muknal near Belmopan, the capital city of Belize in the Cayo District.  We went there hunting a pyramid to climb for Solstice ... didn't find one ... found the Cave of the Crystal Maiden, couldn't go in, but saw the Greenman on our walk in.

Well, yesterday, we finally had our New Years dinner! ... Yum ... pork roast, sauerkraut and smashed potatoes, gravy ... some tried my homemade sauerkraut and liked it and some wouldn't even try it.  Oh well ... their loss, I make great sauerkraut!

Don't think I mentioned this in the blog here, but Zane and I are going to be grandparents again, due on Summer Solstice!!!  Heather and Mark, Makena and Vivianna are pregnant! ... according to my pendulum, it will be a boy this time ... will check the pendulum again later, as sometime it is hesitant till this solidify in the womb more ... I know Mark, especially, is hoping for a son, but they make such beautiful girls that another one of them would be lovely too!!!  Boy, I will just get back to the states and "have to" travel to TX soon after ... gee, golly gosh how I will hate that ... not!  lol

Well slow day here for the 'boys' ... may help dig a grave here in a little while ... then Jason and Disho (a village friend) will go to Democracia to sell Disho's fish catch and get gas, and Zane will spend the day sanding the doors and shutters and be out of my hair here in the house so I can sew.