Sanctuary Diaries - Magical Synchronicities & Sacred Fires

It's been a while since I have done an update, but quite a bit has happened since then. So I will have some stuff to share with you all.

Sacred Fires

The wintergarden section is quite cold since it is actually open to the outside via the roof mostly which is not of the insulated type, but breathes to the outside, it is merely tiled up so that no rain gets in, and there are large gaps between the glass that the old owner had installed. This inspired me to build a DIY fireplace, so that we could use it as a baking oven & also eventually to heat up the space on colder nights slightly, since we also intended to add some raised beds indoors so that we might cultivate flowers & vegetables year round. So we collected a bunch of bricks that were laying scattered around the property & I used clay from the garden as mortar to seal it up. It could use some improvements still, like perhaps a door to shut it closed, but the whole construction actually worked quite well to my surprise, some of the mortar cracked in the first use which we had to patch up again, but considering that it was built for free, that is no big deal, since I could easily dismantle the whole thing if we needed to & redo it.

_{Here I am adding clay to the inside after laying the bricks with clay into its initial structure}

_{Getting in there and slapping the clay against all of the interior surfaces to seal it up}

_{Once it was finished I added a layer of white paint on the upper portion, not a perfect job, had some spray paint left over so this was just for fun & using up what was left in that}

While I was doing the Fireplace, Hive account@kaliphae painted the outside of the Wintergarden section in Black in the hopes of capturing some more of the heat from the sunlight so that it may radiate that extra heat into the room, since those portions are made of metal it should be able to radiate some extra warmth into that space. Our plan is to build the raised beds near to the windows, so while it might not heat up the room itself much, it should make for a few degrees of difference near to the frames where the plants will be.

I also made a short video of the fireplace in action, which was the first test to check if it would work, you can more clearly see how it was constructed and get a better look at the paint job that KPHI did for the window frames outside.

_{My Phone Camera isn't great in low light, but this is viewed from entering the stairway}

_{This is looking into it, I decorated it with some crystals & precious stones, KPHI will be planting some flowers around it later on.}

We also cleaned out the old store room or what used to be apparently a summer kitchen, although it was just piled up with loads of junk from the previous owner, where I setup the alchemical laboratory, a space in which we can do our plant distillations & tinctures, but also work on silversmithing.

_{Hive account@kaliphae took this picture, I stole this from our Instagram Feed, unpacking all of our glassware that we had wrapped in cloth & brought along in that big trunk}

Magical Synchronicity

Finally the most amazing story I have to share, is that we both decided that we would like to get a cat & an acquaintance we know even had kittens available which we were considering initially, but life decided to surprise us with a really odd but magical incidence. A few days ago I was sitting in the garden next to brownie, when I saw a wild cat pass right in front of the both of us & lay down underneath our car getting shade from the hot sun that was shining. I went into the kitchen with the intention of thawing one of the mice from the snakes thinking I might offer it to her. But while I was in the kitchen & preparing the mouse at a certain moment I looked out of the kitchen door which is looking into the wintergarden section & exactly at the moment I looked, I caught a glimpse of the cat entering there into the house. Initially I supposed that she entered to hunt for mice, since that area does have some, which is why we wanted to get a cat, but as I looked around I couldn't find her. I was certain she had not gone back outside & she could have only gone up the ladder to the attic space, so I quietly climbed up. As I was upstairs I heard a rustling sound, so I immediately knew she was there, I walked up to the back of the attic & found her sitting inside an old cardboard box, tending to a clutch of 4 kittens. I could not believe my eyes initially, we had decided to get ourselves a cat & now life had literally brought a wild cat into our home, rearing 4 young kittens. I later brought her the mouse & we left her a bowl of fresh water. We didn't disturb her much, since she was not happy about me getting too close, but when I brought her the stuff I did sit down a good distance away & just told her that she should not worry that I would not harm her kittens & just chilled a while in her presence hoping that she would understand that I mean her & her kittens no harm.

Today I ordered some cat food, so that she has enough to eat to feed her young properly & also so that once she might start weaning off her kittens, we can offer them some food as well. I am not sure how old they are though, so if anybody has any tips for this situation or can guess their age from the photos I managed to take of them, I would appreciate any advice that you might have in how to go about the situation properly.

_{Here is a picture of the Mother next to the cardboard box in which are her kittens, I caught this photo today, while she was busy looking to catch a mouse in the attic I believe, cause she was rummaging around in a corner further away from the box, but immediately went to her kittens once she saw me approach}

_{Here is the closest shot I was able to make of the cardboard box, it looks like I was quite close, but in actuality I was using the zoom on the camera while standing on top of a beam 2 meters away from it, I believe from what I can identify in the picture that they are 4 kittens. The Attic is really dark, the flash made the inside of the box way more visible than what I could see with my eyes.}

So this has been our adventure so far, I hope you enjoyed this update! Below you will find some links to some of our other Social Media, My Spotify, Our Other Projects & Sanctuary Fundraiser.