You’ll find it’s quite different from this blog, more focused on books, namely free ebooks you can read online or download; some of them are old, some will be new but it’s essentially a blog for ebook lovers 🙂
In that blog there is also the presentation of some of the books I wrote and that are currently on Amazon worldwide.
I sincerely hope you will like the new blog 🙂 Many blessings to you all and see you on the other side, as they say 🙂
I’m building a brand new blog – as you could surely imagine, I couldn’t find myself very comfortable in this, so I am working at a whole new blog, more in tune with myself 🙂
please, stay tuned, I’ll be back soon with the link
until then, have a blessed Solstice on the 22nd of this month, which is also the beginning of the new year of light
First of all, I want to apologize for haven’t written in a long time; unfortunately, I had problems and I couldn’t find the right inspiration for a new article for a while due to the emotional involvement in those problems but now I’m back.
Today’s topic is something I consider really important; I’ve been a vegan only for 2 years and a half, now, after having been a vegetarian for about 32 years, since when I was a child. The reason that brought me to the first choice, being a vegetarian, when I was only 14 years old was exclusively compassion for the animals; and even though I was really passionate about herbal medicine, alternative therapies and generally natural health, health had no part in my choice.
True, to adopt a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle (I don’t like to call it “diet” because there is much more behind a choice that goes against the mass, against the main current, against what many people are “sure” that they “know”) has undoubtedly health benefits, as many vegan athletes might confirm —
for some reasons unknown to me, I couldn’t embed 2 more articles, whose addresses I’ll transcribe here; just add the http:// before the link in the search bar before copying and pasting these ones — greatveganathletes.com and greatveganathletes.com/all-athletes
But it’s not for health that a lasting choice is made – one changes their lifestyle and keep that change because of their heart, of their understanding, of their empathy.
Most people never watch videos on how the animals suffer in factory farms, the pain and fear they feel when they are separated from their mothers like in the case of calves, or crushed alive in machinery like in the case of chicks.
I’m happy that more and more people are choosing a vegetarian, at least, or even better a vegan lifestyle day after day, month after month.
It’s easy to switch from a mainstream diet to a vegan lifestyle; the “alternatives” to dairy and flesh products are growing in number every month; even chains of supermarkets and big dairy industries are expanding their market producing vegan burgers, plant based milk and cheese and they are delicious!
Not everyone who has a good and strong motivation, though, has the time and the drive to cook interesting dishes; I see that many resort to ready made meals, because they wouldn’t know what to prepare when they have to rush between house, family and a job that keeps them away from home many hours a day 5 or 6 days a week. When someone is used to eat at the company canteen or outside, or even when they can go home between the 2 daily shifts, the temptation is to eat the quickest thing that is available and often it is not very tasty – especially when you work in companies who don’t care about vegan choices and have a good choice of food for non-vegans but very little for vegans – and won’t probably provide a good nutritional intake.
And this is exactly the reason why I’m preparing a series of courses and booklets on how to implement a creative, vegan lifestyle into a normally hectic life 🙂 The first course is almost ready to launch; it will be about creative cooking – how to prepare delicious, nutritionally great meals in a little time and it will include how to prepare vegan cookies and cakes, something that will be further expanded in more courses later.
Would you like to be part of this pilot course? If yes, just write to me at fionamckenziepen@gmail.com and I will send you all the info as soon as it’s ready to launch; you will, at that point, be able to decide if it’s for you and receive a big discount 🙂
I’ll just tell you that it’s different from the usual because it’s an interactive course – we will connect via Skype and I’ll help you cooking like I was there 🙂 we will start from what you already have in the kitchen and invent something on the spot – I promise you’ll be amazed!
Further news very soon, stay tuned! Have a blessed day.
I purchased a Claddagh at a Celtic fair many years ago; it’s been told me that it was not only a marriage ring but also used to show a woman’s “availability”, so to say – according to the way it is worn, it has different meanings. Fascinated, I used to wear it for a long time and, from time to time, I still do.
The Claddagh is undoubtedly the most famous Irish ring and its first traces date to the XII century.
It’s made by two hands that seem to be giving a heart with a crown on; the hands symbolize friendship, the heart love and the crown loyalty. It can also be interpreted as symbolizing the gift of our own precious heart to someone.
Its name comes from an Irish village that became famous for producing these rings in the XVII century but its origin is not really known; there are many legends that talk about it, from the story of the eagle that dropped an already made Claddagh into a woman’s lap to reward her for being a good person, dedicated to doing good, to the most famous one, that talks about Richard Joyce, a fisherman in the little town of Claddagh, Ireland; captured and kidnapped together with the rest of the crew on a ship while on the sea by Algerian pirates, he was sold in slavery to a moor who was a goldsmith; the legend claims that he invented the Claddagh ring in its current shape while in slavery, working for the goldsmith, always having his beloved who was waiting for him in the native Ireland on his mind.
When King
William III demanded all British slaves to be set free, after 14 years of
captivity Richard was released, went back to his country and married his
beloved, who received the ring as a marriage gift.
There are many
ways to wear the ring and all of them carry a message for the person who is
able to interpret it.
In all cases it
must be worn at the ring finger and it can signal four different relationship
conditions about the woman wearing it.
If worn on the
right hand with the hands of the ring pointing towards the points of the
fingers, it means the lady wearing it is single;
if worn, always on the right hand, with the hands of the ring pointing towards the wrist, it means she is in a relationship but not formally engaged;
if worn on the left hand with the hands of the ring pointing towards the point of the fingers, though, it means she is engaged and
if worn always on the left hand but with the hands of the ring pointing towards the wrist it means she is married.
In the part of the country where I live and I was born, North Italy, a couple of millennia ago we had the Celtic tribe called Boi or Boii. According to Wikipedia —
Personally, I have always felt very much connected to the Celts, not only because my ancestors in this life were Celts but also because of previous incarnations in Celtic nations (I know for sure about Scotland, so far – and here’s why I chose a Scottish pen name – but there might be others not yet explored).
In the Celtic traditional world, herbs were used both to purify and to attract or propitiate situations; and so we have Betony and Mint, that were used to drive away depression and evil energies; St. John’s Wort, burned to gain invincibility and protection against negativity; Cedar chips for purification and to attract positive energies.
In my ebook How to make homemade incense with herbs, fruits, resins (I’m releasing an update in a couple of days, you can find it back on sale on the 25th of November, 2019) I dedicated more than one incense to the ancient Celtic Deities; I would like to share some of them here with you, in the hope you’ll like them. 🙂 Burn the suggested mix on incense coals.
Ogma Incense
God of eloquence,
of language and of genius, his name means “Sun Face”. He is usually
depicted as an old man wearing a lion’s skin. Inventor of writing and oghamic
divination, the Celtic divination (while the origin of the Runes is Nordic and
not Celtic, as is commonly believed), you can use his incense to favor divination
when using means such as cards, runic or oghamic oracles, crystal balls, and
more.
Nutmeg (a little, powdered), mugwort, acacia flowers
Brighid Incense
Irish Celtic Goddess of healing, art and poetry, fertility and patron of sciences and arts. Her incense strengthens the aura and helps against depression.
Almonds (ground), rose petals
Nuadha Incense
Nuadha the Silver
Arm; God of healing and water, he is called like that because he lost an arm
during an epic battle and it was replaced with a silver one. Due to this injury
he had to leave the sovereignty of the Tuatha de Danann. The use of his incense
relieves headaches.
One of the many things I’ve always been passionate of, being an INFJ, is to get to know the reason behind everything but especially the reasons behind human behaviors. It’s always been natural to me to analyze every little detail, every little option possible behind the nature of events, of words, of actions.
When I started reading Runes professionally, I started coming across more and more humanity and variety that I knew about. I mean, being an introvert I’ve never been around too many people for long periods of time, even though when I was a teenager I used to hang with 3 different groups of people almost in the same period – still, inside those groups I mostly used to hang with one, two persons and I mostly just observed the others, interacting only a little.
I’m basically an observer, an analyzer and a problem solver.
In my profession as a Rune reader, as I was saying here above, I came across all kinds of personalities, from psychopath to desperate, confused people; being very empathic and empathetic, I came to understand more things I thought I could.
I noticed that the primal cause of problems in love is fear; it might seem a simplistic declaration but, as I wrote in my book, actually it has more branches that are all interconnected – to discover the roots and the ramifications of this fear is the first step towards healing. In fact, there can be no healing when someone doesn’t recognize that there is an issue and, unfortunately, too many people (mostly men) do not want to recognize the issue or, when they do recognize it, they mostly choose to ignore it, in the hope the problem will solve itself with time.
Unfortunately, that is not the case. Once an issue is recognized, a person must work actively on that issue to solve it, because time will only make it worse – like when someone has a serious illness that, if not cured, will only worsen and, sometimes, become chronic.
In this little, practical manual I make a psychological examination of the issue of fear in love and of its consequences, also using examples of real people (names changed for privacy, of course) to illustrate the point better.
In the hope that this might promote more understanding between people who love each other, I would like to offer a mini Rune reading for free for a love question to all those who will buy my ebook. Just write to me at fionamckenziepen@gmail.com with the number of your purchase and I’ll get back in touch with you for the reading within 24 hours.
How many times did you receive a
gift you didn’t like? A gift you “recycled” as soon as you could because the
giver obviously thought about how much they would have liked to receive
something similar but they didn’t stop and think about what you might like
instead?
Well, it is certainly true that
sometimes it happens to us all – we are not sure of what to give a friend, a
loved person, a parent or a relative and we end up buying something we
certainly like but the receiver might not.
Every problem has a solution, as
the saying goes, and here is the perfect solution for any doubts about what to
gift a loved one – a personalized gift basket.
We are sure the receiver will
love it because it will be made thinking of how they are, what they like, what
they don’t like.
There are ideas for all kinds of
people, from the animal lover to the lover of food, of books, of travelling, of
sports and so on.
First thing, find a nice basket
that you will fill with some kind of plastic or paper shredded fillings; your
basket can be made out of cardboard or wood or even wicker and it can come in
many sizes. Choose the one you consider the best based on your budget and on
the quantity of items you want to fill it with. Also have at your disposal
transparent plastic wrapping and a nice ribbon.
Here are some ideas to fill the
basket. I will suggest more ideas in further articles. Have fun!
FOR THE CHOCOLATE LOVER
* a little package of cocoa with
sugar
* a little package of cocoa
without sugar
* a little package of grated
coconut (it is delicious with cocoa)
* chocolate bars (without milk)
with nuts, puffed rice, whisky
And here are the simple recipes
to make those chocolate bars at home, so that you are sure they will be vegan
and as delicious as you choose them to be –
* for the nuts chocolate, take a
bar of pre-made dark chocolate (it doesn’t contain any dairy nor other animal
byproducts) and make it melt in the following way – put on the fire a little
casserole filled for two thirds of water and put inside of it a little
casserole with the chocolate in little pieces; make the water boil and you will
see the chocolate melting. When it’s liquid, add the nuts (hazelnuts,
macadamia, almonds or walnuts in pieces), mix well with a spoon and pour it all
into a plastic mold for chocolate or, if you prefer, you can use little molds
for chocolates of various shapes.
Let it cool for some hours and
voilà , it’s done. Wrap it in plastic to preserve it from external agents of all
kinds.
* same process for the puffed
rice;
* for the whisky, instead, pour
just a few drops when the chocolate is liquid, then pour it all in the stamps
and let it cool.
You can make both chocolates and
chocolate bars, as many as you want spending only a few dollars, making at the
same time a wonderful gist that will be really appreciated.
FOR THE PET LOVER
As every pet parent knows, you
will make them happy if you put in a gift basket items for their animals.
You can find a vast choice of
snacks and toys for cats and dogs in every supermarket and pet store throughout
the country but if you really want to impress the receiver you can also add
homemade simple but delicious treats – in doing so, you convey to your
friend/love/relative a message of deep care and love, since you also used your
time to give a little, tasty gift to their beloved furry children.
You know the saying, “love me,
love my pie”. In this case we might say “love me, love my animals” and that is
exactly the message they will receive when they see you really had them all on
your mind.
Here you can find a couple of
recipes containing ingredients that are all safe and tasty.
THE EASIEST AND QUICKEST CAT TREATS
2 cups of wheat flour
1 can of tuna or salmon with
water (use the water too)
Water
A little cookie cutter with a
nice shape or a normal knife
Mix all the ingredients to make a
thick and not sticky dough, about one quarter of an inch thick, cut it into
little shapes with the cookie cutter or, if you don’t have one, with a normal
knife (you can make little squares, for example) and bake in a pre-heated oven
350°F for about 20 minutes.
Let them cool and storage in a
plastic container for a maximum of 2 weeks. Keep them in a dry place.
QUICK AND EASY COOKIES DOGS WILL ADORE
2 cups of wheat flour
1/3 cup of peanut butter (pure, without
salt)
1 ripe banana
Baking powder
Water
Mix all the ingredients in a
mixer to obtain a thick dough, roll the dough until it’s about ¼ inch thick and
cut it with the cookie cutter or the knife into little pieces. Bake the cookies
in the pre-heated oven at 350°F for about 15-20 minutes. Let them cool and
storage in a plastic container in
the fridge for a maximum of one
week (so prepare them only the day before giving them to your
friend/relative/parent as a gift).
Give a final touch to the basket
adding also a book on the receiver’s most beloved kind of animal (dogs, cats or
others), it will be really appreciated.
ROMANTIC BASKET FOR THE
SPECIAL PERSON IN OUR LIFE
Equally valid for both a man and
a woman, we can add to our basket scented candles (with a scent of flowers or
fruit for a woman, of coffee or sandal for a man), scented bath salts or a very
richly scented liquid soap (go to a natural cosmetics shop to choose one that
is not tested on animals and doesn’t contain animal by-products, so you will
also find products you wouldn’t usually find in normal shops and supermarkets)
like, for example, sandal or patchouli for a man, chocolate or coconut or
magnolia for a woman, incense sticks if they like them and a little book with love
phrases taken from ancient authors, for example Shakespeare or Ovid (just look
for “Shakespeare love quotes” or “Ovid love quotes” or even simply “love
quotes” on Google), that you can craft easily by choosing the love quotes you
like the most, the ones you really consider the most poignant to your love life
and copying them into a word file, format a5 or even more little, adding images
and printing them, then simply make 2 holes in the sheets of printed paper and
fill with them a little ring binder with a nice cover; I would suggest to print
only one quote for every sheet of paper and to have at least 40-50 of them printed
for a better impression on the receiver.
I hope you enjoyed these little
examples of gift baskets. If you liked them, I will be glad to create more
articles with more ideas. And, more than anything else, have fun with your
creativity!!
I really love to be creative in the kitchen; I am a vegan, now, and I’ve been a vegetarian for 32 years before taking the decision to finally be completely coherent with my ideals of living cruelty free and to become a vegan.
It’s been really easy, to be true; the only thing I missed, in the beginning, was the milk for my tea. I’m a real tea junkie but I don’t like plain tea, except in case of very light Morning Breakfast with fresh lemon juice and some raw sugar (I never liked white sugar), so – to me – tea was always tea with milk.
Becoming a vegan, I simply switched from cow milk to rice or oat milk for tea, homemade cakes and puddings and soy milk for mashed potatoes and every other use. Personally, I don’t like almond milk because it’s too bitter, for my taste.
I saw that there are more kinds of vegetable milk, like hazelnuts (tasty but pretty strong, I wouldn’t know how to use it except to drink it plain), walnuts and millet (not tried yet), so there is a pretty vast choice of alternatives.
The little recipe that follows has been invented by me recently (or, at least, I never read it anywhere, so it might be that many other people thought of it even before me, who knows? 🙂 It’s difficult to say if something is a really unique idea or not, in the kitchen). It’s vegan, healthy, sweet and without sugar added.
Cut in little pieces one or two apples, possibly of different kinds – like Golden Delicious and Morgan, for example -, one or two bananas, add some grapes and, if you feel like, some pieces of orange or mandarin. Add some white soy yogurt without sugar and lots of raw, grated coconut. Mix well and you’ll have a delicious dessert, quick and healthy. And it won’t add weight to your waistline. 🙂
Of course, you can change the fruits with different ones according to your taste and to the season. I’m sure everyone you present this dessert to will be delighted.
Hello, I’m Fiona and I’m a writer; I always loved writing, since when I was a child and more than 15 years ago I established my little publishing house in my country – North Italy -, now closed. Many of the books I published had been written by me, others were translated. My fields of interest have always been all that is natural, vegetarian (now vegan) cooking, magic, paranormal, the Fairy world and on those topics I wrote some interesting texts.
The passion for writing always remained and in time I developed more books that I decided to keep in the form of ebooks only. I always published under pseudonyms, the ones I currently use are Fiona McKenzie and Aileen Moore but I prefer Fiona McKenzie for personal reasons and you can call me Fiona 🙂
What can you expect from the Druid’s Forest? Certainly info on things pertaining the Nature, vegan recipes, tips to fix little problems in the house in a natural way, the Fairy world and why not? Since I’m also a professional Rune reader, why don’t you drop me a line with a little question? Every week I’ll answer one question for free here on the blog 🙂 you might be the lucky winner of the week!
my email address is — fionamckenziepen@gmail.com
I’m looking forward to reading your question and don’t forget to write in your email your name, zodiacal sign and the name and zodiacal sign of all the other people involved, together with a brief explanation of the situation and your question. And remember – only one! In case you decide for a complete consultation, just get in touch and I’ll explain how it works 🙂
The Druid's Forest 