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madelon3.bsky.social
Madelon
@madelon3.bsky.social
260 followers 290 following 1.6K posts
Elf-shot Gardening Grandma imbued with subtle undertones of biophilia: books, dogs, music, runes, photography, plants. No DMs. #Resist
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madelon3.bsky.social
Awww. I am glad you have that friend. What kind of dog is he? Pluto is a boxer/Lab mix. Some people call them boxadors and tout them as designer dogs that are particularly great for families. He does love children.
November 3, 2025 at 2:07 AM
madelon3.bsky.social
This is a lawn flag for Halloween. It is a drawing of a pumpkin outlined in black, and in that same black color are the vines of the pumpkin, which spell out fuck Trump.
October 31, 2025 at 8:10 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
October 29, 2025 at 8:19 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
i.pinimg.com/originals/19...
October 17, 2025 at 5:51 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
We are full into autumn now in Wisconsin following a record-breathtakingly hot summer.

Peppers liked the heat and they went crazy. I just harvested this entire plant and will pluck these slightly hot peppers from them and freeze them.

# Midwestgardeners #witchsky
This is my kitchen where I have a really great rack from which hangs my Le Creuset pans along with a basket full of garlic and peppers and a big stainless steel measuring cup. An entire pepper plant loaded with mildly hot peppers is hanging from a hook on the rack, waiting for me to beg them up and freeze them. Sometimes I dry peppers in my dehydrator.
October 15, 2025 at 5:50 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
Another hawk sighting yesterday. I have not IDed this one yet, but I think it is different than the sharp shinned hawk I spotted at the entrance of this park recently. I’m happy to see predators in my neighborhood.

#witchsky #raptors #hawk
This is a very fuzzy picture with a hawk in a field launching while gripping onto a dead squirrel. Another person walking through the park said that he heard all the squirrels screaming out a warning. I have not been able to ID this hawk yet., but it appears to be one I haven’t seen before. This neighborhood is absolutely overrun by squirrels and rabbits, and as a gardener I am happy to see a hawk make a meal of one of these pesky creatures.
October 8, 2025 at 3:33 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
This year‘s garlic planting seemed a little more intense than the last couple of years. It might be because I dug compost in. I was very sad to have to pull up a lot of zinnias, but the growing season is definitely coming to an end. I laid down chicken wire to keep the rodents out of the planting.
On the right are the remaining zinnias— big, colorful, flowers of pink and red and yellow. The row is marked by two wooden steaks with yellow string connecting the stakes to mark the row. I laid chicken wire over the entire planting, and I’m holding it down with landscape Staples. I’ve had an explosion of pesky varmints this year, and I just know that they would dig this up because that’s what they do. In the lower left-hand corner is a splash of bright reddish orange marigolds. Here were my favorite zinnias of the season: a vibrant magenta color of jumbo zinnias that resemble Dalias. Is it these are probably my favorite flower because theyare so easy to grow and are so rewarding. Also, it’s very easy to save seeds from these beauties to plant next year’s display.
October 2, 2025 at 12:28 AM
madelon3.bsky.social
Blessed Autumnal Equinox! Today is my late brother's birthday. My dad's was the 19th, and mine is Wednesday.

"Live as though all your ancestors were living through you."
~This is either Susan Cain or Kristin Neff.

#autumnal_equinox #balance #ancestors #harvest
Autumn Equinox. A new red candle with little golden knobs sits on a violet (the flower) plate of my grandmother's. In front is my journal open to pages I wrote in an online gathering with Juliet Diaz, literary Bruja. A pen and a trimmer sit on the open pages. The pen is for writing prompts provided by Juliet. The trimmers repesent the harvest and the act of letting go as we go into the dark time of the year. The table is littered with plant bits.
September 22, 2025 at 6:11 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
Part of my working around this is to be very connected to what I see in nature. This week I have seen the largest river Birch ever, a murder of crows high in a oak tree, a sharp-shinned hawk, and a small flock of tree swallows.

Then today, a trunk of a Cottonwood tree in the nearby park broke.
September 18, 2025 at 4:51 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
You’re called Una, that most ancient plant.

You defeat three,
you defeat thirty,

you defeat venom,
you defeat air-illness;

you defeat the horror who stalks the land.

~Anglo Saxon Nine Herbs Charm

#witchsky #heathen #Odin #novena #mugwort
Up close and personal with a fully mature mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) plant. We have a field full of mugwort near my house. It is a distinctive silver-green color, raggedy and full of thousands of seeds. A Canadian goldenrod (Solidago canadensis)is blooming golden in the mid-left of the photo. A green hill and blue skies with white clouds are in the background.
September 14, 2025 at 9:20 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
I'm doing a novena for Odin this week.
I found a striated candle in autumn colors at the thrift store. I carved several runes into it. It sits on one of my grandmother's plates. A tiger's eye heart rests on the plate with a limestone hag stone (Stone with a hole in it) in front.
September 12, 2025 at 8:15 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
Time to take Pluto for his walk before I have to go get my hair cut. I started the day with a doctor appointment and I asked my daughter to drive me. This helps me and gives me time to spend with my favorite person on the planet. I'm trying to relish in whatever is good in these hard times.
A close-up of the flower on a wild clematis (Clematis vitalba) vine. It has ivy-like leaves and the flowers are white and wispy--like silky threads. Plants never cease to amaze me.
August 29, 2025 at 4:07 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
I’m finally getting around to harvesting some, although most of it has already gone to seed. I like to combine the dried mug wart with a native sage and use all for smudging.
This is a close-up of a very large mug wart plant. In the front and positioned horizontally and forward are stalks with countless seeds.
August 23, 2025 at 4:38 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
Hey Witches—

Check out this offering under a giant cottonwood tree. Maybe those alleged witches in the neighborhood are doing something other than buying crystals. Who knows. #witchsky #witchmadness #fairy
This is the back view of a fairy/elf doll that was left as an offering to a giant cotton wood. I came across this little offering at the base of a huge Cottonwood today. Apparently somebody else in the neighborhood is working with fairies as well.
August 22, 2025 at 4:10 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
Pluto
The head of a big black dog (Labrador) poking out of a flourish of sweet potato plants with their heart-shaped leaves. A cluster of reddish purple elderberries hangs over his head. This is Pluto.
August 20, 2025 at 3:04 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
Whoo hoo! I just found both things that have been missing for weeks: my everythiing journal and an overdue library item. I have those Ikea cube shelves, and both items had slid behind the books on the shelf. I am very excited about these finds!

#witchsky
Navy blue leather journal with a Celtic design. It features Celtic scrolls and a big oak tree of life. I bought myself this beautiful Oberon journal for my 50th birthday, and I use it for an everyday place for notes, quotes, gardening notes, bits of conversation that are meaningful for me. I can put new notebooks into the leather cover, so it's kind of a perpetual journal. I used to record divination, astrological notes, and ritual notes. I no longer make the distinction between "magical" and "mundane" information. It's all magical.
August 10, 2025 at 5:05 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
OK, so I am still in the corn dolly phase of this summer. I spent Friday afternoon and evening with my youngest granddaughter and we had so much fun with this project. We purused Pinterest a bit and watched a couple of videos. Mostly, we winged it. #lammas #lughnasa #witchsky #folk_art
Vivienne's corn dolly, featuring calendula hands, winter rye, and Canadian wild rye. I love this. Rye straw for the project. Some of it is yellow and ripe, and the Canadian wild rye is still green. Both kinds have the seed heads. I tried braiding some of this straw, and let's just say I have a long way to go.
August 10, 2025 at 2:54 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
Well, look at this. After years of looking for Monarch caterpillers on my property, here I have one on my sole red milkweed (swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata). Go Mama Milkweed!
Closeup of a Monarch caterpillar working on a red milkweed plant. The caterpillar is white-ish with black and yellow stripes.
August 10, 2025 at 2:35 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
My P accompanying the warning siren.

#dogsofbluesly
August 8, 2025 at 6:13 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
OK. I did it.

Yesterday I made my first-ever corn dolly from the native Canadian rye grass (Elymus canadensis) in my back yard. Pluto had smashed these plants with his big, leathery feet. I love the wild seed-heads this species forms.

I know this is inelegant and simple, but I like it.

#witchsky
This is my version of a corn dolly in honor of Lammas. The head, arms, and skirt of this dolly are made of native Canadian rye grass (Elymus canadensis), which produces straight, wild-looking seed heads. I used the seed heads for the head, arms and hands, and skirt of this dolly. She is wearing a cobalt blue silk dress and looks quite wispy indeed.
August 4, 2025 at 6:50 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
Today my dear friend came and taught my granddaughters and me to make fairy houses. Between the two of us, we had the best stuff!

Granddaughter Vivi helped herself to some of my best stuff. I guess I was done with that amethyst crystal.

#fairy_magic
#witchsky
A very cute little girl with brown hair and lots of gaps in her 8-year-old mouth holds aloft a little house for fairies. That girl wields a mean hot glue gun and she attached moss, birch bark, crystals and a couple of wooden buttons that my grandmother painted. I'm not nearly as cute as Vivienne, but here I am with my fairy house, replete with birch bark roofing, multi-color stars, a bird on the roof, and a crystal "ladder" on which potential fairies can climb to get into the house.
July 19, 2025 at 12:24 AM
madelon3.bsky.social
Pluto and I took advantage of the cooler, drier weather to take a walk in the country yesterday. The boy had the best time. #dogsofbluesky #native_plants
July 18, 2025 at 5:55 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
My 16-year-old grandson has been helping me for the last few weeks on a major garden project.

Spurred by the necessity to get rid of an invasive species and by my weariness of the ginormous currant bushes, it now looks pretty tame, and I am planning what plants I will put in this space.
July 12, 2025 at 7:57 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
Sweet potatoes. They love this heat.

#midwestgardeners #gardening
July 12, 2025 at 6:00 PM
madelon3.bsky.social
Here’s a pallet cleanser.

Olbrich Gardens, Madison, Wisconsin
July 11, 2025 at 7:47 PM