yarrow oil, poppy seeds

eschscholzia californica.

since moving house, I haven't interacted with many neighbours much aside from one living most near to us. My young cousins lost a ball on his land while he was out nearby and I was supervising. and he seemed quite nice, so I talked to him more and we became friends. aside from him i've hardly seen any other neighbours. until today.

I was out in my front garden planting some seeds for an annual flower that did not produce many last year. I was doing this when I felt a weight on my tail and back, I soon realised it was a small human child climbing on my back. I turned around and gently repositioned them so I'm holding them properly in my arms. I glanced around and looked for their parents, quickly spotting a human walking down the road. assuming this is the child's mama, I wave. she glared at me. I put my attention back on the child, who was nearly falling out of my arms trying to pick a flower, "Do you want a flower?" pointing to the flowers in case he was too young or did not speak common. "You can have one if you'd like, hm?" I said with a smile. they nodded, giggling and making grabbing motions towards a particular flower. My eschscholzia californica- peach sorbet poppies. Among all the other poppy varieties I have growing in that garden bed, those ones are some of my favourites too. I plucked a flower that looked alright. I made sure no bees were on it, handing it to the small boy. once i had done this, "is that your mama?" I asked. motioning toward the woman. The little boy confirmed this, waving at the woman, who now had a suspicious look on her face. she was staring at the abundance of poppy seed capsules I have in my hand. I planned on offering the seeds to hypnos later today.

"Why don't you go show her your pretty orange flower, huh?"

gently prompting them to go back to their mom, I set the child down on the floor. I waved him goodbye when he turned back for a second. I looked at him showing his mom the flower– "mama look!" –his mom yanked his hand and started walking away with the small child dragging behind them. I frowned. This disheartened me, but I knew I couldn't do anything about it.

I went back inside, walking up the stairs of my small cottage. I stand in front of my shrine dedicated to hypnos. I carefully pour the poppy seeds into the cottonwood horn I have on display. I offer a quick prayer to hypnos, as well as demeter and hermes. I usually just give offerings to those three. a part of me thought back to that small boy and the way his mother pulled him away so harshly. I offer a prayer to artemis. 

[A/N] I really enjoyed writing this so i will likely write more in the future, but writing this was a very spontaneus thing, so i dont rlly have any plot ideas yet lol 

lmk if you liked it, or if u have feedback feel free to tell me too!