Mimic Nature

My First Project This Year

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Mimic Nature

This was the first project I decided to tackled this year, it is our security light that we had installed a couple of years ago after someone stole from our property. The dirt they dug up had a lot of clay and nothing was growing there but thistles so I decided to do something about it.

The bricks were from another project that didn’t work out the way we wanted so I decided to use them to make a border around the pole. After the border was in place I got some bags of topsoil mixed with some of our own dirt and I began to work that mixture into the soil around the pole. When that was done I planted morning glories and some wildflowers on the one side. The other side didn’t seem to grow as well so I mixed in more dirt and planted phlox and delphinium.

The jar is a solar light that I got on sale at Menard, it’s a colored jar with LED lights inside and when it’s on, it looks like a jar with fireflies inside. For those of you wondering, yes you can still see the lights even though it’s right under the security light.

I am very happy with how this turned out, other than the morning glories, I tried to plant all perennials as they will continue to come back each year without me having to plant more.

I think I can finally say that this little project is done.

Posted in permaculture | Tagged DIY project, permaculture, summer projects | 3 Comments

A Great Book For Any Writer to Own

Posted on July 5, 2015 by Mimic Nature

Book Details

//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=mcsimon-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B00YVKSKBG&asins=B00YVKSKBG&linkId=NUTNLWYHUXT42XKN&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true

Title: Feng Shui For Writers
Series: How To Master Your Life
Author: M.C. Simon
Genre: Non-Fiction
Format: Paperback and Kindle
Length: 152 pages
Publication Date: June 16, 2015
Publisher: IML Publishing
Regular Price: $7.99 Kindle

Synopsis

DISCOVER HOW TO MASTER YOUR WRITING LIFE

FENG SHUI FOR WRITERS provides all the dots that you have to connect to control the flowing Chi for each writing category. What is harmony for a romantic novel writer is different from what is harmony for a journalist writer, and for sure very different than for the writer writing for the horror domain. To bring the Feng Shui technique into the writer’s life, it is not enough to merely explain general principles and ideas; we have to dig deeper because the branches of writing are so numerous.

Find Out HOW TO:

Attract productivity, successful publishing and money using Feng Shui
Overcome writer’s block with Feng Shui help
Organize your writing place to achieve your goals
Influence your writing life through colors
Use crystals for creative writing
Use lighting to Feng Shui your writing space
Choose the plants that will boost your creativity
Influence your “writer’s zone” and the creative mind
Boost your children’s creativity (yes… children are young writers also)

And much more.

Buy Links

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Amazon IN

Excerpt

6.2 – THE WRITER’S ZONE

To understand what a writer’s zone is, you must first experience the previous state called a writer’s block. Then and only then will you understand how you can face it and how you can move to the writer’s zone. This zone is exactly the opposite of a writer’s block; it is the optimal phase in which a writer can find himself. It is the phase in which Chi flows freely on the writer’s path, the creativity is boosted and the writing productivity reaches maximum level.

Having knowledge about both states, a writer’s block and a writer’s zone, you can save the wasted time between these two phases.

There are some elements that influence your entering into this zone.

One of these is your location. Depending on where you live, you must find a writing environment that boosts your writing mood. Find a place suitable for you that you feel relaxed in and totally prepared to let the words flow.
Take a walk in the park or the woods, go for a drive on a long unpopulated road. Don’t forget to take the camera with you and take pictures that will help you relax the next time you need to enter into the writer’s zone without having to walk again. A walk in a quiet and relaxing place is a good Feng Shui method to un-clutter your mind of stress.
Do some brainstorming for your future book; try to prepare a good plot for your novel. Do some research on the theme that you want to write about.
Avoid emails, other online temptations, phones and any other distractions that are blocking the Chi flow of your creativity and productivity.
Listen to some music and prepare a playlist with your favorite relaxing songs. Use this list until it becomes a habit that is helping you enter into the writer’s zone.
Breathe! Yes, breathe. Fill your lungs with fresh air until they expand to the point where they touch, take a small pause then exhale slowly. Learn to breathe again, so the good Chi also enters your body.
Burn some incense and use aromatic lamps for fragrance.
Find a writing retreat in your area. Make it a part of your writing process. This will always get you into the zone. There are two kinds of retreats: solo retreats (suitable for writers who prefer solitude far away from any distractions including other writers) and group retreats (provides a chance for face to face group brainstorming). The best writing retreats are those that include both solo and group retreats. When you go to a writing retreat, be sure that you are applying the Feng Shui principles in that place also (you can even take a Bagua map with you).
If your mind feels unclear in ideas, use a yellow vase where you place orange flowers. This will boost the intensity of your writing and will give you the necessary clarity.
Don’t forget to always include the water element in your space.
Avoid too many electronic devices in the moments when you write because they will drain your energy, and soon you’ll have to face another writer’s block.
Hang a wooden chime near you so its movement will activate any stagnant Chi.

Previously Published Excerpts

Who Is A Writer?
3 Things You Should Do Before Using Feng Shui

About the Author

Author MC Simon

Writer, translator, engineer, researcher, project manager, blogger, eternal student… these are only a few words to describe MC Simon.

She strongly believes that energy is ours to use freely, and we need only to open our hearts to regain the lost perception of our true powers. She thinks that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. For this reason, M.C. Simon has never hunted the information but rather waited for the right moment when she would be ready for the information to find her. In the same way, she knows that when someone needs her, the Universe will proceed in such a way that the meeting will take place.

Contact The Author

Amazon Author Page
MCSimonWrites.com
FengShuiForWriters.com
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter
GooglePlus
LinkedIn

Giveaway

Giving away a copy of “Feng Shui For Writers” E-book to 10 lucky winners. 🙂

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged creative writing, feng shui for wealth, master your life | 3 Comments

A Productive Day

Posted on June 26, 2015 by Mimic Nature

Today I went to the garden and picked basil leaves. My husband and I love basil leaves, especially when it is cooked in a meal I made. The problem we found was that these plants make a lot of leaves and it’s hard to use them up before they go bad. We tried drying them but the dried basil doesn’t taste as good as the fresh basil from the garden.

My mother in law gave me a book from the 70’s called Stocking Up and in that book I found a way to preserve my basil and have it taste like it’s fresh from the garden. All you have to do is rinse it and steam it for 1 minute then put in freezer. Once it is frozen you can put in freezer bags and enjoy all year long. I use my rice cooker since it uses steam and it works great. This picture is after I have steamed the leaves and laid it in the freezer. I lay the wet basil on wax paper so it doesn’t stick to the pan. It also turns the leaves a differnt color, that’s why some look darker but trust me, it doesn’t effect the taste at all.

My mom called and asked if I could help my dad pick peas, so I went down to help. They let me keep what I picked so here I am podding peas. It was one of the worst jobs to do as a kid.
My mom would plant so many peas we would be podding 5 gallon buckets full of peas during our summer break. It’s still not my favorite thing to do but I love the taste of raw peas so I don’t mind as much, I can snack while I work.

As I was leaving my parents house I noticed their dill is huge, I decided to pick some and hang it to dry. There is a lot more so I plan on going back and getting more to dry. I love the taste of dill, my mom used to make the best homemade dill pickles, it make my mouth water just thinking about them.

All in all it’s been a very productive day. Not to mention I need to go out and pick more mulberries, I don’t have a picture of them but they will have a post of their own because there is more I want to show you about them.
What were some of the worst jobs from the garden you can remember as a kid?

Posted in permaculture | Tagged gardening, permacullture, preserving food | 3 Comments

Questioning our Actions

Posted on June 23, 2015 by Mimic Nature

question yourself

When I started learning about permaculture I knew it was something I wanted to share with people, not because I see it as the way to do things but because nature is something I really enjoy and I wanted to share my passion with people.

One day I started a blog and knew I had to choose permaculture since it’s new and exciting to me. As much as I enjoy planting and digging in the dirt I am coming to the point where I am questioning my motives and intentions when I write. Questions pop in my head like, “Am I writing in a way that attacks another persons beliefs or how they do things?” “Am I presenting my thoughts as the right way to do things or am I just presenting information?”

I believe this phase of questioning yourself is normal and I know all I need to do is wait for the answer to present itself, I just hope I have the endurance to keep writing after I get through all of this.

The only thing I can think to do at the moment is keep it simple and make sure that I proofread everything before I hit that publish button.

Have any of you gone through this phase as well? Did you do anything to help yourself through this or did it go away over time?

Maybe there is no cure for this, maybe it is a test I must go through and hopefully I will come out the other side a better writer than I was before.

Posted in permaculture | Tagged permaculture, questioning yourself | 3 Comments

Is Our Intent To Share or Destroy?

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Mimic Nature

A recent situation got me to thinking about what we say and why we say it. When people ask us for information, or even when they don’t and we give our input anyway, is our words helping them or hurting them?

I have posted before on the importance of words and that we should be careful about what we say, but in regards to certain things like permaculture, it’s nice to have other people’s opinions, or to hear about what problems they had as it will help us to make better decisions for the land we intent to change.

A few things I have to ask myself during the times I am called to share information is this, is my intent behind what I say pure? Am I saying these things to help this person, or to discourage them from trying this particular way or method? And if I am trying to discourage them, why am I trying to discourage them? Am I trying to discourage them to change them in some way?

Everyone in life has certain things they enjoy which causes them stress, work, and time, a prime example is kids. Kids will cause you a lot of stress, work and it will take years to get them out on their own and to help them become productive adults, but does that mean we shouldn’t have them? Of course not. Some find being parents a noble endeavor and purpose in life. But why would something so hard be so noble? Because only in hard situations do we learn and grow as human beings, only in hard times are we able to strengthen certain qualities like love and patience, and only during these times will we find our true will and desire.

Just because a certain method or type of plant may seem hard or too much work for you does not mean that it will be for someone else. I am reminded of the old saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, remember that we are all unique and enjoy different things.

Next time you share information think about your intent behind it, are you giving them information to share your experience, or are you trying to discourage them from trying?

I love that people share their experiences with me about this type of tree, and even though at one point I thought about giving up from all the negative words about it, I decided that I love it too much to let anyone destroy my dream of planting it in my life. I don’t mind the extra work that many see when they look at this tree, or the amount of bugs, or even that it is what many call “aggressive” in seeking out water. The only thing I see when I look at this tree is beauty and love.

I also have to add that not everyone had something negative to say about this type of tree, many people saw the same beauty I do.

This whole situation has been a great lesson for me, one that I will remember forever.

Posted in challenges and adventures, permaculture | Tagged building or destroying, challenges and adventures, permaculture, true intentions | 7 Comments

A Look Outside My Window

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Mimic Nature

A storm is coming.

Posted in A Look Outside My Window | Tagged a look outside my window, storm coming | Leave a comment

When Ideas Come Alive

Posted on June 7, 2015 by Mimic Nature

When I started thinking about my garden earlier this year, I envisioned my garden looking and functioning in certain ways.

The first thing I envisioned was doing my garden in strips, basically instead of tilling a huge piece of dirt up for plants I only wanted to till where I would put the plants. My husband got that done for me and it looked great.

The next thing I wanted to do was put down something that would smother the weeds. Every 7 years we allow our land to rest, last year was our rest year so there were a lot of weeds that grew and needed to be dealt with this year or my garden would be overrun with them.

I had some old newspaper leftover from the winter so I decided to use it as a barrier but I knew I would have to put something on top to help hold it down and I also knew this is where money would come in, something that had stopped me up until now. I decided that no matter how much I spent it would be worth it, I have been taking and taking from my dirt for years never giving anything in return.

A few days ago I decided to stop at Menard’s to see what they had, I found a really good organic mulch/compost that I knew would be perfect. I only bought 3 bags so I could try it out and I loved how it looked so much that I’ll have to go back for more but here is what part of my garden looks like now,

Here is another picture,

You can clearly see the paper underneath with my compost/mulch on top.

I keep telling my kids that you need to work smarter not harder. Making my vision a reality will cut down on labor, disturbing nature, it will help retain moisture for those dry days that come in the summer, and everything I added will help build more soil and add worms and microorganisms to help future plants grow.

I love seeing my vision become reality, I was so excited about doing it that it surprised me how quickly and easily it got done. For the first time my mind had fun instead of seeing what I was doing in the garden as work.

Posted in natural products, permaculture | Tagged gardening, nature, permaculture, successful gardening | 5 Comments

I Remember When I Was a Kid….

Posted on June 6, 2015 by Mimic Nature

I can’t remember all the details of this memory, but I can express the most important part which is the heart of this post.

I can remember as a child being captivated by this little ball, I don’t remember where I was or how this little ball came to be in this place, but I saw a little ball held within a little case and I wanted it. The ball itself looked almost like an opal, it was a light cream color and it seemed to have a slight swirling pattern in it. All the way around this ball was a groove and within this groove was a ribbon, the ribbon bore the words of the golden rule upon it. The golden rule states,

Treat others the way you would want to be treated.

As this memory comes back to my mind I wonder if I am living by those words that captivated me so long ago? What does this little rule mean and am I really living by it’s code of conduct? Unfortunately I can say that I have fallen far from living my life by this.

It seems that I never understood what the term ‘others’ meant, does this mean my family only, or people who believe like me, or only to those who treat me well?

If you love only those who love you, what goodness do you have? And if you are doing good to those who treat you well, what goodness do you have? And if you borrow from those you expect to get something back, do you deserve any thanks for that?

Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting anything in return. Then your reward will be great and you shall be children of Love for Love is kind toward the ungrateful and malicious.

From what I just quoted it seems others means everyone, not just family, friends, or anyone who we know will return our kindness. We are supposed to be kind to those who will never return our kindness for only then will we truly understand the concept of friendship, love, and kindness.

Why have we twisted this simple saying? Why do humans use their intellect to twist the simple meaning of life and love? Loving your neighbors does not mean love your family or love those who think like you do, if that were true it would say love your brother or love your family but it doesn’t, it says to love your neighbor and neighbor is define as a person who lives near another or one’s fellow human beings. Personally I see a neighbor as anyone who is traveling with you on life’s journey in this present moment, for example when you walk into a store, everyone around you is your neighbor.

I will not twist the simple meaning of the golden rule anymore for now I see that it was designed to help me become a better vessel of Love, love for others and for myself. If I want to be more loving then I must start giving more love, for the only way to receive is to give.

I lost that ball a long time ago but the memory stayed within me, waiting for the right moment to reveal itself and change my perception, for nothing is done in vain, everything has meaning and purpose.

Posted in challenges and adventures, golden rule, life lessons | Tagged I remember when I was a kid | 1 Comment

The Road to Natural Products

Posted on May 30, 2015 by Mimic Nature

Along with eating more natural many of us feel lead to change other products to a more natural and healthy version. The problem is that many companies claim to be natural when in reality they are not.

What I found is that when a certain natural bacteria on our skin mixes with our sweat, especially under our arms, it can cause a foul smell. Of course there are other factors as to why we stink when we sweat for instance some of the foods we eat can cause our sweat to create an odor as well.

I have been struggling to find a natural deodorant that is safe for my body. I tried an herbal deodorant and even though it worked great in the winter there was no way I could use it in the summer, the first hot day I smelled horrible. I am a person that sweats, I do a lot of manual labor at my job and at home, I don’t mind that I sweat but I can’t stink at work, especially since I work in a hospital.

Deodorants keep your underarms smelling good without blocking the natural sweating that occurs there whereas an antiperspirant does exactly what it says, it stops sweating completely. I tried another deodorant a few weeks ago with wonderful results, I was so happy that I had found something that was working, but oddly after a few weeks it quit working, so back to the health food store I went.

I found another one I am going to try and see if that works any better, it’s so frustrating to spend all this money on these products and not have them keep you smelling good. Are my expectations too high? Will I stink no matter what if I allow myself to sweat? I wonder what past generations did to combat the smell of their underarms?

I will continue my search even if this current deodorant doesn’t work, I really want to use something natural and I don’t want to stop my bodies natural sweating, especially since sweating is another way our body removes toxins.

Do you have the same issues when looking for natural deodorants?

Posted in natural products | Tagged natural deodorant, natural removal of toxins, underarm smell | 2 Comments

The Law of Gestation

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Mimic Nature

The Law of Gestation or what some call the law of gender means that every seed has a gestation or incubation period. That means that when you plant a seed it will take some time before you actually see the fruit, so when you plant a tomato seed it will take a while before you see a tomato, or when a woman becomes pregnant then it will take some time before she has a baby in her arms.

I wanted to read more about the concept of gestation so I began searching out reading material to learn more about it, the problem was that in doing this, I ended up confusing myself more and more. The reason for this confusion was that the law of gestation is a very simple concept, adding more and more words to try to explain this simple concept is an easy way to confuse the readers and make them think there is more to it when there really isn’t.

Getting frustrated caused me to stop reading these books and to seek out something less stressful so I gave up my research on gestation for the time being. As many probably already know, when you stop searching for something is usually when you find it, so when I stopped searching for this understanding is when it was revealed to me.

As I was searching for a new book to read I found myself being drawn to this book about living in harmony with the way things are. I wasn’t sure why I was being drawn to this book but I decided to listen to my feelings and when I had a few extra dollars I purchased the book.

What I found in this book was the information on gestation I was looking for. The law of gestation was written on the front cover for anyone to read and understand, it is living in harmony with the way things are, it is the understanding that things will manifest at the exact moment they are meant to. No amount of thinking things “should” come at this time, or things “better be” at this time will make it come any sooner. Reality knows exactly when you need it and will provide it at that exact time, so when that tomato is in your hands is the exact moment you needed it. Any dis-ease involved is from our own minds thinking things should be this way or thinking we need more, or that we should have it now.

On a deeper level, the concept of gestation also works with thoughts, so when you have a thought, this thought will manifest at the exact moment it is meant to, or in my case, the answer to my question presented itself at the exact moment it was meant to for me to understand it. There is so much peace and freedom when we stop fighting reality.

Was there anything in your own life that you thought was going to be hard to understand or accomplish and yet it turned out to be easier than you thought? If there is I’d love to hear about it.