Just for fun: I've been visited by a lot of animals lately. I live in a somewhat wooded suburban area but have been nurturing native plants on my little quarter acre since we built a home several years ago on the land where a previous house burned down several years before that (well, technically exploded... But that's another story).

Anyway, we've gradually seen more animals visit us and even make a home in our garden over the years, which is lovely, but just lately it has sky-rocketed. In the past couple weeks, we've had a (rare) native box turtle, Great-horned owl, countless toads, tree frogs, anoles, geckos, a feral mama cat (who I'm working on befriending in the hopes of getting her fixed eventually and maybe also her kittens if she lets me find them), etc. A Luna moth even showed up on my birthday. 😍

But just yesterday really took the cake: we finally got a glimpse of the 3 baby birds (I believe they're house finches) which are in a nest high up on our porch above our front door and are getting stronger and beginning to climb up on the edge of the nest where they can be seen from our window. Just as I was watching the birds with my kid, our two cats arrived by my feet (fully expected, lol), then a robin landed on the closest branch to the window, right at eye level and just stared at us, unafraid of the cats, a squirrel ran up the path straight toward the front door, then a hummingbird circled over the squirrel's head. It was then joined by a second, followed by a red wasp, which circled once around both hummingbirds and the squirrel before it zipped away, the hummingbirds wandered off to the flowers to one side of the path, the squirrel scampered back down the path then up a tree to the other side, the robin flew away, and the baby birds settled back down quietly in their nests... at which point, the show being over, my kittens also wandered off. And I just sat there, stunned. I'm happy to take it as meaning we're doing a good job healing our very abused little patch of earth... But just for fun, because I enjoy a good superstitious take on things now and then: WHAT DOES IT MEAN???

Hey, witches, I want to preface this with a big fat thank you to the mods for allowing me to share information about this & future events with the r/SASSWitches community. I am Hayley Jay, part of the CTWC planning team, and while I've lurked here for some time, I'm making an effort to decloak and hopefully share some of my witchcraft plus CTWC events of interest.

Mark your calendars & warm up those batting arms, witches! It's almost time for a FREE Witches' Brew!

Saturday August 8th, 2026

10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm BST / 3am AEST (August 9th)

Get your FREE tickets & register here! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1993776723852?aff=oddtdtcreator

Our seasonal Witches' Brews are FREE online witchy mini conferences that include potion making (our magical beverage segment), guest presentations, sometimes a hands-on project, and time to socialize & connect with other attendees, Brew guests & hosts, & the CTWC community.

Our Brews are a wonderful way to dip your toe into the CritWitch community, and a great preview of what you can expect from our annual 3-day virtual event CRITWITCHCON.

This month's Witches' Brew is an exploration of sports & games through a magical lens! We'll discover the inherent witchiness of baseball, play with sports mascots as servitors, brew up some refreshing potions, have team time with our community, & more!

Witches' Brews are recorded (minus community chat) and available to our paid Patreon subscribers later in the season, so you can revisit our presentations.

Learn more about us at www.criticalthinkingwitches.com

Welcome to the Critical Thinking Witch Collective! Formed in 2021, we came together to make a space for critical thinking witches; witches who research, who apply scientific reasoning, who learn from history, and who question assumptions and biases.

Our name has changed, but our mission remains the same: to bring together a community of critical thinking witches and seekers who respect reason, logic, and science as we also acknowledge the genuine beauty and meaning in the mysterious. And we plan to have fun while we do it.

Connect, learn, and get involved with this community of like-minded witches and seekers from around the world. Join the Collective! www.criticalthinkingwitches.com