The legendary tree of the New forest I mean of course!
We took a veeerrrry long walk from Wilverly plain (something like 6 miles if you include all our wrong turns) all the way around the disused railway track and back to Wilverly and found the elusive tree. Of course to you my friends outside of the UK this will all mean nothing but suffice to say it was a very pretty walk and although tiring it was worth the aching muscles.
The tree wasn't as elusive as we might have thought either, it turns out that on our last attempt if we had just turned left instead of right and walked a few hundred yards we would have found the tree, in fact it was visible from the point in the trail that we turned right - grr! Anyway we did it at last so here's a pic of the tree.
Witchcraft is allegedly still thriving in the New Forest. Pagan worshippers have been seen in full costume offering sheaves of wheat as a sacrifice to the Naked Man. The Naked Man is a tree in Wilverley Plain where a highwayman was hanged until the weather and the birds purportedly picked his bones clean.
Other versions of this tale suggest that while the highway man hung from the tree it was struck by lightning causing his clothes to be burnt from him, hence the name.
The walk to find the Naked man was just the first part of what turned out to be a wonderful weekend. You see although I don't live very far from my beloved New Forest I haven't actually spent a whole night there since camping with my parents as a child so as a pre-birthday treat hubby booked us into this gorgeous old hotel
The Burley Manor
A beautiful old hotel that actually 'felt' old. It was a wonderful relaxing weekend that we spent just walking, drinking, lunching and at one point, even Morris dancing!
My actual birthday was a few days later on the 24th, I had to work in the morning but I spent that afternoon with my family just doing normal family stuff but the special thing was that I had them all with me and we got a take out and watched a movie, well two movies actually because hubby had bought me "Ginger Snaps unleashed" and I needed to watch part 1 again before I could watch part 2 because I'd forgotten what happened, it was nice :)
Among my other presents I received a Loreena McKennit CD - The visit (not the one I wanted but they tried which means the most, especially since they'd no clue who she was! lol), I got The witches tarot deck, a beautiful green glass witches ball, a Doreen Valiente book, some lovely green jewellery from one of my sisters and wine and chocolates from my other sister. I felt very spoilt but every one of them gets a mention this May eve so hopefully I can give a little back.
Actually if I read back some of my recent blogs I probably seem a little shallow, all the pics of my new this and my new that that I bought or had bought for me. Ok I do love the "stuff" I am Taurean after all! but I don't have a great deal of money, I never buy expensive "stuff" and I make sure I can afford what I do get, I'm never extravagant, I value every penny because I lived a long time as a single parent and that's one hell of a learning curve!
So apart from all the cool stuff I got, actually my favourite part of my birthday weekend away was Sunday morning. Saturday night had been quite a heavy night, we'd begun with Morris dancing and then in the pub for dinner and lots of wine and then back at the hotel for a night cap and I drunkenly set the alarm for 6.30am with the announcement that I wanted to go walking before breakfast. Hubby smiled (rather lopsidedly) because he was thinking I would never make it because of the sheer amount of red wine I had consumed but I reassured him that he did not have to come with me - he works for Royal mail so he has to be up at 4.30am every day - he could have a lie in. He didn't think for one minute I would actually get up and go walking but upon hearing the alarm I rose, went to the bathroom to wash my face, thought blow it for a second but then thought again and I was out the door in my wellies by 6.50am. What a great decision that was! I walked around the desserted village, up a little lane I had never before travelled and had a little adventure all of my own taking photo's on the way. I imagined the witches that had walked those lanes before me, Sybil Leek for one but even possibly Valiente and Gardner and Crowley considering their connections with the new forest, it was awesome!
Some photos...
I just thought that this tree was pretty and had character.
Now this tree was right beside the hotel and on my way back I was drawn to it by the crows sitting in it, I began watching them and then suddenly I was watching the tree, I thought it beautiful and it had a very masculine feel
And then I looked closer and found my own vision of the green man in the bark... what do you think?
It's a beautiful Saturday morning here in Hampshire UK, certainly a change from last Sunday when we awoke to this picture...
Yes 6 inches of snow in mid April, bizarre!
We were lucky with it though because after the snow fall, it laid, we had a few hours to enjoy it and then just as swiftly it disappeared. We get snow so infrequently here that it did make a nice change and the children loved it, oh and so did my dog Lottie. I don't think that she has ever seen proper snow and she reacted hilariously by dashing about in it and trying to eat it and throwing it in the air. She really did go quite mad for a while but it was great fun to watch. I tried to take a photo of her but as testament to how excited she was, this is all I ended up with...
Yes we have a much brighter picture here at the moment although it is rather chilly for the time of year which is a shame because I would really like to be out in my garden planting by now, I really have a huge job ahead of me this year to make something of the small plot of land in front of my house look like something that resembles a garden. This is made all the worse for the fact that I am in no way green fingered and my husband thinks the tangle of thorns outside my front door and the overgrown path looks just fine - argh! So it looks as though my efforts may be solo which is why I need sun and a few dry days so I can get started. I am ok at pot planting, I have some lovely pot plants in my back garden I just have difficulty making plants grown in the ground. Maybe a blessing of the garden is in order before I begin. Any ideas?
I am afraid that I have been at it again... buying household accessories but I really couldn't resist this one.
What a find!
I can't help but think that there's a reason behind my current mood of nest building, it's almost like a ritual of building a pleasant living atmosphere into which to retreat when things get too hectic as they have been lately so that every time I get a few calm hours I find myself acquiring things for my home base, it's like a kind of therapy.
All nice names but nevertheless I have never considered the keeping of one a necessity as yet, which could be because I don't really have much structure in my craft other than to celebrate the sabbats and esbats at the appropriate time in the appropriate way and to try whenever possible to follow the moon phases in my workings but even then I use the word appropriate very loosely because it's more about what's appropriate to ME than anything else. So therefore I think I would find it very difficult to compose the book into anything legible.
However, my husband bought me this fabulous leather bound journal from ebay.
This is of course the picture that accompanied the journal on ebay but I am sure the owner won't mind a bit of extra advertising, below is the text that also accompanies the item.
"I make these books myself, using a Medieval style binding based on how books were bound in Medieval times. The sewing can be seen from the outside on the spine, it has no glue yet still remains as robust as a modern day book"
It's really a beautiful journal so I have decided to use to it but I am loathe to label it as grimoire, book of shadows or anything else so it will just be a journal of my craft and when my children look back on it after my death they will say ‘what the...?' but who cares, very little in my life makes sense to anyone else anyway (tee hee)
And so I am now curious, what do you use your Book of shadows (I'll stick with this name because it's the most commonly known but you all know what I am referring to so just replace with whatever‘s most appropriate for you) for? I'd really love to see what others have done with theirs, I know that some go to great lengths to embellish their Book of shadows and decorate it and I've seen some beautiful examples on websites, it makes me wish I had a steadier hand or were more creative in that sense but if truth be known, one of the reasons I am put off putting pen to paper in my beautiful book is that I can barely write in a straight line! My writing always ends up going off on a slant and added to that I am a perfectionist and when this happens I can't bear the imperfect page and end up tearing it out, the book would go from 300 pages to 10 in no time. Any tips?
I do hope that you all have a great day today and an even better one tomorrow of course but my reasons for the title of this blog is that for the past month I have been working evenings and tonight is to be my last. So that's my happy Saturday and I can start looking forward to weekends again!
Some of you may already know about the hard time that I have had of finding suitable employment lately (long story) and that I had an interview last week, well ... the interview was postponed but I eventually got there and was told that same day that I could have the job - whooppee! I was told that I would be starting on Monday 31st March so I called my current employers and told them I wished to give notice, because the job was only temporary I wasn't contracted to give notice but I thought it polite and also it would be handy to continue working until the new job began so I said I would stay on for two weeks more. Then next morning I get a call from my new employer and they wanted me to start Monday 10th March, working full time hours for the first two weeks. Being the sort of person who hates to let people down I have been doing both jobs this week so working all day and then going home in my 90 minute window for a quick change and a bite to eat before rushing off to job number two which ends at 10pm! Doing this wouldn't be so bad but having the house to run and also coming down with flu last Friday has meant that by now I am virtually exhausted and all I want to do is sleep so I have decided that it's not worth knocking myself out just to be polite and the old job ends this evening, they can like it or lump it I'm afraid but I can't do another week of both jobs it's just too hard with everything else going on and I've not seen my kids hardly at all.
However the good news is that I have finally found a job with perfect hours, good pay and a really great bunch of girls in a nice atmosphere doing a job that I enjoy. I actually didn't think it was possible to enjoy going to work but this week (apart from the tiredness) I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I can hear a few sighs of relief, the biggest coming from my husband who thought I would never find a job I'd be happy with.
So that's been my week, I haven't even had time to come on here once this week so apologies to anyone who has felt I have ignored their posts or broadcasts etc
I don't know if anyone from the UK will recognise the music I have currently playing on my site. They are a local band, well almost local, they are native of Brighton which is fairly close by and one of my favourite UK cities and they are one of those bands that have an almost cult following here but they aren't commercialised in any sense at all. Hope you enjoy them on your visit here http://www.myspace.com/levellers
It must be something to do with spring being in the air but I have been nesting. We spent most of last year decorating one room or another and I was pleased enough with the results but these past few weeks I have gone from room to room accessorizing. Not flamboyantly or too over the top but just small things that have been niggling at me like for instance a big bare space of wall in the lounge that I have now added a gorgeous oriental style contemporary piece of art, a couple of block shelves in another bare corner. In my newly tiled bathroom I added a glass shelf on which sit 9 cream coloured candles of various shape and size and I bought 12 glass bottles from ebay and some of those will be used to transfer bath foam from store bought bottles and also oil mixtures for bathing that I will mix myself. Now we are just left with the last neglected room of the house, the entrance hallway and landing. I'm looking forward to that.
This is the picture that I bought (ebay) for my lounge wall
This is one of the bottles that I bought from ebay, 12 (500ml) for £24.99 including postage.
But apart from accessorizing the home I have found myself urged to spring clean also and not just the usual spring cleaning either. I really want to get up in the loft space and clear out all the clutter and unused belongings that have been sat up there for millions of years (ok slight exagerration there) and get out into hubby's shed and have a good old clear out, oh if only time would stand still for just a while eh. I can make a start of course but will the weather stay fine long enough? We'll see.
The weather here is actually lovely, it's cold and crisp but the sun is shining gloriously and the sound of birds that I hear from where I am sitting is adorable.
What else has been going on for me... well I lost 13lb on my new eating/fitness plan which is a good start - 3 weeks but I need to lose that again before mid April so I am going to up the working out I think. Oh and the job I mentioned in my last blog, well the interview was cancelled because the manager fell ill but she is back at work today and I have to go see her this afternoon.
I am looking forward to my first Oestara as a fully practising pagan this year and I plan to paint lots of egg shells to hang in a gorgeous tree in my garden as part of my celebrations. I suppose I will still have to buy easter eggs for the rest of the family though and then use my utmost will power to keep away from them myself :( I love chocolate, I miss chocolate, I would cut off my right arm for a Nutrageous bar right now! But I'll have another glass of water instead - yippee!
Oh and one more thing ... I grew something. Not just 'a' something either 'six' somethings! At Imbolc I planted some chilli pepper seeds and being the least green fingered person I know I didn't hold out much hope but they have grown or at least they are growing, this really is an amzing achievement for me. My lack of gardening success (as well as 2 destructive dogs) even sent me to the lengths of having my entire back garden paved over, it looks pretty in summer because I have lots of pots dotted around but I do miss the greenery so this year when it warms up a little I intend making a small garden area that will be easy to maintain and also small enough to guard from my dogs who seem to consider anything resesmbling plant life as Au Cuisine!
My baby Chilli pepper plants, photographic proof that I made something grow!
So that's me for now, I am off now to skip rope as part of my new fitness regime and then I am off to study tarot for a couple of hours before I go to my interview so bye for now and if anyone has any gardening advice (for instance when do I transplant these seedlings?) I would very much appreciate it :)
