21st December - Winter Solstice.

The Sun has been reborn!

This morning, found me impatiently waiting for my boy to wake up..finally the door knob to my bedroom turned and in he bounced joyfully announcing the Winter King had been and left him a well stuffed stocking.

I suppose its a hang over from when we co-slept, Yule morning, Rye always comes through to my bed with the stocking to open it, and share his joy at with me.   I revel in his innocent joy of his gifts, his whoops and exclamations as he opens each gift, his eyes are wide with excitement and glee.   It is wonderful to see his joy and I feel some understanding for my mother's frustration when I was a kid.  I, unlike Rye, was much more reserved.  All eyes were on me, and I felt like a performing monkey, I didn't whoop, or exclaim.  Sadly, my mother took this for lack of gratitude and responded negatively.  She never grasped the more she pushed, the more I drew back into myself, I was grateful, excited, overjoyed, I just didn't express it in whoops.

Anyway.

Stocking opened, we waited for the sun to raise, this morning was overcast and raining, so we didn't actually see the sun's rebirth, but we did clear away the old alter and refresh it with a winter theme.  Candles were lit, and the pine cones sprinkled with essential oils.

"Now?"  Rye kept asking, as he eyed the rather large pile of gifts under the tree.
"Breakfast first", I responded.

We eat hash browns and vegan sausages, he's too excited to wait for anything more elaborate.  Breakfast is wolfed down, a leap and hop propels him across the living room, and he falls upon the gifts, opening the combine Yule / Birthday gift from his Uncle Kevin.

As the gifts continue to be opened, a litany of "Oooohs", "WOW", and "OMG's" fill the air.  He squeals, he flaps, and he dashes over to give me a hug and kiss on the cheek.  Yeah, I finally "get" why my mother always found Christmas morning with me so lack luster and disappointing.

Later tonight when we have a fire outside I will turf out the old plans, and ask my ancestors to bless my new plans for 2017.   And there will be good company, wholesome soup, sun bread, and a wee tipple or three.

Yuletide Blessings!

Samhain 2015

Samhain Blessings!

One of my favourite festivals.
Welcoming the dead, honouring the ancestors, bonfires, pumpkin carving, spooky music, meditation, divination, offerings to the dead; it is a wonderful festival.

I particularly like this festival because it removes some of the taboo and fear around the dead.  In a society that likes to keep it's distance from death, Samhain brings home that death is simply a part of life.  With my son, I mix the commercial fun elements of Halloween with the spiritual of Samhain.

My alter, after my boy was born, was transmuted into a season table.  It serves the same function; brings nature indoors, provides a sacred space, a focus point for meditation, spell work and offerings. Additionally, its a fun way to include the boy in my traditions and festival celebrations.  Those glass pumpkin jars, he made those when he was three years old.  There's two large horse chestnut leaves we soaked in glycerine to preserve and season swap gifts from other mamas.  Our season table represents both the spiritual, magical and the family and community we surround ourselves with.

This year I helped my lad make his own costume.  Part traditional Yorkshire thriftiness, part dislike of commercial costumes and part a enthusiasm for making and "upcycling".

He decided he'd like to be Herne the Hunter, who according to pagan legend rides again on Samhain, leading the hunt.  He is often linked to Cerrunos and Pan; although Herne is a spirit not a god; his association with hunting and forests though means he is often lumped in the same category.  Herne has another association, which made me choke back laughter on the mental images I had when my boy suggested dressing up as Herne.  Most statues of Herne feature an enormous phallus; he is considered to be a potent fertility and sex symbol.

I curbed my sense of mischief, and maneouvered my boy towards a  "Green Man" type representation of Herne.  Oh my goodness, what a success, he loved making the mask, he was thrilled by the reaction of his friends to his costume and he was enthralled by the story of Herne and King Richard.



Later he designed a face for his pumpkin, then we took it downstairs and he carved it alongside the other children carving theirs.  Then it was time for him to go trick or treating, and for me to go and sit by the bonfire outside, and stare into the flames, drink cider, eat cake and roasted chestnuts while the now lit pumpkins kept evil spirits at bay.

Eventually the children returned laden with sweets.  Some were ritually burned, (they really did come back with a LOT!), they played in the dark, and we stayed by the fire.
Near midnight, the flames had died away until there were only the dancing embers.  We watched them for a while before ambling upstairs.  My boy had brought his pumpkin back up and relit it in front of the season table, including all the other candles.  He was awed.
Soon afterwards, I sent him to bed, spent some time with my passed family and then off to bed I went myself.


A truly magical Samhain.

Bustling.

So, the laptop sits useless while I faff, really must send it back before the warranty runs out. Upshot, blogging grounded to a halt. I reckon a bit of a catch up is in order, let's see:

M came to visit end of February, a particularly fun day was the day we went to the Maritime museum down at the docks. The Titanic exhibition is excellent, all the kids enjoyed it, and Rye has since announced he's going to be a deep sea diver/explorer when he's grown up and bring the rest of the Titanic up, then he'll become an Astronought.

This is the docks, and the strange looking building over there is the Museum of Liverpool. Rye and me have only just finished exploring the World Museum, and there's still things to see and do, thus we have been once to the Museum of Liverpool and seen a tiny, tiny fraction of it. We plan to remedy this.

M's visit sadly, ended on a low note, the children came down with a sickness bug, and so we quarantined ourselves in my flat, 2 adults and 4 children in my small flat - we were soon driving each other crackers, and a couple of the kids made a break for it a couple of times and had to be brought back in from the garden.

March, crocheted, attended home ed activities, and of course we had a fire for the Equinox, upon which I poured magic, turning the flames turquoise and green.

I cut Rye's hair:

Ooh we went to see Avengers, Age of Ultron at the IMAX cinema. Wow, and Oooh queasy. Too much, I'll stick with normal screens I think.

Afterwards we had ate out, and Rye was given a balloon.

Lots more crochet, exploring, I have started a science club, which is going well.

I bought some water beads that proved an instant hit with Rye and his RH friends.

Ooh working on a collaborative blanket for a 3yr old, which I must finish - I got busy with commissions and had to put it to one side. I've just got the ribbons to add now.

Summer in the parks has begun, with the various fairs and events. This was the Victorian fair, which Rye and the RH kids enjoyed. And a wonderful warm day after the long cold and wet stretch of weather we had.

Rye had his friend over for a sleep over, so naturally I made an indulgent breakfast: pineapple pancakes with chocolate sauce.

The weather sadly returned to wet and cold, still it didn't stop us having a grand time at Sefton Park with our RH friends.

Another birthday has come and gone for me. Lovely few days, out for lunch with Rye, then celebrating later with my housemates, followed by a BBQ at the weekend.

Lunch was lovely, we took a leisurely bike ride over to Lark Lane, and we decided to eat at the Moon and Pea. Gosh, it was tasty! I had Caesar salad, which was scrumptious, and Rye had banana and maple syrup pancakes. Dessert wasn't as great, though Rye certainly was impressed with his banana split, ( tho it was only banana with squirty cream chocolate sprinkles and caramel sauce drizzled over), my carrot cake was sickly, the cream cheese that horrid fake, too sweet, coats your mouth in fat, type frosting. Despite dessert deficiencies, the Moon and Peas has become our favourite cafe. It was so much fun to eat lunch, while sitting on a comfy sofa, and playing Guess Who.

Birthday BBQ - housemates deciding to stack logs - no idea why. Mind pity I didn't get photos of them then trying to stand on a log, then adding another log without getting off...hilarious, particularly as Adel was doing really well, but then one of the children came over and pretended to push him, Adel lost concentration and failed his attempt.

Oh, I've also been making these beautiful lilies, these ones are for a hand fasting, I've since made a few more, just so pretty. I started off following a pattern, but it was fidly, so I ended up designing my own.

Life at RH is busy, I now run an Art & Craft club, the first one was yesterday, as well as Science club, and one of my housemates is a yoga teacher, so she's now teaching family yoga to home ed families, as well as teaching adult yoga on other evenings. I've been partaking of the yoga, oh my world, my front thigh muscles and abdominal muscles - ouch!! Rediscovering muscles apart, it has been lovely to have the yoga in the garden, and afterwards sit around chilling.

Rye has joined Cubs, and is loving it, last night was his second time. First time I went with Anstey and her kids, luckily Rye and T could join in that evening, so we sat in a park and waited for them, hehe, and her eldest got stuck in the baby swings - of course we didn't mock...much.

I saw a friend post a fab photo, on Instagram, that looked dinosuars were in her living room being fed by her son; naturally I had to find the app. I found 2, one makes it look like dinosaurs are moving around you, when you look through the camera app, the next lets one impose dinosaurs into a photo... Well how could I resist:

Dinosaurs even in our house meeting:

And Rye's room is awash with them!

And of course, more hooking - with dinos too!

Despite the distraction, I did manage to complete a wedding gift commission, a wall hanging:

Liverpudlians familiar with the gates to Princes Park will recognise the central motif. The piece is based on the gates, with the added elements of using the colours of a local suffragette, and the namesake of our house, plus adding in flora, and as the bride is facing some difficult challenges, I wanted the piece to be meditative and peaceful.

And, once the flat is tidy I will be hooking this cute dragon



 

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WEHEC 2014

Fabulous, in a word!

Rye was feral pretty much all week, barely saw him, well except when he came back with head eating puppets - the rotter!

He crafted, climbed, painted, played, swung, toasted marshmallows, made loads of new friends - in fact long term readers, will not be surprised to read he had a possy of girlfriends. I'm fair dreading the teenage years.

 

This camp is all about the kids which left me with plenty of hooky time, chatting and cuppas...ok often the cuppa was a tin of cider....

I did get a bit grumpy with the changeable weather, there was a lot of rain! And despite juicing beforehand, by the end of the week the pain in my knees was agony. It's eased some now, but still very painful - stairs make me curse colourfully at the mo. I so missed my bell tent, my old teepee is great, but it did feel rather small and just wasn't as comfortable as the superb bell tent. I see bell tent boutique sell polyester ones now - I will look into it - the last polyester bell tent I had was very poorly made and the guy ropes pinged off at first tripping over; the boutique though does have a good rep, so hopefully their bell tent will be ok.

Anyway back to WEHEC. Oh yes it was great, and a lot I didn't see because Rye was more interested in playing on the rather fabulous pirate ship.

The talent show at the end of the week was fun, Rye loved it, though he didn't participate. Maybe next year.

And oh the excitement as this rolled into the station, while we waited for our train home. A rather perfect ending to a magical week.

 

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Count down to WEHEC & the Mercian

Still all about Mandrakes, as I finish off orders before our Holiday. A week camping in Wales at an eco home ed camp, with housemates and other friends. I am very much looking forward to it. We are home a few days and then it's off to the Mercian Camp at Nuneaton for a weekend of pagan workshops, ritual, music, good friends and wee fire chats and a dab of booze. Rye is very much looking forward to the burning of the Wicker Man, minus, of course, the virginal police man.

 

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