Dear Diary: Staff and stang, gossip and Young Farmers

This week

Writing this week for the Hedge Witch book has taken me into all sorts of weird and wonderful avenues including Hallowing the Compass and Treading the Mill. Word count is up to just over 6000 at the moment and continuing well.

For the Pagan Portals Sulis book which his with Moon Books at the moment for its first edit, I wanted something special for the book cover. I couldn’t find anything suitable on the usual ‘stock’ photos so I knew I had to seek out an alternative. An artist friend sprang immediately to mind and I tasked her with a commission. She finished the artwork this week and I cannot wait to show you the finished piece, it is breathtaking. But I am going to keep you in suspense for a while…

The ’tang’ of autumn has arrived, first thing in the morning and last thing at night you can feel that delicious fresh chill in the air. The Season of the Witch is beginning to show…

Staff and Stang

This has led me to spend some time working with my staff, well my three staffs actually. I have had them for many years and each one was gifted to me.

Pete gifted me a lovely dark wood stang, very plain and simple but it beautifully represents the Horned God.

My two other staffs were gifted by a Druid friend. One is a huge solid oak staff engraved with my name and oak leaves down the side. The other is a gorgeous light coloured wood with the most amazing horse head carving on the top.

All three of these have their own unique and individual energy and each one can be used for Hallowing the Compass, Treading the Mill and most importantly for me, Hedge Riding.

Gossip

I have been reminded this week about gossip and heresay. I learnt my lesson in the past, if someone is gossiping to you about someone else, rest assured they are gossiping about you when you aren’t there. If I am asked what I think about someone, I will tell you the truth, from my own personal experience and interaction with them. I won’t be swayed by hearsay, which is often along the lines of ‘well, my brother’s wife’s dog groomer heard from a chatty chiuhua that she said this, that and the other’. Life has taught me to mind my own business and only speak from my own personal interactions and experiences.

Young Farmers

Last week I spoke about pigs and living on a farm in my late teens, this week I thought I would share my experiences with Petersfield Young Farmers. I was a member of this amazing group of people for about six years or so and those years were fabulous. Lots of fun activities, OK so a lot of them may have involved being in various pubs but we did other stuff too. AGM weekends in Blackpool (yes, I bought a Kiss me Quick hat) and the Isle of Man. Young Farmer exchange weekends across the country. Taking part in and on occasion helping organise and run County Fairs. Posh dinner dances and dress up black tie events and all night summer solstice dances. Even judging pigs at county level and entering scones into county fair baking competitions. It was an experience I will never forget and one that brings back lots of wonderful and often hilarious memories for me. PYF also introduced me to Southern Comfort…but that’s another story.

My TV viewing

My favourite TV series, the ones I can happily watch and re-watch from start to finish:

Grimm

Stargate Atlantis

Elementary

Life on Mars

Death in Paradise

Red Dwarf

Then there are the good old favourites that Pete and I watch and re-watch together:

Lewis

Midsomer Murders

Bones

Starsky & Hutch

Columbo

The Professionals

And of course not forgetting Star Trek. Although I am not a big fan of TOS (the original series) here are the others in my favourite order:

Voyager

Enterprise

Next Generation

Deep Space Nine

And no, I don’t like the modern adaptations (Picard, Disccovery etc), they aren’t Star Trek for me.

Medicinal Herbs

Last weekend the Kitchen Witch team and myself went on a medicinal forage walk over in Cocking in Sussex. Such beautiful countryside, the sun shone and the hedgerows were alive. Led by the very knowledgeable Gwen’s Garden we spent a good couple of hours poking in nature learning all about the native plants and what they can help us with. It was good to be out in nature and a place I hadn’t visited before. The landscape was breathtakingly beautiful and the energy of the place was very peaceful. We also saw miniature ponies, geese, sheep and pheasants. On the way home we also passed a field with llamas in. It was a lovely day filled with plants, flowers, wildlife and of course cake.

A number of years back now I did train as a certified herbalist, it was really interesting, but not something I have ever used since. I prefer to work with the magical properties of herbs, that way I can’t kill anyone…

Stuff

Join me on my Wednesday morning chats if you are free, replays are on my author fb page and my YT channel.

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