Great start!

Hello!

Well, so far I have had a great start to the year, my new job is going brilliantly and I have completed one of my goals!

I am very happy in  my new job, I feel like I am in the right environment for me, which makes me much more relaxed and I enjoy it more. I know it sounds silly, but wearing jeans, docs and sitting on my desk means a lot to me. I have already picked up another two hour’s worth of work and I hoping that in time that will increase. We shall have to see!

I have also managed to complete my goal of being able to run 5K without having to walk. This has made me also very happy. It has been a while (ahem, 8 years) since I have been this fit, so it is great. I am using a diary to write down all of my exercise and I am trying to follow the 10% rule of only doing 10% more mileage/time each week. This is part of my plan to try not to injure myself and I hoping that it will work.

Yesterday my Grove and I met up, which was really lovely. What was also good to hear is that the majority of the Grove is struggling to have any sort of connection as well; it made me feel a lot better to know that I wasn’t alone in my darkening and feeling abandoned by my beliefs! We had soup, tea and cake sitting out over looking the South Downs of Kent, watching the sky change colour as the sun went down. It was very relaxing and good to be talking with my friends again – we missed our Yule ritual due to the extremely bad snow in the area. I am sure many other Pagans feel like this: it is great to be amongst other Pagans, where one doesn’t have to explain anything, everyone just understands. My wonderful OH was instrumental in pushing me out of the door, ignoring my protests that I have no connection. He is right – it’s not going to get any better sat indoors!

While I was chatting with the OH, before he pushed me out of the door, he said to me that this isn’t my time of year. I didn’t know what he meant as I quite like the winter, don’t suffer from SAD, or miss the light. He laughed and said that the  year goes like this:

Spring – RRRAAAAHHHHHH, everything is growing! Pushing up new buds! Coming to life. Going crazy!!!

Summer – everything is just lying around in the sun, eating everything, getting fat, enjoying relaxing, just absorbing and chill out…

Autumn – right, quick! We need to get ready! Chuck away the leaves! Hide the nuts! Build up supplies for winter! Get ready!!!

Winter – okaaay, just sit here, in the warm, it’s cold outside, eating the supplies, nope going stay here…..

I think he is absolutely correct – I am spring and autumn! I am both of these types, I seem to run at full pelt the whole time, have loads to do and enjoy DOING THINGS! Strange how I have never thought of this – and yet he has.

So, what about you – how’s your calendar year started and what season do you think you are?

Meadering, bimbling thoughts

Hello there.

I don’t actually have a topic for this post, I normally set out with a specific idea on which to post; even if it changes as I write – something which has happened several times now. I do have lots of things on my mind and so I am writing to see if anything worthwhile comes out. Apologies if it doesn’t!

First up – bimbling – it’s not a real word, yet one which I like and use quite a lot. Hopefully you understand what I mean my it. I normally use it in the context of bimbling along when walking somewhere – no pace, no strong sense of direction. My other half is away on business at the moment (which is happening quite a lot of late, he has lots of big projects on the go) which tends to result in my brain whirring away with no particular focus.

I got the job which I mentioned before – so I am now a teacher in a secondary school – teaching 11-16 year olds English Literature and Language. I am very pleased to have got this job and I am really excited about starting. My first day is the 21 June – just after I complete my University course. Once that is finished I will be qualified to teach in further education and sixth form colleges: so, not in a school. As such there will be more training to do. At this stage I am not entirely sure what what this will be as I will already have a teaching qualification; its all very complicated and confusing. However I am not worried about it – just excited. I am a very good student and I love studying, so I will just do what I need to do and the school is really supportive, which is excellent.

Last weekend I went on a basic herbalism course at the fantastic Assington Mill. There are so many courses I want to do there and having been there I want to do even more of them now! Anne the owner is incredibly friendly and helpful and with her partner cooks the most amazing lunches. I was taught by Jude and Vanessa from Of People and Plants who were very kind and knowledgeable people. I have been interested in herbalism for a really long time, for example when I was Uni over ten years ago I made lots of herbal teas, but always from bought herbs.  Although I make my lotions and potions now I have never been confident enough to start picking my own herbs.

This course has really boosted my confidence and I have already been down to my allotment and picked a load of plants which were weeds before and I now see as medicine. I now have two oils being created and a spring tincture. I am hoping they will be running another course soon this was spring focused and I really would like one for each season to help me identify the plants who are ripe for harvesting. There really is something about doing things in person with a real teacher, as opposed to a book, which has given me great confidence to get out and start practising.

A few of you said you were interested in some of my recipes I mentioned in my last post. I am going to start off nice and simple with creations you can probably make from your kitchen cupboards, or after a quick trip to the chemist and I will get going on those shortly.

Hmmm, this is getting rather long now and so I will call a halt to my written bimbling. Hopefully there will soon be a post with more focus and something concrete to communicate.

Fallen art

Tomorrow is Samhain, which, along with Beltaine, is my favourite festival of the year. It was just after Samhain last year that my life changed totally after losing my job and pushing me onto this path that I follow. Ironically enough just before Samhain a friend did a tarot reading for me saying massive change was coming soon (the cards of Death and Tower gave that away) and within 3 days that change had started to happen.

This year how I celebrate has changed, in that I am now part of a grove of Druids I celebrate each festival with and I wanted to create an offering which is especially relevant to me at this point in time.

Part of my life now is trying to be in my in touch with my creative side and allowing myself to be creative and more to the point allowing myself not to have to create everything perfectly. The striving for perfection has been a massive block to my creativity – my ego not allowing me to do anything unless I am going to be the best or perfect. To be honest this doesn’t just interfer with being creative, but a lot of my life!

So, I wanted to create an offering using natural mediums and not get hung up on it being perfect.

Leaves are symbolic for me at this time of year, so I created a wreath out of fallen leaves

 

Wreath of leaves (sorry about the carpet!)

As I have to take it to my ritual tomorrow night it is one complete item, I have sewn it together using cotton, so it is all biodegradable.

Different view

Sorry about the light in these photos and they are not entirely clear what it is.

It is three rings of leaves painstakingly sewn together! It took over an hour and had to be done rather gently to stop the leaves tearing. So I can carry it to my ritual and leave it as an offering, which will rot away in the not too distant future.I think it would have looked better with different colours of leaves, but they are all brown around here, rather than magnificent reds or oranges. This is the first  year I have spent here, so I am not sure if that is normal, I am  used to beautiful hues!

While I was at it I made a couple of small bunches to go around my house.

Natural festive decorations

So, Samhain blessings to you all.

Autumn is coming

This week it has felt like the seasons have changed from summer to autumn. Of course the end of August is officially the end of autumn, however it is never normally so clearly delineated.

There has been a tang in the air, a certain smell which differs from that of summer. And I love it. I joyfully announced to my OH that it was nearly time for gloves and scarves and hats, thick jumpers and stews. He looked at me as if I was some what mad.

One of the main reasons I love living in England (and I am not at all patriotic) is the seasons and the clear distinctions between them. I enjoy the contrasts, seeing the difference in the landscape around us and the way we as humans respond to them.

The changing of the seasons always makes me stop and appreciate the nature that surrounds us, even in our towns.

It means the manic production of my allotment is going to slow down and give me to time to think a bit about what I am actually doing with it all (I will share my ideas soon), try and get some spring crops as well as plan for next years main season. As I got my plot so late in the season I didn’t really get a chance to plan – I didn’t have the space to plant things anyway, but as I have nearly finished digging half of my plot I am in a better position.

A major thing for me is that I go to University next week, which I am very excited about. I graduated 9 years ago, so it is good to be going back to study, especially as it is enabling me to do what I have always wanted to do (teach). So the changing of seasons is allowing change in my life to.

What does the change of seasons mean for you?