It's snow joke!

Blimey is that the time! Yep, that's January for you, gone in the blink of an eye. Its a sort of non-month, if there is such a thing. You get past Yuletime and its back to work and the daily routine and then, vroom, the end of January comes whizzing up.

Anyway, not a lot to report, apart from some festie news for the new year in the shape of invites to Blissfields, Nozstock and Tiddesley Wood. All with FREE pitches, which shows we must be doing something right. After last years wet, but not wonderful, series of disasters it can only get better....we hope.

Tree and I have not been up to much otherwise. I am settling into the new job and looking to doing a coders course, which takes about 2 years, and gets way better pay.

The weekends have been spent going out and entertaining ourselves. Clayton and Lorraine stopped over a couple of weekends ago and we had a good laugh, including trying Clayt's homemade Ferrero Roche which are supposed to be fat free. They DID actually taste a bit like the real thing!!

We have also managed to see a lot more of Pip & Murali. We met up in town the other day and had a good lunch but sadly I gave in to chocolate cake with cream for afters. Enjoyed every mouthful an all!!! Can't complain though as I am only 7 pounds off my target weight now. On Tues night they came over and we cooked up Tacos with a veggie filling...Yum, Yum. Murali liked it a lot. He has promised a masterclass in Sri Lankan cooking next time. Can't wait.

Otherwise, I am hopeful of a little more snow, now its the weekend, because I don't have to worry about driving in it or getting to work. Instead I can enjoy Mother Nature when she wraps the Earth up in a white blanket and that beautiful silence that comes with it. See Y'all!!

Something is really bugging me.

Well yes, something is literally bugging me. After our return from Tiddesley Wood I started to get a slight itch on my back. Within a day this had become an intense burning sensation and I started to come up in lumps. Tree counted 11 bites in total. After a week of putting creams on, taking Piriton and using E45 I decided to go to the doctors. The doctor had to call in another doctor for a second opinion as he hadn't seen bites like these before. After a long debate they were none the wiser about what had bitten me but both agreed I should be on Antibiotics, which I hate taking, and an Antihistamine as the bites were now infected. This has left me more than pee'ed off as I am usually the one that bugs and mosquitoes leave alone. Oh well, they're obviously making up for lost time!!! The photo shows a few of the bites AFTER they were cooling down, so you can imagine what they were like at the hottest!!!

Tiddesley Wood and the rain.

Hoorah! I can relax, sort of, now we have done the show. We arrived on Saturday evening and nearly went straight back home. The wood was well boggy and, even with wood chips down, the ground was like a huge sponge oozing mud. We set to putting up the tent and Tree thought it would be easier if the van was nearer to the pitch. At this point I must say that I knew this was a bad idea, but left her to it. Minutes later and the van was stuck in huge ruts of mud. I dug out the wheels but we couldn't get any traction. Lucky for us there was the man, with his Romany caravan, who had a tractor. This made light work of pulling us out and we resumed pitching up, saying no more about it. It was now getting dark and we just finished before the last edge of light sank below the horizon. We were the only people staying in the wood overnight apart from the caravan guy, and his two friends, who were pitched in the field outside. We settled down for the night, listening to music, played by the guys in the field. One was playing the fiddle and the other a mandolin. In the background, a Vixen howled every once in a while. It was quite magical.
I awoke early to hear my first cuckoo of Spring and the call of a rookery sounding out around the woods. By now it was raining and we had doubts about the whole show. As other stallholders arrived the consensus was that we would only take money from each other, as no-one else would show up. 10 a.m came and went with no sign of a rush. 11 a.m and the rain eased a bit but we hadn't taken more than £20. But we had underestimated the wellie brigade and all of a sudden we were busy with people everywhere. By the end of the day we had taken more than last year!!! Result.
In view of this, Tree and I may go back to doing the festies full time instead of the shop, but time will tell.

Annual catch up time.

It was about this time last year that I found myself in the same situation of being negligent on my blogging. I seem to remember, as well, that I vowed to make this a singular event. However, here I am catching up again! This time of year is particularly busy for me as I start making preparation for the coming year, festival and fayre wise. On this note, I am glad to say we have confirmed on Tiddesley Wood Spring Open Day, 3 Wishes Faerie Festival and Blissfields. We just have to wait on the outcome of Beauiful Days and The Big Chill.
Otherwise, I have been busy working on the house getting the main bedroom and French windows done. We should be ready to sell in time for next Spring. Tree and I are going to take time out for our birthdays this year and we are off next week to Joy and Nige's for a long weekend and to get ourselves on some estate agents lists. In April we are going to Venice for a week to celebrate Tree's 40th. We thought about longer, but a shorter break means we can have a better hotel and will be enough time to see all we want to see. Also, this allows us to go to India, The Maldives or Sri Lanka in the Winter of 2008.
On the health front, I am feeling a lot better now my weight is down by one and a half stone despite the tablets I am taking, which should put half a stone ON me a month as a side effect. The tablets are beginning to kick in and my cholesterol count is normal now. The downside is I will have to take them for the rest of my life. A small price to avoid a stroke or heart attack!
Well, that's about it for a catch up...until next year....

Tiddesley Wood, Spring Open Day

It was only two days ago and yet it seems like a week! The weekend started out with a freaky coincidence on Saturday. I was sitting in the shop reading about orthimancy, (the belief that one can divine the future by watching birds) when a blackbird swooped into the shop and sat next to me. It looked around and then, without distress or panic, flew out again. Now, you might say that was coincidence but I had just read that a blackbird indoors is an omen of bad luck. Just then the phone rang and Tree told me that the van was at a garage and wouldn't start! Freaky or what!!
Anyway, to cut out a long story, we got to the wood, with the help of a lump hammer to hit the starter motor each time the van stopped, and set up the tent with, literally, minutes of daylight to spare. We took a walk, later on, into the wood in the dark, which was cool! I slept at the foot of the doorway to the tent and during the night we had a visit from an inquisitive badger trying to get to our food. All I could see was his nose poking under the flap!
It was better that we set up the night before as this meant we were a lot more chilled before the off. The weather was cool, yet dry, and we set up an altar, to mark Beltane, next to the Haj tent.
Lots of people we knew came to visit us including Dave and Nathalie, Dan and Sarah, Linda and Emma. I also got to meet with Sam and Vicki ,from the Pagan Association, who made the effort to come from Birmingham to see us and the fayre.
All round it was a good day and the mirrors went down well. We were too tired when we got home to do anything and I spent Monday doing absolutely nothing. We had hoped to go to The Green Man at Clun, Fayre but Tree had to do some paperwork and the van had a flat tyre, so we gave it a miss.

Tiddesley wood, an all that!

Well, here at last, nearly, ish. From my point of view it is, as I have a mad panic to get loads done in the last few hours before we go. I only have to sort the van, make two mirrors, pack all the stock, do all the signage, finish making a wand and collapse, all in the space of four hours. I love it really! I'm hoping to meet a load of people from the Pagan Association as well, which will be cool as I can put faces to names.

Asides from that, I thought I would find time to post a rather nice photo (if I say so myself) of the British Camp at Malvern. This view can only be seen from the train, as there isn't a road through this field! It's rare to see an ancient site uncluttered by roads and modern housing .

A change is as good as a rest!!

Needing a break from everything mundane, Tree and I spent a few days down in Glastonbury to revive our flagging senses and celebrate her birthday. We stayed at Heaphy's, right in the middle of town, which gave us a good view of the monument and hill. We had our usual, fantastic, lunch at The Rainbows End and spent some time in the bookshops. Needless to say, we also spent a lot of time finding new suppliers, talking to Terry at Dillaways, etc, etc.

I was mightily impressed by a new mural that has been painted in the passageway leading to the assembly rooms. The more one looks at it, the more one sees. I recommend you click on the photo to enlarge it and see what I mean.

Monday started out quite drab, as it had been raining all night. We had breakfast at The Blue Note Cafe, which was pretty good, and chilled reading the papers for a while. Not to be put off by the weather, we went to Wookey hole and took a walk through the caverns. It was nice and quiet, as there weren't any children there, and we spent some time going round the place. However, I wouldn't want to go there in season as it is plain to see how busy they can get. As usual, the people who were there in the caves with us marched off to the cafe as soon as they got out of the caverns and failed to notice the 1000 year old Yew trees nearby or the calming sound of trickling water, coming out of the hillside! Tree and I were quite pleased, as this meant we had the place to ourselves.
Now we are back, I will be concentrating on creating stuff, ready for Tiddesley wood at the end of the month. Not forgetting that we also have the Beltane celebration this weekend to look forward to.

Eostre and back from the brink.

Eostre blessings to one and all!!!
What can I say ? I have been without broadband for a whole week and cut off from the cyber world of blogging. The lesson I have learnt, is to never trust ISPs when they say they'll sort you out in a couple of days !!
Otherwise, I have been having a good time in the real world. Tree and I gave ourselves a break over the Easter bank holiday and needed every minute. Sunday, we went to Westonbirt, and bought shed loads of wood, and Monday we chilled out having lunch out with Elliott, Katie and Sandra. It turns out Elliott is really good at photography and we spent the afternoon round at San's looking online at some of his work. It must be hereditary, as my grandfather and my father were both keen photographers as well.
I have got the confirmation for Tiddesley Wood Fair again this year and I will now have my head down working non-stop until the end of April making mirrors, wands and staves. Deja-vu
I think!