Anyone fancy a cuppa?

At difficult times us Brits like to turn to that old favourite....a good old cup of Rosie Lee. Anyone care to join me? I feel in need of bringing a little lightness into the world right now after the difficult news of the last 24 hours. I can't change anything, but I can be responsible for my reaction to it.

Arilx

Peace and Quiet

I thought that my friend Eloise might enjoy the little local arboretum I discovered last year. Like me, she has a good working knowledge of our local patch of Sussex, but this one had remained beneath the radar. Without the hard frosts I didn't see the brilliant magenta and crimson hues of last time, but was instead treated to golds and russets delivered in an ethereal light mist. Each tree has its own QR code and the first one we scanned goes by the memorable name of Ilex Vomitoria [its common name is Yaupon]. Native Americans brewed a black tea from its leaves for their ceremonies which was often followed by vomiting bouts. Europeans drew the conclusion that this was caused by the tea, but it was down to another cause and the tea is still on sale. 

As we retired to the village cafe afterwards we both remarked what a peaceful morning we had. It exudes calm and feels a very safe space. Somewhere to take a breather from the spinning whorl of our everyday lives and return with 'a spring in your step' as my friend put it🍂🍂

Arilx

Samhain 2024

Here's what is going on in the Great Hall in Hogwarts this Halloween👻💀 

Hope you have a great weekend.

Arilx

Hubble Bubble

 

Thank you so much for all your good wishes for the 'All Hallows' event. I am so pleased to say that the weather dried up for us and it all went off so well that we've already been asked to do it all again next year. We sold out quite a while ago, but there was huge demand for tickets still so I'd felt quite a bit of pressure these past few weeks. It's been all systems go this past few months as we also launched a brand new Viking story at the Butser Farm Equinox Boat burning we went to last month too. However, we have all lived to tell the tale. For me the magic was being up on top of the South Downs with the famous ancient Cissbury flint mines ahead of us and undisturbed Neolithic burials behind us as we called to the ancestors. Spine tingling stuff. 

Despite this being my working Monday I have still stumbled across my own little piece of magic today with this fabulous homemade Halloween decoration just round the corner of GBT. It looked even more spooktacular in the wind and rain❤

Arilx

Souling

 Whether you're a fan or not Halloween related talk abounds at the moment. Much of what we do now is imported from across the pond....when I was a nipper we did apple bobbing and maybe draped a white sheet over ourselves to turn ourselves into ghosts [homemade dressing up was very much the order of the day in the hard-up 1970s]. I'd never seen a carved pumpkin and we certainly didn't go to the bother of doing the same with a swede as our forefathers did....they're a devil to cut and take forever. In the main [bar the trick or treating which I personally detest] I enjoy it, but what I take from it is the focus upon the ancestors and where many of our own customs originated.

It has been a hectic time for Mythago this past few months as we've undertaken several new creative endeavours. The biggest project is tonight when we're holding our own All Hallows event. It's our first ever ticketed event and we shall be holding the fort for 2.5 hours. Part of what we're doing is reviving some of the folk practices which are in danger of dying out, so people will be able to take part in a call and response to the ancestors and we'll be introducing the new Hooden Horse as part of our soul caking ceremony. Many will rightly associate the horse with Kent, but it is very likely that similar would have happened here in Sussex. At the end of the day people will have marked this magical time using what they had lying around and animal skulls mounted on poles were common. You may never have heard of soul cakes Pre Reformation soul cakes were given to the poor, but in later years groups of children knocked on household doors and sang a song in exchange for one. The idea of the soulcake is that you break it in half...eat one portion and then leave the other piece out as an offering to the souls of the dead. Having eaten a few this past week or so they are absolutely delicious...bit like a rock bun, but more biscuit like in texture and form.

I am currently swinging between nerves and excitement....🤞. Wish me luck!

Arilx

Batty Scaremaker

 It was another of my precious Mondays off and I was due to be in London, but my lovely friend was called for a very important NHS appointment so understandably needed to postpone. Despite the weather not looking very promising I donned my waterproofs and boots and took myself and my inner four year old over to Nymans to enjoy their Halloween themed trail. Thankfully it's still term time here which just left me and a heap of toddlers spotting the spooky sites. As ever the National Trust staff have done a fabulous job and, as if all that excitement wasn't enough, I then decided to drive on to the next village because they always have a cracking new topper every time I get over there. I wasn't disappointed👻🦇❤👀💀😈

Having had a wild old morning I sat down like a sensible adult and got on with the tedious task of finishing my new dancing mask which I am delighted to report is now done thank goodness! 

Arilx

Traffic Cones

[Image from Pixabay]

For those of us who like a geeky fact or three an American street painter by the name of Charles Scanlan first came up with a prototype traffic cone in 1940. His motivation was to warn motorists of the wet paint upon the road and to prevent them from driving over it. By 1943 he had patented his design and ever since it's become an important part of road safety so much so that most of us probably don't give them a passing thought. The first ones were seen in the UK in 1958 when the M6 first opened.

For a brief period as a student in Winchester way back in the 1980s I may have had a traffic cone in my room....I may have had a couple of small sweet sherries one night and dragged the dratted thing back. I do vaguely remember that it was a lot heavier than I had expected it to be and it had a yellow flashing light on top [which is what happens when you remove such items from a road working site] which kept myself and my room mate awake a lot. It wasn't that long before we returned the wretched thing to where we had taken it from and there ended my brief flirtation with cone 'ownership'.

Fast forward many decades and I got far more excited than I should have done on one tedious car journey when we were stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway for there before me were not only orange cones, but to my delight I realised that sometimes they can come in other colours...that day I saw them in purple💜, green💚  and blue💙. Mr GBT is well used to my batty self by now, but even he was a bit perplexed by my excitement on this particular occasion. There had been no more thrilling cone encounters since then until recently when I saw this.....

If I say it was outside a very famous studio and shaped like a wizard's hat that might give you a clue as to where I went for my birthday treat at the the beginning of the month. Once I've rifled through the pile of photos I'll write up a post about my visit which I'm happy to do now Halloween is looming up fast on the horizon. In the meantime I hope everyone enjoys a peaceful weekend. I have some spooky plans of my own lined up👻

Arilx