Here we are on the last day of the old year which only leaves me to wish you a very Happy 2026. Please raise a glass to another twelve months of adventures. In true Aril style my final images are of this rather special upcycled bench and a rather suprising sight of a very small goat posing in the pub garden. I'd met my friend Lisa for a gentle stroll along the local canal towpath in the sunshine.
Apparently [ie before my time] 15 years ago Mythago wrote their rendition of the famous Welsh legend 'Ceridwen and Taliesin'. Here's a brief synopsis for anyone interested in folklore https://maesyllan-pri.wrexham.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/The-Legend-of-Gwion-and-Ceridwen.pdf. Words were written and dances created and then the side hit a stumbling block. One of the pivotal points in the story is when Ceridwen discovers that her serving boy Gwion Bach has ingested three drops of the potion that she had brewed for her son Morfran. The intention was that the first three drops would bestow great wisdom and in her attempt to catch Gwion the two assume different beast forms as she hunts him down. A couple of ways had been tried, but abandoned and the whole project mothballed. I and others have put a lot of effort in these last five years or so to bring back our stories and create lots more opportunities for us to perform them. We have already updated/repaired/replaced and made new kit for several stories and it was the turn of this one this year. Back in February I floated the idea of us making appropriate masks, but with no deadline and in the full knowledge that it was going to be quite challenging. We would need to work as a team to a brief and they would have to work as a cohesive set for the audience to be able to follow what's happening.
Well here we are just having passed the Winter Solstice and yesterday at Stonehenge we launched them in public. There have been many hours and people working together to create this lot and you will see our wren is part of it. We are all very pleased with what we have achieved and the feedback has been very positive. We couldn't have done it without one chap having willingly stepped forwardand overseen the whole thing from start to finish. Below we have the prey along the front with the hunters standing in their pairs....wren and hawk, salmon and otter, hound and hare and black hen and grain of corn [fortunately we already had our John Barleycorn kit for that one]. With a bit of lateral thinking we have replaced the original dance with another one which is appropriately called 'Hunting Dance' which allows us to keep the pairs dancing together. It went so well that we've decided to do it again on Boxing Day at one of our favourite local pubs.
Our recent foray over to Hampshire left me feeling like I'd been to the panto. The National Trust certainly knows how to put on a good show and their take on Cinderella was no exception. If I tell you that the depiction of the Ugly Sisters getting ready for the ball was akin to a mash-up of Ru Paul's Drag Race meets the 1980's classic mix of neon colours with stark black and white patterns [yes I am that girl who had shorts with exactly that combo back in the day!] you can see what I mean from the photos. Everyone knows the story and spoiler alert....the shoe fits the right person and she gets her happy ever after fairytale ending....
We travelled across to Tangmere Military Aviation Museum recently. It's another of those cracking places that is completely run by volunteers and packed to the rafters with stuff. I was expecting there to be more planes [which to be honest I wasn't too disappointed to find that there weren't many], but instead they had cabinet upon cabinet of artefacts which told a plethora of fascinating stories. Military history is not a particular area of interest not should war ever be glorified, but the social aspects of it and hearing the stories of ordinary people doing remarkable things drew me in. I plan to do the place more justice in a fuller post after the madness of Christmas is past, but for now I'd like to share a few shots of the ingenuous use of everyday objects to conceal things which you would not have wanted to fall into enemy hands. Some of these items were given to POWs and others carried by those working as spies.
The razor blades marked with Fleet, Cheerio and Kleen had a magnetizer on them and when floated on the surface of water the top edge pointed north.
Sometimes I stumble across a powerful talk which really resonates. This is Adam Roa and his beautiful poem 'You are who you've been looking for'.
I am a person who likes parts of Christmas and strongly dislikes other bits. One thing I really don't enjoy is the crowds [and the rampant mindless consumerism] so I find strategies to get me through the madness of the season. As previous years' posts will show I am a sucker for a bit of festive sparkle and magic which I think the National Trust does superbly. When the NT first announces its plans for all its local properties I have a rootle through to see what appeals and then plan my visits for early in the launch. That way I get my fill of Christmas cheer, but am away before the masses descend. This year I have sneaked over to a place in Hampshire [more of that next week] and my lovely local Nymans. Aware that not everyone is a fan of this time of year such posts will be sprinkled in amongst the usual nonsense that I natter on about🎄
Thumbelina
🪄Hope you have a great weekend🪄
Arilx
Towards the end of last month we travelled over to Hampshire to spend the night with one of David's sisters and her husband. We've always got on really well with them and this is something we did from time to time before we had all had children. It was really special just to have time to chew the fat round the table after dinner and enjoy a real catch-up. They, like us, enjoy a spot of informal birdwatching and even more so since we've all stopped working and have got time to spend in this way. It was a great pleasure to be taken round their nearest RSPB reserve at Titchfield. Alas I have no bird pictures as I prefer to simply watch them and soak up the atmosphere, but as you can see we had a glorious day for it. Was particularly thrilled to see a Marsh Harrier flying over the water with the copper sheen on its wings caught in the sunlight.
A most relaxing way to spend a morning.
Arilx
As the wolf moon rose with Jupiter at her side, the good folk of Sussex gathered. With blazing torches held aloft, the Bonfire Boys of Lind...
