Christmas 2025

Thanks as ever for dropping by. Your comments were a great source of support when David was diagnosed back in the Spring. Treatment continues and he is well.

Happy Christmas from all of us at GBTxx

 

The chase

 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.

[Photo courtesy of Martin Duffy]

The whole thing has been kept under wraps for all these months and it's rather a relief to be able to show people what we've been up to. I'm wearing the hawk mask in the image.

꩜Aril꩜

Cinderella

 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 were meeting our friends at Mottisfont. It's a beautiful property and known especially for its roses. It's been so many years since I last visited [it's quite a distance from here], but we're planning a short break in that neck of the woods next years so perhaps we'll go back to see what the house looks like under normal circumstances.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend. I shall be standing in some very old stones again and possibly getting wet again🌧

꩜Aril꩜

I spy with my little eye.

 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.

False backed playing cards. If you peeled the front off there were map references below and the Joker contained the master key.

A fountain pen with a compass in the cap and a reduced sized ink sack so that it could hide a map.

Magnetised penclips, nibs and even a humble matchstick. The absolute gall. I wouldn't have suspected a thing!

It would seem that any item was considered fair game in the push to win the war. Anything from dominoes to pipes or hollow cotton reels which came apart. More examples below.

I can really see where Ian Fleming got his inspiration for James Bond and Q's inventions!

Aril꩜

You are who you've been looking for.

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'. 

Arilx

The magic of fairytales

 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

Cinderella 

Goldilocks and the three [polar] bears. Wonderful attention to detail right down to bear themed Christmas cards.

Snow White

Beauty and the Beast.

🪄Hope you have a great weekend🪄

Arilx

RSPB Titchfield

 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

Mini wreaths.

 It has been many years since I've been on any sort of craft course. Way back when we were both earning reasonable salaries such treats were a staple part of my life which then stopped when redundancies fell. It's rather splendid to have ended the drought and rag rugging is something I've always wanted to try my hand at. Anything which uses fabric and even more importantly reuses scraps of fabric is a winner for me.

To be honest I tend to experience a bit of brain freeze when I'm in a group of people where I need to make a decision about what I want to make. Rather than getting my knickers in a twist over whether I was doing it right or not I just didn't look at anyone else's work this time. I knew that I didn't want to do a Christmas one so just cracked on with a selection of bold and hot colours. I've put patterns in there which shouldn't work together, but somehow they do. As it turns out my sister also went rogue...hers is the pink one. 

A couple of hours spent doing something creative did me the world of good. 

Arilx

Clearing the garage.

 We have had a thrilling time of late as we very slooowly work our way through some of the jobs we've been putting off until we'd retired. One of those joyous tasks was to completely declutter and tidy up the garage. We'd already done a tip run at the beginning of October, but believe me this detritus plays hide and seek with you and within a fortnight we had enough to fill the car again. This time I can confidently say we've finished and can tick that little fun filled and frolicsome chore off our list. I am afraid that absolutely nothing of any interest was excavated during this process. However, over in the Sussex village of Tangmere this homeowner has been very creative with all sorts of odds and sods and filled their front garden with all manner of beasts and vehicles. One of them has incorporated an old Singer sewing machine and some bent spoons!

Have a great weekend folks!

Arilx