Time to Travel

I hope everyone has found a little time to enjoy the sunshine and festivals this week. 
I managed to spend most of this morning on our allotment, it feels like the weeds are enjoying the mix of sun and rain nearly as much as the crops, but at least the peas are flourishing and looking yummy, bringing back memories of shelling the peas from Dad's veg plot with Mum and eating more raw ones than we put in the saucepan! 
Although the original beans I planted have been

rather munched, the ones the I planted in my 'three sisters' bed seem to be faring a bit better and they are starting to find their way to the corn plant now for support. Once they grow a little more, I'm going to plant a variety of squashes as well as marrows and courgettes underneath them both from a local nursery called Bumbles (what a lovely name!) where I bought the corn plants for just a pound and we'll see what grows best and what appears to be most resistant to insects, birds and rabbits. In my herb section my garden mint mint has grown enough for me to take a handful to flavour some new potatoes for tea and I'm keeping a close eye on the lavender as I want to pick it at it's best to dry to use to make some goodies from my lovely book that was a birthday present.

It's been a week of travelling -  in more ways than one! Work has taken me all over my county by the the most unexpected paths. Instead of going on the main roads, I decided to trust my intuition, grab my trusty map and relied on road signs and signposts get me from A to B (although I must admit the sat nav was lurking in the glove box, just in case...) I was rewarded with a glorious journey through fields and woodland, I felt like a tourist, or a child even - viewing things for the first time. It felt as though Ker was calling to me as I drove through fields of wheat, barley and  past orchards - the fertile belly of Her land. It was a good job there wasn't much traffic as I kept slowing down to take it all in and a couple of times made cheeky pit stops to take a few photos. It put me in mind of a beautiful and apt poem, one of my favourites, 
'Leisure' by William Henry Davies:

What is this life, if full of care        
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.




Despite living on London's doorstep so to speak, we rarely venture into the capital, rather we go round it via a multitude of tarmac. On Friday I was lucky enough to go to Hyde Park to watch The Who, Paul Weller and lots of other
artists performing in concert. As we walked through the park, I was struck by this curious installation. Taking my cue from the poem, I stopped  to investigate and discovered that it's a memorial to the those who lost their lives in the July 7th bombings in London nearly 10 years ago. Initially I thought it was rather an odd

choice for a memorial, but after I walked through them, it felt like a forest of memories planted for them all in a beautiful woodland setting, made of tough concrete to symbolise strength and longevity.  After all we mark graves with stones and there are plenty of standing stones and menhirs erected millennia ago to mark and commemorate all sorts of things. just as I had finished musing and still felt I would need something more natural if it was my choice, I turned and found Goddess watching me in the trees, literally, reminding me that as always She is in everything in and on her land. The concert was amazing - accompanied by the most amazing sunset.

The fullness of the moon over the last week has, as I expected meant some deep meditation journeys for me. I've spent most evenings this week in the garden watching the moon with candles lit on my outdoor altar. 

Twice whilst meditating I visited a cottage where there was a spinning wheel in the corner, a roaring hearth with either a cauldron or cooking pot over it. 'We' were collecting dried herbs from the rafters and mixing them together to make a potion or poultice of some kind, we were expecting a visitor and the curtain at the door opened to a young woman. I also felt a sense of being old, really old and had the oddest feeling that I was looking at myself. I also felt an odd rushing and could see a much older but more modern day (future?) version of myself talking to a younger woman in a uniform, possibly a nurse or carer. Interesting! 

Yesterday morning  I was laying in the sun with

George, my oldest cat, he nearly always finds me and curls up next me when I meditate, this time I went to the cottage again, but it very high up, almost on a high cliff face and was somehow attached to a cave which went back a long way. There was writing on the walls of the cave. Someone coming up the track to the cottage and this time 'we' were frantically hiding the dried herbs and mixtures so that they couldn't see or find them. Definitely still a bit of a puzzle for me, though the key themes of healing, herb lore, potions and witches keep coming through. To top it off I had a surprise complimentary issue of a magazine delivered yesterday afternoon that is mainly concerned with healing - both people and the world. Is Someone trying to tell me something?!

I'll leave you with my photo of the glorious sunset over Hyde Park on Friday night....

 Have a blessed and a carefree as possible week x  

A Simple Solstice

My Corner Of Our Garden

Summer Solstice and Litha blessings to you all!

I hope you  all managed to welcome the sun this morning in your own particular way. I had been hoping to do something different to celebrate this year, something unusual to write about, you know something a bit well, snazzy! You'd think I'd have started to learn how this works by now wouldn't you? Well it's been a really hectic couple of weeks at work, so time, energy and inspiration have all been having a bit of a battering, coupled with a poorly and expensive car and trying to save some money for our holiday in a couple of weeks as well as today being Father's Day meant that there really wasn't much chance of doing something all

Stonehenge - Solstice 2013

singing and dancing (ok well maybe not too much of that) to celebrate the sunrise this morning. I'd hoped to get to Folkstone to watch the sunrise with the lovely Pagan circle there by the sea, but an hours journey each way and the additional petrol weren't really conducive to either my bank balance or my family commitments for the day. I went to Stonehenge for the Solstice a couple of years ago with my Mark,one of my best friends and her partner - Oh and 21,000 other people. It was crazy. To be honest it was more like a massive rave, we were stepping over drugged and drunk people and it was absolutely heaving. Not much spirituality to be seen, it must have been hiding with the sun behind the heavy clouds. I hear it was a fantastic sunrise last year and this year!

Goddess Chakra Prayer Bunting

So, having determined to make the best of the situation, I decided to simply celebrate the Summer Solstice in my own back garden in my special corner that I have been slowly putting together. As I mentioned last week I have been interested in and working with my Chakras lately, particularly the Celtic system. Inspired by Buddhist prayer flags that seemed to have popped up a lot recently too, I decided to fashion my own 'Goddess Chakra Prayer Bunting' to adorn my "Goddess Corner" and celebrate Summer Solstice 2015! Sewing machine and pinking shears at the ready, after a few quiet moments of contemplation and prayers asking Ker for some inspiration, I sat down and

Each contains a hidden prayer

created my lovely bunting. One flag for each chakra colour and in the hem where it attaches to the tape I have hidden and sewn in a prayer to Goddess on a tiny  piece of paper. Each one relates to the chakra colour and also to Goddess, so for example on one of the blue throat pennants I  wrote " I pray to always know my truth and share it" and on one of the purple crown pennants I wrote "I pray to be at one with myself, with Goddess and with Nature" - you get the idea! Eventually as the elements work with the paper and the fabric it will all become one and the pennants will fray and tatter like offerings on a cloutie tree.

Solitary Solstice Selfie!

So 4.15 this morning after being woken by my alarm clock from a deep sleep, crawling out of bed and questioning my sanity and getting myself a cuppa, I made myself comfy on a blanket in my Goddess corner, complete with altar under a cloudy sky, alone apart from the occasional tweet from an optimistic bird. 
It was bliss! A stillness of sound, sight and motion that is only possible at that time of the morning, before the world wakes up, I knew the clouds wouldn't clear and there was very little chance I would see any sunrise at all but it didn't matter - I was out there enjoying that very moment. Candles and incense lit, I awaited the sunrise, still hopefully

All ready for Sunrise....

planning a mediation journey in the first rays of the Solstice Sun.......             
I knew when the sunrise was due 4.42 and i would have missed it had an amazing thing not happened, not as I might have wished that the clouds suddenly vanished and the sun burst through with it's warming rays - the birds went nuts, and I mean NUTS! From the occasional cheap and tweet they went full blast into an amazing dawn chorus heralding the wonder that I couldn't seem but was happening anyway, like it does every morning. 
Needless to say my planned mediation journey wasn't happening any time soon, I did try - I started by grounding myself and 'tried' to mediate and journey to Goddess, but mercifully I soon got lost in the bird song and just being. I was alone with Goddess and nature. It wasn't until I started feeling a little chilled and checked the time I realised that I had been sitting out there just listening and breathing for nearly half an hour - one small prayer had already been granted.

Not the World's Brightest Cat

Dear old Spock (yes, he's named after the Star Trek character) who really isn't the sharpest tool in the box wanted to help with this afternoons Fathers Day BBQ, luckily we shooed him out before sparking the coals into life! After  my lack of available sunrise photography this morning I thought I could get a picture of the sunset tonight for the blog, usually we get a really good view to the west. As it happened, at sunset I was just driving back from dropping my Father in Law and Brother in Law home after a few ciders and wines and didn't have my camera with me. Of course, it was utterly spectacular!!  A sky of swirling feather like clouds illuminated pink, red and almost violet - what a blog finale that would have been! I knew it would be gone before I got home - it doesn't matter though, I saw it and I saw Her beauty as must have done many other people. A timely reminder  that it's not what we say we do or see or hear, it's what we feel, how we live and what we practice that fills our hearts and minds.

Have  a Blessed and Amazing Week x x x

My Litha Altar -  Decorated with
Shells and Blue Glass Pebbles

Solstice Present - a  Candle Holder from my
 Lovely Friend Tracie who thinks I'm Nuts
but Loves me Anyway!

Rhythms and Circles

I hope you've all had a good week?
I thought I'd start by sharing this beautiful photo of the rose we planted in our front garden in memory of my lovely Mum in Law that has bloomed so spectacularly this week. It's a rose bush called Darcey Bussell - and it is the same as we have in her final resting place over looking the Deer Park - she would have loved reading this blog, enjoyed hearing about my journey and frequent trips to Avalon too. Next lifetime maybe Wendy x x 
It's been a hectic week work wise and apart from my daily practise of calling Goddess in, I've struggled to find time to do anything particularly Goddess inspired. A nagging voice has been telling me that I haven't been dancing as She had asked me to do when She took my hands in a meditation journey. Not really my thing, that gene is one my Mum passed straight to my Performing Acts Student Daughter and my Discovery Circle Sisters will know that it has reduced me to tears in the past! So I really was hoping that in Her infinite wisdom, She had let me off or forgotten - Like that was going to happen, especially when I'm working with a Lover and Warrior energy. 
Last week, on 3 separate occasions 5 Rhythms by Gabrielle Roth was mentioned to me. I'd never heard of her or her work before and I would like to think that I know a divine subtle hint when I see or hear one, so duly ordered a copy to have a listen to.... and it arrived within 24 hours, what are the odds of that without paying a premium rate?

Endless Wave Volume 1

So I did what any normal person would do, listened to it in my car a few times and put it back in the case. I was planning to get down to the allotment and take lots of pictures Saturday but wasn't feeling too great, so had to give it a miss, funnily enough I didn't feel too much like dancing either! I was laying in bed this morning, thinking about this weeks blog, rhythms and circles running round my head, plans of resorting to talking about my clowder (3 or more - I qualify with 4) of cats if necessary! 
Knowing that everyone else would be out or asleep I steeled myself for a quiet spot of awkward wooden dancing action in secret with the blinds down. Foolish me! 
Within minutes of being up, I had a wonderful surprise phone call from my lovely friend Tracey, who I first met as a babysitter for my children 20 years ago, who then became a wonderful friend before moving to Leicester to get married, had a family of her own and to top it all we discovered early this year that we are distant cousins through both our Mother lines! So a long tea infused morning followed with the added joy of her 2 of her 4 beautiful children - the other 2 at home with Daddy, Emily  who took a shine to one of my crystals (that's my girl!!) and for the first time baby Lucy, even our son  Dan who's 20 and the original babysittee got up for a cuddle! So after a long chat about  what I was up to in Glastonbury and in blog world, I was left reconsidering rhythms, circles and cycles, my children looking after and playing with hers, family connections and if our great, great ,great grandfather's wives who would have been sisters in law could have any idea that the family would still be so close over 120 years later - by choice!
Well after that kind of joy, I simply had to banish my son from downstairs on pain of never,ever having a lift anywhere, ever again (Mark and Sophie were already out) to do my thing in the kitchen and after exacting a promise that he wouldn't come down and laugh, I  belligerently pressed play on the CD player and surrendered myself to Gabrielle's CD .... Body Parts, Flowing, Staccato, Chaos (it was truly that alright) Lyrical and Stillness. 
After subconsciously listening for Dan to sneak down the stairs, video me and bribe me for all eternity, (which of course he didn't) I actually let go and just went with the music, dancing all through the downstairs, a bit breathless but happily enjoying myself, slightly alarming Lola, one of my cats as I careered into the lounge doing my best tribal inspired spine and knee manoeuvres, but she just yawned and covered her eyes before going back to sleep, so blase.... What a journey! Now I really know what  a circle sister meant when she said it was a danced meditational prayer - every emotion and feeling was there: fear, anger, love, sensuality, happiness, concern, exhilaration, relaxation, satisfaction, fulfilment, peace  - you name it! I can honestly say it was amazing and I will be doing it again, so be warned!

Elen Sentier's  Celtic Chakra from her book
 of the same name copied from
http://www.giftsfromthepath.com

So, 5 Rhythms taught me a few lessons... I can believe or not, Twerk - (yes really!!), my knees and hips click - A LOT, but mainly I learnt that when you let go of fear, and believe me I made myself dance with my eyes open in front of the mirror in the lounge and felt fear! Yes I saw an overweight sweaty 44 year old woman less than gracefully bumping around, but I also saw someone laughing and having fun, enjoying and surprised at what their body can do! 
I decided to treat myself to a well deserved good long soak with full lotion and potion after session. After alarming and disgruntling another cat George, (this house is full of them) with unusual naked leg and bending postures to rub in lots of moisturiser I decided to thank my body for all that it did and that it all still works by working through my Chakras using the Celtic method as described by Elen Sentier in her book The Celtic Chakras. This involves working round them anticlockwise or widdershins from the Heart to the solar plexus, back up to the throat and so on, ending up at the Brow, where I gave thanks for all that I am, all that I have been and all that I will yet be. George obviously enjoyed this and felt the same, as he decided to vigorously have a groom for a full 30 seconds  before turning his back on me and snoring. Mercifully there are no photos of any of this!


However I do have plenty of photos to share with you,as this evening whilst dinner was cooking, I did manage to drag Mark out after his mini scooter run this morning (he has a Vespa) and walk the land around us, taking this beautiful picture of some wild grass that looks remarkably corn like to me in the horse field just down the road. 

The horses had moved fields and first I thought 
they had gone altogether, but we found this lovely family group, the foal on the left is the one I showed you last month and the one on the left is a new addition. I loved that fact that they both felt happy enough in our presence to nuzzle their Mums for a feed, the older Mares in the field were a bit concerned but soon realised that we were just passing through and harmless.

I had never noticed the blossom on a blackberry bush before, just the the fruit and the brambles. These ones pictured to the left were open but there were hundreds of bobbled buds where the fruit will come in a couple of months, reminding me that nature needs all aspects of the wheel just like we do with Goddess to encompass every stage, emotion and fear, will it bloom, will it be pollinated, will it bear fruit?  A life cycle in a year. No fear on the pollination front, the air was busy with the busy drone of bees flitting from flower to flower, especially important after my visit to the bee hives of Avalon last week.

I couldn't get a decent picture of them on the blossom but in what was the corn field - which is now we realised full of broad bean plants, I managed to take this close up of a hard working bee. Seriously that's a huge field, if you buy broad beans this year and they are from Kent, I'll bet they are form my Lane!

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of the fields where we walk and here's hoping you enjoy the views as much as we do...


         Have a Truly Blessed Week and dance like only your cats are watching!

Just like the bark on this one!

Tree tops with the late sun coming through the leaves

A distant husband lurking through the keyhole......

Rediscovery....

What a beautiful week I've had! I managed to take a couple of days annual leave Thursday and Friday to enjoy the sunshine with Mark as he was off before heading west to Glastonbury on Saturday with my circle sisters and a chilled family day today - just what I needed to refresh and soothe my heart and soul. Thursday was spent literally snoozing in the sun in our garden,watching the clouds- picking out all sorts of shapes and listening to the birds singing and watching the amorous male wood pigeons puffing up their breast feathers and dancing precariously along the apex of the roofs trying to court their Hens, who looked remarkably unimpressed  - reminding me that the Beltane energy is ever present.

On Friday we visited Wild Wood a conservation trust

at Herne Common in Kent that provides a home in ancient woodland for native British wildlife. It's one of my favourite places. I particularly love to visit the colony of wolves there, they have successfully hand reared some of them since they were orphaned as cubs, so we were heading round to sit a while with them when we saw this very wary young stag - another link to Beltane, before he ran off to hide amongst the green trees - I wonder if they'd thought to call him Herne?

Perfect for meditation?

On the way round to the wolves, I saw this beautiful bower that is obviously a work in progress. I've seen them fully built before but it didn't occur to me that this is how you form them - hmm another project for either the allotment or the garden, a meditation bower - now that sounds good... I may have the perfect corner! 
When we got round to the Wolf Enclosure there were none to be seen, it was probably too hot for them and they were most likely cooling off in the shade of the undergrowth. However we were lucky enough to see the new arrivals, 2 beautiful Brown Bears that had been rescued by the trust last year from a disused bear breeding station in Bulgaria - who knew such  grim places existed? As expected they are not used to space and people after 14 years of lonely captivity in a disgracefully small pen, but are

slowly becoming rehabilitated to their new surroundings - this beautiful bear came and had a peep and a sniff of us. I offered up a silent prayer that such beautiful creatures had been rescued but equally felt saddened that they had been reduced to this in the first place - how apt and timely their brief appearance would become when I arrived in Glastonbury the next day!

Early on Saturday morning  I drove down to Glastonbury for our much anticipated Discovery Day - a chance for all the lovely and fabulous Ladies who have started their individual journeys with Goddess through Michelle's Discovery Workshops (really life changing - if you are thinking about doing one and are not sure - Do It!!) to spend a day together in her beautiful garden to catch up, indulge in a few workshops and just generally "enjoy".  

Our Beautiful Setting

We were greeted by the sight of the an inviting Bell tent, complete with carpet and a delightful tea shack! After 4 original circles had blended a little more, a wonderful group of Ladies, all at different stages on their journey with Goddess, some on Priestess training, some looking forward to starting one soon, others waiting to see where their journey will take them and of course some writing blogs, came together as a circle,  grounded ourselves and called Goddess in before learning and  performing a danced prayer before being treated to workshops by three wonderful Priestesses- Katie, Angie and Weeza. Thank You Ladies x x 

In the morning we were taken on a short meditation journey by Katie through moonlit woodland to connect with Goddesses of Fire, particularly in the Crone aspect - my experience was of owls, wolves and a wizened toothless wise woman who laughed and seemed to say "you'll see!" before coming back to the present and making some jewellery for ourselves based on our journey - apologies that my photo isn't very clear but I used golden leaves and fire colours to reflect the woodland and the fire the Wise Woman was sat by. Whilst I was threading the beads I felt a pang of longing for my beautiful and wise late Nan, (who for the record wasn't a toothless wrinkled crone !) who kept tins of ceramic and glass beads that had belonged originally to her Mother and Grandmother, that she allowed my brother and I to play with as children and we used to pretend the bright beads were rubies, diamonds and other precious jewels! 

The next workshop was a healing massage session in the shade of the bell tent, just what we needed after sitting in the warm Avalonian sun. After reconnecting with the earth and feeling the healing power stir in our wombs - which  I really wasn't expecting to feel so strongly, but there it was shouting at me loud and clear, we identified which parts of our bodies that ached. Angie then got us to think on why these aches and pains were there, we reflected on how they were indicative

Avalonian Bees

of states of mind and situations in our lives - which were very accurate! We took in turns to share some healing with each other and thank you to the lovely Michaela, my "naughty" shoulder is still fine this morning!

After a lunch fit for a Queen, we were lucky enough to be able  to walk to the orchard with Angie to see the bee hives that she has introduced and watched the bees repeatedly fly over the to Somerset levels to collect the pollen to make their honey.

The Beautiful Star

For the final session of the day, Weeza spoke to us of her journey to reclaim the the ancient path of the Bear Priestess and her travels in the wilds of Scotland to visit the Bone Caves of Assynt where the ancient  bones of bears, Arctic foxes, reindeer and wolves from many thousands of years ago have been found. I've had a google of these caves and they are seriously remote and high up! I'd love to visit, but it really does look like a complete and total mission to get there and back in one piece.
We talked about the concept of bears being humanised to suit our purposes in teddy bears,models, films and their voices being more often portrayed wrongly as roars rather than grunts and barks and I thought of the parallel with those poor bears at Wild Wood that had effectively been treated inhumanely and then being rescued from humans by more enlightened Humans. Another timely synchronicity for me to consider.

A massive thank you to everyone who was involved in making this wonderful day happen, either by organising it, holding a workshop or by simply coming and being you, that of course includes the beautiful Star, Michelle's gentle, kind and amazing dog x x x

All week I have been calling Goddess Ker in as Kerah and am still finding high and passionate energies are surrounding me, it's a fierce but specific energy that leaves my heart pounding and my blood rushing. It needs purpose and focus, so that it isn't channelled in the wrong direction -  something else that I need to work on and with over the coming weeks, honestly I won't have time for work at this rate! It did occur to me as I was writing this that I already make regular financial contributions to conservation and environmental charities both locally and internationally and that I have always been more than happy to support what I feel are worthwhile causes, not just by putting my hand in my pocket but by actually getting involved and trying to make a difference - Kerah must have been calling to me for a lot longer than I realised.......

Watching the Bees

What a wonderful long weekend I've had, topped off today by a lovely family barbecue, great company, scrummy food and  lots of laughter.


            Have a truly blessed week x x x 





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