It was a cold, cold winter, and it ended with the rains which are carrying on still. As I’m due to travel next week, I thought it time I got your witch's garden ready for the spring, so I can return to find things well on their way. I've decided to scale back the vegetable garden … [Read more...] about Dearest H: The witch’s gardener mucks into spring
A drunken dirge, a traditional song of heartache and woe, I Courted A Wee Girl, or the False Bride
Scotland doesn't lack in songs about being forsaken in love. But according to Ewan MacColl, who recorded the song I Courted A Wee Girl in 1956, typically the hero shrugs it off. "In this curious little song, however, the jilted lover, after attending his ex-sweetheart's nuptials, just lies down and … [Read more...] about A drunken dirge, a traditional song of heartache and woe, I Courted A Wee Girl, or the False Bride
Thirteen lessons I learned about love this February
This month I focused on love, a topic near to my broken heart. With a heart in that condition it was inevitable that this would be a dark month. So I thought, why not celebrate that? Most of the people I know are going around at the moment with a broken heart, bruised heart or cold heart. I don't … [Read more...] about Thirteen lessons I learned about love this February
Folk horror from Wiltshire: The Blood Stone at Luccombe Spring, starving out the Vikings at Bratton Camp, the White Horse of Westbury and the nature of folklore
The Luccombe Valley below Salisbury Plain and Bratton Camp, just visible in the upper right. In the foreground are two of the four barrows in the valley, with one of the others being the site of the Bloodstone. While wandering on Salisbury plain one day I came across a hidden valley and … [Read more...] about Folk horror from Wiltshire: The Blood Stone at Luccombe Spring, starving out the Vikings at Bratton Camp, the White Horse of Westbury and the nature of folklore
On the mystery of a white horse carved into the slopes of Bratton Downs … the White Horse of Westbury
Looking down on the White Horse of Westbury from atop Salisbury Plain Nobody really knows when or why a chalk horse was carved onto the side of Bratton Downs, below the iron age Bratton Camp. The current version has evolved over the past two centuries into its rather literal shape today. An 18th … [Read more...] about On the mystery of a white horse carved into the slopes of Bratton Downs … the White Horse of Westbury
Saying goodbye to the darkness of love
A little over six months ago, I looked into the eyes of the lady I loved more than I’ve ever loved in my life, and said goodbye. It was only supposed to be for a couple months. Our time apart was always hard, a layer of darkness descending, like a sheet of black silk slowly wafting down on the … [Read more...] about Saying goodbye to the darkness of love
On Valentine’s Day: Surviving a broken heart, finding hope in Edgar A. Poe and Annabel Lee’s metaphoric necrophilia
Though it's tempting after reading Annabel Lee to believe Poe thought otherwise, sometimes love dies. There’s always a choice involved. Someone has to make the decision that this is it. If it’s not you, it’s a blow that’s hard to recover from. To start with, you don’t want to. Your love didn’t … [Read more...] about On Valentine’s Day: Surviving a broken heart, finding hope in Edgar A. Poe and Annabel Lee’s metaphoric necrophilia
On the abandoned village of Port, in Donegal Ireland … wind swept, wet and wild, the folklore of Irish music and the ideal place to go drowning
Top: The Glengesh Pass, Donegal, Ireland The top of Glengesh Pass in Donegal, Ireland is breathtaking. You’re in one of the most remote corners of the country here, sparsely populated, windswept and wild. You’re as likely to hear Gaelic spoken as English, for life hasn’t changed a whole lot over … [Read more...] about On the abandoned village of Port, in Donegal Ireland … wind swept, wet and wild, the folklore of Irish music and the ideal place to go drowning
On pagan sexuality, getting laid in the seventies, the great god Pan, the Marquis de Sade and the mating habits of goats
Top: Statue of Pan, The Eagles Nest, Northport, Long Island Your body is the church where Nature asks to be reverenced. Marquis de Sade I credit my parents with instilling in me a love for pagan sexuality. Not intentionally - they didn’t advocate any kind of sex. It’s something that was only … [Read more...] about On pagan sexuality, getting laid in the seventies, the great god Pan, the Marquis de Sade and the mating habits of goats
On Byron, the glory and agony of love, and the curse and blessing of loving but one
Top: In the grass at Knowlton Henge There can be a dark side to living and loving with passion - the loss of the one you adore. It’s Byronically ironic that the poet known for breaking hearts never shied from expressing the pain he found in his own. Love seldom comes in easy to open packages, … [Read more...] about On Byron, the glory and agony of love, and the curse and blessing of loving but one
