'How can you call goddess worship - that went on for thousands and thousands of years before Christianity - a cult?'

A good question I feel.

This blog is the result of reading Tylluan Penry's blog about a 21st century case of witchcraft in Saudi Arabia.  Now, I don't pretend to know the first thing about it, certainly not why the whole thing was brought to light but it has set me off thinking...oh, dear I hear you all say!

Yes...well...when I was in school, history was all about social and economic changes, which frankly, gave me an excuse (not that I really needed one!) to snore in the classroom.  My mother, however, was fortnately a history teacher and taught me more than school ever did.  She also taught me plant lore and I grew up with myths and legends, fairies and elves.  Coming from Wales that was something I generally lived with in any case.  I was medicated in childhood illnesses by plant remedies and rhymes handed down from mother to daughter.  In other words, the craft.  We all learn nursery rhymes and adages such as Ring a Ring of Roses and An Apple a Day - so where do they come from?  One is about the symptoms of the plague and one is a remedy and/or prevention.  As we all know them...are we all witches?

The rhymes and remedies are buried in the mists of history and at least one of them dates back to the Burning Times (although not according to QI!!).  Would I then have been burned at the stake, even though no-one but no-one ever called my grandmother or mother a witch?  Yet, in today's parlance, that is what they were/are.  As a result, I call myself a witch, so that those who went before me with that name will never be forgotten; to remind me that this sort of thing should never happen again; that I should have the freedom to chose my own path of faith, which is non-violent.  Those of us who practice the craft live by the following rule...yes, just the one...

'Eight words the witches' c/rede fulfil
An' it harm none do what you will'

You see, the key part is 'an it harm NONE'.  I PERSONALLY believe that nobody owns this world and that we are merely tenants - doing a pretty crap job of it really.  I believe we should work with nature not against it because ultimately, she will get her own back if we piss her off too much.  I believe we should nurture and cherish rather than bully and force and I believe that most things can be solved by parley not war.  Yes, I know, I'm a simple being.  I believe that world religions have more in common than not but the stubborness of the individual practitioners who insist that theirs is the only true way will not allow them the clarity of vision to see that.  Do people genuinely believe that Jesus and Mohammed would have been happy with the atrocities that have been committed in their names and that of peace?  I saw a great piece of graffiti which said that 'Fighting for peace is like f***ing for virginity'.  Apt!

So, because I practice a peacable way of life, working with ancient lore and nature's own provisions, because I seek answers in ethereal ways and writings, I am clearly a witch in the eyes of those who misunderstand and who are believers in mysogenistic world religions.  If this is the case, then I hold my head up high and proud, for all the witches who came before me, whose knowledge lives on even today and so that they will live forever and never be forgotten.

I am proud and humbled to follow their path.

May you all have a peaceful and enjoyable weekend.

Blessed be all whatever your path and may your gods/goddesses be with you.

Anyway, some rather nice person who read my blog said that she liked my music choices, so as I am now her friend I would like to warn her that she wont like ALL my music as I am fairly random and to prove it, as you all knew I would, have some music that I really love...or not...but please bear in mind that you neither have to listen nor comment...

Firstly, a version of King Crimson but without Greg Lake, so I tolerate it because they have stuck relatively well to the original...

I've picked this over Joan Baez because of what this woman went through, actually and physically, rather than a step removed as all protestors were in the 60's...go Ms Dietrich, you are an inspiration and someone I really admire xxx

If you watch closely you can really see emotion and I don't think it was just because she was an actress.  I think she may have been remembering.

In any event, it's a good question...when WILL we ever learn?

I would like to dedicate the video below to her...she knows why-not because we liked it particularly but it really annoyed one of the other members so much he complained to the committee about it, so we played it even more to show that civvy soldier did not intimidate wives of....

Anyway, this is for you, the only bestest friend I ever had and it ONLY took me until I was 33 to find you.

I love you xxx

I've just been reading an article in the Guardian Arts Section (neh...I have some free time what can I say!) about the T in the Park festival in Scotland where the tickets for this year went on sale last year and were sold out within 69 minutes!  Good grief is all I can say.

I may be wrong but...in the misty depths of memory...back in the days when I rode dinosaurs to school and wrote on stone tablets...I vaguely remember Glastonbury being free or, was I living in an alternate universe?  Don't get me wrong, as alternate universes go mine was pink and fluffy and quite benign but...am I imagining things?  So, where have all the free ones gone...sung to the tune of..oh, never mind!?

In the mists and mellow fruitfulness that was the early 21st Century, a group of us got together and organised a three day music festival for charity called the Urban Glastonbury, where we had amateur bands from all walks of life and music taste.  It was a roaring success for Christies Hospital in Manchester which treats terminally ill children.  The whole event was a hoot and I cannot praise enough the amateurs who took part in the whole thing.  We had rock, reggae, hip-hop, classical, accoustic and mad dj's doing their thing.  The power of unsigned bands playing live is raw and envigorating and it still makes me buzz to this day.  The whole event was held outdoors and we ended the last night with a group of thirteen djembe players, all dreadlocked and hippified who had the whole crowd dancing on tables and anywhere there was space.  It was electric!  We had stalls of food, jewellery, clothes and home made stuff of all varieties.  It was a chance for everyone to show what they could do and how well they could do it.

It wasn't only that it was for a good cause, although that was of course the main impetus.  These people were ALL amateurs, even the stall holders.  No commercial enterprise would have been interested and I personally think we were all better off for it.  The only payment the bands got was free food and access to (admittedly limited) alcohol.  The stalls were asked to contribute a part of their takings.  Yes, we charged people for entry but it was something like £12 for the three days or £5 a day and bands were on all day from noon to midnight.  The response we got for bands easily warranted that and we were still turning people away from auditions. 

The reaction to the bands was fantastic and bearing in mind that the majority of attendees were students and therefore very likely to have been present at many T's in the Park and Glatonbury like events, their support of the bands was something I would like to applaud as being 'far out'.  Rockers mixed happily with rappers and mixers with musicians.  There was no trouble apart from the odd one or two food fights - all in all, the whole atmosphere was amazing.

I dunno, seems to me, probably wrongly, that if I went to Glastonbury now, or to a T in the Park event, I would be sadly disappointed.   Not because once you become commercial you become crap but I do think you lose something along the way to stardom and high flying gigs.  Perhaps it's naivity, or the PR people change you for cameras, or you compromise the integrity of some of your work into something that will sell.  I don't know what gives but I think something does. 

In respect of giving...the unsung heroes of every gig are the backstage crew.  It is a logistical nightmare getting bands into the right place at the right time.  My admiration for stage managers, roadies, lighting engineers and sound engineers knows NO bounds.  Without this invisible host of angels, no front line egos would ever appear.  At least not as flawlessly as they would like.  I am proud to count them amongst my friends, far more than I would the band themselves.

One of the best gigs I ever went to at the tender age of 14 was at the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea.  I went to see Mott the Hoople with an unknown backing group.  This backing group were so f**g good, they ended up being called back on stage no less than four times.  At the end of the fourth encore, they called their roadies and managers and engineers on stage for applause.  They brought the house down. 

That backing group was...QUEEN.

Before they even released the Seven Seas of Rhye. Bugger, I'm so old on paper and in the ether!

Anyway, my point, before I went off at a tangent as is my want, was - are there any free festivals with amateur bands still in existence?  If not, why not and should I start one?  Or would I run the risk of becoming yet another Corporate entity like Glastonbury?

So, just to remind myself of that non-famous backing band and my mis-spent youth, the video below shows clips of Queen as I remember them.  Freddie, Brian, John and Roger with long hair and <sigh> so very, very young.  Anno dominae to us all at some point.

About a week ago I applied for a job as house steward for Newton House in Dinefwr with the National Trust.  A few days later, I got a phone call inviting me for interview.  I explained to my current employers that I had been called for interview.  This is when they told me that they were trying to keep me on until October and, thereby justify a more permanent position.

Now, the job with the NT is only seasonal, which means March to October/November.  So, I would have a few questions...would I have to keep re-applying every year?  As a seasonal employee, are there any chances of advancement within the National Trust?  Furthermore, I have no idea of the pay!  The job with the NT, although only seasonal is an opportunity to work in the history medium I love and it might be a step on the ladder for something more permanent with the Trust itself.  I will be working with Conservation experts and will learn much no doubt.  I wont know many of these answers until the interview.

In the meantime, I thoroughly enjoy the job I currently have and the people I work with.  There's clearly a need for an additional administrator where I work and, if they keep me on until October, they can use that to justify the post on a full time permanent basis.  The National Trust will be a leap of faith I suppose.  Again, I know it all depends on the outcome at interview.  I just thought I needed to write this down and sort of get it clearer in my own mind.  I suppose also that it depends on whether or not I can find a more permanent situation with the Trust, although I suppose I could go back to temping when the season is over - but will that make me a bit discontent going back to administration after having worked with historical artifacts and buildings?

What on earth could a Muslim girl have in her head to make her take Medieval European History as a Degree, bearing in mind the Crusades?   I love her, I miss her - she died - the week before we took our finals - TOGETHER - of nothing more sinister than a flu bug that enterd her brain.  She used to come to Rockworld in Manchester with me and she had 'hippy' memorabilia all around her flat in Uni.  She loved rock music and everyone who knew her loved her.

When she died, I was not allowed to attend her funeral, even though her parents and family knew about me and how much she loved me to the point that she was going to take me to meet them.  They all suddenly became very Muslim and shut out everyone she had ever known at Uni who were important to her whilst she lived.  They denied her in death, the love she had given to and received from others who were NOT MUSLIM yet who desperately wanted to say goodbye to her.

Her younger sister who came to the Rockworld with us and sent me text messages about which her older sister got really pissed off...turned into some Islamic banshee who wanted nothing further to do with me once MY friend had died.  I respected her view...as a HYPOCRITE.  Which my beautiful, enlightening, wonderful friend has always maintained Muslims were - she being a Muslim and therefore entitled to her opinion!

MY wonderful Muslim friend spanned many boundaries - despite that and the effect she had had on non-Muslim friends - her life beforehand with non-Muslims had ceased to exist to her family.  They put up seemingly with the friendships she made while alive - but we were not allowed to grieve - how dare we?????

On the fifth glass I could see the bottom of the bottle which for some er...strange reason reminded me of a song...

How does a blog become a featured blog?  Is it the amount of responses they got to particular post or is it frequency of posting?

NOT that I want to become one - heaven forbid given the last idiocy I posted but...

What was I thinking?  I was invited to join by a mature??? student friend from Uni so, being a sheep, followed and joined.  Now, I'm bombarded by all sorts of irrelevant nonsense...no, I do not want to be a werewolf, I'm already changeable enough.  No, I do not want to be a vampire as I am already a closet Goth.  No, I don't want to be a Ninja I'm too overweight and no, I don't want to be a pirate as I have two perfectly good legs and no bloody parrot!  Also, could you please stop posting photos of me - I don't care if you're also in the photo - pack it in!  Yes, you all know who you are - dammit!!  I have enough irrelevancies in my life, without having technolgy add to it thank you.  I open my e-mails these days with dread - someone has added to your wall, someone has added a photo of you, someone wants to give you a gift...ad nauseum!

If you really want to know how I'm doing, read my blog.  If you want to know what I'm doing at the moment - PHONE ME!  If you really want to know anything else...you need to get a life.  Facebook is fine if you want to trace people you went to school with...this is not an episode of my life that I wish to indulge in with reminiscences as it was, frankly, bloody awful!  I hated school with a passion and hated my school friends(?????) with equal passion.  I therefore have no interest in finding them, or they me, I'm DELIGHTED to report.  I left school as soon as was decently possible and went to live in the South of France, heureusement!  Facebook is also fine if you want to flirt, date, meet up with and/or encourage relationships, none of which appeal to this anti-social old bat!  It also seems to encourage writings in words of one syllable.  As an adherent to the school of...why say in one word what you could accomplish in a whole paragraph...this leaves me somewhat non-plussed.  The mood of the moment therefore is...suffice to say...I have abandoned the coffee and opened a rather nice red from the Loire region!!!  Tsk, tsk - I will be tight as a tic by the time the hippy comes home

As delightful as the weather continues to be, I have abandoned the sunshine for the couch potato position.  This is due in part to the depression that comes over me every time I look at THE SHED!  The portal to which carries the salutary banner..."Abandon hope all ye who enter here".  Yes, yes I know I'm lying but...writers perogatives or summat!!  It is a constant reminder of how much time I'm wasting and, as I believe that wasting time is a sin....guess where my one way ticket is headed...yup, the River Styx it is, armed with my sop for Cerberus and my two pennies to pay the ferryman!

Ho, hum.  Apologies for the grouchy mood peeps but I just seem to want to scream AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH quite loudly.  Trouble is, I don't really know if the sheeps next door are in the family way and I don't want to be responsible if they are.  Also, the hippy has been playing Guns n Roses this morning, quite loudly and they always make me go GRRRRRRRRRRRR - gerrit G n R?  Oh please yourselves as good old Frankie Howard used to say.  Yes, so puns aside, I've got the teenage flounces on me today.  I want to scream that I'm bored but I'm not so I wont...but pent up energy is driving me potty.  Personally, I think it's been building over the winter and now that there's a few days of sunshine...I appear to have gone doolali, such a nice Indian word that!   On the face of it, I suppose it's just as well that I can't lay my hands on any electric tools...the results could be reminiscent of Lindow's hedge, may the Ents forgive him!

Best thing to do with this post - ignore it!!!!!  A clear indication that brain not engaged before hands go into motion.  The rest of the afternoon is going to take the following path...  followed by... then some more  and then even more of this... ultimately leading to  and no doubt this and this  tomorrow morning.  In the meantime, I'm off to drain the washing machine, no doubt remove some stuck underwire from a now useless bra from some nether region of the machine's recesses, give it a few kicks, probably causing a future in-growing toenail scenario whilst doing some more of this  After finishing my cellar wine rack, I should definitely, definitely be good to go

Oh, I so wish you all a better day than me

I apologise to all and sundry for the tedium of this blog but I did say it was notes to self, nevertheless...apologies anyway.  Still...onwards...at this time of year you can clearly see the shape of the garden, all it really requires is some fine weather to be able to get out the tools to define it further.  Ha, on that note...we come to THE SHED!  Yes...hmmm...the shed!  This is where I spend a great deal of my time with my seedlings and assorted cats.  I love being in there and often take a book to read with me.  However, at present, there is a single bed in there - which needs to go.  The roof is clear corrugated perspex (or it would be clear if not for the honeysuckle), so it is an ideal growing and potting on area.  That is, it would be if I could get in it!

Yes, so up with the sparrows this morning to feed my ark of animals...y'see, they haven't, despite many, many attempts, grasped the concept of 'weekend' yet.  In fairness, five days out of seven I am up very early (the hippy has pointed out on numerous occasions that there are birds who lie in later than I do!) and so the ark has become accustomed to going out, getting fed and just generally having fuss at stupid o'clock in the morning.  This is probably just as well, as I am not good at lying in...I gets a headache and backache if I try it for too long...oh yeah and then there's the guilt thinking I should be up and doing and not being so self-indulgent, with my large mug of coffee/tea and a good book - bugger!!!  So, I am up and doing...this instead!

I would like to commiserate with all those who have had a deluge of the hideous white stuff, which used to be SO much fun before I learned to drive.  In a few months, it will be a year since my awful accident and the purchase of the vehicle known fondly as THE BEAST!  The growling 4x4 that I swore I would never buy as my conscience was always pricked by the fuel guzzling monsters that they are.  However, the fragility of my life brought home to me whilst driving my little Seat Ibiza, which was ploughed into a wall by a customised Isuzu Trooper trying to get into my boot, demanded a re-think!  Seems that conscience is one thing but survival is another.  I would like to point out however that I do live in the woolly wilds of nowhere and travel windy country roads to work.  These roads are rarely gritted or ploughed, so my physical entity tried to justify the need for a 4x4 thusly.  I also live, unsurprisingly for the south west of Cymru, on top of a hill.  No risk of flooding but every risk of not being able to get to the nearest supply hamlet in the white stuff!  This is the only accident I have had and it has had ongoing results.  I am now a nervous and probably paranoid driver and I am definitely still not over it.  I still dream of massive bull bars in my rear view and if anyone drives too close to my rear - be warned - I have tow bar defence!

Mind you, as 4x4's go, she's not as heavy as I expected and she does good mileage to juice ratio, even on the windy roads, so can't complain.  Where I was somewhat surprised was that where she normally grips the road like velcro, she glided like a ballerina on ice when she encountered a small patch of FROST!  The hippy helpfully pointed out that I should maybe have put her in 4x4 mode and I said yes, thank you for that but I wasn't expecting frost to be an issue, given the size of the tyres and tread - ah, well we live and learn - just takes some of us longer than others!

Yes, so the threat of snow has me cowering in my pj's like an aspen in gale force 9 winds.  I blubber and stress and no longer see the beauty of it if I know I have to drive - which is sad because I never used to have a problem with snow when I lived in Germany where it occurred regularly.  Also, when I lived in France I used to go skiing regularly - so what's happened to me???  Rhetorical of course!  Age, lack of confidence and the fiscal need to get to work is the compound for it - this I know - but I also need to get over it as I do actually love driving and, once you have driven the road from Germany to Calais and the Promenade des Anglaise and the Monte Carlo Grand Prix circuit, oh yeah and have you ever tried to get OFF the Arc de Triomphe loosly termed roundabout, once you are on there? you will know what I mean about loving driving.  So this paranoia is making me very angry as well as nervous.  Must be the helplessness you feel when someone hits you and control is no longer yours.  Oh, I don't know - suffice to say I dread the coming of the white deluge.  Tracked vehicles anyone???  Mine's the Chieftain in the corner, Sarge.  Added bonus?  No parking problems either!

So a quiet weekend is planned as the hippy is working.  I shall potter whilst continuially keeping an eye on the weather.  If it snows at the weekend - great.  I will be able to indulge my childish fantasies to the nth degree - as long as it's gone by Monday - boo hoo!   At the moment we have blue skies and sunshine, so here's hoping...

I will connect up my light box and do some more glass painting, as I have not done it in a while.  In between, I shall try and cook up a storm for the hippy's delectation when he finishes work, with the table set and a nice bottle of wine.  Yes, that definitely appeals.  Will probably trundle off to the big city of Swansea to see mother tomorrow as well and maybe my brother who is sadly going through a separation  - so sad - been together over 25 years with two teenage daughters.  We all thought they were set in stone but...what do outsiders know eh?

Have a great weekend everybody, whatever you are doing.

Blessed be xxx