Scenes of Ireland (and more): One Last Leaf
You are currently browsing the Scenes of Ireland (and more) category
Scenes of Ireland (and more): Feast
As I approach forty....
This photograph was taken among good friends, in a remote place (Sanday. Orkney) and reminds me of good times and friendship, my spiritual beliefs, magic, wonder, fun and laughter.
The candlelight and medieval food, lovingly created by a good friend, represents my love of history and joy in the past.
Scenes of Ireland (and more): Happy Hallow’een
Well this is Samhain;
Hallow'een for the general public, the eve of All Hallows or the christian feastday of the dead.
Samhain for some of us, the ancient festival marking the beginning of Winter and the need to prepare for the dark half of the year. At Tara and the Hill of Ward fires would have been lit and from these the chains of bonfires across the great central plains and out to the furthest reaches of the country, or so the poets tell us. The gathering at Tara at Samhain brought together clans for horse trading, games, arts, marriages; the ancestors were honoured and the gods, and the chieftains and the fosterings and alliances. Divinations were made, omens examined.
Over the centuries the christian associations (Feast of the saints, all souls) has beome conflated with the original ideals of Ancestor, and the sense of a liminal time. But underneath the games and the ghost stories, you have the ancient and enduring.
I love the ghostly and ghoulish and the mischief; I also love the older philosophies and tonight, I'll be reaching out to my ancestors, as they once did to theirs...
Scenes of Ireland (and more): Daisy, Daisy
Still trying to keep the winter at bay by revisiting some summer days :) But It's nearly Samhain, the year is turning and although Autumn is beautiful I can;t help but feel a little cheated because Summer was really a non event. Heigh Ho, have to embrace the cold now - and the fact that a week from Saturday I'll be 40 years of age!I was thinking of doing a series of posts on things that remind me of being young...or that represent turning 40...if I come up with anything I'll post it.
Scenes of Ireland (and more): This is how I feel today..
I opened the front door and instead of a rosy Autumnal dawn it was freezing cold, wet and windy; I literally wanted to turn tail and hide under the covers. I feel grey. And cold.
