Lammas Lughnasadh crown

Happy Lammas to you all.

We are sat in the countryside, not 20 feet opposite a lovely large corn field which was harvested last night. The French it seems harvests at night all the time (we might too, it's just I've never seen it done then before) and the smell this morning is beautiful. The sun is shinning and the heat is high already (yeast out bubbling ready for the loaves in a moment).

So we asked if we could have a lttle of the corn, the farmer has left some in what appears to be no-man's land, amazing how far those seed throwers spread, and have started to make some dollies and a John Barleycorn crown for littleun.

All we did was plait 6 together for one side, six for the other and then with some course string tie them to form a round.

After that we weaved the remaining heads into the plaits and very quickly the crown formed. Littleun will wear it later when we have our meditation and give thanks. Later we are heading to a Dolmen, been there before and its lovely and peaceful, tucked away in a corn field we can connect with the earth so easily there.

Hope you all hve fantastic day, wherever you may be. BB

(ps sorry about the spacing on this post, blogger is being stubborn wth a mind of its own!)

Lammas/Lughnasadh, The weather held...

Well despite having a sea fog roll in the day before and slight rain first thing in the morning by the afternoon the weather was bright and sunny, in fact rather hot!

At sunset on Saturday we held our small family ritual welcoming in Lammas, the bread just freshly finished and warm on our altar, we gave our thanks for our good harvest. We have had the allotment only a short while but we have been very blessed with the abundant crops we have had in such time.

On Sunday we had headed to Eastbourne and joined the crowds at celebrating Lammas. Sitting with my family and friends sharing the Dwarfs loaf/Lammas Loaf I had made (anyone who reads Discworld will know what I mean by that!) and realising that although it looked great it was in fact an ickle bit on the tough side, was good. Soon delving into the pies and quiches I had made from our home grown ingredients, we were surrounded by the lovely sound of music and sight of Morris Dancers.

The great thing about Morris is that they encourage anyone to have a go and I have to say those children really did show us adults’ sense of timing and rhythm up! Finishing our feast and wondering around we came across many a craft from Pottery to Ironwork, Painting to Carving. Stopping to say hello to folk we knew and to congratulate those we didn’t know on their hard efforts took us to the gentle point of needing a refreshing drink so off to the music/hop tent.

Eventually though it was time to go, a fair journey home and a sleepy child to contend with. Hoping you all enjoyed your celebrations.

Lughnasadh/Lammas: How do you celebrate yours?

Well we will be mixing with good company at Eastbourne’s Lammas Festival. In its 10th year they will be celebrating with good music, beer and lots of little craft and extras stalls. The best bit? Well all profit goes to the RNLI so a worthwhile event.

We went last year and apart from the horizontal rain (yes it was that bad) had a ball. The people were welcoming and willing to natter about anything. The music was great and Littleun loved dancing to it whilst taking lots of photos. This year we will be going with some family & friends and taking a picnic with us.

Food for celebrating this time of year is obviously important. Lammas is the first of the harvests and with that in mind we try to represent each part in our feast/picnic. We make our own bread and as we break the first loaf remember the hard work that has gone into the growing of the wheat, remembering also to keep some of the grain to sow in the New Year. This year we have been particularly lucky with the weather and we give thanks to our family deities. The other foods we take tend to be things like a jar of the strawberry jam, some of our first apples, this time abundant in the garden, quiches made with the veg and salads again grown by us. Oh and a jar of cidre made by a rather pickled but clever friend!

There are lots of things good about the Eastbourne celebration one of which is the ability to mingle with crafts and arty folk. You can sit and get shown how to make corn dolls, or see leather work going on. You can try your hand at wood turning, in my case making a rather wonky wood bowl, lovely to look at but useless as things will fall out of the side as I got the angles a bit wrong! I like to sew so it’s good to chat with the girls and find out how they did the turn that looks wonderful but impossible, or where to find the right material for the bodice I am making etc. And of course the music I mentioned earlier is an art too. We like music in this house, never far from the radio or instruments and Littleun is becoming rather good at drumming so a perfect excuse to get up and join in the ceilidh that will be going on.

Well that’s how we will be doing ours, how will you be doing yours, do leave a comment if you fancy sharing!

Harvest festival at Littleun’s nursery

The nursery have decided to hold a festival, Christian based I think as they are doing it on behalf of the local Salvation Army, however they have asked for information on the Pagan festivals so that they can talk about both. Progress, we seem to be being accepted! Though how the other parents will feel when they hear I’m not to sure. The nursery have asked for donations in the form of “pre-packed, non perishable food” which kind of goes against what I do in making my own food from our garden for the Sabbats so I’m rebelling and taking in our own stuff, well they did ask me what we do. Besides I dislike the idea of Littleun eating white pre-sliced supermarket-bought rubbish so I made some bread both as rolls and as my first attempt at a harvest sheath. I’m quite pleased with it but know that practice will help; sadly this one did get a bit caught so it’s a rather dark mouse hiding in the stalks.

Before baking with egg glaze;

It is a mouse, honest!