Autumnal Equinox: Day 7

It's the big day! The finale of our first ever Autumnal Equinox celebrations. I think we've done the season proud again, and we're ready to prepare for the big ones that are coming! Here's how we celebrated to today though...

Autumn Equinox Earrings

My final pair of Autumn Equinox earrings... a harvest bonanza!

Poetry in the Park

This afternoon, I took some of the residents of Castlerea Care Home to Crumpsall Park to do our weekly poetry session outside for a change. We enjoyed the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness with poetry, a walk, creating Autumn Equinox story stick and some apple pies.

Mabon Dinner

We finished our week of celebrating the start of autumn with the (now)traditional Autumn Equinox dinner of (not)meatloaf and root vegetable rice, followed by spiced ginger sponge pudding.

Timorous Beastie Whisky

A little seasonal tipple this evening... Timorous Beastie whisky from Douglas Laing & Co. (I know the poem is set in November, but it feels close enough.)

Mabon Gifts

We ended the evening by exchanging seasonal gifts and cards. These whiskies will go with the others we've given each other during the year, then we'll have them at Christmas.

And so the wheel of the year turns... We'll be celebrating again at Halloween. And as we're doing 31 Days of Halloween again (starting on 1st October)... the wheel is turning pretty quickly this time.

Autumnal Equinox: Day 4

Another day of celebrating the Autumnal Equinox. It was a bit of a busy work day, so there wasn't a huge amount of time for celebrating. I did see some excellent (and seasonal) mushrooms though!

Autumn Equinox Earrings

Today's Autumn Equinox earrings were apples. Because the Autumn Equinox is the time of year when we find out if killing him actually did bring back our apples.

Crumpsall Park Litter-Pick

I took the local Beaver Scouts on a litter-pick with Friends of Crumpsall Park this evening. I told them that I like taking pics of cool mushrooms... just in case you were wondering why the sound of small children shouting 'HANNNNAH... MUSHROOOM!!' was ringing out across Crumpsall earlier today! I think my favourite bit was when a little girl explained to me that trees are very very important and told me that I should hug one ('because scientists say so'), then ran off down the path shouting 'I'M LIVING MY LIFE!!' Happy Autumn, little one.

Beltane: Day 7

The big day is here! And, to be honest, we're absolutely shattered now! I think it's fair to say we've given our Beltane celebrations a really good go this year. We weren't quite as full-on as we are for Halloween, but I think this was a good try. Maybe next year we'll go even bigger with it, because I have to admit I love Beltane now (though, obviously, Halloween and Christmas are still the best).

Friends of Crumpsall Park Beltane Litter-Pick

The Friends of Crumpsall Park litter-pick is held on the first Sunday of every month, so it fell today. And, like yesterday's litter-pick, it had a Beltane theme this time. We had another go at making Beltane story sticks while we travelled round the park, though mine turned out a bit more Goth than the one I made yesterday.

Springtime Bath Bomb

A lovely little gift from Rob for a bit of seasonal relaxation!

Beltane Dinner

May Day concluded for us with the (now) traditional Beltane Dinner of sausage casserole, followed by strawberries and cream.

The Wicker Man

And what else could we watch to accompany our Beltane Dinner than The Wicker Man (the 1973 version... obviously!).

Beltane Gifts

We ended the night by sharing our (now) traditional gifts - more whisky (or Calvados this time for Rob) to add to our seasonal tasting sets that we'll enjoy at Christmas.

And so the wheel of the year turns... We'll be celebrating again at Midsummer.

Vernal Equinox: Day 3

It's our third day of celebrating the upcoming Vernal Equinox! And it's continuing to be a daffodil-tastic week, although today had a bit of a bunny theme as well.

More Daffodils!

More daffodil-spotting today... I went to Crumpsall Park with a friend, and we were absolutely spoilt for daffs!

Lunch with a Friend

After all that daffodil-spotting, we felt like we deserved a nice lunch at The Secret Sandwich in Crumpsall. And lots of cups of tea!

Seasonal Chocolate

Couldn't resist this Hot Cross Bun Dairy Milk from Cadbury's... perfect for the season!

Ostara Earrings

Two different pairs of seasonal earrings for me today. For the day, I had some funky chickens. And then I switched them for rabbits in the evening to accessorize with our film night...

Night of the Lepus

Film night with Rob and a friend tonight... I couldn't find any daffodil-themed horror, but this one seemed perfect for the season. We watched the amazing 1972 eco-horror, Night of the Lepus. It's got giant killer rabbits!

Imbolc: Day 1

We're beginning our Year of Celebrating the Seasons this week, with seven days of Imbolc celebrations. We've already come up with a couple of (hopefully) new traditions that we're looking forward to, but today was all about enjoying the last bits of winter and some tiny glimpses of spring.

Imbolc Lights

One of our new traditions (we think) is keeping some of the Christmas lights up until Imbolc, to keep the winter darkness at bay. I know some people keep their Christmas tree up and decorated until Imbolc, but that seemed a bit much for us. We've just kept a little corner of festive light to see us through.

The Haunting Season

I wanted something seasonally appropriate to read in the period between Christmas and Imbolc, and so I chose The Haunting Season. This is a collection of short stories that I skim-read for my radio show in December but didn't get to enjoy properly over the Christmas period. It seemed just right for the wintery gap between our seasonal festivities.

Snowdrops

I spent a lovely half hour with a friend today, snowdrop-spotting in our local park.

French Toast

I don't know if this is seasonal or not (since I've happily ordered it at other times of the year), but we celebrated our successful snowdrop hunt with French toast at You, Me and Tea! It certainly felt festive.

Imbolc Earrings

Continuing the snowdrop theme, my first set of Imbolc earrings for the year were a pair of cute little snowdrops. I'm building up my seasonal earring collections, so I don't have quite as many for Imbolc as I do for Halloween and Christmas. I'm getting there though!

Starve Acre

It was actually quite difficult to find a seasonally-appropriate book to read this week, as most wintery fiction is set around Christmas/winter solstice. I've chosen Andrew Michael Hurley's Starve Acre, as I believe it's set in February. Hurley has a story in The Haunting Season as well, so I might have to watch that he doesn't just become my go-to seasonal fiction writer!

Imbolc Tea

I'm not going to go all out like I do for Halloween and Christmas, but I did want to have at least one Imbolc-appropriate tea. I've got Snow Buds, a white tea from Tugboat in Truro. It's a 'treasure of a tea', apparently. I think it's very flavourful for a white tea, which is no bad thing at all.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 3

Carrying on with my daily Halloween stories and teas. Today was another full-on work day so I didn't get chance to do any other Halloween stuff. I did do a litter-pick in Crumpsall Park this morning, and so I saw some pretty cool autumnal stuff. I think one of the things I spotted has a bit of a Halloween vibe to it, so I'm counting it!

Fairy-Tale Mushroom

The litter-pick might not have been a Halloween event, but I think this awesome mushroom has a Samhain feel to it.

Today's Story

Today's story was 'The Premature Burial' by Edgar Allan Poe, concluding the Poe triptych that kicks off this collection.

Today's Tea

Given the first three stories in the collection, it seems fitting that today's tea was Edgar Allan Poe from The Literary Tea Company. Quaff this vanilla Ceylon tea and forget your lost Lenore! A little lighter and more delicate than I was expecting, but rather nice. And who knew Poe would taste of vanilla?

The History of Crumpsall Park - an illustrated talk

On Wednesday 21st August, I'll be giving a talk with Tricia Neal on the history of Crumpsall Park on Ash Tree Road in North Manchester, for the Friends of Crumpsall Park.

Crumpsall Park was opened by Manchester Corporation in 1899 (it's 120 years old this summer!) as an urban green space at the edge of the expanding city. At this event, we'll be talking about what came before the Corporation park - who lived there? what was the surrounding area like? how did it come to be bought by the Corporation? But we'll also be sharing pictures and stories about the last 120 years, including some fantastic old postcards of the park.

Expect businessmen, spiders, an odd story about John Dalton, a bit of mythbusting... and lots more!

It's a free event (though it would be good if you could let us know you're coming via Facebook), at the Visitors Centre in Crumpsall Park, 7-9pm on Wednesday 21st August.

A little video about my local park...

In July, it was #LoveParks week, an initiative by Keep Britain Tidy intended to show 'how much our country loves parks'. As you may or may not know, I'm on the committee of Friends of Crumpsall Park, and I took the lead this year on our #LoveParks activity.

Crumpsall Park is a small urban park in North Manchester, officially opened in 1899. Crumpsall isn't the richest area in the city (though it's not the poorest), and it doesn't always get the best press. In fact, it doesn't always get any press at all, as our local paper is notorious for its lack of reporting on the north side of the city. The best we can usually expect is coverage of crime, complaints about the hospital, and the occasional story about someone being fined for fly-tipping.

Things were very different at the end of the nineteenth century. Crumpsall had only just been incorporated into the City of Manchester, and it was still (in places) quite rural. Having escaped the worst excesses of the Industrial Revolution, Crumpsall was slowly being developed into a city suburb, as new houses were built to accommodate Manchester's workforce - leading to the construction of new schools, shops and parks for the benefit of residents.

At the official opening ceremony of Crumpsall Park in 1899, the Lord Mayor addressed the crowd, acknowledging that, given that Crumpsall was 'more or less in the country', the construction of a new park might seem unnecessary. He added: 'some of [you] might think it was not wanted to-day, but a time would come when [your] successors would say that the Corporation had done well in securing it.'

Crumpsall can no longer (by any stretch of the imagination) be described as 'more or less in the country', and I thought it would be nice to see what the people of today's Crumpsall think of our little park.

So I asked, and this is what they said...