Midsummer: Day 2

The second day of our Midsummer celebrations coincided with our monthly day off together, so we decided to have a trip out. Since Midsummer is (for some) associated with the Fair Folk, we decided to go somewhere that might (depending on what you believe) be a good place to spot fairies.

Midsummer Earrings

Since we were going to a (possible) fairy site, today's earrings were a sparkly fairy and star set.

Castlerigg Stone Circle

We took a trip out to Castlerigg Stone Circle near Keswick today. After a picnic near the stones, we carried on for a walk (which was a lot longer than we'd been led to expect!) through the stunning landscape around Blencathra to Tewet Tarn. When we arrived back at the stone circle, we took a bit of time just to appreciate the setting, accompanied by a cup of Fairies Chapel (lemon and wild berries) tea from The Tea Crew.

‘Sheep, Hay and Rushes’

I ended the day reading the second chapter about Midsummer in Ronald Hutton's The Stations of the Sun: 'Sheep, Hay and Rushes'.

Midsummer: Day 1

It's Midsummer (Litha) time! We're onto our fourth event in our Year of Celebrating the Seasons! And it's a bumper celebration this time, as we've decided to do nine days instead of the usual seven (because we have stuff planned this weekend and next, so we wanted to include it all). So we'll be taking in the Summer Solstice and Midsummer's Day, as well as plenty of other days.

Midsummer Earrings

I've cracked out my next set of seasonal earrings... today's were strawberries and bees!

‘The Midsummer Fires’

I should probably have started reading this at the start of the year (tbh I've only just thought of it!), but I'm now accompanying our seasonal celebrations with the relevant chapters from Ronald Hutton's The Stations of the Sun. I read 'The Midsummer Fires' tonight.

Midsummer Candle

We lit our Midsummer candle from Chalice Creations for the first time tonight as well... jasmine, rose, lavender, ylang ylang, geranium, helichrysum and melissa lemon to last us through the week.

Cocktails

Not strictly a Midsummer thing, but I've decided to count it! We've been rewatching Waking the Dead over the past couple of months. Our Waking the Dead rewatch is an annual thing, and we like to make a bit of an event of it. This year, I've been making cocktails inspired by the characters. Tonight's cocktails were based on Felix (aka Miserable Frankie) and Stella (aka French Mel). The recipes are up on my Twitter.

A Year of Celebrating the Seasons

This post is about our New Year's Resolution for 2022. After last year's 31 Days of Halloween and a very festive countdown to Christmas, Rob and I have decided we've nailed those two celebrations. The problem is, it's a long time to wait between Christmas and Halloween so New Year can often seem a bit flat after all the festive fun. Additionally - and I'm not sure if this is a result of the pandemic or if it had been creeping in before then - we've both been feeling weird about the way time is passing. Sometimes it feels like it's whizzing by, but then a single day can feel like it lasts for years (and not always in a good way). So, in an effort both to keep the festive feeling all year round and to feel a bit more comfortable and in control of the passage of time, we've decided to celebrate seasonally this year. Since we already celebrate a quarter day (Christmas/Yule) and a cross-quarter day (Halloween/Samhain), we thought we might as well celebrate the other six seasonal markers.

Neither of us are religious, and our Christmas and Halloween celebrations are always a mish-mash of traditions, including a few we've invented ourselves. Our plan is to celebrate the other seasons in the same way. We've planned a week for each, except Halloween and Christmas (which both get a month, because they're the best ones). Mostly, our celebrations are likely to be seasonal earrings, going for walks and watching films, but we're hoping to come up with some other new traditions along the way! (Any interesting suggestions would gratefully received!)

Since a lot of the seasonal celebrations are muddled together versions of Christian festivals, astronomical phenomena, neo-paganism and other traditions, the first thing we had to do was decide what to call our festivities. We've basically decided just to go with the names we're most familiar with, even though that's a bit of a pick-and-mix: Imbolc, Vernal Equinox, Beltane, Midsummer, Lammas, Autumnal Equinox, Halloween and Christmas.