Midsummer: Day 6

It's the sixth day of our Midsummer celebrations. I was at work during the day, but then I had a festive event to go to, followed by our big seasonal celebration at home!

Summer Solstice Nature Celebration

I had a gorgeous time at a Summer Solstice Nature Celebration run by Natalie Rossiter this evening. Forest bathing, finding moments of joy, walking barefoot in a meadow, then food, conversation and toasted marshmallows in the woods.

Midsummer Dinner

Later on this evening, Rob cooked our traditional Midsummer Dinner of Gratinated Cabbage with potatoes and green beans.

Jaws

And with our dinner we watched the traditional Midsummer film, which is, of course, Jaws.

Midsummer Gifts

After dinner, we exchanged our traditional Midsummer gifts, seasonal whiskies that we'll put with our tasting set to enjoy in December.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 29

A slightly quieter day today, but still chock-full of Halloween goodness!

Samhain Forest Bathing

Just perfect Samhain forest bathing session this afternoon with Natalie Rossiter Wellbeing, finding beauty in decay, sycamore for protection and messages in the trees, then soul cakes, mulled apple juice and reflection by the fire.

Autumn Charm

One of the things we did on today's Samhain forest bathing was to make up our own plant folklore. The idea of let-go leaves and holly to prevent the holding of grudges seemed particularly apt, so I collected some up and made myself a little autumn charm.

Halloween Cupcakes

Halloween cupcakes!

31 Halloween Films: Resident Evil

Back to our film list this afternoon, and the random number generator has decreed that we are watching Resident Evil this evening!

Halloween Dinner

We had our traditional Halloween Dinner tonight... Pumpkin and Sausage Casserole!

Halloween Gifts

And after dinner, we exchanged our traditional Halloween gifts... the final two whiskies for our seasonal tasting sets that we'll have in December.

31 Halloween Films: Dracula: Prince of Darkness

There is a small chance we won't make it through all of our list by the end of October, but for tonight, we have Dracula: Prince of Darkness.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 30

And now the penultimate day of our Halloween celebrations. It was the last day of celebrating with Rob, as he had to work on Halloween itself, so we had some nice things planned for the evening together.

Today's Tea

Sunday's Halloween tea was the wonderfully named A Nightcap on Elm Street from Tenacious Tea! It's Ceylon and Pu'er teas with cacao husks, coconut, coffee beans and cornflower petals. It's a very unusual but really quite moreish brew.

Today's Story

The penultimate classic tale of horror this month was 'The Japanned Box' by Arthur Conan Doyle.

‘Blood Month and Virgin Queen’

Looking ahead to November, I read 'Blood Month and Virgin Queen' from Ronald Hutton's The Stations of the Sun.

Samhain Forest Bathing

I went to a really great Samhain forest bathing session on Sunday, run by Natalie Rossiter Wellbeing. The session ended with tea, parkin and reflection around a fire. I feel like I really needed this.

Eyeball Bath Bomb

Eyeball bath bomb from Bomb Cosmetics!

Halloween Dinner

We had our Halloween Dinner tonight because of work commitments on Halloween itself. Rob made us an amazing and very seasonal Pumpkin and Sausage Casserole!

Halloween Gifts

We exchanged our (now) traditional Halloween cards and gifts. These are the final seasonal whiskies for the sets we'll be enjoying at Christmas.

Midsummer: Day 9

It's the final day of our Midsummer celebrations. I've been calling Midsummer 'Summer Christmas' all week, and today felt a bit like 'Summer Boxing Day' as we exchanged gifts and had our celebration dinner yesterday.

Summer Forest Bathing

I spent the afternoon on a Summer forest bathing session with Natalie Rossier Wellbeing. What a perfect way to (almost) end the Midsummer week. We ended today's session with reflection and meditation, a cup of tea made from apple mint and lemonbalm, and homemade honey cake. The whole session really made me feel more grounded in the season than I've felt before.

Midsummer Tea

The final tea in my summery Whittard selection box (and I saved the best till last) was English Rose.

Midsommar

Our seasonal festivities came to an end with a pretty obvious film choice... we watched Midsommar (2019) tonight. I have to admit, I'm not sure this is the one thing we've done that probably won't become a tradition.

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

Vernal Equinox: Day 7

The big day is here! It's the Vernal Equinox, and officially the beginning of spring! (And so that means it's the final day of our first proper Ostara celebration.)

Spring Forest Bathing

I went for a Spring Forest Bathing session with Natalie Rossiter Wellbeing this morning. I had some quiet time with the blackthorn blossom, tasted silver birch sap and saw my first bumblebees and bunny rabbits of the year. We ended the session with tea made from foraged nettles, blackberry leaves and silver birch tips.

Ostara Earrings

My final pair of Ostara earrings this year... more funky chickens!

Marzipan Eggs

A special little Ostara treat for me and Rob... Niederegger marzipan eggs! (Ignore that the box says Frohe Ostern, I reckon they're obviously made for the Vernal Equinox.)

Ostara Dinner

To round off our Vernal Equinox celebrations, Rob served the (now) traditional Ostara Dinner of spring vegetable paella.

Ostara Gifts

And finally, we swapped our (now) traditional Ostara gifts tonight, adding to our seasonal whisky tasting sets that we'll be enjoying at Christmas.

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

31 Days of Halloween: Day 31

It's the big day... and the finale of my 31 Days of Halloween. Today wasn't quite as full-on as yesterday, but we managed to do a few final spooky season things to mark the occasion.

Dracula: Prince of Darkness

Despite today being the first time for ages we could have a lie-in (with an extra hour as well), Rob and I woke up super-early, couldn't get back to sleep and so ended up watching Dracula: Prince of Darkness at breakfast time.

Samhain Nature Walkshop

This afternoon I went on a Samhain Nature Walkshop with Natalie Rossiter Wellbeing in Worsley Woods. It was a mindful activity so I didn't take any pics to share on social media. But after yesterday's hectic schedule, I very much enjoyed the change of pace - forest-bathing in the rain FTW!

Ghostwatch

We finished our month of Halloween celebrations in style. We rewatched Ghostwatch in full for the first time since it aired in 1992, and joined in with #NationalSeance2021 Twitter conversation!

Today's Tea

Today's tea - the final Halloween tea in my collection - was Wolfsbane from Monster Mash Teas. Fortunately, this tea isn't actually made of wolfsbane (aka aconite) because it's poisonous to both humans and werewolves. This was actually a rather pleasant mint tea.

And that's the end of my fire-walking, forest-bathing, haunted whisky-tasting, cocktail-shaking, ghost-watching, tea-sipping month of Halloween.