Catherine's blog

Fantastic day at the conference, on Saturday 14th April. The talks were fascinating, stalls as always filled with a great selection of unique, handcrafted merchandise, great evening entertainment from Damh the Bard and Blackbeard's Tea Party, and imaginative costumes from everyone in the evening. Never has such a band of 'scurvy dogs' been seen so far inland in Somerset!

I went to an amazingly magical, musical day at the Ancient Technology Centre in Cranbourne, Dorset on Easter Monday. Kate Fletcher & Corwen Broch (of http://www.ancientmusic.co.uk/) organised the day with Chris Foster and Bára Grímsdóttir.  Bára's Icelandic songs started the day, then we were introduced to a variety of instruments, which we were able to have a go on.

I slipped away from the real world for a couple of hours to experience the sun rising for the spring equinox at Stonehenge, the unique monument that I am lucky enough to live just a few miles down the road from. This spring we didn't see the sun until later, but we had music and dance from a Native American visitor (you can just see his headdress among the crowd in the picture below).

Yesterday one of my best friends, Katharine, and I were given the wonderful opportunity of officiating at a baby naming ceremony. This was actually the first time Katharine or I have officiated at any rites of passage, and I'd like to thank Tony and Lorna, the proud parents, for giving us the opportunity.

It does seem odd to be starting a new project when in the apparent world, the year is almost over, but as usual, in the Pagan world, everything is slightly different. We have just celebrated Samhain, the Celtic new year, and the moon is waxing, so hey ho, maybe not such an inappropriate time after all!