Druids and allsorts!

It's autumn, but there has been hardly any rain. We're still turning out to fires, mostly ones lit by people who aren't very aware.  They light a small fire and don't put it out properly, or they light too big a fire for the dry conditions. Ah well, at least it keeps us busy.  And dirty...

...but not in a good way!

I need to talk about the Druidcamp.  It was while back now but it was most marvelous.

Damh the Bard, Cerri and Kristoffer were so lovely.  As I've said before, if you want to see what a spirituality or philosophy will do for you, look at its leaders, and you couldn't ask for for kinder, wiser, more connected beings than these three.

I learned a heap, and laughed and cried a lot, and some of the moments in the ceremonies and bardic circle and giant music session were just mind blowingly amazing.

Julie, Tamzin, Cait and I performed Savage Daughter together at the eisteddfod.

Afterward at the bardic circle, I did my new song called King of the Boars that I wrote for my new lyre, Torc.  I love this pic Michelle got of me.

I look a lot more relaxed than I

felt!

I also got to spend time with my Druid peeps!  Yay!

Selfie with Mandy, and a photobomb by Damh the Bard and Kris!  Did you ever!

On the plane with lovely Michelle and my Druid brother Dusty!

My dear druid sister Trudy!

       
And we explored a bit of gorgeous Adelaide.  The botanical gardens are lovely, as is the old architecture, and they have a lot of art and quirky bits that I loved, except the moment where I thought i was about to fall down these stairs, though it turned out there was glass over them!  The sculpture at the bottom looks a bit worried that he might have had to catch me!  

Around here, things go on as usual.  The last chicks of the year are growing up. both roosters, dammit, but being part Hamburg, they aren't very big so won't be able to bully the girls, or very loud crowers, so they might be able to stay.  Frankendotte has gone to live with mum's partner, Karl, and his hens.  He is rechristened Frank Sinatra for his singing, which Karl loves.  A lucky break for Frank!

One of the so called Hamburgs is definitely not all Hamburg.  He is rather hideous in the face right now but his plumage is pretty and interesting.  He was christened Chugly (chicken ugly) for a while but he's now called Bunky, short for Shubunken, because of his goldfish colouring.

The other one is classic Hamburg and is The Cisco Kid because of his embroidered black and white appearance.  He is super pretty, which makes Bunky look worse.

I'm crocheting a blankie for my friend Amy, and as usual Mr Kitty has to help.

He's such a lovey.

I've been passed as a driver for the big ICV in our comms brigade (incident control vehicle).   

We turned out to the late shift with our comms brigade to a large fire and got to see our brigade mates from Chidlow VBFB.  Ha, I wasn't the grubbiest for a change!  Away from the fire, it was cold out there!  It seems silly to be fighting fires while it is cold, but there you have it. 

It was hectic at first.  We arrived to find many appliances and support crews on the boards to keep track of with our very good crew ...

 ...but as the fire was blacked out, trucks were stood down, and the night drew on, the number of fireys dropped, and by the time we left at 2am, it was quite spooky out there. Just one lone guy from the water truck wandering in to find coffee and food at the blessed Salvos truck!
  

No rain, but we know autumn is here because the Virginia Creeper has once more turned.

  I found one of my books on the feature wall at our local library.  Yay!

Roo and i got to turn out to a fire together in the back of the truck.  Also yay!

Yes something weird happened to my face.  Other than me just being weird as usual. 


We had some of our Druid mates over for a Samhain night.  It was lovely getting to see my  friends enjoying playing my lyres. They're so calming to play.  
 

   

            Also Guinevere felt she should be part of the night, and Michelle got a pic of her for me.

Michelle also made me this quilt!  Squeeeee!

It has the rune Ansuz on it, for my patron god, Odin, and for inspiration and skill in communication, and the two ravens who accompany Odin, Huginn and Muninn.  I just can't even begin to say how much I love and appreciate this gift and all the work and skill she put into making it!  I love you Michelle!

This gorgeous old Jarrah tree was on the side of the track we walked one morning this week.

Look at all the liminal space, and the face too!

Michelle also got this pic of my dear Rosie, who is 11-and-a-half now and showing her age a little more lately.

My sweet sweet baby, how did you get to be an old dog so suddenly?            


      

Chickens and Lyres

Ah well only one day late this time!

I finally got a couple of better pics of my chookie babies...

Pellinore and Guinevere

  All five about to make a hasty exit off the table because Rover has arrived!

Rover looks a bit scruffy.  She has been moulting lately.  She's still terrifying if you are a baby chookie!

Eeeek!  Flee! Flee!

The self-seeded fig tree out by the front gate has been attracting plenty of birds.  (And Tinas!  Yum!)  This morning there were quite a few 28's (Ring necked parrots) eating figs as we came back from our dog walk, and later it was full of magpies instead!

Can you see the 28 in the fig tree?  (I'm guessing 'she' because she has a pinkish area above her beak where the boys are blue.)   She stayed back when the others flew away because her fig was just too good.  They are mostly green with a yellow band round the neck, black head, and some blue, black and aqua in the wing feathers and a blue tail.  They are quite common, but I still appreciate their varied calls and beauty.         

Here you go, I zoomed the pic above for you and changed the colours so she shows up.

Their bright colouring is surprisingly good camouflage.  They are colloquially known as 28's because their alarm call sounds like they are shouting, "Twenty-Eight! Twenty-eight! Twenty-eight!"

Fréowine is going to be surprisingly bright too.  I am eyeing off watercolour dying for this second lyre.  It might be going to be blue, if the test-dying of the wood looks good.  The soundboard is safely trimmed and now I am at the sanding stage.  I still don't know what design is going to be on it.

My marvelous OBOD Ovate tutor, Mike, who just happens to know Anglo-Saxon, tells me that Fréowine translates directly as 'wine friend,' meaning someone you would go drinking with.  I think that is a great name for a lyre, but what decoration does it call for?

Am trying to justify the expense (to myself) of buying a pyrography pen for doing the design work this time!

 
 Or should I try to do Kolrosing, scratching the wood, then filling with charcoal, oil and wax, as was done on the original Trossingen Lyre?  Each new thing to learn is always interesting!

     
This image comes from the site of Michael J King, whose pattern we are using to make my Sutton Hoo Lyres.  One day I will try making a Trossingen and a Kravik style one too!  He is always helpful to people 'doing it themselves'!

I am enjoying the music of this artist, fellow Druid Gwilym Morus, right at this moment, as I type:

So peaceful and hypnotic, a little bit wistful and then suddenly full of optimism, mostly sung in Welsh.  This album, Awena, is currently free to download.

So generous!  If you download his music and enjoy it, please do buy some more, or plug it to your friends!

     

Bad Bad Blogger!

I don't know, I was so good for more than two years, writing two posts every week.  Now all of a sudden I've fallen off the wagon!

It's not that my life is being boring, far from it.  I just don't seem to find time to do it.  I'll be better, I promise. 

So this week, we have had a Norse storytelling night at a local sound temple.  It was great!  Someone took a photo of us but now have no idea who took it or how to get it off them!  D'oh!

We also came home from that to a lot of branches from a large Bushy Yate tree that had fallen over on the chook pen and dome!  Yikes!  Our Firey mates came over first thing and worked so fast that I didn't get a chance to take a photo of the downed branches, but here is the poor squashed chook dome with what is left of the offending tree in the background. It still has an equal number of branches to dump next time it feels like it.  We may have to take it out totally before we bother fixing the chook pen.  Sorry tree! 

           
Here we are posed in front of the propped up remnants.  It is working fine with a few additions of pillars inside, cut from the insulting tree branches themselves!   Best news is that every single chook escaped that event unscathed even though they were all asleep in there when it went over!
Amazing!

From L to R: Smutty, Fast Attack Brock, Dave the photo guy, Tigger (Jen), Thor and Blaze.
(Yes, Smutty is me.  Blaze is Andrew.  We jokingly gave each other those nicknames after a particularly grubby fire.)    

 
We called mum into the pic because she made us yummy cake!

Our favourite Lieutenant, Angus, was there too but he took off to walk his dog, Harley, before weekend scheds started, so he missed being immortalised.   Here is his orange-clad backside hard at work, though, just to prove he was there. (Don't you hate bloggers and their cameras?  :D)

As you can see, the fence took a beating as well, but the sturdy gate we put in some years ago with jack-hammered holes into the rock has stood firm!

Last week mum and I took a 'cut lunch and a water bag,' as they say, and did a big drive north and west of the hills to visit mum's cousin, Lorraine.  A couple of other cousins came along too in Greggy and Cheryl, plus spouses and two second (?) cousins in myself and Lorraine's son, Andrew.  We have a lovely family.  So jolly and funny.  Short, though.  Definitely short. 

My two new lyres are coming along.  Both have now been clamped and glued and have their soundboards.

Torc

Fréowine

 
Yes it used nearly every clamp we had to do just one of them at a time.  If you don't clamp a lot,  you might get gaps.

Torc has also been trimmed of extra soundboard and sanded ready for the next stage, which is perhaps drilling the holes for the tuning pins, and for the tailpiece to attach to, or perhaps putting on the design.  Not sure yet.  The design for this one will, of course, be a boar to match its name.

Rosie caught in the hole of the lyre while wandering by.  Nice work, me!

All smooth and boxy!

Do you see the baby chickens up on the compost bins behind Fréowine?

I swear to you, I've taken dozens of pics trying to get good ones of these little wrigglers, and it should be easy since they are forever underfoot, but I barely have even a half decent one.  Baby rooster, not sure which one but quite dark so maybe Sir Grummore. 

Baby rooster showing his growing hackle feathers and cute little puffy baby rooster tail.  Looks smallish so maybe Sir Ector.  I'm going to get them leg bands, because I need to see who it is who has been having goes at my feet so I know who ISN'T staying! (And who gets picked up and humiliatingly cuddled for his pains.) When you see the boys all together you can tell them apart, but not one at a time.  

 

 

I met my sis, Jen, at a local cafe for lunch on Sunday.  We were in the beautiful garden of Mojo Cafe in Mundaring, and it was lovely, including these adorable two lassies who were playing piano accordion duets for us.  My fave tune was the one from the movie, Amelie.  It always evokes whimsy, quirkiness, and happiness for me!  

See you on Friday.  (I promise!)   

  


 

  

Wanderer on Anglo-Saxon Lyre

Wow, finally got around to recording a new song! 

It's "Wanderer," originally done by Leslie Fish.  It's one of my faves to sing as I go about the place doing chores. 

It's about Odin, so of course I love it, but also I like the theme of changing your fate (your Wyrd) by how you comport yourself in the world. 

"Pattern’s always weaving

More than you can see

With courage, wit and kindness

Strength and honesty

You’ll weave the pattern round you

Better than you know

Take the old man’s blessing

That he’ll give before he’ll go."

     

What Do the Bored People Do?

I have no idea. i never have enough time for all the fun stuff I want to do.

My latest book has gone out to first readers. Yay!  It's an exciting time waiting to hear what they think!  Now it is time to play with cover ideas.  How do you like my silly attempt in Gimp just to try out my idea?

LOL, I wonder why I bother to do real artwork?  Not!   :D

The two lyres are slowly progressing. Using the router is a tad terrifying, but so far so good, no holes in places there shouldn't be.

 
This is the deeper experimental lyre.  It already has a name. It is called Torc, which is Irish and Old Irish for Boar.  The name came about due to something I experienced in a meditation.  Boar has long been one of my guides.  I even bear his mark after a farm accident!

Mowing has been happening.  How scruffy can I look?  I'm told I should stop wearing the clothes that are now too big for me, but I say waste not want not!  (Plus I love some of these t-shirts too much to let them go!)

We've created another home sausage-making addict in Thor, our Firey friend.  He came for a guitar lesson and went away a sausage fanatic, already researching new recipes to try!

Yes it looks rude.  It always looks rude. We've made a lot of sausages by now and we aren't over it yet.  Amusement abounds.  :D

Yep ok, I can see that t-shirt may be a little bit too big now.

We took the dogs to the river on Monday morning early.  They loved it.

Aren't these silhouettes and the blue lovely together?

The chickies are still growing and having fun.  I'll get some new pics of them for you soon.