A song for you: The King of the Boars

This song is based on two boar stories.

One of the boars is Twrch Trwyth from Welsh Mythology.


The other is Torc Triath from Irish Mythology.

Were they the same boar?  I posited so in this song!  

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."

     

Well, That Was Fun!

That was a busy weekend of interesting things!

Friday night we went to one of the local pubs, the Mountie, and had a dance to a band, The Heights.  Good value!  Haven't done that in years.  Luckily there are no photos of this because we were definitely dancing like no-one was watching!  It was a really friendly atmosphere.  Well done to the pub and the band. 

Had a bit of a crappy night afterwards with one of my good old reactions. That's twice now that I've reacted to very loud music.  Does it make defective mast cells activate?  Wouldn't be surprised.   It was worth it anyway and wasn't too bad compared to earlier in the year.  Haven't actually vomited since I had a polyp taken out at the gastroscopy a few months back so hopefully that bit at least is sorted. 

Saturday my darling sis, Jen, and I went off to the Gidgegannup show.  It is an agricultural show that still has a very country flavour.  Jen's two younger kids had friends to run around with, so they went off on their own, which they can safely do there, and Jen and I did the same thing.  Our faves were the animals of course, and being a small show we got to get up close and personal with quite a few.

This guy was so huge and prehistoric and snooty!

I think this is a Plymouth rock. Just adore those feathers!

This lovely lady is called Pythena.  I haven't had many chances to touch snakes so getting to stroke her and look at her up close was lovely.   She has beautiful eyes, like living mercury.

And here's my fave of the whole show, a nameless ( to me) but friendly and interactive Anglo-Nubian nanny goat, although my choice of fave was a close run thing with some of the young Saanens that were there.  I loved all the goats actually.  We had some really nice bonding moments. Goats are so intelligent and interested in people.   Think I need a couple!  Maybe one Anglo-Nubian and one Saanen?  Hmmm...

Niecey took a pic of me bonding with my favorite girl.

Sunday, we did some garden chores, I did some baking (GF raspberry, apple and white chocolate muffins and they are TOO good) and then I spent time meditating and making music in the paddock, where some ravens came to join in.  It's mostly black because I turned my phone over to get the sound better.   Rosie was panting over it at the start too, but I think you can hear the ravens and how it matched with my singing.   

And then Jen rang to say come and see a horse she is thinking of buying.  So I did, and I had a ride too!   Second ride in six years, if you don't count hopping on Mahlee bareback to go and shut the front gate before letting her go for Jen on Saturday.

He is a grey Australian Stockhorse, name of Bandit, and he is totally adorable.  Such a people-person and so kind.

I even jumped him over a few small jumps, which luckily Andrew did NOT capture on video!  I like  seeing my grin afterwards, though!

And no I didn't go and jump the bigger jump.   I decided that lumping an unfit me over the smaller ones was quite enough for Bandit to do, though he was very kind about it.  He likes to jump.

This cantering pic is a funny one.  It looks like we're floating, frozen in time and space.  (I guess that's what photos are, but you know what I mean.)

This one too.  Like everything is rotating around me and I am still.

I'm not sure if Jen will buy him or not, but he has my vote!

My niecey has forgotten the tune of this song we wrote a while back, so I uploaded the little bit of video Andrew got of us playing it as we worked it out, to help her remember.  I figured you'd like to see it too.  She took to song-writing like a duck to water.  I wasn't needed at all by this stage.

It's easy to forget a newly-written tune if you don't record it. I have a cool recording app on my phone so I can do just that while I work out stuff.  Otherwise the next time you go to play it, it's gone!  (Unless you are one of those clever people who can write and read music!)

 


     
         



            

New life experience...

I did a radio interview about my books this week, specifically the two horse books, from the galloping plans series, because it was a horse show.  

 

I was ok.  No freezing up. I think the drive in traffic was harder for me than the interview.  I love to talk about my books and about writing, so I was pretty happy to chat along.

Also, lovely Kate was talking about preparing for fire season just after my interview, so since I'm a Firey, I could chip on in that too.  :)

I don't have much to say today, for some reason.  Life goes on.

I'm still writing.  Got to my 20 000 word mark on the new book. I'm still writing my course idea and doing little cartoon drawings for it.   That's been fun.

Been playing "Talderoy" by The Pirates Charles on my guitar too much.  I'm sure it's not because i get to swear.  Well, maybe a bit because of that.  A live version by them:

I've nearly worked out my next lyre song.  We've picked up a lot of branches and sticks.  We've done some good socialising.  We've fed horses and minded dogs for my sister.  I've driven the firetruck round and round the district, and have my test in two weeks time, which I have yet to convince myself i won't fail.  I'm crap at driving tests because my nerves get in the way.   Perhaps if I hum Talderoy to myself all the way around the test, I'll pass?       

Ah well, maybe by Monday I'll have something new to say!

In the meantime, here's squishy baby Pippa cuddled up on our couch.

          

"Savage Daughter," on Anglo-Saxon Lyre

After missing the first verse when this screen shot was taken, I did it again!  Yay!

Do I look savage enough?  :D

Anyway, here is the song, complete with first verse! 

It's a great song to sing if you are feeling like you aren't normal enough, or if you have been stomped on by someone, or if you just want to arc your courage up a bit more.

Work on my website is going really well. I set up my first individual book page today.  So close now!   Maybe by the end of the week it will be ready.  Then I can think about a competition to go along with the launch of the site.

We had a lovely bonfire with very excellent people on Saturday.  Ahhhh, wide-ranging talk with good friends, with a warm fire at your toes and the full moon gilding a cloudy sky overhead.  You can't beat it!

Don't worry, it's not the aliens coming to get us, it's just Gogs' headtorch. 

Arghh, there went my night vision!  Thanks Gogs!  :D

Exuberance!

I finished my dream board with my word of the year on it this week.  I love it!  Being able to image search on google certainly beats the days of hunting through magazines for pics.  I'm not sure many magazines even contain the sorts of images that I'd consider inspiring!
 

 

Exuberant colour. You can't go past a good maple for that.  

 

What a delight to the eye!   With wind gently blowing them, they were even prettier, so I got little bit of video for you and added some lovely music by the musician, Hauk, from his album called "Love Songs. Lamentations and Lifthrasir."  The song is called "Freyja's Tears."

We had a lot of fun this week doing a photo shoot and article about women in our Bushfire Brigade for our local newspaper.  It was such a laugh and the feeling between us all, both we women and our family members who came along to support our effort, was so lovely.

I've been thinking about another short story for Freya Fjordrider.  I can't say she is my most exuberant character, because I need to factor in the mad Brodie Mac Brodie from the Norse World Tales, but she is certainly consistently full of life and fun to write. I had so much fun writing the last short story (novella?) for her, the link for which I now can't find.  What the? I thought I'd put it on this blog for you to read!  I'll see if I can find it.  

Anyway, when starting to think about this new story, I'd thought about going back to her earlier life, back to when she met the hideous but charismatic Ferss the Fierce, who shows up in Golden Bear, and doing the story of how they met and adventured together, but actually, the more I think on it, the more it needs to be a full novel.  Hmm, now I'm torn between writing the next Satan story and the next Freya story!  What a very pleasant quandary to be in.  I certainly haven't dried up for novel ideas yet!

It's Andrew's birthday today. Happy birthday dearest one!  We all love you lots!

     

I found this pic the other day while looking for something else. I've done so many interesting things in my life, and yes that really was my exuberant hair!

I wonder what's next in this exuberant life?



  

"Message of the Trees" on Anglo-Saxon Lyre/Harp.

Yep, I've been at it again. I wrote this one.  Trees have shared some very good wisdom with me.  I hope you like it.

I know that to some this might seem a bit bonkers, but all I can say is that if you sit with a tree, and let your mind go oh so quiet, you might just find that they can talk to you too.

I don't know how it is possible. My feeling is that perhaps it is via a connection you both have to the Great Whatever that allows your differences of being to be passed by and a pure soul connection to be made.  At any rate, it works, and plenty of people other than me have done it too.  It is so peaceful, and they are in general very wise beings.  I guess standing around observing and thinking and not running like a loon everywhere might have something to do with that.



      

"King and Lionheart"

The first time I heard this song by Of monsters and Men, it became Andrew's and my song.  It reminded me of our courage during all the Lyme years of desperate illness, of the way we have managed to stay together and stay loving, despite the difficulties that life threw at us. 

It's also one of my fave songs to play on the guitar. I hope you enjoy listening to it.

The pics we got of us at a fire this week are rather apt here.  This is Andrew being the Crewleader of our team.  He always has an air of kingliness, with his calm dignity, presence and honorable nature.  I think this pics captures him well.  He looks like a modern Knight.

And this is me, the Lionheart. Scared of stuff all the time; big stuff, little stuff, all the stuff,  but out there doing it anyway with as good a will and spirit as I can.

King and Lionheart. Yep, it still fits.

Or, as we decided we should be nicknamed the other night, Blaze and Smutty.  :D


   




         

    

Back to Centre.

We found this lake many, many years ago while riding horses.  Some 30 years in fact!  The brigade has been trying on and off to find it again ever since Angus came across it while fighting a bushfire, and so far it had eluded the searchers, but there it was after all, hiding away in the middle of the bush. We took the 1.4 and took the trails I'd taken on horseback all those years ago.  I was a little bit chuffed to find it where I thought it should be!  It's a great site to use to practice drafting water into the vehicles, and for a little BBQ picnic afterwards!

Last week Andrew was spraying some intrusive tough weeds up at the block (African Love Grass: We do not love it!) and the dogs decided that his mask made him an evil stranger. They wouldn't be convinced by him that he was daddy, so he gave up trying to talk to them and got on with the job, and they came to sit each side of me and be my Black Watch, as mum calls them. I love this row wow bark of Rosie that she does when she is genuinely feeling guardy and a bit worried, as opposed to faking it for fun. It's cute.

The birds in the background are White-tailed Black cockatoos.  They are back in town. It was a lovely evening, made even better because I wasn't the one doing the work!    


I have been getting so jittery, what with one thing and another. I was finding it hard to settle down, but a visit to my inner landscape and a chat with Odin and then Brigid set me back on course.  It is wonderful to be able to access the wisdom of these deities in my life.  I am very thankful for their presence.

With this return to self in mind, I had a centering weekend of doing the homely things I love.  This was made easier because Andrew was off at a training course all weekend, so I had the cottage all to myself (Mwahahaha!)

So, what did I do?  I played a lot of music, both my own on instruments and from itunes and youtube  One thing I did that I hadn't done before was buy and listen to the whole of a Wardruna album in one go.  That was a journey and is definitely the way to listen to their music, but this is one, Odal, of my faves from the album I bought: "Runaljod: Ragnarok".

I did chores in the garden, too, the sort of never-ending ones here like picking up sticks. The chooks came out with me.  They always like it when I do this sort of job because they think I am foraging with them.  It feels very nice to me too.  Very communal and friendly.     

I finished the Baby Buckbeak Amigurumi that I've been neglecting for ages too.  He's a Hippogriff from the Harry Potter stories.

He's cuter than I thought he was going to be when I was halfway done, but a bit of taking apart and restitching of parts and he has come good.  I like how he sits up with his little claw feet in the air!  I wouldn't recommend this pattern for beginners, because it has some gaps where you need to have enough experience to come up with your own solutions. It's a cute result though!  
 
The weather was lovely all weekend.

The chooks took full advantage of it, sunbaking and foraging blissfully.  I'm a bit worried about Sbock, the orange chook here.  She looks like she is a tad off.  More slower movement and a slow blink than anything overt.  Not much you can do with these orange hybrids, they just have a short life and that is it.  Sbock is the last of her generation.  Poor Nanny Ogg will be sad when she goes because she is her oldest living friend.  Nanny is doing great.  She must be close to 8, I think, or even older.  She's seen a lot of orange chooks come and go. 

 

That pose is the sunbaking posture, though, not from any illness.  I had to laugh one time when one of them came right by where I was sitting and just suddenly plopped down with a wing up. I thought she had fainted or dropped dead, but all she was doing was instant sunbaking!  Others came to join her straight away. It must be catching. 

The youngest three; Rover, Spotty and Fido are cheeky monkeys.  I love having free range chooks but they are hell on vegie gardens, and apparently no table is safe either!

Saturday night broke the centering weekend in half with a nice bit of chaos, having a family games night at the station for the brigade's kids.  Andrew did a good job of wrangling some of the younger kids down to playing an actual game instead of running around like loons.

And he turns out to be a bit of a Jenga wizard.

 Sunday was more music, more crochet, more chores.  All done peacefully and mindfully.  I even videoed myself playing another song on guitar, but I'll post that on Friday.   

Did I get re-centered?  Yes I did.  It was good!  It's always good to come back to what matters to you, and what matters to me that has been missing from my 'life pie' is plenty of alone time to use my hands and mind in peace.  It's easy to forget how important that time is. 

 

Not that you are ever really alone with dogs.   

Today?  Today is back to the practical.  Exposed rough stone is lovely and romantic to live in, till the time comes to try and clean dirt and grease off the rocks behind the oven!  Euuuwwww!  It's all scrubbed now, just have to see how it comes up when it is dry.

    

Ah well, as the saying goes, "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.  After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."  It's not what you're doing, it's how you're feeling while you do it that counts!