I Believe In Father Christmas

Another great Christmas song I heard this morning and just had to post as it's probably one of the most thought provoking ones ever written. So for everyone who believes in father Christmas here it is. Note the very nice guitar he's playing, and how damn spanking gorgeous he looks :) and have a Merry Prog Rock Christmas.

The Yule Log

Sorry I've been a long time publishing the pictures of my Yule Log that I promised, I've of course been busy partying as Pagans do around this time of year, and preparing for Christmas as I of course still give out Christmas presents to my non-Pagan friends and family. As you can see I've decorated the log in a traditional fashion with Ivy pine cones and red ribbons really I should have some Holly but it has been freezing here sometimes as low as minus one during the day, which makes walking out to gather these things difficult, the Ivy grows in my own back garden so I have plenty of that. I've not got time to write an article about yule logs, but I've found a great page the post title is a link to that tells you all about where they originate from.



Above is a picture of the Yule Log burning, which is also traditional on the Winter Solstice. If you are going to burn your own Yule log use a fireplace, or if you don't have one take it outside.

Happy Winter Solstice and a blessed Yule!

My Sunday Blessing - My Cats

This Sunday I'm going to blog about my cats, who I was blessed with accidentally never wanting cats really ever before.

Tabitha I got as a kitten when she was about 8 weeks old, a family's cat had had a litter and they were giving away the kittens. When I got her she was covered with fleas and had ear mites, the Cats Protection League who I took her to for treatment said she could have died from anemia as a result of all the fleas on her tiny body.

I spoilt her terribly and now she thinks she rules the house, scratching and biting me when she doesn't get her own way, she may look pretty and cute but don't let that fool you she is lethal! She is also very loving when she wants to be however and I would never give her up.

Gizmo was my second cat and I really did get her by accident, someone upstairs from me when I used to live in flats got her for the guy across the road. He however already had a kitten by the time she arrived, so the guy who bought her over who already had a dog and absolutely no desire for a cat didn't know what to do. I offered to take her for one night saying I would take her to be re-homed by cats protection the next day as I already had one cat.

When I took her in my flat I realized what a lovely affectionate cat she was and kept her however and she's lived with me and Tabitha ever since.

Both of them are the same age though from completely different litters, and Tabitha fights with Gizmo where she was here first obviously thinking she runs the house. My life would not be the same without them and I do count them as a blessing just as I do the people who enter my life.

And here's a Gazoo for everyone surfing on blogazoo, just click the word and you get free credits.

Getting Ready For Yule

You can see the beginning of my Yule Decorations above, I have to get some Holly as at the moment the decorations mainly consist of Ivy I cut from my back garden, that and some red ribbon. The non pagans reading this may think "but I decorate my house with Holly and Ivy that's not Pagan" but you'd be wrong! Christians and Catholics nicked the tradition from pagans as they have many, also including the Christmas tree and mistletoe.

I also still have to and go out and find a Yule log (yes they are Pagan too I'll explain this tradition when I have a picture of one to post).

I'll be making the same recipes I made last year too some of which are here, the jewel biscuits were particularly good I'll definitely make some of them again. I found an excellent page talking about Yule traditions for those who are interested too here.

I've also noticed that the lists of Pagan Carols doing the rounds this year don't all include the Boar's Head Carol, which they should do as it's one of the oldest Yuletide songs recorded in history (it was first published in 1521). Technically it's called a Christmas song but it is pretty neutral in it's religious theme, and it mentions some sacred herbs "Bay and Rosemary" suggesting people still cared about Yuletide traditions. I found some interesting information about the song on Wikipedia here, apparently it was written after a student of Queens College London was charged by a Boar and he killed it by ramming an Aristotle text down it's throat! They of course took it home and ate it serving up it's head, and that's what the song is about.

The Boars Head Carol.

The boar’s head in hand bring I,

Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary.

I pray you, my masters, be merry (Or: And I pray you, my masters, merry be)

Quot estis in convivio (Translation: As you all feast so heartily)

CHORUS

Caput apri defero (Tranlsation: Lo, behold the head I bring/The boar’s head I bring)

Reddens laudes Domino (Translation: Giving praise to God we sing/Giving praises to the Lord.)

The boar's head, as I understand,

Is the rarest dish in all this land,

Which thus bedeck'd with a gay garland

Let us servire cantico. (Translation: Let us serve with a song)

CHORUS

Our steward hath provided this

In honor of the King of Bliss;

Which, on this day to be served is

In Reginensi atrio. (Translation: In the Queen's hall)

A New Meme

I found an interesting meme Lexa Rosean's blog Author Author, so decided to take part myself thanks Lexa :).

It Goes:

1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence.
3. Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog.
4. Name of the book and the author.
5. Tag three people.

...I'm not doing it."

According to short, every minister who makes a foreign trip has three briefings: One from their deparment detailing the purpose of their trip a second from the foreign and commonwealth office explaining the political situation in the country the minister is to visit, and a third briefing talking points, from downing street, things to mention and plug, like arms deals.

The book is called "As Used On The Famous Nelson Mandela" and is by Mark Thomas.

And I'm tagging Pixie, Raven, MC Rebbe

I hope they enjoy taking part.

My favourite Christmas song

Inspired by my friends over at the Rockers Cabin I've decided to post my favorite Christmas song.You may ask why I have a favorite Christmas song being a pagan, well it's because this song also has a powerful anti war message and I am obviously a hippy protester type who thinks we should bring the boys back home for Christmas. As Christmas nowadays is not so much a religious time for most families but a time for being together and loving one another.

So I dedicate this song "Stop The Cavalry" By Jona Lewie to all the soldiers from Britain and the USA who will not be at home for Christmas, and may the Mother Goddess bless them and keep them safe.

I've not forgotten about Yule my pagan readers I will be posting my plans and recipes for it soon so keep watching. :)

My Sunday Blessing-Holidays

This week I've decided to blog about holidays as my Sunday Blessing, I have just got back from a trip to London for the Britblog meeting, it went well I met a lot of new people and had a great time. Stupidly I forgot to take my camera to the actual meeting so have no photo's myself of the actual event :( . Luckily Darren Straight did remember his and documented the event in photographs well here.

Robert also took Photographs you can find on his flickr page, and you can find all the photo's taken and uploaded to the flickr Britblog photo group, more details and a full list of every on the Britblog Blog.

On Sunday morning we went to Covent Garden where we saw a mime dressed as Dr Jekyll, I was so amused I insisted Vinny take a photo. I've posted the picture with the post, it's not a very good photo of me I'm laughing (and also hate photo's of myself) but the mime looks good and I was impressed by his idea of wrapping him in his coat ( he communicated it to me without saying a word too.) You just wouldn't see that sort of thing in my home town it takes a trip to London to find good street theater.

Holidays help us relieve the stress of everyday life, meet new people and experience new places, what more can you ask for out of life really?

I have a couple more pictures of my trip to London I will upload to flickr shortly.

Crack Open The Champagne!

I've two reasons to celebrate today, the first being I may have finally found a job I can do from home that will enable me to earn enough money to sign off sickness benefit if it works out. It involves getting leisure business's to sign up to advertise with a website ( I won't advertise them here till I get the job :) ), and I'll be paid on a commission basis per business I recruit. Living on the Isle Of Wight I should be able to make a fortune the amount of hotels B&B's and other leisure attractions there are here.

And secondly I found a magnificent post telling me how to stop Firefox constantly resizing itself while I surf sites like blogadvance, and explaining why it does it. This annoying trait of Firefox has long been the bane of my internet surfing experiences. Oh Happy days! I'm so happy in fact I'm going to try by luck at a Battle Of The Blogs at Blog Explosion, and even if I lose I shall still be insanely happy! I haven't even taken my Anti-Depressant today too so it must be good.

I'm also going away for 2 days to the Blog meet In Covent Garden for Britblog members (full details here) so this will be my last post, if you're going I look forward to meeting you there, If not don't worry I'll be posting photo's.

So They Are Renewing The Trident Submarine.

My regular readers by now will have noticed I am Bush/Blair hating lily livered liberal hippy type, so it goes without saying I am not pro the renewal of the trident submarine. For those of my readers who don't know what that is, it's where Britain keeps all it's nukes. I was a child of the 80's and my parents were also liberal hippies so I was well aware of all the CND protests and the fierce nuclear debate that raged through the early part of the decade.

New Labour have once again made old Labour rotate in its grave by becoming pro trident (old Labour opposed it for those of you who don't remeber or just didn't know) and sticking up for it's renewal saying, "ooooo it's a deterrent Korea and Iran are getting nukes now too they might nuke us ooooo oooooo."
To which I respond "well if Britain and America disarmed Iran and Korea wouldn't need nukes would they you twats."

Us hippy protesters have been pointing this out for years they will of course not listen till we're all being burnt up in a big nuclear flash and their bunkers are failing and they are all dying of radiation sickness, then they'll all say through bloody vomit "oh if only we had listened to the lily livered hippies maybe our hair wouldn't be falling out" as they pick up their teeth and vainly try to put them back in. Or if they are really lucky they might say it as someone gives them 16 injections under their finger nails (apparently the antidote to radiation sickness).

The post title is a link to a BBC news article going into the politics of the situation , with some interesting links to other articles discussing all aspects of the debate.

Blogadvance are giving away $100!

I got an email the other day from the blog traffic exchange Blog Advance saying they are giving away $100 to the member who surfs the most before the 15th of December while displaying their referral banner. I've been surfing loads but I seem to be one of the only ones judging by the amount of hits I've got (I've only had 3 today). So I just thought I'd make a post about it since it's an unfair competition if I'm the only one surfing :).

If you haven't signed up to Blog Advance yet you can sign up here or through the post title, you get 50 free credits when you sign up.

My Sunday Blessing - A Front Door to Call My Own

This Sunday I'm blogging about the blessing of having my own front door, it may be a bit old and flimsy but I can still close and lock it at night. Many people do not have a front door to call there own and have to live on the street so it is indeed a blessing to have a house.

My house is cold in winter but it has all the rooms I need and can be cosy when I have enough electricity to heat it. My cats enjoy living in a house more than did a flat too and it is closer to the town which isn't always such a blessing, especially not on a Friday night when all the drunks are piling out of the pubs, but I can't grumble usually.

if you want to join the Sunday blessing blogroll click on the post title and leave a comment saying you want to join and blog your Sunday blessing each Sunday simple.

Sorry I missed last weeks too guys I was very busy.

Gazoo

The Dangers Of Tea Light Candles

The other day I was listening to Radio 2 and there was a show about what a fire hazard Tea Light candles are, I was quite shocked to hear how lethal they actually are. If not in the right kind of holder they can set fire to the surface below them, and apparently some holders are not sufficient to protect the surface below from catching fire. The fire service are trying to have better warnings printed on the boxes they come in or get them banned altogether.

Being a Wiccan I do quite a lot of candle magic and find tea lights convenient and useful as they come in a variety of colours and burn for a short time. I always new to put them on a suitable plate or in a holder but apparently some holders do not protect you adequately anyway, and some people think the tin tray the wax is contained in is safe to leave the candle in. The post title is a link to a web page telling more about the dangers and showing pictures of what can happen if you just leave a tea light on top of the television without a holder. I've posted the last one but it shows them in sequence on the other web site, there's also a film you can download watch at the bottom of the page linked too.