Shopping in Glastonbury, a few extra purchases, and the chance of a new Working Group!

Welcome back Seeker, I hope you are still enjoying the Tale of our trip to Glastonbury over the Samhain weekend! Previously we've covered the reasons for the blog's existance, our first impressions of Glastonbury, the hints and suggestions we've been given by the Lady (which we will heed, messages such as these are not to be ignored lightly), the synchronicity of meeting up with a former HPS and the Goddess Hall Samhain Rite, this brings us up to the Monday morning, the dawn of our last day at Glastonbury.

After a hearty breakfast (cereal and fruit juice plus a full english breakfast and toast) courtesy of our hosts at Hill View Farm BnB, we packed the MINI in glorious sunshine, (perhaps the weather was a sign that the Goddess was happy at the honour paid her the night before?) and set off back for our last visit to Glastonbury, calling first at Wilkins Farm for some of his famous Farmhouse Cider!

The Wilkins farm is located about half way between Hill View Farm and Glastonbury, down a dead end road, on the side of a hill, with fantastic views over the Somerset Levels. On arrival at the farm, at 1030am we parked up and went through into the Cider Barn.........

... To be greeted with the most wonderful cider apple smell, a warm smiling face and the choice of lots of these barrels of freshly made cider to taste! After being asked which we'd like to try, electing for the dry we were presented with a half pint mug each, and once that was finished were offered the chance to try all the other types aswell, all for free!! Now Im not one who normally drinks in a morning, nor do I drink and drive, so after the half pint I didnt try any more, and Lee was happy with the dry, so we bought a 5 litre container for ourselves, another for Pat and Colin (as a thankyou for looking after Bella - the dog - whilst we were away) and merrily continued on our way to Glastonbury!

Front of Lee's Top!

Back of Lee's top!

After arriving the first order of business was to go straight to the Goddess and Greenman, for Lee to get his Hoodie, a lovely mossy green thick hoodie, with a stag on the front and a greenman on the back, and lots of lovely celtic knotwork, not cheap but definitely gorgeous and worth every penny!

We'd already splurged on a few items, this lovely gargoyle incense holder..........

....... this gorgeous Stone Circle Oil Burner...........

..... this Maiden, Mother, Crone Chalice (a snip from Lilith), a new hemp bag and purse for me, a new hemp pouch for Lee, a Goddess Wheel (printed card that allows you to see the Goddess of each Sabbat at the time of the Sabbat, very nicely done artwork), some earrings for me, and a few books (you just cant not buy at least one book from a pagan bookshop, especially when faced with the choices in Glastonbury!)

Even though we had already spent enough, we decided to take a last walk around, we'd both been looking at the bronze Hare Statues all weekend, something just said that we needed at least 2 in the house (you cant just have just 1 hare, it would get lonely!), so after looking at the medium size in Goddess and GreenMan we went looking elsewhere, until we stumbled upon the same statues at a lot cheaper price in Man, Myth and Magick!

The ones we'd been looking at were by Harriet Grey, and this one was the first that spoke to us, she is Moondaisy, and of course there had to be a second hare to keep her company..........

........... Buttercup was the next one to catch our eye, and on seeing the prices we decided it was time for us to bring them home! The shop assistant was great, pointing out another Hare in the same range.........

.. whose name is Bluebell, we werent going to buy all three, but after asking whether there was a discount for the 3, and getting a very good deal, we decided to take them all! They are now nicely arranged at home in the lounge, and have already been complimented by several of our friends!

Ok, this post is a little less metaphysical and a lot more mundane, recounting the pagan shopping we did in Glastonbury, but as any Pagan who has the chance will tell you, its nice to be surrounded by lovely pagan orientated things in your home! Most folks who visit us here fall into one of 2 camps when they come into the lounge (with the attendant candles, 3 skulls, large Whicker Man framed drawing (by myself), greenmen, scrying mirror (handmade and given to me by a student I once had), oil burners, medieval type wooden furniture, dragons (lots of lovely dragonspell dragons) and 6 x 4' shelves of herbs in matching jars), they either feel totally at home, or are very nervous, 1 big butch black taxi driver who called once almost ran screaming from the house! lol!

Anyhows, I digress, on returning home to be greeted by a manically happy dog (Bella had missed us a bit) we gave Pat and Colin their cider and invited them for a meal on Tuesday night, then got online to invite H and Andrew and Bear along for a meal and a chat about putting together a new working group.

The four of us gelled so well when we first met and worked so well together as a part of the Circle of the Moon teaching Coven, that although we had to step away (as our focus was moving away from that of the CotM), we've always felt a good connection with them both, and with the message that H and ourselves were given whilst at Glastonbury, it seems now may be the time for us to talk about it and hopefully find a ways to move forwards!

I have a feeling that perhaps the new group will be less hierarchical, with us all on an even footing rather than having a HP / HPS, but that is something we will have to talk about on Saturday when they are coming for a meal! I have some ideas, and know they will too, so it will be a time of listening to one another, finding a way forwards and setting out some of what we'd like to acchieve.

Personally I know that Lee and I would want the group to be balanced, honouring both the Goddess and God, grounded and equally light and dark focussed, with shared responsibilities, perhaps if it happens we will then look to take in others, perhaps even to do some teaching between the four of us, but probably less formally rigid and hierarchical than most other groups, only time and intent will tell!

Today we will be busy at the allotment, preparing for the Bonfire and BBQ, then tomorrow we've some bottles to fetch and some homebrew to sort out, before we will be preparing the house and meal for H, Andrew and Bear's visit, so I'm not sure if I will get much of a chance to update the blog tomorrow, but I will post an update of what occurred at the meal on Saturday night sometime on Sunday! Wish us luck dear Seeker, hopefully this could be the start of something new and something worthwhile for the four of us!

Thanks for reading!
Dark Dreams
Suzanne