Whatever happened to this year?

Spent most of it travelling (yet again)! Still hoping for one more mini-break this month, but these are a couple of montages of the last 2 Welsh trips. Still with the water ...

August 13th-17th with Bri

September 5th-7th with Steph

Mercian Gathering 2012

This was the best one yet for me - third time lucky. 1000 pagans in a field: sunshine, fire, magical ceremonies, oodles of good food in even better company, music, dancing, lots of things to do and learn - and Oh! those Vikings ... what's not to like?

Best of Mercian pix from 2010, 2011, 2012

Lazin' on a sunny afternoon ...

Lake Cau

Cadair Idris

On the third go at climbing Cader Idris, I finally got down to Lake Cau. A perfect day - pure magic from the Italian seasoned mushroom, ham and eggs through to the divine cuisine at Cross Foxes. My waterfall seems to have changed from an elephant into a bear - or is it just my obsession with seeing the faces of spirits in nature?

Portmeirion

Tal-Y-Lyn

The fact that it rained every day didn't stop us from climbing a mountain, going to the beach twice or viewing any number of lakes, castles & waterfalls - not to mention an Italian village (Portmeirion) -  you gotta love Wet, Windy, Wales, no matter the weather. Funny thing is, the water just soaks away into the ground without making all that nasty 'orrible mud we get in the midlands ...

This blog is looking more and more like a travelogue - I did write a few thousand words and resolve a whole host of tricky plotting issues in the 6th book, honest!!

  J

 xxx

We Love Jaime Black ♥x♥x♥

Jaime's fundraising appeal for the new CD just launched - have a look at her amazing video and listen to some of her hauntingly ethereal music. If you would like to hear more, you can visit her website.
Good luck Jaime - if you get to record the new CD here it will have extra magic!!!
  Jacky
  ♥x♥x♥

Midsummer Madness

Five Frivolous Faeries

I always paid lip-service to the idea that I was a bit OCD - aren't we all? But now my obsessive side is totally taking over. Not content with two wonderful weekends camping in damp, muddy fields with a bunch of the nicest, most dedicated, resilient and fearsomely fun-loving critters you could ever wish to meet, I am scouring more weighty tomes to get to the bottom (pun intended) of these magical folk.
Ably aided and abetted by Brian Froud's enchanting Faery Oracle Cards, I am discovering just how deeply my soul resonates with the joyous energy of these nature-based spirits. And my sorely-neglected garden is delighted by the sudden burst of TLC it's been missing all year. Even the mid-summer gatheration took on a naughtily nice tone as we giggled our way through Nikki's excellent elderflower wine - well at least I did. 
A huge thank you to Karen Kay and her hard-working team for making my second Faery Festival a wonderful experience - despite tent-destroying gales and at least a year's worth of mud, I never saw a frown or heard a cross word from anyone the whole four days. Here is a triflingly infinitesimal flavour of the fantastic fun:

A special mention has to go to Brian and Wendy Froud's tremendous Troll tales, Laura Daligan's beautifully bodacious belly dancing, Unicorn Faery's captivating costume (and dynamic dancing), Tinker Fae's fabulous fire-work, Trixie Belle's stunning (and ever-present) smile and most especially Lynne's lovely laughter, Jaime's ethereal entertainment and Tara Fae's phenomenal face (and body) painting. Totally AWESOME!!
Busy planning how I can get to the next one ...
Cheers
    J
  xxx
P.S. Beware the Chris Evan's show - Moira and Vassos's annoyingly aggravating alliteration is contagiously catching!!

Matthew's Faery Festival

What a wonderful experience. Jaime and I got to dress up as Faeries, have our faces painted by the incredibly talented Tara Fae and meet a whole bunch of wonderful people.

Faery folk are so friendly and welcoming and they really know how to have a good time. I made a lot of new friends and am looking forward to seeing them at some of the future events.


Matthew Callow worked so hard to create a magical experience for everyone - his performance on Saturday night was totally inspiring - I am playing his entrancing CD Eden as I write this. He also sorted the sound for Jaime's show on Friday night and we were lucky enough not to have the rain so people could enjoy the freedom and space to really have a good dance. Check out more pix on Jaime's Facebook page.

The pix below are a celebration of the creativity of a bunch of talented, slightly off-the-wall people. Many thanks to all the wonderful photographers, especially Oz (aka Wolfram Bear) and Louise Worthy.
Hopefully you will get a sense of the joy. If you want to find out more about these delightful faery folk, many of them are named on my facebook piccie.

Onwards and Upwards

Ok, So I didn't make it through to even the sub's bench on the Voice, but just like ABNA, I made some excellent friends and learnt so much. To cheer myself up, I thought I'd dig up a bit of history. Like the great quote from an ABNA expert reviewer:
"This read perfectly, as a action adventure story should. The plot pacing moved quickly, and the excitement of tournament was written so realistically that I could hear the hush and roar of the crowds as if I was there too.  I also enjoyed the main character, Archer, he was likable and very much the classic story hero."
And some of the stunning pix from booksignings I've done:

With Paul and Cara Lawrence at Happy Glastonbury (formerly Growing Needs)

Alex & Rebecca doing their their crowd-pleasing, choregraphed fighting at Kenilworth Books

Good times!
  Cheers
     Jacky
       xxx