Preparing for Samhain next weekend, we began our circle with a story of an ancestor, and around the circle arrived our beginning thoughts of who we would invite this Samhain to join with us, feast with us, be with us, and then invite them to leave. Grandparents were popular, a great grandmother included:
- John Gay and Caroline Tart / My father who was a turkey farmer in Holton / my grandmother from the east end, who pressed flowers / My grandfather a railway engineer / Either a ditch digger of Flemmish weaving family from Cambridgeshire, corn merchants, money lenders / Great aunt Lilly, one of the early women doctors sent over the India, she is my rock / French Huguenots, rocking up in the east end/ My brother whose birthday 31st will be on, who acted, wrote plays, met with me once a week / My nam, who we lived with for 10 years – her green painted bedroom, small and round and from Lancashire, wore stylish decorated hats, and gave me a fox with tassels, along with my childhood / My grandmother who wrote letters without adjectives / Grandmother Ey Eye, as she used to greet me with Ey Ey over the gate
After delicious mushroom soup, on one of these glorious October days, some crafted with Meg making mobiles, some returned to repair the bender, and some planted daff bulbs in the field. We ended by eating the butternut squash fritters, this time with saffron and nutmeg, equally as delicious as plain.
The story of my ancestor, Sugata is here. http://www.baobabs.co.uk/birdofpassage/index.htm
Kinda Elders in the woods 