Monday 9 May 2011

In which Beltane is finally over...

One of the perils of having a young family is that seasonal celebrations tend to get interrupted and spread out.  Gone are the days of spending Beltane Eve shagging from dusk til dawn and sleeping til lunch the next day.  My extended family now includes someone whose birthday is on May 1st itself, which meant that the OKW had to haul her arse to a pub twenty-five miles away for lunch instead of frolicking in the dew on the lawn barefoot.

So, this year's Beltane went like this: Beltane Eve afternoon Witchlets joined the OKW in the Kitchen baking choc chip cookies.  After consuming enough to spoil their dinner, the Witchlets crumbled some in an offering dish, mixed milk with honey in another and placed them carefully in the fairy garden, lighting a candle in the Fae's lantern to let them know we had left them an offering.

 We then collected herbs and flowers from the garden for a decoration for the altar (below)

 Beltane Eve evening-after-Witchlets-were-asleep was spent in a very traditional manner, involving much scrumptious sex, a black g-string, thigh high leather boots and a silver pendant.  Oh, and the dining room table.  Much as this could have been extended well past midnight, Witchlet One and Two are early risers (someone tell them 4.30am does NOT constitute time to get up) and I needed SOME sleep. 

Beltane morning saw me and the Witchlets running barefoot on the grass searching for some dew (hardly any; no rain for weeks and warm weather kinda ruined that one for us) and collecting  Lady's Mantle leaves for my PMS tea (I ran out of my dried blend in January this year - until the damn thing re-appeared from its winter dormancy Hubby has suffered monthly for my lack of harvesting herb foresight) and spreading them out to dry.  Then breakfast of dropscones and strawberry jam, with a banana and milk before Witchlet One remembered about the offering to the Fae and dragged his sister outside to find a thankyou note, a gold coin and a slice of agate each.  Aren't our fairies polite?

So far so good.  Then we had to get Witchlets bathed - hell getting them in the bath to start with, nigh on impossible getting them back out again once they're in - dressed, and in the car for the drive to the pub.  Two rather large extended families converged, conversed, and consumed a carvery that Hubby and I took one look at and unanimously decided we weren't going anywhere near (that's another problem with being the OKW; my roasts are fucking gorgeous and have spoiled us for anyone else's.)

Back to the house, we're knackered, kids are whining after getting over-tired and full of pub kid grub (I can't call it food - it's not nourishment as I know it) so we manhandle them into pajamas and snuggle them off to bed.  Tradition calls for us to end the twenty-four hours as we started it, but OKW was tired, worn out with being nice and lovely to the extended family and fell asleep on the sofa instead.

Our traditional family meal had to be postponed until the following weekend, when we invited the Witchlets' Favourite Uncle over for dinner.  Favourite Uncle's Birthday is this week, so Hubby and Witchlet One went to choose a cake for him.  (Can't get over the pangs of guilt on that one - it is OKW's job to bake, but ran out of time on the cake thing.)  Favourite Uncle arrives, gets mobbed by the Witchlets and Witchlet One tells him about the 'surprise' birthday cake before Favourite Uncle even gets through the door (that kid CANNOT hold his water, bless him!)

So, we chow down on bacon-wrapped organic pork tenderloin stuffed with caramalised onion, apple, walnut and thyme stuffing, goose-fat roasted rosemary potatoes, thyme buttered carrots, brocolli and cauliflower stilton bake and Yorkshire puds.  Not exactly seasonal, but it's what the family voted for (and who am I to say no to three hopeful faces?)  Final flourish was the Witchlets singing Happy Birthday to Favourite Uncle and insisting on blowing the candles out for him about twenty-two times.

Favourite Uncle sat on the sofa afterwards with Witchlet Two, who did her party trick of falling asleep and radiating sleep vibes to all in a two foot radius causing Favourite Uncle (notorious insomniac) to snore along with her. 

My final Beltane ritual was to take down the decorations from the bureau altar (above), and take down my Spring Green Man, replacing him with the Summer Green Man this evening. 

If Sabbats keep getting stretched out like this, I'm going to have trouble fitting in eight a year.


2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a wonderful, if extended, holiday. Thigh-high leather boots and all. LOL :)

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  2. Yeah, I may be old, but I can still GET IT ON!!! ;)

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