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2024 in books: March

You could be forgiven for thinking, given that the number of books I’ve finished this month is lower than last month, that the insomnia I attributed my completion rate to had eased. And it has, slightly, but the real reason I’ve not finished more books is because the lack of sleep is now affecting my attention span and I’m starting books and putting them down one page/third/quarter/half finished…

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#book recommendations #book reviews #no one saw a thing by andrea mara #pyramids by terry pratchett #the frayed atlantic edge by david gange #the trial by rob rinder #this could be us by claire mcgowan #waiting for the last bus by richard holloway

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Wrangling the Yarn: Q1 2024

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#country classics yarn #crochet #crochet patterns #crocheted cup holder #crocheted jumper #paintbox yarn #snowbound pullover by the make & do crew #worsted yarn

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Hello Neil, I know you get quite a few asks, and there’s only a slim chance that you’ll see this, but I figured I’d take that chance. My mom is a huge fan of yours and especially the sandman comics, she used to read them as a teen and has a whole collection, and your works mean a lot to her. She’s struggling right now and feels like her life is going nowhere, and as you seem wise, I was hoping you could offer some words of motivation or inspiration for her. Thank you for taking the time to read this (or not if you didn’t)

When it gets really hard for me I re-read Stephen Fry's letter to someone having a rough time. I hope it helps your mother:

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Spring is Sprung

This year the vernal equinox finds me living a wildly unbalanced life but, for once, this is intentional rather than a cause for concern. All of my energy, and most of my time, is focused on preparing my parents house to be put up for sale whilst keeping myself and my parents as healthy as possible (mentally and physically). The finish line is now in sight, even if it’s still a good distance…

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#alban eilir #astronomical spring #druidry #my life #spring equinox #witchcraft

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2024 in books: February

This month I have been struggling with insomnia, which is reflected by the fact that I have read eight new-to-me books this month, plus one re-read (continuing my Discworld in publishing order read through), six of which I consumed in gulps to distract me from the fact that it was stupid o’clock in the morning and my brain would not shut off. Of those six, if you enjoy time slip novels with…

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#an aura of mystery by joy ellis #book recommedations #book reviews #just stab me now by jill bearup #sleeper&039;s castle by barbara erskine #strange sally diamond by liz nugent #the bookseller&039;s tale by martin latham #the dream weavers by barbara erskine #the last word by elly griffith #the light ages by seb falk

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Fascinating Footnotes

I doubt anyone who has been reading either my blog or my newsletter for any length of time is unaware that I like to use footnotes, both to cite sources and to add a bit of clarity/an amusing aside when I think putting it in the main text would break the flow. However I realised, thanks to a comment left on one be-footnoted post1, that I really didn’t have much idea of the history of the footnote…

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#earliest footnotes #footnotes #hadrian&039;s wall #history #history of footnotes #history of writing #jingo by terry pratchett #longest footnote in history #northumberland #pavlovian response

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Blooms on St Brigid's Day

It has been a bright and sunny day here which, according to certain folk tales, means the Cailleach intends for the winter to be a long one and has merely parted the clouds in order that she may more easily see to gather enough firewood to get her comfortably through the next harsh months. I am hoping she was distracted by the bird song and beauty of the freshly blooming snowdrops, irises and…

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#Candlemas #daffodils #Imbolc #my life #st brigid #St Brigid's Cross #witchcraft #druidry #paganism

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2024 in books: January

My reading year has, if we were to compare it with the previous one, had somewhat of a slow start as so far I’ve only finished five new-to-me books, plus Sorcery from my Discworld re-read in publishing order. However, since I’ve taken “comparison is the thief of joy” as my motto for the year alongside the theme of “filling the well”, I’m going to resist the urge to get any further into the…

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#a death in the parish by richard coles #the blazing world by jonathan healey #the jane seymour conspiracy by alexandra walsh #thin places by kerri ni dochartaigh #book recommendations #book reviews #sourcery by terry pratchett

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Mother of Mountains, Queen of Winter

Hag of the Hills. Woman of the Stones. Keeper of the Seeds. Old Woman of the Deer. Weather Witch. Goddess of the Seasons. The Veiled One. Bone Mother.  The Cailleach answers to many epithets and all are true. For a given value of truth, at any rate. Much like the myriad of stories humans have told about her through the ages; the “facts” may be incorrect but each one resonates and is…

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#Flashes of Feathers #Mother of Mountains Queen of Winter #my writing #short stories #Tales from the Wildwood #The Cailleach #Winter in the Wildwood

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My Big Garden Birdwatch

Apart from the fact that I had to shift my hour from morning to afternoon (because life happens) it was very enjoyable, albeit less successful than my daily fifteen minutes usually are. I’m absolutely certain something tips the birds off and the moment they see anyone at their window during the birdwatch weekend they hide! That said, the usual suspects all appeared, even if they did so in far…

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#big garden birdwatch #birdwatching #british garden birds #RSPB

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Herding the Words: Looking Back and Planning Ahead

A post of two halves, this is both my review of 2023 and the details I promised about what I’m intending to write and share over the course of 2024. Looking Back Well I finished the year having written on 342 days out of a possible 365 and generated 187k words1 in those days. Just over half of those words became 73 separate posts on this blog and 12 newsletters published monthly via…

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#Get Your Words Out #my life #personal ramblings #Writing #writing courses #writing plans #year in review

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What to Look For in Winter and the Big Garden Birdwatch

In the spirit of the overarching theme I’ve chosen for my year – filling the well – I’ve been working on Wendy Pratt’s latest writing course “What to Look for in Winter” which I was lucky enough to get a place on before it started at the beginning of the month. This course has been created, in Wendy’s own words, to look at questions such as: What can we learn from nature in winter? How can we…

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#big garden birdwatch #bird watching #rspb #wendy pratt #what to look for in winter #writing courses

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The Small Things Spreading Joy in December 2023

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#spreading joy #the small things

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December Reads

And I closed the year reading a further nine books, four of which I started back in January and have read month by month, since their chapters followed the changing seasons. One of the four was an almanac for 2023 so I won’t be including a review as, although I really enjoyed it, there isn’t one being produced for this year and it seems silly to link to something that is now out of date. I’ve…

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#book recommendations #christmas is murder by val mcdermid #book reviews #deeper into the wood by ruth pavey #men explain things to me by rebecca solnit #mort by terry pratchett #sixteen ways to defend a walled city by k j parker #the wheel of the year by rebecca beattie #untitled by kit williams #winters in the world by eleanor parker

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Worth More Than Gold

By the time his train pulled into the Village Station the knot of anxiety that had lodged itself in Mr Rees’ stomach when he woke that morning was mostly unravelled. The transformation was down to both the beauty of the countryside he’d travelled through, made more so by the snow that begun to fall at the start of the last hour of his journey, and the antics of the two magpies who’d kept pace…

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#flashes of feathers #my writing #short stories #tales from the wildwood #worth more than gold #twelve for wealth #winter in the wildwood

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Working with the Wheel: And So It Turns

Here we are again, back at the Winter Solstice, apparently where we started but also another year older and, hopefully, a tiny bit wiser.  I used to have a tendency to think of the Wheel of the Year as a circle, for the simple reason that it is how we depict it when it is illustrated:  This most beautiful example is by Danielle Barlow1, who also created the oracle deck you’ve seen gracing my…

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#and so it turns #danielle barlow #illustrated wheel of the year #working with the wheel #winter solstice #midwinter day

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Wrangling the Yarn: Q4 2023

Well I’d like to say that, having finished my biggest project to date, I’d been diligently working on my other WIPs and have managed to finish at least one more. Only that’s not quite what happened. The christmas decoration making that I mentioned last time did occur but the WIPs have continued to languish thanks to the lure of a new project that would expand my crochet skills being too strong to…

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#christmas decorations #crochet #crochet wips #crochet yoke #holly leaves #six pointed star #six pointed star pattern #snowbound pullover by the make & do crew #top down jumper pattern #wrangling the yarn