Our Samhain Bonfire

Sometimes the photos come out really tiny. I don't know why. But the fire was hot and huge and lasted all day into the night.

Autumnal feelings

Sternen. The Star. This is the Inn where we would go on special occasions to eat røsti and spiegeleier and drink apfelwein.


A view of Worb with the church in the foreground and the castle behind Schloss Worb.


This is an old archival photo of Worb.


A panorama of Worb we could see when we went for walks.

Melancholy and nostalgia are feelings which take over me in autumn time.
I used to walk in Stockholm in some of my favourite parks kicking leaves and daydreaming. Counting the days, till I could be free.
Birches are plentiful in Sweden. They touch me with their long pale limbs.
Once in Warsaw in the autumn I was in a park with a statue of Chopin, this is a vivid memory. Hearing Polish and listening in. Drinking in a Dairy bar a glass of cream! Imagine.
Living i Switzerland and going for long walks in the countryside. Worb was a place I loved living, it was on a traditional farm that had a cottage/støckli. It was adorable, cosy and heated with a kakelofen. The view was over a cherry orchard and hens pecking about the grass.
Hazelnut bush next to the veranda, a pig and cows with bells. Just below us in the garden were goats. It was wonderful. It is one of my favourite places of all time.

Joik and Kula

This whole exploration started when I began to listen to Joik singing and Kula calling. I love the sounds of the voices and am looking for good recordings.
The Axis Mundi research and the Shaman drums has come at a perfect time of year. The thin time.

More Axis Mundi

Both these Sami drums show Axis Mundi interestingly. I have also studied Native American drum symbols and Siberian ones and Axis Mundi is represented as well in them on occasion.
This is the THIN time of year when we are exceptionally close to the spirit world. Samhain or Halloween, Day of the Dead in Mexico, is a time when portals open and we can learn from the experience of openness and shedding fear. Our dead our living are close.
Shamans have access to this state Axis Mundi through ritual and drum beating, chanting and their very own power to be so.
We are making fires at this time of year and those are great sources of energy, light and warmth and attract souls of animals and humans alike to gather together. Thin. The thin time.

AXIS MUNDI

The research brings me to this destination AXIS MUNDI.

Siberian Shaman Drum designs

Reminiscent of the Sami drums w. different symbols/runes.

Siberian Shamans

Runes

This is a larger image of the one below and shows more clearly the drum. of the Sami Shaman.


Further drums with Sami runes.


A German Sami rune key.

Sami Shaman drum with runic symbols

Joik

Image of Sami Shaman with his drum.


Sami woman playing a horn.


Sami mother and child.


On a map of Scandinavia you can see Sami country coloured in.


Sami Flag

Yesterday in the evening I started to listening to Joik again. It is a Sami way of singing in a gutteral way. Growing up I of course heard a great deal of Scandinavian folk music and some Joik too.
It is very gripping and I kept on listening and also looking for some examples of Sami instrumental music.
I include here in this post some images I found.

Sloe Gin

Today was sunny and warm after a weekend of stormy weather.

Josephine and Deborah came to tea travelling up here from south of Hexham.
It was lovely to see them. After tea they went for a long walk up to the Childhood View site. Then they returned for a salmon open-faced sandwich Swedish style and drop scones with more tea.

Deborah mentioned that they had seen many sloe bushes along the lanes, another name is blackthorn, and that one can make sloe gin from the berries after the first frost. Well we have had our first frost a week or so ago so I shall go out and pick some berries next sunny day and make sloe gin to give away as gifts for Xmas. Great idea. I like to make things to give away. One year it was raspberry vinegar, another green tomato chutney, garlic infused olive oil etc.

It was so nice to have company and we enjoyed chatting about this and that, and I gave them a couple of poetry anthologies. Soul Food for Deborah and Earth Shattering for Josephine.

We decided to make it a more regular occurrence meeting up together the girls from the fells.

The Pineapple

Is a neighbourhood pub on Leverton St in Kentish Town. We went to see a friend there and we were a wee bit early so we dropped into the Pineapple for a drink.
Low-key, nice place, not too noisy, even has a garden and a restaurant area. If you find yourself in KT why not check it out?

To surreal or not

Poster image for Angels of Anarchy an exhibition of Women Surrealists at Manchester Art Gallery. It is a Francesca Woodman photo. I will see this show in Nov.


Fur gloves designed by Meret Oppenheim.


This is the poster image for the exhibition in Paris at Centre Pompidou of Surrealism and Photography which is open until Jan 11th 2010 I believe. I am planning to see it in Dec.