Monday, May 3

Of Poodles and Coffee . . .



It wasn’t meant to happen quite like it did, in fact it almost didn’t happen at all.  We had discussed waking up early to celebrate Beltaine Morn at the local stone circle and when we heard that there was going to be a public ceremony there too  as part of the musical festival  in the market town, we thought we might like to go and be part of that.



But the early morning start wasn’t inviting at all.



So when the alarm went off at 4.45 am I was all for turning over and going back to sleep, with promises to the Goddess to make amends later on during the day.  Oh, I am a bad Pagan.  But my dog had other ideas.  He decided that it was indeed a good time to get up and he can be really persuasive when he wants to be!  So we got up out of a lovely warm bed, just as the dawn chorus was getting into full throttle and made a thermos of coffee (which was promptly forgotten and left in the kitchen!) and at just after 5.30am we left the house to drive to the stone circle.  Seconds later, a beautiful deer crossed the road in front of our car, leaping easily over the dry stone walls.  Amazing.



As we drove higher up on to the Moor, the mist thickened and I wondered if we’d walk straight past the stones by mistake.  But the others had gathered before us and we heard them way before we saw them ghosting through the whiteness.  It was stunning.  And whilst I couldn’t take part in everything that occurred, being awake so early on Beltaine Morn,  thanking the Goddess for Her abundance whilst listening to the sky larks and watching the mist disappearing to reveal buzzards wheeling above our heads, was a magical way to honour the passing of the Wheel of the Year.



As we departed, I left my offerings in the circle and when we got home we drank that thermos of coffee.  It would have been lovely to drink it in the rain at the stones, but it was even nicer to enjoy it in the warm, indoors.