Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Wednesday 31 October 2012

Samhain/Halloween blessings

Today is Samhain, the start of the Celtic New Year, a day or two when the curtain between the sprit world and us is thinner and our ancestors are closer.

It is also, of course Halloween...All Hallows Eve...a more modern, originally Christian version of the pagan festival.

We don't go in for Halloween parties and suchlike at Compost Mansions, normally we have a bonfire, a clear out of the sheds and polytunnel and a tidy up to mark the end of the year. We eat some favourite, special foods and I mark the day in a number of small, private ways.

One of my regular things is I tend to do "kitchen witchery" today, with the cooking usually being pumpkin related! However I am still feeling very incapacitated, so a lot of the things I had planned have been shelved for a few days AND we had a grand total of ONE very small pumpkin as a harvest, this year.

So I think a quiet sit by the fire and lighting candles will have to do!

Samhain/Halloween blessings to you all:-)


2 comments:

  1. It sounds like a lovely evening! I'm curious what kinds of kitchen witchery you normally do for Halloween - would you share?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Julia

    Quite often I make salves or balms, soaps or candles - I also make herb sachets.

    I also often end up making chutneys or cordials - I have a load of apples waiting to be made into cordial but I am just not up to the preparation at the moment so they will have to wait!

    Wine often gets bottled and so does last year's cider.

    And cooking, of course - often huge batches of soups of the pumpkin kind!

    My kitchen gets used for more than just food cooking ;-)

    Blessings xxx

    ReplyDelete

Hello! Thank you for reading my blog and for commenting. I try to reply as quickly as I can and I really appreciate your interest in my life and doings here in The Compost Bin.

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