Treasured friends,

On this special night, delightfully sharing our recent winter solstice sunrise ~ in sincere appreciation and happy celebration of all our dear enchanted folk here in this gentle community ~ you make EF and Faezine truly wonder-filled and we are grateful indeed **beams** With love from Be

"Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen." Goethe

THANK YOU to my wonderful enchanted friends ~ I am completely overwhelmed with joy, and extremely appreciative for all your gorgeous gifts magical messages precious poems kind comments caring cards and touching thoughts, gosh you made my birthday so special and very memorable, and as for all the MMischiefs, brilliant. I had such fun and am filled with wonder at your warmth and generosity, I'm a lucky Be indeed *big smiles*

Mr Tommy is a very clever cheeky monkey, what an amazing amount of work he has done making that fantastic EF collage, wow it is awesome ~ and as for contacting folk… hmmm!?! We will be putting his great gift on the EF Homepage to keep on celebrating!!

We enjoyed a very happy sunny day in beautiful Glastonbury on the 2nd and it did me a lot of good to have a really rare day off, I’ll write about the stunning Abbey there soon.

I deeply apologise for not replying individually to everyone, and for getting a bit behind on my EF Welcomes. This is an extra busy time for me and soon you will soon understand why ~ it feels rather like when I was teaching and on our birthdays we would bring in cakes for the rest of the staff ~ well I’ve been working on a unique gift for You all, to be revealed very soon…

With my love and gratitude always,
Your Be

“If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will take another flight.
If Candllemas Day be cloud and rain
Winter is gone and will not come again.”

The sweet snowdrops that are bravely beginning to grow again in our garden, are also known as Candlemas Bells!
It was felt, long ago, that by the 2nd of February, we shouldn’t need to get up by candlelight…

“Candlemas Day stick beans in the clay
Throw candle and candlestick right away.”


What a delight to read of all the beautiful folklore and traditions surrounding this special day, very generously posted on EF. I feel honoured to have been inspired, and able to learn so much. I am grateful to you clever and well-read enchanted folk for sharing such treasures, it has been a joy to celebrate with you here ~ enlightened with new knowledge and hopeful for the light to return…

Although I am not nearly as well versed as many here, through the years that my boys were at a Waldorf Steiner school, our family entered into the rhythm of some of the more traditional festivals. These then gifted our lives with an ongoing annual pattern of familiarity and continuity, a wonderful thing for children in this challenging modern era. This following is just my ‘mum’s’ account of my own involvement with Candlemas, as this has left a powerful legacy of poignant memories that I thought maybe I could share with you here this day.
As a parent I was introduced to Candlemas at a lecture, by one of my son’s amazing teachers. This sensitive, enthusiastic chap encouraged us to make Earth Candles to celebrate the 2nd of February. I was so taken with this simple ritual, that I decided to create an annual project for the whole school, to enable the newer parents and children to continue to witness this magic if they wished.
So the following year, we began in the winter term by collecting the ends of old candles from all the families, and being a Steiner environment, most of us used candles on a regular basis *grin* On the day before, February 1st, having previously planned out that year’s design, I walked the school grounds, placing a stick where each of the earth candles would be made the following day. I was inspired to plan for as many lights as our school had been in existence, so there were at least seventy tiny flames (as one of the first Steiner schools established in the UK) with an extra one added each Candlemas. One year we made a huge star shape and on another, I followed the straight lines of the foundation plans for our desperately needed New Hall. (This was something we were continually fund-raising to build, and my hope was to bless that special space so that when it was finally built, the generations that followed could maybe remember the dedication of those who had brought the amazing eco project into being.)
I had already visited the local craft shop to buy lots of wick, and throughout the evening before, I spent many contented hours trimming 4” lengths of wick and threading cocktail sticks through the tops, at about the 3”mark. Very early on the morning of February 2nd, we would get a fire going in the grounds and melted all those kindly donated, colourful old candle stubs in a large heavy tin can. It was such fun to see the recycling and melding of what would normally have just been thrown away ~ at the threshold of a new season, what better way to celebrate than to surrender the old and prepare for the new!
This is usually a cold time of year here in England, so, wrapped up warm we got each of the classes, aged from 4 to 19 years old, to come and make the holes in the frozen ground where I had previously placed each of the stick markers. The youngsters used a dibber (like the end of a broom handle) and pushed it into the earth leaving a hole about 3” in depth. If the ground were very frozen, then the older ones would help by carefully hammering in the dibber with a mallet. These were always team efforts with the little ones aspiring to help the class below them the following year.
The next task was to gently place the prepared wicks into the holes, using the cocktail sticks to keep each of them hanging in the middle, spanned across and suspending it above the ground by laying across the top of the hole on the grass. The youngster’s favourite part, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, was to then pour the melted wax into the hole, right up to ground level. It didn’t matter if it splashed or spilt, although the older lads just Had to put their hands into the actual mixture too of course (being a teacher, and parent of naturally inquisitive boys, I’d expected that particular ‘test’ *smiles*) We left the stick markers next to the holes for when it got dark, as I went round trimming the wicks to about half an inch, and then left ingenious mother nature to harden the wax for us. This was an all day activity which involved the whole school and however cold it was, those who’d done this in the previous years were as keen as we were for dusk to fall…
At about six o’clock when it was dark, the pupils, parents and friends returned to the school field for hot juice, heated on the same fire, and some cake (many Steiner parents are excellent cooks!) And now for the best bit, we lit all the earth candles, removing the markers (the cocktail sticks burnt away quickly) and eventually there were dozens and dozens of little lights looking like we’d brought sparkling stars down from the night sky. Whatever the weather conditions, those astonishing candles stayed alight through wind and rain, it always amazed me. We grouped around this beautiful scene and sang together ~ Steiner schools are brilliant at encouraging music and choral participation, so harmonies and rounds were in full swing as some of these songs the children had learnt together over many years. This moment would bring me to tears of joy as we communally thanked the earth for all her bounty and blessings, whilst bringing down the light in preparation for the spring to come. These very special earth candles would then burn merrily all through the night, without the need for watchful eyes, as they were quite safe holding the light.
Early the following morning, as this festival took place on the playing field where Games lessons were played, I would make sure that all was okay. Nothing would be left by then, other than little black holes surrounded by bits of scorched grass. This meant that all the pupil’s running, jumping and ball games could be played quite safely. The most astonishing thing was that within a few days, you could hardly see the pattern at all anymore. Then when a couple of weeks had passed, Mother Nature had naturally filled in those holes, as though our earth stars had never been there… The next year would be a whole new beginning.
So now you can see why Candlemas is so dear to me, whatever is going on in this mad mortal world, those beautiful earth candles remind me of Hope, of a very precious time for me when my boys were young. And, hopefully, some memories that may be recalled as those dear children who took part, now grown up, remember and maybe wish to recreate a similar moment for their younglings. That, to me, is part of what all these wonderful festivals and rituals are about, creating and evoking magical memories, giving thanks and counting our blessings.

On this Candlemas day, I give thanks for the returning light, and the approach of Spring, my favourite time of year. I am thankful that my beloved boys, now also grown up, are safe and snug with me here in front of the cosy fire, as the snow is still falling and thickly laying around our cottage, creating an exquisite, quiet, winter wonderland.
In between working today, I have regularly put out fresh water, breadcrumbs, varieties of seeds, nuts and scraps for my garden birds. Dozens of fieldfares and blackbirds, together with a few song thrushes, gathered till nightfall around the apple trees, feasting on the windfalls. Luckily one of our old trees seems enchanted, as it holds onto its apples until the end of winter and there is still plenty of fruit to go round. Two pairs of cheeky robins kept swooping to the backdoor, keeping the chattering sparrows, chaffinches and shy shuffling dunnocks in order. My peanut feeders were teaming with coal tits, tiny blue tits, great tits, darling little long-tailed tits, often joined by a pair of assertive blackcaps, a rather dominant nuthatch and a magnificent greater spotted woodpecker. These also shared the other seeds when they got too crowded, while pretty goldfinches, greenfinches and serins laid claim to the niger thistle seeds. Our resident pheasant, his tail laden with snow, was running backwards and forwards from the orchard area to outside my kitchen, noisily making sure he didn’t miss any meal opportunity! I was living in the magic.

I really appreciate you reading my Be ramblings, and warmly wish you, my lovely friends, Happy Groundhog's Day! The night is here now, JellyBean has to be encouraged to go out again and then warmed back up after another of her snow adventures, and I need to make another hot cup of tea for my family before supper ((Hugs))
The light is returning, Spring is coming, All Will Be Well.

Magical Blessings to all who have joined here these past seven months, we are so earnestly grateful that you choose to share your enchanted lives with us on EF. It is our sincere privilege to witness so much wonder and openness, to hear of your glad times as well as the everyday challenges or big events that would test any of us, and then to observe everyone so generously supporting, caring, trying to help, shed some light on or bringing joyful humour to each other.
This magical community feels just like a family and although it is now growing bigger, still retains its original ethos as it beautifully matures and develops to encompass each new day’s happenings. We learn from one another, and although in any given moment some of us are feeling down or struggling, there are others who are embracing a happy time and are peaceful – this is the wonderful balance EF has naturally found to bless us with and we couldn’t be more thrilled.
We are truly delighted by all the awesome talent and creativity on this FAEspace, that is also very much about those of us who just Live In the Magic - the unique combination of these elemental energies is a joy to see and we’re working now on some very special new projects to reflect this, organically born from the EF fellowship and our dear friends here…
This was the clear vision I had over a year ago for this EF magical social network - as though we were opening the doors of our own home for believers who wished to enter, a place where you could sit with a cuppa, gain some nourishment, make a new friend, chat with fellow visitors, share wisdom, enlightenment, your latest project, a funny story or a dilemma, stay a while or just pause between real life, wander out into the garden, watch the wildlife and take a quiet moment of refuge, snuggle up by the fire with the dog, or even pick up a drum, put on some music and dance wildly – all of this feels like it has happened here and tears are welling up as I truly cannot thank you all enough, my dream came true! Enchanted Folk companionship is my haven, has kept my faith in faerie and mortals many an hour, brought me reassurance that there are amazing, good people with tender loving hearts, is my solace and my happiness. I am so fortunate to have you all here in our dwelling where we will be open Ever After, and don’t mind whether you visit occasionally, every day or feel the need to log on all the time like I do - this is all perfect and brings me many smiles ☺ (You gladdened my heart with your lovely greetings on my happy birthday - reaching the 1000th member was my best ever gift, I stayed up through the night I was so excited.)
I am totally addicted to the whole EF experience, this is the first thing I open in the morning (even before I make a cup of tea!) where I work all day, and the last thing I look at as I warmly wish you all goodnight - you are always in my thoughts. Please know that I read each of your profiles, blogs and forums and, although it may take me a while, I do attempt to personally welcome every new member eventually. I then comment as much as I can and return messages as soon as possible, but please forgive me if I get delayed due to my also being a mum, trying to work and my commitments with gorgeous Faerie Magazine, I can never find that wand when I need it ;)
It is brilliant to think that, like us, many folk are furthering their friendships and my hope as you know, is that the Enchanted Folk Merry Meets and Gatherings now really begin to happen all over the world - getting out from behind these computers if we can! We are also planning a very special party for everyone to celebrate our first birthday in September (details to follow) and dearly hope that many of you, even if you are unable to join us here in the UK, will get together wherever you are to celebrate too.
Drew and I greatly look forward to fun times ahead here and if anyone has thoughts or ideas, we’re really open to your valued suggestions. It is an extreme honour that you put our EF banners on your web sites and link to us, we appreciate everyone (including our beloved Faerie Magazine) for so kindly spreading the word and encouraging other gentlefolk to join this enchanted community.
Thank you Always for your Belief and treasured friendships, keep Living In the Magic and please know that you are blessing all of us by gathering together here…
Be

PS We love our Magical Mischiefs – here’s a thought - if the Fairy Dust wasn’t cyber, the amounts that I’ve been covered with these past five months would probably mean I’d never get out from under what would now be a very sparkly mountain; I’ve been sent Somewhere Over the Rainbow so many times, I may run out of bluebirds and Toto’s getting airsick… lol, and You beautiful folk Are granting my Enchanted Wishes, as they come true Here - Thank you. x