Sue Vincent's Daily Echo

Lifted #midnighthaiku

Posted on March 2, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Clear blue skies above

Spirits oppressed by winter

Find their wings and soar

Posted in Photography, Poetry | Tagged haiku, sky, Spring | 10 Comments

A Conversation with Stuart France at Strange Book Reviews: Seeing Meaning!

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Reblogged from Strange Book Reviews:

I first met Stuart France only relatively recently (more’s the pity!). I had gone to the UK to explore the land with Sue Vincent and Stuart. On arrival at Sue’s home, I was welcomed by Stuart. We were talking like old friends in minutes! Trust me, spending an evening in the company of Stuart and Sue’s isn’t just magical, it is regenerative and it restores your faith in humanity. As you can see below, and in his blogs, Stuart can be brief and to the point, but he can equally ‘wax lyrical’ about Albion, Magic, The Templars and much much more so enthusiastically that it lifts you to another level. He is a magical man and I’m happy to call him a friend.

By the way, if you haven’t read any of his books, they are deep and filled with wisdom, highly readable and also down to earth. Please hunt out one of his books or one of his co-written books with Sue Vincent…. it is worth it! One I can truly recommend since I have read it a couple of times now is The Living One: Caravan to Cairns. The book “is something of a strange and unique little book. It is strange in that it interweaves short re-tellings of the Gospel of Thomas with equally staccato-like chapters of prose about the author’s trip with Jed (to whom the book is dedicated) during which the author finds the Gospel of Thomas in a bookstore. Various comments and explanations of the Gospel of Thomas rewrites are offered at the end of the book together with further re-tellings. The overall effect is a fascinating and unique look at this important Gospel.” (My review).

SBR: What motivates or drives you to write books?

SF: Necessity.

Continue reading at Strange Book Reviews

Posted in Books, reblog, Stuart France | Tagged book reviews, G. Michael Vasey, interview, writing | 4 Comments

Memory ~ Honoré Dupuis #writephoto

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Now is the time. We must face the test, and tell the Truth. The Truth we remember.

Then it’s out of our hands. We must pray our memory does not fail us.

Continue reading at Of Glass and Paper

Posted in photo prompt, Photography | Tagged memories, writephoto | 1 Comment

Living Lore: Superstitions and folklore ~ Gary Stocker

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Gary Stocker shares old lore relating to February:

“February fill dyke, black or white”

In other words, February is a wet month. So ditches will get filled with either snow or rain.

“February makes a bridge and March breaks it.”

A bridge of ice which March thaws out.

“As the days lengthen, So the cold strengthens.”

“A dry Lent means a fertile year.”

Source: “Weather Forecasting The Country Way” by Robin Page.

“If February bring no rain,

‘Tis neither good for grass nor grain.”

“All the months of the year, Curse a fair Februeer”.

“In February, if thou hearest thunder,
Thou shalt see a summer wonder.”

Source: “The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady” by Edith Holden, page 13

February 24th is St Matthias Day:

“St Matthie sends sap into the tree.

St Matthias sows both leaf and grass.”

Source: “Discovering Saints in Britain” by John Vince, page 44

Some superstitions related to Shrove Tuesday:

There are a few customs around Warwickshire associated with it. On Shrove Tuesday bell ringers would sound the bells at the start of the day and then ring the pancake bell to warn the faithful to come to be shriven (to obtain absolution) at the church. Although in Ilmington it came to mean that the parish clerk was on his rounds around the local farms to collect his pancakes. He and five ringers did it and sang,

“Link it, Lank it
Gie me a pank it.”

They collected them in a flannel lined basket.

Clipping the church was another one in some places. In Birmingham, up until the 1800’s, charity school pupils would link hands around the church (now the cathedral) of St Philip, clipping or embracing it.

If you are having pancakes, it is better luck to eat them before 8pm.

About the author

Gary Stocker graduated from Coventry Polytechnic in 1991 with a degree in combined engineering. He worked in civil engineering for nearly twenty years. For the last six years he has worked in materials science and currently works as a test engineer. His hobbies and interests include voluntary work, conservation work and blacksmithing. He is also interested in history, mythology and folklore and he says, “most things”.

How did your granny predict the weather? What did your great uncle Albert tell you about the little green men he saw in the woods that night? What strange creature stalks the woods in your area?

So many of these old stories are slipping away for want of being recorded. legendary creatures, odd bits of folklore, folk remedies and charms, and all the old stories that brought our landscape to life…

Tell me a story, share memories of the old ways that are being forgotten, share the folklore of your home. I am not looking for fiction with this feature, but for genuine bits of folklore, old wives tales, folk magic and local legends. Why not share what you know and preserve it for the future?

Email me at findme@scvincent.com and put ‘Living Lore’ in the subject line. All I need is your article, bio and links, along with any of your own images you would like me to include and I’ll do the rest.

Posted in Guest post | Tagged folklore, superstition, tradition, weather lore | Leave a comment

Memory ~ Kim Blades #writephoto

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Sue Vincent

The old Dwarf King sat, smoking a mysteriously aromatic tobacco stuffed into an ancient pipe. His still sharp eyes surveyed the surroundings as he pondered on days long gone. Happier, busier days, when the mines were still rich with gold and gemstones, and his people were free.

The once lush meadow in which he sat, was now nothing but an unattractive mess of mixed grasses and weeds. The sky also suited his melancholy mood. The watery sunlight was caught up in clouds that gave off a tepid white light. Night would come quickly as the hurrying darkness of winter reached up and swallowed the daylight.

Continue reading at Kim Blades

Posted in photo prompt, Photography | Tagged magic, short story, Write-photo | Leave a comment

Incipit…

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Sue Vincent

…‘To bring something back into the world that was lost,’ she had said as a prelude to adventure.

‘Kraas’

“We’ll be in touch,” she had said, before drifting into the twilight at adventure’s end…

That was three months ago.

And who was this ‘we’ anyway?

The witch of the wood?

The thought of the old crone and the momentous events of a half moonlit clearing nearly three months ago still make me shiver.

And now?

Nothing…

Except, perhaps, for the odd ‘padding’ sound that appears to accompany my every move.

Continue reading at France & Vincent

Posted in albion, Art, Books | Tagged consciousness, esoteric, landscape, magic, mystery, psychology, story, writing | Leave a comment

Memories ~ Deepa #writephoto

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Sue Vincent

once

that

drew them

to the temple

Continue reading at Sync with Deep

Posted in photo prompt, Photography, Poetry | Leave a comment

A sense of home

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Sue Vincent

I spent the afternoon with my great grandparents. The fact that their ashes were scattered to the winds over thirty years ago seemed irrelevant. My home, a place they never saw, was full of their presence as the years slipped away and I became a child once more.

It had been a pretty rough week, what with one thing and another. Chilled and aching when I came home from work, I had a sudden craving for comfort food. The pantry, as usual, was full of dog food and little else. The fridge yielded only the bare essentials. But the baking cupboard held exactly what I needed, although I hadn’t known what that was until I looked at the spices…

Rice pudding, sprinkled with freshly grated nutmeg and baked till it formed a thick, golden skin… just like great-granny used to make.

I hadn’t made one in years. It took seconds to throw everything into a dish and hours to bake, slowly and gently, to creamy perfection. And all the time it was cooking, the scent of home filled my little flat…

Great Grandma in her nineties

I close my eyes and sit once more at the old oak table with its barley-twist legs, set beside the window in the dining room. The table, covered with a heavy lace cloth is laden with square, Art Deco dishes, printed with daffodils, and the big silver and cut glass cruet that Grandma loves. Behind me, I know, is her treadle sewing machine, with all the fascinating odds and ends tucked away in its many drawers and a golden sphinx on its shiny, black surface. I can hear her in the kitchen…

Opposite me sits my great grandad. His hair has been silvery-white since his youth, his cheeks are rosy with tiny thread veins… but the blue eyes have never lost their twinkle or mischief. Behind him, on the old wooden radio, is a bronze and crystal inkwell. I clean it sometimes, along with the brasses and copper from the kitchen, loving the smell of the polish. The inkwell is shaped like a red setter… and three of them, Bonnie, Meg and Rory, sleep in a tangle on the hearthrug in front of the range. I polish that too, helping great grandma apply the black lead and buffing it till it shines.

Continue reading at The Silent Eye

Posted in Love, The Silent Eye | Tagged childhood, emotion, meory, Time travel | 5 Comments

Memory ~ Di #writephoto

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Once again, Igor had an idea and then either forgot to see it through or simply lost interest.
The three stones had been suitably placed and seven more were to follow, but oh no… Igor got side tracked and the stones were left to the elements because nobody knew what the game was supposed to be.