And welcome to my new writing space!!
This is the place where I will be sharing the stories behind some of my favourite songs - their history (if I know it) and also the stories of what these songs mean to my life and about when I recorded many of them. Hope you enjoy!!
Today, at 3.27am to be exact, is the winter solstice (in the Northern hemisphere) and marks the first day of winter here in England.
I shall be enjoying family time and no doubt doing something special for this day. It always feels far more special than Christmas day to me. But then I love Christmas eve equally so.
I always make a fire at sundown on the day before the solstice. Got my firewood at the ready. Even if it is just a fire in the front room I am OK with that.
At my old house I ALWAYS had a fire burning in the garden, front and back. Making a fire gives a sense of place and belonging. It is a bit like what the aborigines in Australia do or the gypsies here. No matter what the weather (and of course it gets very hot in Oz) they make a fire when they reach a new place.
The video above was filmed on the opposite day - the Summer Solstice - in 2022 (last year). Little Robin was exactly 5 months old and nearing the 6 month mark - an auspicious age which we were aiming for so his heart surgery could take place (but no older than 6 months, they said, or he’d be too big/developed). The challenge was to fatten him up ready for the big day before he got too old! It was a fine line.
We went up to this cave and asked for healing from whatever power there is. It makes me really smile watching this back to think of the magic there. We sat within the cave and I sang the first song that came to mind. It was “Reynardine”. The story of a magical, shape-shifting man (Reynardine) who meets and falls in love with a young woman on a mountain.
(here is a version that I sing accompanied by my sister on her harp)
This cave is at the top of what feels like a mountain (to us folks in the middle of England we do not have many mountains so anything like a hill feels mountainous). I am from Nottinghamshire (a very flat county next to probably the flattest county of Lincolnshire in the East. And to the West we have wonderful Derbyshire full of some of the most beautiful landscapes, hills, dales, meadows, bubbling brooks and rocks, rivers and dells. Ancient forests and deep, deep caves.
This one is at Rowtor rocks and it was my first visit.
As I climbed inside the stones the sun was setting and it lit up the whole place. I sang and suddenly felt a presence. I am not sure if it was during this song or another. I will have to look over my song archives (something I am doing now for this blog and for the purposes of writing my memoir)
I hope you enjoy it. If you want to hear more I have managed to import my podcast “Together We Rise” on to here so you can go back to 2020 and listen to some songs I made wandering around my village during lockdown when the cars all stopped and the earth felt silent. There are many original nature sounds too - owls as well as lots of rain!
Oh and PS - anyone care to guess what animal Reynardine can shape shift into? The clue is in his name and the penultimate line “his teeth did brightly shine”.
PPS the lovely
told me about Newgrange which is near her in Ireland. Just look at this livestream. It is incredible and if you go forward to about 10 mins in it really reminds me of the Druid cave!