We studied weather apps, we mapped out places to go, and weighed up pros and cons of each place, and settled on Barmouth!! To the beach it is…

So alarm clock set, we are off on a road trip. Packed enough stuff for breakfast, dinner and hope to eat tea out, you have to eat fish and chips at the beach!!

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I had #Wytchwood beer, a new beach shelter and a lovely book to keep me occupied while Mr Moon went paddle boarding.

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We managed to get fish and chips for us both, and sneak back to the beach to watch the sun go down and leave us with a dramatic colourful sky. It felt so glorious to bask, and relax in the sunshine, to watch people, dogs and children all enjoy the simplest pleasures in life. Shattered we find a place to sleep, and I fell asleep so quickly. More adventures for another day to come.

It’s our last day and we have nothing planned, the aches are almost too much, so home is welcome (body wise) mind wise I’d love to stay.

So tent packed up in fast fashion while I sat on the sidelines, body just couldn’t bend and twist in the ways needed to help. Thankfully Mr Moon is totally understanding.

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We gently strolled the art murals around town. Stopping off for pasties, and sit downs for me.

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Glastonbury pasty is delicious from Burns.

Wakey wakey rise and shine, awoken to a fabulous starling murmer, it’s back to the Faery Fayre for the dark crystal fairy pin, and more jasmine goodies.

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Got a lovely set of mugs this time, ones I had been eyeing up for a while.

Afterwards it was time to stroll around the town, as it’s lovely to see all the eccentric folk, and feel free to be who you are around here. So many barefooted people this year, brave as the ground is freezing!!

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Such colourful shops, real eye candy.

I really wanted to visit the Tor, but being on crutches it’s not likely. So we compromised, drove as close as possible and just visited from the orchard. Close as I could push that hip.

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After putting all my energies into this, we then retreated back to the tent for recovery.

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Cosy home, all the better for the heater we bought too. Last night already!!

After a lot of debating we’ve decided to get away for a couple of nights, to have a spiritual time away, and visit a faery fayre too.

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Saturday morning early start. And staying until Monday morning. We have a lot to pack in, in such a few days. We’d like to visit the Chalice Well and White Spring temple for Spiritual guidance and peace.

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First up was the Faery Fayre, and it was lovely to see old friends and Jasmine Becket Griffith fans, along with all the fairies too.

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We got our favourite Jasmine bags, and art and special light crystal pin.

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Looked at the chalk art dotted around the pavements.

We visited the Chalice Well gardens and loved having some quiet reflection there, weather was kind too. Some gorgeous areas to sit and meditate. We had such a wonderful friendly visitor too. You know what they say, when Robins appear loved ones are near, and I definitely felt that.

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Chalice well was a huge highlight of the day, we had wanted to visit the white spring too, but unfortunately it’s closed.

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Come tea time it was time to pitch up the tent, as we were exhausted. But what an epic day. Pain levels were high but I expected that, and upped the dose of painkillers.

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Last Welsh stop, Celtic Camping

After all the peace and quiet of the last two sites, we are ending on a packed festival type site. Meeting our friends for a birthday celebration for them.

We manage to get a spot right next to them, Billy bonus!!

We have a glorious sea view too.

Gentle walk around the coast on the first night, I had no idea South Wales was this beautiful.

Bit too hard for me to get in, but Mr Moon leaps in.

Sunset is beautiful, and tomorrow we are attempting to find blue lagoon and beach I think. For now it’s birthday drinks, and a whole lot of giggling. I needed that.

We tried to drive it, but had to abort, drive back to site and walk to the beach, along the coastal path. Hard work but worth it.

We stop for a few mins and collect ourselves to walk to the blue lagoon.

It’s stunning, but my god it’s busy!! you can watch them all plunge in from such dizzing heights.

For us it’s a walk back to the beach and have a swim, the temperatures are scorching.

Sadly it’s a long slog walk back to the site, but oh well it was so worth it.

Burnt to a crisp, shattered and can’t barely move now, it’s an easy civilised tea and evening, watching the last sunset, as we go home tomorrow.

Adventure Continues, Wild Camping

Following on from Gellie, it’s time for a crazy 2 night stay wild camping, where we have a compost loo and field to ourselves.

Technically we should of put our stuff in the back of his quad bike and walked down, but we couldn’t leave our car, thankfully it was dry so we could drive down. We followed the farmer through 3 closed gates and many many fields.

Set up slightly on a slope, but only sheep for neighbours apparently. So quiet and relaxing.

That is the compost loo.

We settle down and have a very peaceful evening, planning our next day to be a full beachy day.

Aberporth beach was HEAVEN, easy enough for me to get too, and even get in too swim as well.

Mr Moon took his board out, the sea was very calm and inviting.

Out where all the paddleboarders are still in the distant, it’s because dolphins are swimming so close to them. How beautiful.

Driving back to our field home for our last night already, at 7pm. We hope to catch some sunset and unwind after a long day at the beach.

Climbed to the highest point to grab the views and sunset. Perfect end to a perfect day. Tomorrow it’s pack up and travel to our friends site for 2 nights!!

Adventures in Wales, Gellie Camping

It’s July and my birthday month, and fast coming up to surgery date, so we’ve packed our rucksacks and tent, and we are off to have some adventures in Wales. First time this year being in Wales as lockdown had prevented it.For a complete wild adventure, we have 3 different sites and locations to camp at.

First up is Gellie Camping, and what a delight it is. We are both feeling wishful that it was for more than 1 night here, oh well means we have to come back asap for longer.Nice shower blocks and toilets, and sheltered washing up area.We get to choose which field to pitch on, it’s all very relaxed here, perfect after a long drive.We choose a rather empty field but it has views as higher up.Once set up we dash to New Quay to eat fish and chips and paddle in the sea.Absolutely stunning here!!We soon head back and settle down for the colours of the sunset.Sunset was glorious as you can imagine, listening to owls hooting, it doesn’t get better than this does it??

This must be visited again!!

31 Things to do for Samhain

I thought I’d share a few things to do this season of the witch. You can customise it to suit you and your lifestyle.

1, Set up your altar, add photos of ancestors, loved pets and add their favourite things, if you don’t have these things, add nature on the fireplace, pumpkins, candles, leaves and chestnuts.

2, Buy at least one witchy, gothic item or outfit. Anyone who knows me knows this is when my wardrobe is added too, not just for Halloween but they are my day to day clothes too.

3, Colour your hair, mystical purple, or spooky green, or add false nails with a spooky theme.

4, Gather up spooky movies, Halloween themed, ghost and ghoul too. We are doing 1 film for each day.

5, Get back into your Magickal practise if you’ve been neglecting it, tarot is a perfect place to start.

6, Freshen up your Book of Shadows or start one.

7, Buy a witches brew mug (I may or may not have one 😉😉 add pumpkin spice to cappuccino sachets.

8, Light a fire in the garden, we have a cauldron to do this in, write down what you’d like to release and burn it.

9, Star Gaze, the moon and stars are always lovely to gaze at.

10, Cook witchy foods, Spagetti Brains, or Worms, Potion Soups.

11, Plan to attend at least one online ritual or workshop to hel0 you feel less alone while isolated.

12, Catch up with friends, family, meet outside or over the phone.

13, Get out in nature, find a Corn maize or Apple orchards, take in the sights and sounds of this season.

14, Make beautiful arrangements with things you find like stones and feathers.

15, Photograph mushrooms, trees, mountains.

16, Go camping, or do a home camp with pillow forts and sheets.

17, Decorate your home with pumpkins, skulls and ghosts.

18, Visit loved ones at a cemetery or just visit anyway and try to imagine lives that were lived.

19, Freshen up your protection practices, meditation and crystal work.

20, Make a plan to learn something new magickally, herbal work, candle magic etc.

21, Start looking ahead to Yule plans, can some nature finds be used for a Yule decoration too.

22, Celebrate this rare Full moon and Blue moon, chant, raise energies, and honour others.

23, Hunt for your Yule Log, while thinking of things to leave behind, and think of new things to aim for.

24, Self care, Bubble baths, drink more water, face masks and soak feet.

25, Make a Magickal playlist up, I’ve used Heilung, Wardruna and Aurora.

26, Dig out fluffy socks, cosy blankets, and awesome warm pjs.

27, Do something for someone else, babysit, Make a lunch for a family friend.

28, Watch wildlife out your window if lucky enough to have a garden, or get to a local park, Watch squirrels and birds.

29, Cleanse your crystals under the full moon.

30, Dress up, try special fx make up, Do a monster mash.

31, Drink absinthe (or Apple juice) and talk to the fairies.

Camping Trip #Whitby

Following an epic woodland Falling Foss walk the day before, we had hoped for a traditional beach day to sunbathe or paddle board. But the weather was freaky, inland at the site was glorious, but the coast was eerie, misty and dangerous.

What better than to visit a graveyard hunting for Dracula gravestones, his victims and one he hid in!!

The Fog was thick and very scary to drive in at times.

The Abbey could barely be seen, but no matter we were here for the Church yard instead.

And it couldn’t of looked more perfect if it had tried. Perhaps it looked like this when Bram Stoner wrote the novel?

Found one stone with the tell tale skull and cross bones, we had found it on a previous trip (Whitby Goth Weekend last October) but I knew there were 2 others to find.

Walked around each one to come across the others.

Finally we spotted the best one, also the hardest one to find.

And then the third one was found, looks like the first and was weirdly right next to it too. Never saw that last year.

Down the 199 steps there are benches, well I thought they were benches to rest on. Turns out they used to rest the bodies on them, as they carried them up to be buried!!

Mr Moon fits nicely. Bit eerie, and we probably looked like we were having a laugh but we were quiet somber too, never forgetting it has real loved ones buried here, so if you go please be respectful too.

This was our last full day, as only came from Tuesday to Friday. It was a whistle stop tour of Yorkshire and we know we left off many other things and places we are hoping to visit next time. Just never enough time or energy to do it all.

Another fry up tea, best thing about camping is not feeling guilty about the naughty food you eat. We wrapped up with blankets and hot chocolate and had more perseids shooting stars to watch. Yorkshire has the best skies to watch, so clear and vast.

Camping Trip #FallingFoss

As a previous post stated, we have gone camping for a quick getaway and to reconnect with the wild.

Think bare feet in grass, star gazing and back to basics. Pure heaven.

After a long HOT day setting up and visiting Scarborough at tea time, we settled for a few beers and shooting star (perseid meteor shower watching) that concluded our first day.

The next day we were up early, packed and ready for a beach, to paddle board. Camping inland we had the glorious sunshine, but once near the coast it was misty, and cold. So we abandoned that plan for Falling Foss instead.

If ever there was a magical, whimsical fairy woodland walk, this is it. Take the trail through the trees on a roughly 2-mile loop route that passes an idyllic woodland tea garden, we never went in as we had our sarnies packed already. But at the cafe you can see a 30-foot Falling Foss waterfall, which returns alongside babbling stream (May Beck). It’s a lovely shady walk for summer, it was exactly what we needed, here it was 31degrees yet at the coast it was cold,misty and 16degrees!! Here the water is shallow enough to paddle in, and a bridge to play pooh-sticks from. It was gorgeous in dappled sunshine, but I bet its spectacular in autumn when the woodland colours are at their best.

Picnic with incredible views and with the local squirrels as company. Loved them throwing nuts from the trees, cheeky devils.

After winding paths, steep drop offs we gradually found our way down to the spectacular waterfall, it was busy with children laughing and having the time of their lives, so although we couldn’t paddle ourselves, it was a joy to see children having so much fun.

We made it, hard slog and was not the family friendly path I had thought it was. But it was worth the pain.

What a setting!! Considering we had left the Whitby coast looking like this

There was no contest, we chose the right activity to do. It seems our woodland walks are where our hearts and souls sing the most.

Hearty fry up for tea after all our walking, and ended with a perseid meteor shower watching, and hot chocolate. The simplest things are always the greatest things to do, the most fulfilling.