Witch Krafting with Kat

  I found these beautiful Cuckoo flowers in April. I left them alone so not to upset the fairies! On a serious note please don't pick wildflowers some areas in the UK they are protected and you must never pick plants and flowers from private land. Leave them to the wildlife and fairies! 🌸🌸🌸 In folklore, cuckoo flowers, also known as Milk maids, fairy flowers and Lady's Smock are believed to be sacred to fairy folk.  It was considered unlucky to pick these beautiful flowers and extremely unlucky to bring them into homes.  This belief may have led to the flower being excluded from May Day garlands.  Charlock (Sinapsis arvensis) and cuckoo flower (Cardamine pratensis): entire flowering plants. Coloured etching by C Pierre, c 1865, after P Naudin. The flower's name, "Lady's Smock," is also thought to be related to the shape of the flower petals, which resemble a lady's dress. A smock is a dress or top for a woman or girl, gathered at the chest and having a ...

" If interfering with a fairy fort on your land is truly unavoidable, go to the fort, explain to the good people what you have to do and try to make amends. Seek their forgiveness." Please visit this fascinating article. https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/the-stories-of-those-who-dare-to-touch-a-fairy-fort-are-frightening/

  I am having a little break this week but Witchy Wednesdays will be back next week with more interesting folklore tales.  Today is St George's Day so until I return here is an interesting article from the V&A Back next week😊 https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/caring-for-our-collections/how-to-slay-a-dragon

New immersive trail tells the story of Essex witch trials.  Please visit BBC sounds for more details.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/Essexwitch https://www.essex.ac.uk/news/2025/04/16/tendring-witch-trail-opens I shall be doing a more in-depth article on the Essex Witch Trial soon.  What is a Witch?

  Well Easter is nearly here! So firstly let me take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful Easter weekend and Springtime blessings. I hope you have have a lovely long weekend enjoying good company, good food and maybe  chocolate egg hunts or two!  The Easter Witch  Easter is often associated with rabbits, chicks, lambs and of course eggs. But in some countries such as Sweden and Finland Easter is also associated with Witches.  Just before Easter in Sweden and Finland there is a tradition for children to dress up as Witches. Very similar to Halloween's trick or treating the children go from door to door wishing their neighbours a happy Easter and handing out handmade cards in return for sweets and treats. The tradition of dressing as Witches goes back to the 19th century though during this time it was generally done by teenagers and young adults.  The reason behind this tradition is based on an ancient Scandinavian legend. Around the time of Maundy Th...

  Throughout 2025 I am going to be posting little snippets of history connected to Witches, Witchcraft, folklore and Cryptozology. These will be little short postings sometimes just a image, sometimes a little pieces of writing or a link for you to enjoy and maybe go researching further.  Today's is an Advert from 1912 Northern Weekly Gazette showing advert for Witch Soap. Info from The British Newspaper Archive. Image public domain.  More snippets coming soon.  Kat 😊

  Welcome to another Witchy Wednesday. This week I thought it would be nice to share with you a book I recently purchased. I used to actually own these books many years ago but due to moving house various times they seemed to have gotten lost in time and space. So I decided to repurchase them thanks to the wonderful world of second hand book sellers.  I love technology so I love nothing more than spending an afternoon researching through online websites but nothing beats spending a few hours in the company of a real paper book. You can get amazing books on folklore and history through various second hand bookshops, if you cannot find a book you are after most are very happy to source books on your behalf. They are also available from online sellers at extremely reasonable, sometimes crazy cheap, prices. It is not only fabulous way to save these wonderful books from landfill but each one are in themselves a piece of history.  Gothick Cornwall.  This fabulous little bo...

Courtesy British Library Shelfmark: 8631.bb.27 Welcome to another Witchy Wednesday.  This week 'The Mowing Devil!' The Mowing-Devil: or, strange news out of Hartford The chapbook of this title, printed in 1678, sets out to prove the reality of the Devil by a cautionary tale of an amazing occurrence in Hertfordshire that August. A rich farmer, too mean to pay the wages which a labourer wanted for mowing his oats, angrily said ‘that the Devil himself should Mow his Oats before he [the labourer] should have anything to do with them’. But God punished his greed and heartlessness. That night, the oatfield seemed to be on fire, yet next morning, when the farmer went to look at his oats:he found the Crop was cut down ready to his hands; and as if the Devil had a mind to show his Skill in Husbandry, and scorned to mow them after the usual manner, he cut them in round circles, and plac't every straw with that exactness that it would have taken up above an Age for any Man to perform ...

  Sadly my posting of The Northamptonshire Nessie was in fact an April Fools Day joke! Or was it?🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔...................... 😂😂😂😂😂😂 That's the thing with Folklore stories you never really know! They could be based on real creatures and on actual historical events!!!!!! That is the fascination and fun of researching Folklore! 😉  Kat 😊

  News of an old Edwardian postcard of the Mythical Northampshire Nessie found in lady's attic is causing quite a lot of excitement!  Mrs Nora Bone has reported the find after sorting through her attic for bags of wool for her knitting. " There I was looking at balls of wool and then I saw this postcard poking out. Well I said to hubby well look at that it's the Northampshire Nessie!"  The Northamptonshire Nessie has not been seen since 1925 when it appear at a shop doorway trying to steal iced buns! Police have issued a report advising people not to go looking for the creature as he is probably either sadly passed away or moved to a different area since then.