Witch Krafting with Kat

  What I love in August is the start of Halloween lines creeping in! Craft suppliers have released and are releasing beautiful stamps, papers, washi tapes and also shops are selling spooky garlands ornaments and decorations.  A few years ago in the UK you never really saw any Halloween items until October and even then it was only a token effect of a few rubber bats, masks and sweets. Going back further to the 1970's and Halloween parties were really unusual! So it was quite a thing that my parents did a few.  We used used to have home made punch or elderberry wine, jacket potatoes, and lots of things on sticks.  Mum used to organise apple bobbing and Dad used to wheel people around the garden in a wheelbarrow which was  hilarious.  W e would set up a disco in the front room playing records such as Alice Cooper feed my Frankenstien and Black Magic Woman by Santana! Costumes were handmade from sheets and binbags, pumpkins were a rarity so my Mum used to carv...

The wheel turns again........🌾  Lughnasadh blessings to you all.  🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾 🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾 🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾 🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾

For accurate information on moon phases, lunar events and moon rise times over the UK please visit.  Moon Phases 2022 – Lunar Calendar for London, England, United Kingdom https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/phases/uk/london

Image and wording from https://yokai.com/ Katsura otoko is an incomparably beautiful man who lives in the face of the moon. He appears on moonlit nights as gazes back down at those who gaze up at him. His beauty is said to be so enchanting that those who gaze at him find it difficult to turn away, even to their own peril. For more wonderful Japanese folk stories please visit.  https://yokai.com/ Within these pages you’ll find an ever-growing collection of yokai and legends from all parts of Japan and all periods of Japanese history. Some of them have never appeared in English before, while others will be intimately familiar to fans of Japanese folklore. They have been collected from books, from the internet, and by word of mouth from yokai lovers who remember the tales from their childhoods. The illustrations accompanying each yokai are based on written descriptions or on Edo-period illustrations painted on scrolls hundreds of years ago.

  Northamptonshire witch Trials. Over four hundred years ago on the 22nd of July 1612 five Northamptonshire Witches were put to death by hanging at Abington Gallows just outside of Northampton. Four women Agnes Brown and Ioane(Joan) Vaughan, mother and daughter from a Guilsborough. Mary Barber from Stanwick, Helen Ienkenson from Thrapston and one gentleman called Arthur Bill who came from Raunds. Agnes Brown being one of the famous witches who reportedly road apon a large sow from Guilsborough to Ravensthorpe to meet up with a fellow witch called Mother Roades. Folk stories say that Mother Roades died before Agnes reached her, but before dying made a prediction that she would meet her and her friends before the month was out. Basically a reference to meeting them all in the next life! 1600's saw a rise in accusations of witches and Witchcraft throughout England and across Europe. Though some men were accused and punished, such as Arthur Bill, the majority of those were place...

Image from Colchester Castle website.    Wicked Spirits? Witchcraft + Magic at Colchester Castle’, is open from today the 16th of July til the 6th of January 2023. The exhibition is being produced in partnership with the famous Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle. It will bring the stories of those that suffered and lost their lives out into the open and make sure they are never forgotten. Sounds like a fabulous exhibition which I look forward to visiting this year.  Please visit their link for more details of the exhibition and interesting events and talks connected to it.  https://colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/wickedspirits/

I made this miniature Haunted House a few years ago and thought it would be nice to share it with you all again as I know some of you are new to my blog and may not have seen it. Also let's face it we don't need any excuse to post about a haunted house! 😂👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻 Talking of haunted houses I do have a few spooky tales to tell so I shall be posting about those here soon!  Please visit for more images.  Making of a Haunted House.