Bog Snorkelling, Dowsing, Chasing the Dead

Dear Diary,

It’s arrived!

World Bog Snorkelling Championship, Llanwrtyd Wells.
Bank Holiday Monday 2007

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/llanwrtyd/pages/festivals.shtml

‘Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the secret of success.
Albert Einstein


It is morning. I write this laying (lying? which is it, I forget?) in bed next to my wide open window, the sun’s rays are warming me and M is downstairs playing his harmonica, the tune Beautiful Dreamer is wafting up the stairs of the cottage…..that’s an old one, well before my time. There is a spider’s web lit up by the sunlight and almost delicately arranged on the window frame, it is exquisitely beautiful and I haven’t the heart to destroy it.

I recently heard the following snippet on Radio 2, the source was a Major Charles King from the Salvation Army, he has a slot on the Wogan show sometimes, (King has a soothing, chocolatey voice and good vibes).

This is what he said he had heard.

Stephen Fry said that the secret of happiness is ‘never to feel sorry for yourself‘, how right he is. He added that we should be like ‘Abba’ and be ‘better than we needed to be’. And finally that we should ‘Love one another’.
Simple isn’t it?

It is such a splendid morning. It would be hard not to feel happy today, especially as it is also a Bank Holiday. I don’t work on a Monday so it doesn’t really affect me but I am naturally pleased for other folk who do. We don’t usually venture far on public holidays as there can be too many people around but having said that it never gets that busy here in the heart of Wales, the relatively undiscovered secret, the hidden place that it is.

It is a special day for Llanwrtyd Wells as they are holding the annual event that is the World Bog Snorkelling Championship, see the pics above! They must be well pleased with the weather.

A good part of my yesterday was devoted to working on M’s family tree; I’ve got the geneaology bug again and am making great inroads into his (and our children’s) ancestry. There is still the close French Connection to pursue though and an elusive Spanish and Irish influence that was mentioned to M by his granny. I am of course especially keen to find the Irish ingredient. My Irish blood on my father’s side apparently goes back to Spanish pirates! The first time I visited Spain I didn’t know this but I loved the country, its energies suited me.

Talking of energies, yesterday wasn’t all chasing the dead. M and I had a go at dowsing with a forked hazel stick. M had heard talk of the old extension on our cottage (the snug) being built over a well and that it could cause flooding if it overfilled. We did have a problem a few years back in that room, only the once though and since we ‘diverted’ the river we have had no trouble, even in the monsoon weather that we get now. (touch wood!).

I have always been able to dowse with a pendulum but had never tried the ‘hazel’ method. I didn’t feel at ease with it somehow and wasn’t quite sure how to hold it, so I did what I always do if I don’t know anything… and went online. I found a lot of interesting links that helped me. I can recommend the pages on Tom Lethbridge.

I tried again as instructed and walked all round the garden, my dog thought I had gone loopy, or more loopy than usual. (She’s got a nerve, she is not quite the full shilling herself!).

Nothing seemed to make the twig move so I gave up. I still couldn’t find my pendulum which I had put somewhere safe, you know how it is…..

Later in the evening M went off and made two metal dowsing rods out of soft iron wire with two little ‘handles’ from plastic tubing. I was quite tired and was enjoying watching ‘Favourite View’ on TV. As soon as Northumberland and Newcastle had been on (some more of my roots!) I thought I had better show willing after all the trouble M had gone to.

Well it was just amazing, in some places the rods moved left, some right, sometimes crossed over and even became completely ‘sideways on’ in one spot and if there is a well then I think I now know where it could be. Wells were usually in sacred, spiritual places and that makes sense because the snug is a very special room energy-wise, I have mentioned it before on the blog. Everyone comments on its cosy, relaxing atmosphere and I call it the ‘sleepy chair’ by the Rayburn, quite close to where the well may be. Everyone who sits there feels its effects! I am going to go round the rest of the cottage today and outside and then soon I will go round the ‘Big House’ next door and see what I pick up there with my new dowsing rods.

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I was going to post a photo of Sammy Squirrel for you but M has already put it on his blog. So to save the time and effort....... if you want to see Sammy (being very naughty indeed!) go to M’s blog (link on the right). There is also a photo of our apples. If you visit, do leave a comment, it would make an old man very happy (don't tell him I said that!)

I have a bird question. I don’t know if anyone can help me, Irish Eyes maybe? We saw a bird in the garden the other day and we cannot identify it. It had a very long straight beak and a large fan shaped tail. It jumped around, might that be a clue? It was pecking on the grass and didn’t fly. I consulted our Readers Digest ‘Bird Bible’ and the only one I thought it might be was a young woodcock but M said their tails are short and pointed.


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I have posted another video below. Kelly Clarkson’s Because of You, it’s the live version as I found the others too harrowing to watch.

NB

To play my videos you have to ‘pause’ the other music player (below right on the page) or you will get two songs playing at once. Click the top left ‘button’ and it should stop. You can always do this anyway of you don’t like my background music or you can turn your volume down or off to block it.

I am soon going to change the audio collection, I think we need something different don’t you? But I will save the purplecoo requests to post back another time. I am an Arian and soon get bored, we love to embrace the new and the challenging, that’s what makes us tick. Any other Arians out there? You will understand.

So on to Blessings.

Dowsing. It’s great to rediscover a sort of a miracle. Scientists don’t know everything you know, that is why our world is so wondrous.

Spiders’ Webs and the beauty that is Nature.

Talking of things artistic…

Amazing and original artwork found on artists’ blog pages, such gems are hidden away online. Lixtroll's for example. (I must learn how to do links).

Ancestral genealogy resources on the net open doors that would otherwise be closed. They give glimpses into the lives of our forebears and teach us so much about social history, but in an enjoyable way.

Summer sunshine. Yes I know I am repeating myself but this year it too seems like a miracle, do you not agree?

Talking of which I think it is time I got up and got going so I can go outside to enjoy some of it. Porridge in the garden methinks!

Books to finish, more writing to do,

dreams to dream....


Before I go here is a poem by Li Po.


Alone and Drinking under the Moon



Amongst the flowers I
am alone with my pot of wine
drinking by myself; then lifting
my cup I asked the moon
to drink with me, its reflection
and mine in the wine cup, just
the three of us; then I sigh
for the moon cannot drink,
and my shadow goes emptily along
with me never saying a word;
with no other friends here, I can
but use these two for company;
in the time of happiness, I
too must be happy with all
around me; I sit and sing
and it is as if the moon
accompanies me; then if I
dance, it is my shadow that
dances along with me; while
still not drunk, I am glad
to make the moon and my shadow
into friends, but then when
I have drunk too much, we
all part; yet these are
friends I can always count on
these who have no emotion
whatsoever; I hope that one day
we three will meet again,
deep in the Milky Way.


Li Po



Bye for now,
Caitx