02/02/2011 - Candlemas Itinerary

Eve of St Agnes by John Everett Millais, 1857

Sunrise: 07:38 am

Sunset: 16:51 pm

Sunrise. Beat the bounds of Parson's Wood and back to Johnny's for a hearty and warming breakfast.

Mid-morning. Make a bed in the woods for our 'Little Brigid' corn dolly. Candlemas readings, including 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. Lunch followed by tea and zesty marmalade cake.

Sunset. Walk up Pennybridge and back down into the woods to visit the spring and the Clootie Tree. Then back to Johnny's for split pea and ham soup. A long evening of red wine and poetry: Keats's 'The Eve of St Agnes' and a candlelit reading of T.S. Eliot's 'Four Quartets'.

Cross-quarters 2011

While we completed our year of Quarters with the autumn equinox in September 2010, we have decided to continue with the Four Quarters collaborative for another year - this time spending each of the cross-quarters in the same dozen acres of the Sussex Weald.

The first cross-quarter day of 2011 will be February 2 - Candlemas, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, Imbolc or St Brigid's day - take your pick. Marking the halfway point between the winter solstice and vernal equinox, this is a feast day associated with divination, fire and purification, marking the beginning of a month of ravaging wolves and cakes! It is the day snakes wake up, foxes mate, and ewes give birth and begin lactating.

We will also be in the woods on May Day (Beltane), Lammas, and Samhain (Halloween or All Soul's Day) and will be reporting back here in due course.