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My Thirty-Sixth Birthday – A Visit to Walton Hall & Gardens, time with Family and Friends

By Books & Authors, Friends & Family, Happiness & Joy, NatureNo Comments
Me

This weekend, it was my thirty-sixth birthday. A couple of days before, I treated myself to Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Dr Julie Smith.

The day before my birthday, on a sunny Friday, my good friend Simon and I visited Walton Hall & Gardens.

Walton Hall & Gardens is a park with a café, crazy golf course and a children’s petting zoo.

Essential Info

  • Walton Hall & Gardens is a park with a café, crazy golf course and a children’s petting zoo.
  • The Hall is often hired out for events such as weddings; but the café, crazy golf course and petting zoo are all open to the public.
  • It has a pay and display carpark.
  • It has toilets.
  • It has gardens that are best viewed in the Spring due to when the flowers are in bloom.
  • The café, crazy golf and children’s petting zoo have various opening times that can be viewed here.
  • The petting zoo is in the process of being revamped and therefore the only animals currently available to view were peacocks, alpacas, rabbits and ducks.

Here are some photos from Walton Hall & Gardens:

On the Saturday, my actual birthday, I spent time with my brother, his wife and my nephew.

On the Sunday, my good friend Jayne and I went out for tea.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Book Review: Neal’s Yard Remedies Essential Oils by Susan Curtis

By Amazon, Books & Authors, Nature, Reviews2 Comments

Essential Oils by Susan Curtis is an essential book to own if you’re serious about aromatherapy.

This durable hardback has 256 glossy pages of full colour with plenty of photos. It has an A-Z of essential oils, for each oil covering:

  • An introduction
  • What it is good for?
  • Best Uses
  • Methods of use (i.e. bath oil, massage oil, compress, skin care, etc.)
  • The Plant
  • The Essential Oil (how the essential oil is made)
  • A photo of the plant or herb

Then the book goes on to sections on: Base Oils, Essential Oil Recipes and Healing Remedies.

The Essential Oil Recipes includes a really useful table of common conditions and which oils are good to work with around these conditions.

This book is backed by Neal’s Yard whom are famous for their shops selling essential oils.

The only thing that was missing out of the book for me was spiritual/magical uses of essential oils. But other than that I would (and have to all of my friends) highly recommend this book.

Essential Oils by Susan Curtis is available to buy on Amazon and at all good bookshops.

Review soon,

Antony

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SpellCast – Folk Magic for the 21st Century

By Books & Authors, Creativity, PaganismNo Comments

My latest book is titled Spell Cast – Folk Magic for the 21st Century and has been co-authored with my good friend Luna Hare. Here is some more information about SpellCast from the back cover:

SpellCast is a comprehensive compendium of spells, oils, charms and talismans. It is purely a book about magic, folk magic for the 21st century. The spells are ones that are tried and tested, with some that will stand the test of time.

In SpellCast you will read about the power of Instant Magic, of Banishment & Bindings, Blessings, Cleansing, Communication, Death, Employment, Finance & Money, Fertility, Friendship, Happiness & Joy, Health, Love & Relationships, Luck Magic, Protection, Transformative Magic and WishCraft.

This book will change your life. Your life will be abundant in all meanings of the word.

Making this book has involved researching correspondents, making magic (every Spell has been tried and tested and every Spell is effective) and a great deal of fun (a long with plenty of hard work). Here are some stats on the book:

  • It has around 25, 000 words.
  • 191 pages.
  • It contains 105 Spells, plus Blessings.
  • It has magic for every occasion.

You can view the contents page here. Luna and I have even give away a free Spell to give you a flavour of the book’s contents:

A Happiness & Money Spell
This Spell is from SpellCast – Folk Magic from the 21st Century. This Spell is highly effective and we have nicknamed it the Master Bringer of All Spell. For this Spell you will need:

  • A yellow candle.
  • A green candle.
  • A paper and pen.
  • Sandalwood essential oil.
  • A fire proof dish.

1. Charge the yellow candle for happiness and the green candle for money. Anoint each candle after charging with sandalwood oil.

2. Write out the following spell on a piece of paper:

By the Dragon’s light,
On this [month] night,
Bring happiness and money into sight.

Let [name]’s life be filled with joy,
Every task he/she does enjoy.
With happiness in his/her heart,
Any sadness and pain does now depart.

Let [name] claim monies owed,
Until monies he/she has bestowed.
He/she will not worry about money,
For it shall flow freely like honey.

By the Dragon’s light,
On this [month] night.

[Name] you are happy.
[Name] you have money.
By the Dragon’s might.
So mote it be.

3. When you are ready light both candles, say the spell aloud and then burn the piece of paper with the words written on to release the spell into the cosmos.

If doing this spell for yourself say for myself where the name is.

If you are doing the spell for someone else make sure to imagine them happy and with money.

4. Allow the candles to burn down, releasing the intentioned energy out into the universe.

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Book Review: Christmas Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
Christmas-Shopaholic-by-Sophie-Kinsella

Don’t panic. Don’t panic.

Christmas Shopaholic is the best book in the Shopaholic Series to date.

Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) returns and it’s her turn to host Christmas.

Becky and Luke’s guests will include: Becky’s mum and dad, their neighbours Janice and Martin, Suze & Tarquin and their children, her sister Jess and her partner Tom.

Becky desperately wants her Christmas to be like a Christmas movie. Everyone getting on, following traditions and everyone to say: Do you remember that Christmas at Becky’s? Wasn’t it great.

But with the guests falling out with one another; everyone making demands around their Christmas traditions; trying to get Luke a sensational gift; and an ex-partner coming back into her life with the offer of friendship – but whom has secret motives;

making an outfit for Minnie’s school nativity; worrying about her sister Jess who won’t open up about what’s going on in her life; supporting one of the school mums whose having a rough time. Becky has a lot going on.

Can Becky pull off her dream? Well if you’ve read any or all of the Shopaholic series, you know Becky is resourceful and often solves problems in her own unique way. It is her ideas and how she pulls it off that makes this book a joy to read.

This book had plenty moments of comedy that made me laugh out loud. The ending made me cry with happiness. I thoroughly enjoyed every page of Christmas Shopaholic and was gutted when I read the last word of the last page.

I’ve always thought of Becky’s husband Luke as being a bit two dimensional, but he scored major brownie points with me and some realism points to, by swearing and holding people to account in this book.

If I could say anything to author Sophie Kinsella, it would be to make Luke a bigger part of the story. He is barely mentioned in most of the Shopaholic novels, yet is a big part of Becky’s life.

Christmas Shopaholic is available to buy on Amazon.

Blog soon,

Antony

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