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Visiting: Ancient Anglesey

By Adventures, Friends & Family, HistoryOne Comment

About a month ago Chrys, Simon and I had planned to stay over at Anglesey at Chrys’ caravan for the weekend. Unfortunately Chrys was ill and unable to make it, but she kindly let Simon and I borrow her caravan. Simon had often spoke about his love of Anglesey before and it’s ancient pagan roots. So I let Simon be my guide.

First we visited an ancient burial chamber:


It was amazing to see what the ancient pagan’s had built, especially with the tools they had at the time. It had a odd feeling of death, but in a positive way.

Next we visited an ancient village with a stone circle:

Despite thousands of years of disuse, the stone circle vibrated energy and had a feeling that it wanted to be used. It made me consider the power pagans use today – more than likely we practice a much weaker version of paganism than in ancient days. This could possibly be attributed to Druids passing information down verbally, prior to the Romans invading. This possibly leading to a lot of knowledge being lost. Simon and I had a good time speculating here: what the rooms may have been used for, how the people lived and what it would have been like when the Romans arrived. We visited a little Christian Chapel before heading on to Beaumaris Castle.

Beaumaris Castle was really interesting. An in-built dock, several turrents and both an outer and an inner wall. Although it was never finished by Edward I you could see how people lived. I was amazed by the amount of toilets ha ha, they must have had weaker bladders in them days. It was great to see, but if they’d put some of the wooden floors back in it would have enhanced the experience and made it feel even more real. There was a small exhibition giving the history of the castle which was fascinating and a gift shop too. Photos:

If you’ve never been, like history and beautiful countryside then go and visit. It’s lovely. The weather was changeable while we were there going from sunny to raining. However we had good enough weather to visit what we wanted. Simon tells me there is a lot more to see on Anglesey, so I guess I’ll be going back at some point.

Write soon,

Antony



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Sunday 12 June 2011

The Best of 300

By The WebNo Comments

This is my 300th blog post on this version of the site (see Geeky Post: Website Development). So from previous blog posts here’s 50 good reads for you:

Advice
1. Relaxation
3. What makes a relationship work?
4. All of your tick boxes

Funny
5. You know your getting old(er) when…
6. Funny Cartoons from a friend
7. More funny cartoons from a friend
8. Dear Madonna
9. Scape Goat
10. Addiction to shower gells
11. My First Wet Shave
12. Immitation is the biggest form of flattery…or maybe not?

Gay
13. A man named Alan Turning
14. The blood debate continues
15. The Independent on Sunday Pink List 2010, my thoughts
16. Pride
17. A Sad Truth
18. An interesting AIDS Advert
19. My Pride Costume
20. ‘If I were gay’ Straight Humour

Happy Times
21. Psychic Party & Home Warming
22. Partying – despite the weather
23. Salsa Tuesday’s
24. A Night of Laughter

Inspiration
25. The Story of Rosa Parks
26. A pearl of wisdom from Dame Edna
27. Inspirational Icons

Learning about me
28. Dear Me, A letter to my 16 year old self
29. What influences my IDENTITY?

Love
30. Adventure 2 – Benidorm Part 2
31. A Weekend Away, Up North – Adventure 1
32. An Unsent Letter
33. One Month
34. 18 of my favourite love songs
35. Past time Crushes

Music Gigs
36. Tina was Incredible
37. Pink is Sexy
38. The Feeling were Awesome

Paganism
39. Pagan Festivals
40. Apollo
41. Making a pumpkin latern for Samhain
42. A Magickal Grand Plan
43. Money Magick

People
44. People that inspire me
45. A Lovely Day with Simon

Sad Times
46. My Darling Baby Brother
47. Goodbye M
48. Grief

Writing
49. My Writing Process – for some of my better blog posts
50. Inspired by Stephen Fry

Take Care,

Antony

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Wednesday 2 February 2011

Goals for 2011

By Life, Thinking2 Comments

Here’s my goals for 2011. Some are goals regurgitated from 2010 (see Goals for 2010), others are new:

Health
1. To quit smoking.
2. To test my blood sugars twice a day.

Education
3. To complete my Dissertation and Change for Children modules, therefore completing my degree.
4. To complete Complementary Therapies (Teach Yourself Your Evening Class) with Ian (my boyfriend).

Creativity
5. To use my creativity more in my everyday life.
6. To write a short story per quarter of the year with themes. The themes and deadlines:

Theme Deadline
Heroes and Villains 31st March 2010
Love 30th June 2010
Life & Death/Light & Dark/Good & Bad 30th September 2010
In search of an “object”/Holy grail 31st December 2010

7. To read 10 fiction or autobiographical books and review on the blog.
8. To read 5 pagan books and review on the blog.

Paganism & Spirituality
9. To continue to work on invokation of Apollo.
10. To read Astral Projection for Beginners by Edain McCoy and regularly practice my astral projection.
11. To buy a book on runes, learn runes and practice.
12. Host a psychic party.

Financial
13. Pay off credit cards.
14. To not increase my debts.
15. To live more frugally.

Family and Friends
16. To support them to achieve a state of increased happiness.
17. To see my friend Simon at least once a month.

Travel
18. Save up to visit the Egyptian Pyramids.

Write soon,

Antony

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Friday 7 January 2011

Making a pumpkin lantern for Samhain

By PaganismNo Comments

Samhain or Halloween, is very important to us pagans. In a previous post Pagan Festivals, I said this about Samhain (Halloween to most people):

Samhain – 31st October
The last harvest. When the vails between the worlds are thin. Seen as the pagan ‘New Year’. Also known as Halloween.
The goddess is now the crone. With age coming wisdom.
Colours: Black, orange, purpose, violet, white.
Themes: Ancestors, death, rebirth, banishing & bindings, spirit & guide communication, guidance.
(From: Pagan Festivals @antonysimpson.com, Last Accessed: 26th October 2010)

Rather than the elaborate rituals with lots of people, costumes, dancing, chanting like the previous years, this year I will celebrate it alone quietly as a time of reflection. I decided to get creative and make my own pumpkin lantern. I googled on how to and got this video:

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The video’s good, but the music is somewhat unbearable so heres my written guide to Making a pumpkin latern for Samhain.

What you will need

  • x1 pumpkin
  • A sharp knife
  • A pen (with ink that will wipe off) or pencil

    • Step 1 – Choose a side and draw the outline

    Choose a side of your pumpkin that’s best for the face. Ideally one that’s not got any scuffs on it. Draw an outline like below:

    Step 2 – Cut off the top and scrape out the insides
    Using your guide lines you’ve drawn on, cut carefully around the top off the head and pull it off. You’ll see the pumpkin insides and seeds which you need to scrape out (see photo below). Some of the cooking experts around may choose to keep the insides to make a pumpkin pie, which you can google for a recipe if you want.

    Step 3 – Turn your attention to the face
    Now you’ve scrapped out the insides. Go back to the outline of the face you drew and carefully cut out the eyes, nose and mouth. Once these pieces have been removed, take a tea light candle and place it inside lit. (Please never leave a lit candle unattended.) Replace the lid of your pumkin and switch off the light to admire your handy work. It should look like this:

    I have named him Jacko, I know how original. Hope you found this guide useful. Write soon,

    Antony

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    Wednesday 27 October 2010
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