Dolmen Grove Essex Moot

Essex bound again for our monthly Dolmen Grove Essex Moot. It's always lovely to be among our Dolmen Grove family. It was great to be joined by a couple of new members too. We started off with a drumming session to raise the energy and then we had a second attempt at discussing and using pendulums and it went really well.Our first attempt a while didn't go quite as planned so it was a relief to have it succeed today.

There was some great discussion and practical work too. It was one of the best sessions we have ever had. Items had been hidden around the venue that we then had to locate using out pendulums. I had varying degrees of success although I do think I have worked out where I was going wrong in some instances. It was all quite an education!

After the moot Toni and I spent ages talking to Jenny and Jim talking about all sorts of stuff until we finally hit our stride discussing the pros and cons of campervans. Yes you guessed it, we might be considering getting one at some point in the future!

Playing around with Sith cosplay ideas

Tonight Toni and I did some experimenting with ideas for my Sith cosplay. I was pretty pleased with the results.

More LEGO Star Wars

I was a happy bunny when I got home from work. More LEGO Star Wars Sith had arrived for my collection. It is expanding very nicely now!

Darth Jadus

Lord Scourge

Darth Talon

There are many more still to come.....

Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For

It was off to Cineworld in Bexleyheath tonight to take in Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For. Frank Miller picked up where he left off with the first Sin City with a gritty story and some stunning visual effects.

If you enjoyed the first Sin City then you'll definitely enjoy this one. The visual style is the same which was to be expected. The plot is dark and all the stars play out their roles very well. This was a 3D showing and it actually worked well with the style that is used for these films. Highly recommended!!!

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Back to the grindstone and more LEGO Star Wars Sith figures

...although I was working from home it was still back to work day today. Boo to the end of holidays and having to work again. Thankfully there is nothing exciting to report, it's just SSDD!

In exciting news (well it is to me) I have more LEGO Star Wars Sith figures:

Red Sith Trooper

Black Sith Trooper

Darth Maladi

...and relax.... True Blood and Doctor Who

This is exactly what we did today. Experiencing the usual post camp come down we decided to do bugger all today. We were tired and a little bit achy so it was a good chance to just chill out. It was nice to do nothing and come up for air as a buffer between camp and returning to work.

We watched the final ever episode of True Blood. This was a really good one and a great way to end the series. I will miss it though as it was a good series. No spoilers, don't worry!

We also took in the first episode of the Peter Capaldi incarnation of Dr Who. I saw lots of criticism of this all over social media from the story to the music. As for me, I liked it all. I don't try and over think a TV show like this. It is what it is, a damn fine sci-fi yarn.

Dolmen Grove Tribal Dreams day 3

Toni and I ended up going back to the tent at 4am and then went to bed at 5am. I had to get up early because I had a meeting at 11. Much to my annoyance the meeting got put back!

Here's what a ginger monster looks like after a little too much mead, she went to bed with all her clothes and shoes on LOL:

Taking advantage of an out of action child Toni and I went and met up with Taloch Jameson to have our Dolmen Grove initiation. It was nothing sinister, just a lovely private welcome ceremony that was very emotional. I can't put into words how it felt but it was wonderful :)

Ceremonies over we then had a talk from Diane Narraway on the Science Of The Witch followed by Taloch Jameson with an interesting perspective on Angels And Demons. They were both very enlightening.

Next up was the Dolmen Grove Land Fund auction! These are always great fun. Lots of good items and loads of money raised for the Land Fund. Unbeknown to Taloch the tail from his onesie from Beltane Camp made it's way into the auction! Pin The Tail On The Dolmen (for money) is always a good one!

Here are two videos of proceedings

How not to play with your tail!


There was a beautiful chair in the auction which Toni won....

After all the fun and games we made the hard decision to pack up our tents and head back home tonight. The weather forecast for the morning was absolutely dire and we really didn't want to have to pack up a soaking wet tent and then have the hassle of trying to dry it out again when we got home.

Leaving is camp is always so hard but we had an absolutely brilliant time!

Dolmen Grove Tribal Dreams day 2

Toni and I woke up quite early this morning and set out for a full english (gluten free) breakfast from Poppy's. What a wonderful way to start the day!

Zoe went off to do the kids workshop and Toni started to prepare for her crochet one leaving me at a bit of a loose end so I just wandered around chatting to folk. Toni's crochet workshop was well attended:

I offered to supply some extra drums to the kids workshop only to find myself getting roped into doing some drumming with them myself. I didn't mind but it was a bit unexpected especially as I had to play a djembe which I had never used before.

It was actually great fun and it turned out that the work being done was for the kids to present their own ceremony later in the day! Great stuff!

There was some time for relaxation between kids and crochet workshops though including a chance for more gluten free goodness at Poppy's.

The afternoon was spent listening to Professor Ronald Hutton doing a talk on labyrinths. As usual it was very interesting.

The kids ceremony was absolutely wonderful. It was a real pleasure to have been involved in something so special and they all did very well especially as it had all been put together in a few hours.

..and here it is:

In the evening it was time to get the glad rags on and go and watch The Dolmen play. As usual this was an electrically charged performance. Following on from this everyone got together for an awesome fire ceremony. This one was really special. All the Dolmen Grove moots performed a piece including Essex and all went very well. So proud of everyone from the Essex moot for putting on a good show.

As the moot performances were coming to a close we were treated to a beautiful shooting star which just added more magick to the proceedings. Then came the fire:

As for the rest of the evening... there was mead, there was singing, there was talking, there was sitting around the fire. Great times with great company!

Dolmen Grove Tribal Dreams day 1

We started the day with breakfast at The Sailors Return in Weymouth before hitting the road and heading off to Templecombe for the Dolmen Grove Tribal Dreams camp. It was a really smooth journey and we were there in less than an hour. Before the fun and merriment could begin though we had to put up FOUR tents!

First up was our bell tent, followed by Mel & Boothy's (with Zoe's popup happening at the same time). Once that was done we then had to put up Mandy's slug. Remind me not to offer to put up everyone else's tent in future LOL! As the day progressed more and more friends arrived on site until the gang was all there!

Drums were collected and then it was time to get the rhythms going for the opening ceremony.

Following the ceremony (with a firm grounding and connection made) it was time to kick back and relax. Toni indulged in a little moonlight crochet

Mr Booth tried on one of Toni's hats and ended up looking like something out of Blackadder!

As the night went on there was fire (and marshmallows):

Here's the sign on the toilet block which I've added just because it was fun:

Toni and I didn't have a massively late one so that we would be bright and fresh and ready for a LONG day tomorrow!