Hello my friends, 

Bear with me, I thought I’d try something a little different this week!!

I kinda feel I should maybe do a few more ‘written’ posts, expressing my feelings/thoughts not just loads of pretty(-ish) photographs and my art. I used to keep a journal and I even wrote a few short stories…but on my blog I’ve never really felt confident enough to post that kinda thing.

So here goes…I’ve come up with Fleeting Thought which I’m hoping will become wordy posts, sometimes containing stories or poetry or maybe just getting my feelings out there (and hopefully someone will read it) but they might also be a place were I can put all different groups of photos that wouldn’t get a full post on there own.

Back at the beginning of the month I mentioned that I recently moved house – which in and of itself is probably one of the stressful things I’ve ever done in life! But that’s not the point of this post. I happened to move from a city landscape to a picturesque one which is awesome, and in my new garden I found a Hag Stone! It’s small enough to sit on the palm of my hand, and is such an amazing shape…I think its made of flint.

Now, I’ve written a 200 word super short story (I think they call it a double drabble) about my hag stone! I haven’t written a story for ages!

But first a little bit of folklore,

A Hag stone is a perfectly ordinary stone (but better!) they have for unknown reasons perfect holes running through them (actually the reason for the holes is often caused by something called a Piddock, which is a sort of shellfish burrowing through them) why the Piddock’s chose the stones they do is the unknown bit.

They’re better than your average rocks because they were (and sometimes still are) believed to have magical properties, not limited to but including the ability to heal snake bites and to see through the disguise of a witch by looking through the hole! Or being able to protect farm animals especially pigs from sickness. I’d also like to add ‘looking really cool’ to that list.

So onto the story…

This hag stone was created a millennia ago when the ocean was clearest blue, a piddock took a liking to it as a larvae and decided to make it home by gently burrowing into its surface. Over the centuries and with the changing of the seas the little rock ended up on dry land and was found by a berry gathering caveman. While he should have created many small, sharp flint things with it he didn’t, instead he kept it with care and the little rock passed through the generations, changing hands with the changing of the times.

Eventually the stone passed to a farmer who, fearing witches hung the stone above the door of his home to keep the terrible hags at bay! Never once looking through the stone to glimpse the world of the fairies.

As the wheels of time gently turned, the old house, left to ruin was reclaimed by nature, until a small village was built and the stone was once more found by a woman who, having no need to fear witches, refused to condemn such a beautiful thing to hang above a door and chose instead to look through it in search of fairies.

Ummm yeah, that’s out there now!

As a little bit of useless info this is my new view taken on a slightly gloomy day, even in the cold and wet its beautiful and there are so many birds here – I had until now never seen a chaffinch or a song thrush before but they are so happy here, eating from the feeders that I’ve put up. Now that I’ve sorted my camera out I can’t wait to try and photograph them especially seeing as this weekend is the RSPB BigGardenBirdWatch!!

So that’s about it for this weeks post…I really hope you enjoyed it! Have you ever found a Hag stone? Did you like my little story? Next week I’m hoping to post something art related. 

As always thank you so much for reading my friends, and have a lovely week!