Us witches and heathens all jumped in the car and headed to Huntress and Thicket‘s homestead in the mountains for a good ole fashioned mead party. There had been quite the blizzard the night before, but the roads had cleared by the afternoon and the drive was full of sweeping vistas of gorgeous mountains capped with snow in the light of the setting sun. The womenfolk cooked up a storm for our potluck dinner: piles of chicken wings and fruit, traditional Czech dumplings with sauce and a pork roast, the best perogies ever, bacon-wrapped scallops, and blueberry kolache for dessert. The table was covered in bottles of our homebrewed meads which we drank of heartily and deeply. Thicket’s aged show meads and the Witch-Seer and May King’s clementine-maple-cinnamon mead were the favourites and my bottle of monsterberry mead disappeared pretty quickly too.
We sat by the fire and talked of mead making, magic, herbs, gardening, homesteading, and bone collecting –telling stories and reading tarot cards for each other while tipsy on our homebrews. We ladies decided that an all women drunken oracle group was an excellent idea and want to get together with a few others of like mind to drink mead and read the cards for each other with our favourite decks. I read tea leaves and palms too… so many drunken oracle options.
In the morning we woke to snow falling softly through the trees of the forest and ravens croaking and circling the house. We had the best of intentions to actually make mead at this mead party, but the sun came out and we decided drinking mead still counted as a mead party and played with swords and bows and fire instead. The men became pyromaniacs and lit fires using magnifying glasses and sunlight and then crafted a bow and drill to light more fires – stone age style. We circled around their fire in the sun and roasted marshmallows over the coals of their effort.
Thicket talked the shaman into making rune brands out of a coat hanger and the experiment ensued with very good results. All three men dabble in metalwork and I think their eyes glazed over thinking of all the applications.
Huntress and I went for a walk in the sunny wintry woods in our long flowing skirts and practical boots talking of the wildcrafting and foraging to come in spring and all we want to harvest and make with native plants while her wolf-like dog played in the snow around us. The forest never really dies here, there is always green firs, ferns, succulents, mosses, and more always growing. There may be snow, but everything is budding.
It was such a beautiful day even the chickens ventured out of their coop and into the sunlight to frolic among the trees and bathe in the odd patch of bare earth in the forest. Huntress is a very Mother Earth type of woman and kept us all well-fed in between our mischiefs and sent us all home with fresh eggs from her chickens.
I was sent home with branches of gary oak and weeping willow from trees that fell in storms last winter for my wand carving. The shaman, being the only novice mead maker, was sent home with a selection of Thicket’s 4-10 year old show meads with 9 or more kg of honey (some from his own bee hives) per 5 gallons and also a lovely rose mead that wasn’t too cloying or sweet, but just right. With all the rose meads I’ve tasted in the past year I am getting very excited for my wild rose mead I made with petals harvested one early morning from my mountain.
You know you have good friends when you don’t want to leave and they don’t want to kick you out, but alas, we all had to go back to our jobs and lives and drove back down to the city from the wild mountains into the sunset scheming of the mischief we’ll get into again for rituals, plant journeys in the mountains, and meeting at The Gathering.
Wish I could participate in things like this. Love the pics.
The shaman features a fair bit these days! I smile!
But I also look on the mountainscape and sigh with a sense of homesickness. I fell desperately in love with the Pacific Northwest, and if I could ever make my way back there again (and manage to survive US politics and poverty whilst disabled), I’d go back. But I’ll have to just see photos instead, and sigh.
Thank you for sharing – it reminds me of beautiful places.
you know despite where mead originated it is forever in my mind a Canadian Pagan drink, when i was at KG last year i got to taste so many wonderful meads, one of my favourite being the rose mead that was entered into the mead competition, mmmm.. has me hankering for making my own mead, *ponders this* this may well happen at some stage in the not to distant future.. mmm.. mead! its Canadian don’t you know, made by Pagans in the forests of their vast land. *grins*
Hey, thanks for the great read and pictures. The woods looks awesome I bet you guys played around there for hours. I bet you guys got really shit faced off the mead, I would of ha,ha……. The branding on wood is a great idea as you know I’m sure this has lots of practical applications.
The weather looked great too. Nice and sunny having a few meads over a fire roasting. Thanks for the e-mail.
kristian
This is awesome! I would love to host a party like this some day!
oh, I want to come play!!! thanks for sharing in words and pics. I’m there in spirit!
Thanks for sharing such awesomeness! And witches definitely know how to eat- pierogi, bacon wrapped scallops and kolache? Most people don’t even know what a kolache is! Raspberry ones are pure bliss…
Bless you and your mead making!
honestly are all the fun folk in BC lol !
I have never made an alcoholic beverage as I’m allergic but my dh loves ales maybe he would like mead ? the kids & I make gingerbeer now and I just tried vinegar last fall it was really fun and easy not having to peel the fruit or anything & the kids loved seeing the mother !
My ds16 would have a blast with those fellows he does all that sort of stuff too .
this was a beautiful adventure thank you for sharing ♥
The very Slavic Czech meal sounds heavenly. Which reminds me to mention those seeking out a more Slavic Path would do much better studying Eastern European embroidery and paper-cutting books. Much more detailed information on various Gods/Goddesses as well as customs. Explains various things about Rusulka/Rusali customs that are not all Christianized into devil women. I just happened to stumble on this myself rather accidently. I am a quarter Czech myself and was born on one of the Rusulka days. Family customs are very double-faithed only at this point in time my other relatives would be shocked. I noticed this as well-I seem to be the only modern relative that has stumbled on the other meanings.
Ah it is turning in Season here and before long we shall welcome the Gray Mother into our lives and hearts….time for such parties methinks! Friends who share mead share Life!
Wassail!
Oh that is the life….I think I shall have to throw a mead party one of these days and enjoy the drunken revelry
Wow, this blog is the rootsiest, witchiest stuff I have ever come across… Amazing and fascinating… Real witch stuff!