Best Blog Comments Award

Rue of Rue and Hyssop and Inannasstar of Ramblings of a Domestic Goddess have both given me a Best Blog Comments Award! I am truly appreciative of this -- thanks so much, you lovely bloggin' gals! I have a few comments about comments, so to speak, but first -- the rules of this award.

1. Link back to the blog/blogger who nominated you.

2. Paste the picture of the award into your post.

3. Nominate other bloggers who you think deliver great comments to your blog.

4. Email/post/tweet or do whatever you need to do to inform these bloggers that they have been nominated.

When I first started reading blogs three or four years ago, I was a classic lurker. I never left comments. In fact, I didn't even know how. But once I started my own blog, I soon realized how important comments are. They let you know that someone is actually reading your stuff. You're not just babbling to yourself in cyberspace!

It's hard when you first start blogging and no one leaves comments. I still remember the thrill of receiving my first one! OMG, someone out there had actually read my blathering! Squeeeee!

So now I make a point of trying to leave a comment on many posts that I read. And I'm always grateful for each and every comment that is left on my blog. Thank you all very much! I enjoy reading them immensely.

For this award, I'd like to nominate four bloggers who often leave comments on my blog that make me laugh out loud at their quirky wit. Check out their blogs if you like writers with an extra-good sense of humour!

Corey James at Madtexter

Jackiesue at Yellowdog Granny

Eternally Distracted at Eternally Distracted

Elly at Bugginword

What Has Been Seen . . . Cannot Be Unseen

Gypsy Letter #2

Another letter finally arrived today from my AWOL cat, Madame Zara, who ran off with the gypsies earlier this month --

Sorry I haven't written in a while, but I've been busy having a whirlwind romance! Our gypsy band decided to travel down south to keep warm. So we went to Texas but damn if it didn't snow while we were there! Jeez, if I wanted snow, I should have just stayed in Canada! What freaky weather!

Anyway, we set up camp outside some town called East or West or something -- one of the four directions, I don't know. That night we danced by the fire, told fortunes, picked a couple of pockets -- you know, the usual. As I was dancing my wild gypsy dance, I noticed a handsome tom in the audience. He was definitely giving me the eye! Well, one thing soon led to another, as they say. His name is Dexter. Here's his photo:

Isn't he handsome? His eyes can go kind of crazy once in a while, but just look at his gorgeous big ruff -- almost like a lion's! And you know what they say about a big ruff! *giggle*

Dexter wined and dined me and swept me off my paws! We ate at only the finest dumpsters, like the one behind the pizza and BBQ joint. Our main course was a discarded local delicacy called a "skunk egg," if I remember correctly. We washed it down by lapping up a spilled puddle of Dublin Dr. Pepper. Yum! The vintage was superb!

Our love affair was pure heaven for the week that it lasted. But eventually, our gypsy band decided to move on because, after all, we are vagabonds. I begged Dexter to run away with us, but he refused. Turns out that little two-timing bastard had another pussy in his life the whole time -- name of Jackiesue or something -- and he wouldn't leave her for me! So you better believe I gave him a good scratching and threw the bum right out of my life!

Now my heart is broken and I've sworn off toms forever. However, I will triumph in the end and turn this whole ugly experience into Sublime Art by becoming the greatest tragic gypsy dancer that the world has ever known!

Farewell until next time! Many hugs and purrs! Love, Madame Zara

Boscastle Fish & Chips

While in Britain, my Rare One made it her mission to sample fish & chips from as many restaurants as possible. Most were delicious, while others ranged from fair to mediocre and (on one occasion only) terrible. They all involved deep fried battered fish, of course. Except in Boscastle. This is the fish & chips order that arrived at our restaurant table --

My Rare One calmly removed the heads, tails and skin and ate the fish, which she said was very fresh and tasty. I discreetly covered the heads and other remains with my napkin. I just couldn't bear having those little fishy eyes looking at me while I ate my meal.

[All Boscastle photos in these four posts were taken by my Rare One, except for the first exterior shot of the Museum of Witchcraft]

Boscastle's Museum of Witchcraft, Part 3

For me, some of the most interesting exhibits at the Museum of Witchcraft concerned a few of the British witches and occultists who reinvigorated and reinvented the Old Religion in modern times. For example, the Museum displays a silver chalice that belonged to Aleister Crowley, ceremonial magician and occultist, creator of the Thoth tarot deck, who was popularly known as "The Great Beast." Another display has a few artifacts that belonged to Stewart Farrar, the creator of Alexandrian Wicca.

A large glass case contains a painting of Gerald Gardner, the creator of Gardnerian Wicca, along with various of his possessions . . .

. . . including his High Priest ceremonial robes.

These are the kinds of things that make the Museum of Witchcraft unique!

Boscastle's Museum of Witchcraft, Part 2

I was very interested in the Museum of Witchcraft's display about England's historical witch hunts and persecutions. We don't see these types of artifacts in North America (except perhaps in Salem, I don't know). The exhibit is horrifying, of course, but its lessons are important to remember.

This photo shows a ducking-stool, an instrument historically used for the social humiliation and punishment of women deemed to be wicked.

Usually these women were accused of being "scolds," which meant that they had dared to challenge male authority in some way or were just generally uppity. The "scold" would be bound to the chair and either exhibited to public humiliation in the street or ducked in a river or pond as further punishment. In medieval times, ducking-stools were sometimes used to determine whether a woman was a witch. Bound to a wooden ducking-stool and thrown in a river, the unfortunate woman would be found to be a witch if she floated, but innocent if she drowned. Witches, of course, were executed by hanging or burning. Not very good odds either way.

This photo shows two examples of a "scold's bridle."

The iron muzzle or cage would be placed on the head of a woman accused of being a scold, shrew, gossip or practitioner of witchcraft. A heavy iron bar (often with spikes) would project into her mouth. So long as she did not speak, everything was fine. But if she tried to speak or protest, the movement of her tongue would cause painful torture by the bridle. The lesson to women publicly humiliated by forcible wearing of a scold's bridle? Hold your tongues.

Today we are rightly horrified about the persecution of Islamic women by the Taliban. But we must never forget that our Western forebears also had a similarly brutal history of using physical and emotional violence to keep women in a subordinate position.

On Monday, a cheerier post about other exhibits at the Museum of Witchcraft.

Boscastle's Museum of Witchcraft, Part 1

Not far from Tintagel is a picturesque Cornish village called Boscastle. With a natural inlet harbour, it is a valuable fishing port. Over the past decade, Boscastle has suffered a couple of devastating floods, but you would never know it now by looking at its charming buildings and lovely shops. One of Boscastle's main tourist attractions is the Museum of Witchcraft located just off its main street.

When you arrive at the Museum, there is a sign directing you to park your broom in the space provided. Very cute!

Inside the Museum are two floors of densely packed exhibits on all kinds of witchy, occult matters. When visiting this Museum, it's important to keep two things in mind:

(1) This is not a professionally curated museum. It is a labour of love by those who are devoted to witchcraft. There's a real feeling that you have just entered "collectors' heaven" with eclectic exhibits all cheek-by-jowl with each other. Sometimes there's not enough information about what you're looking at. Sometimes there's too much. But we were charmed by much of what we saw and found almost everything interesting.

(2) This is very much a museum of British witchcraft. It focuses on local, practical folklore, superstitions and traditions of England and Cornwall. So there are lots of exhibits on poppets, curses, herbology, poisons, fertility symbols, etc. This is most definitely NOT a museum about modern Wicca or today's pagan movement as experienced in North America. Almost everything in the Museum predates the 1960s (at the very latest).

In the next two posts, I'll tell you about the exhibits which we found most fascinating.