Starting my blog

Hello.

Today is the middle of Autumn, the autumn equinox, also called Mabon. I thought it a suitably significant time of the year to start my blog.

What do I want to do with a blog? I have thought about it for some time and I want to share some of the things which I feel concerned about and also those things which might be done to improve the quality of one's life.

Now let me state at the start that I believe I already have a good quality of life, certainly compared with the lives of many others one sees reported in the news from around the world.

I noted above that it is the autumn equinox. This is significant in our household as we will be celebrating it later with a special meal - special for us, that is. We like to celebrate the turning of the seasons and just take some time to relax and think about how the year is changing. We don't do this out of some pagan belief but merely to take time to appreciate. One of the beauties of having these celebrations is that they are not commercial and we can make of them what we will.

This is one of the things we do to add quality - or rather, to reclaim the quality - of our lives. So much of life is taken up with moving, working and thinking
fast. It is important to take the time to put some "slack" back into living. Taking time to appreciate and taking a mental breather.

If you want to find out more about when the key points are in the solar year you can find out by visiting the following site:

http://www.archaeoastronomy.com

then click on 'orbital maps' and 'countdowns'.

One of the other things will are doing is to make some Blackberry and Apple wine. The apples are all 'fallers' from my mother-in-law's garden and the blackberries were picked from the lane behind our house and from the garden. Drea (my beloved) is busy peeling and coring the apples, leaving me to do the 'technical bit' of measuring the water, sugar and yeast.

Why is this important to me? Because as part of adding quality to life it is important to create something, even something small. The fact that we are creating something natural like homemade wine which is both pleasant to drink and which serves as a reminder of times spent together is an important part of feeling grounded together. Instead of merely consuming our resources we are creating something which will be greater than the sum of the parts of which it is made.