Friday 22 April 2011

"The Hazards Of Love 4 (The Drowned)"

Margaret arrayed the rocks around the hull before it was sinking,
A million stones, a million bones, a million holes within the chinking.

And painting rings around your eyes these peppered holes so filled with crying.
A whisper weighed upon the tattered down where you and I were lying.

Tell me now, tell me this, a forest's son, a river's daughter,
A willow on the willow wisp, our ghosts will wander all of the water.

So let's be married here today these rushing waves to bear our witness.
And we will lie like river stones rolling only where it takes us.

But I pulled you and I called you here,
And I caught you and I brought you here
These hazards of love, never more will trouble us

Oh Margaret the lapping waves are licking quietly at our ankles
Another bow another breath this brilliant chill's come for the shackle.

With this long last rush of air we speak our vows and sorry whispers,
When the waves came crashing down, he closed his eyes and softly kissed her.

But I pulled you and I called you here,
And I caught you and I brought you here
These hazards of love, never more will trouble us.
And these hazards of love, never more will trouble us.

Sunday 17 April 2011

Drop in for a Spell





This is me, my mum and my friend Emily 'blending in' with the Pendle Witches on a walk in March 2003, making us 10 years old :D


They were outside this shop, which was adorable and one of those interesting 'Curiosity Shop' types that you find in small villages such as Pendle/Barley.


A whistle stop explanation of the Pendle Witch legend is that in 1612, 13 people (both men and women) were accused of Witchcraft and Murder in and around the Forest of Pendle, and were tried at Lancaster gaol. Of those 13, 10 were executed there after being found guilty of both charges, 1 died awaiting trial but was posthumously found guilty, another who lived just over the Lancashire border was actually tried and executed in York instead, and the final witch, Margaret Pearson, was found guilty of Witchcraft but not Murder, and so was only sentenced to a years imprisonment. The story is claimed to be the most famous witchtrial in all English legal history!


AHHH I've just researched this a bit and it's actually really interesting, so I'm going to carry on explaining but I won't be offended if you don't read any further!!


The two witches at the centre of the trial were Elizabeth Southerns, who called herself 'Demdike' and Anne Whittle, who called herself 'Chattox'. They were once friends but had a bitter feud and became arch enemies, apparently forming two separate 'covens' in the area, based on their respective families. It's not entirely clear who belonged to which coven, but Demdike was the powerful matriach of the Device family, with her daughter Elizabeth and grandchildren James and Alizon Device all being executed alongside her. The second daughter, Jennet Preston, was the witch executed in York. They lived at 'Malkin Tower' and in his confession, James described several sabbats that occurred there...this is brilliant, all the names sound so fairytale, you just couldn't make this stuff up!

So much is known about the Pendle Witches because Thomas Potts, a court cleric, was so meticulous in his records, and so the statements of Demdike, Chattox, Alizon and James have survived intact. It's noted that they were not under duress or torture and so it has puzzled many why they were so willing and detailed in their accounts of their own guilt, however Demdike and Chattox appear to have incriminated each other ferociously and when Demdike died before being sentenced Chattox blamed her entirely for enticing her and her family into witchcraft.

It did not work.


There's a ton of gory info about what they did and all about 17th century witchcraft including the original confessions of several of the accused at:



Saturday 16 April 2011

A Novel Idea

It's been awhile, and that wasn't really about to change because I just never seem to find the time/what to say on here :')

I keep up with blogs regularly and I enjoy reading my friends, but I found my diary which had been long lost, so I began to fill and finish that then begin another notebook, I missed it ^_^


Anyway the lovely Lou has said a few times she misses me writing blog posts, so I came up with an idea :D

In a few posts I've done that've mostly been text, I've included a random-ish picture at the end to break it up a little, and I thought I could post a random picture from my computer every day, and then update as I wanted from there ^_^


It'll keep my blog going and *might* be interesting :')


We'll see how it goes... XD


*edit, I've just spent aggges after this post trawling through my photos, laughing and thinking of captions...this IS going to be fun!*


So we'll start with...


Me and my Uncle Simon at my Grandad's 60th birthday in 2002...so I'm 9? The theme was 60's, and you can't see it very well but I'm wearing a leather bodycon dress :') Just got back from holiday so tanned and braided, I was assured that braided hair was 'very sixties dear'


I had fun!