Welcome Brigid! Brigid is Welcome!
And soon, we will welcome Spring!
A friend shared a little snippet on facebook:
"Imbolc is the day the Cailleach — the hag of Gaelic tradition — gathers her
firewood for the rest of the winter. If she intends to make the winter last a
good while longer, she will make sure the weather on Imbolc is sunny, so she
can gather firewood. People are relieved if Imbolc is a day of foul weather,
as it means the Cailleach is asleep and winter is almost over."
I
love this! Very evocative. We americans are used to the
weather-divining with the groundhog but I really love the older
traditions. By the way, the groundhogs in my backyard did NOT see their
shadows today! haha!
I
just recently parted ways with the coven I had been with for the past
16 years, so I found myself unexpectedly in a position to celebrate
Imbolc on my own! My husband is not really pagan/witchy like me so I
didn't want to spring any huge celebration on him or Kevin at such short
notice, so I decided this year we would keep Imbolc low-key until we
get into the swing of my new spiritual situation. I was inspired by one
of my all-time favorite pagan families and a recent post on their blog. I thought the whole Irish Stew and soda bread idea to be an excellent one!
I
started at my friend's blog with her recipe, but we are omnivores so I
knew it would not please my hubby if there was not meat in the stew. So
off I went researching other recipes for Irish Stew. I ended up not
following any one recipe... I just threw stuff in a pot that I had seen
in other recipes until I was satisfied with it. That ended up being
onions, beef stew meat, sausage, potatoes, stock, Guinness and herbs and
spices. I thought the stew turned out fabulous... I may have been a
little heavy handed with the Guinness though, haha! I put one bottle in,
then thought it would sure be nice to sip some so I opened another
bottle and poured some more in the pot so I could drink the leftovers.
haha! I have to say though, that the Guinness gave the stew a nice rich
flavor and thickness.
I
love bread in all forms and soda bread seems to be the bread of the
day! However, it had to be allergen-free for the kid! So I stopped at my
favorite gluten-free recipe source and found her Gluten Free Irish Soda Bread recipe.
The nice thing about most of her recipes is that they are also egg and
dairy-free. However, I always have to up the baking time... not sure why
but instead of 30 minutes to bake, this bread probably had to be more
like 40-45... at least in my oven. It was good but not as well-received
as the yeast bread version. But we still ate it up!
Kevin
and I headed outside for a little snow fun. We weren't out long... the
wind was sharp and cold! Kevin got stuck in snow too deep and his boot
came off, so his little toes got super cold. He held out as long as he
could to play out there, but had to give it up after about 25 minutes.
I told Kevin a few stories for the season before bed and the day caught up to him quickly and off to sleep he went!
As
for me, I have my own little observance of the holy-day. Mostly giving
thanks! For my hubby's safe drives to and from work today! and that we
were able to fix our furnace that broke down yesterday!
Bright Imbolc Blessings to all!
