Friday, March 15, 2024

March 2024 - Update #2

The last week has been busy again, including preparations for tomorrow's divination workshops and a good bit of snow shoveling yesterday (we got about a foot of heavy wet snow). I'm half way through chapter 13, and Gwernin et al have arrived at Fráechán's rath, to find that he is not there.This is new territory for everyone in the group except Taliesin, who spent several years there long ago (as related in The King's Druid) studying with Fráechán and his teacher.

Presently I'll have to go out and shovel more of yesterday's snow, but at the moment things are warming up a bit and I'm waiting for more of it to fall off the trees. After tomorrow I should be able to get more writing done.

Thursday, March 7, 2024

March 2024 - Update #1

A few conflicts in the last week again, but I finally finished chapter 12. Gwernin and company are in Ireland now, and Taliesin has procured pack ponies from King Díarmait. This was not hard, because in this period no one dared refuse any request from an Irish Master Poet--an Ollam Fili--for fear of their satire. The next chapter will take Gwernin to the ráth of Fráechán’s foster father, a place Gwernin has not been before. I spent some time earlier in the week thinking about what each of our party knows and where they have been in Ireland. Gwernin and Mael, for example, have seen most of the places we'll be going in this book, but not Fráechán’s two homes or "cairn T" on the Sliabh na Caillí; Neirin and Ianto have not been in Ireland before, so this is all new to them. Taliesin, on the other hand, spent seven years in Ireland after Arthur's death, part of that time studying or traveling with Fráechán. I'll be pulling descriptions of these new locations from The King's Druid--another case of needing things to match up. 

In other news, I've been spending time preparing for my presentation on ogam divination in Chokecherry Grove's March Divination Workshop. For more information on that, see this link.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

February 2024 - Update #5

 Rare it is to have five Thursdays in February, but this year we do. Their abundance, however, has not helped my rate of progress with the book. I did finish chapter 11, and started chapter 12 ("the bend of the Boyne"), partly through reorganization of material, but since Monday I have been working on another project. Our local ADF group, Chokecherry Grove, is putting on a series of Zoom workshops on divination methods in two weeks (Saturday 16th), and since I signed myself up to speak on the ogam, I have been preparing a PowerPoint of my material. It's about finished now, and it's time I got back to Gwernin et al, who have arrived in Ireland at last.

Aside from some brief but intense snow on Tuesday morning, the weather has been mild and dry, and windy enough that we had fire weather warnings on a couple of days. Next week looks colder and wetter again - typical March weather here.

Thursday, February 22, 2024

February 2024 - Update #4

 I'm still working my way through chapter 11, the title of which is still in flux. Last weekend was busy, and Tuesday I had a dentist appointment (as a result of which I have another one today for repairs), so that's three days shot. A lot of my progress yesterday was "recycling" again for Gwernin et al's journey to Ireland. I've got 1,529 words so far, but some of it still needs polishing, so I'll be working on that today and tomorrow, then trying to finish the chapter over the weekend -- an average chapter is about 3,000 words. They are currently on their way to King Díarmait’s ráth, where Taliesin plans to petition the King for pack ponies to replace the ones they left at Aberffraw before going on to look for their friend Fráechán.

My orange cat, Ruay, is having his morning outside time, when he likes to chase the squirrels. He's developed a habit of jumping onto the plant stands under the window and looking in at me and Mulberry. That won't work come summer, when the plants come out of the garage, but in the meantime it's amusing.