May 1st is the celebration that marks the halfway period between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice! Also known as Mayday, it is generally seen as a welcoming if the springs full swing! April showers have brought the may flowers. And now we frolic! Fertility, continuity, the joy of beginning so many planting projects, the breeding season. This was all relevant to the ancients. They didn't have a supermarket year round to buy those apples or strawberries, if they even had those fruits at all. Whatever the locale grew is mainly what they had outside of trade. And "exotic" fruit I imagine was scarce as it would have to sustain long travel intact! Thinking more deeply about the circumstance our ancestors lived with has to make us appreciate modern travel and shipping. We likely wouldn't know what a kiwi tastes like, or a guava, if we were from America or some other place they simply dont grow! And Beltane is a perfect time to celebrate our own gardens, and also that we have produce to enjoy! Foods for Beltane will be lots of fruit and salad type vegetables! Lots of juices and smoothies, dairy products. Fire cooked meats! Open fire if you can manage it, if not grilled! Also any traditional Scottish dishes like mince pies, haggis might be tough to find, but it's possible, or some savory Cock-a-leekie soup, are excellent for this! Bonfires, campfires, even candles will suffice if that is all you can manage to put some of the fire element in your celebration! Beltane is Gaelic! Wear a kilt or plaid skirt if you have it! If you're Scottish, this celebration goes back to your ancestors! Order a piece of your family clan tartan to commemorate the event! If you have any drums, bring them out and beat them! Oh yes, and bagpipes! If you can't play them, just blast them on your Audio! Clanadonia is a good recommendation! Have some ale, wine or mead! Or of course a dram of whiskey or Scotch! Or if you want to stay sober, get yourself some Birch Beer! It tastes kind of like peppermint soda! You can find Scottish family brews that are non-alcoholic like Rapscallion Soda. Try a recipe for Feragaia, or order up some Talonmore.

I have seen several new members select that they are shy to interact. This is fine! If you don't want to post or make comments, that is understandable. I have my own social anxieties and that is why I have mostly online interactions outside of my job. Lol However! I do need you guys to come to the group regularly and interact with my content by just hitting that little like button! Because that is the currency of this platform. We won't gain anything without a THUMBS UP 👍🏻! BUUUUUUT! If for some reason you do not like my post, people, be the Pagan heathens you are and tell me why! Tell me what I have missed! I do not claim to be flawless or infallible! I also might stand to learn from you! So, let's do our best to just be present in what ways make us comfortable and help us all grow! Hit the like! Leave a comment, make a post, write us a whole novel! Whatever you want as long as you come back often and make your presence known. Thanks a bunch! 😘

I want the people who join here to know a bit about me. I have had a very difficult life. And this journey has served to teach me so much about myself. I am not by any means living in some castle on a hill. In fact, I live in my RV full time! I want to eventually be mobile but for now I am stationary and work almost full time as a local Dunkin barista! Yes, I can make a mean Java! But I'm so much more than that. I am a single mother for one. Originally from Rhode Island, I have dedicated my life to my kids and that is where my own career path became one that faded into the distance as I raised them. So I had a means to end job to provide for them and now, I am finally stepping into the time frame where I can focus on some other very important things to me. My children now, all early teens, go between their father in AR and myself in FL. My son was with me for a good 6 or 7 months homeschooling this past year. He is with his dad and sisters now and my daughters will be returning soon! I can't wait! They decided to stay the year for school and though it broke my heart, I knew they needed to have some time to make friends and get settled in a life he made for them there. And I had a lot on my plate here! So I am living life and we make it work. The time now has come for me to focus on 5 years of a very deep journey I've been on. Truthfully it started WAY before that and that is where this matters to me most. Since I was very young, I had abilities. I saw spirits. I had visions. I was a strange child who had a little too much of an interest in death. I used to find dead insects and bury them between the stepping stones of my grandfather's house. Returning them to the earth. Why did I do that? So weird for a child of 8 or 9, but I did. I grew up being bullied in school. Life was miserable for me there. I was often physically attacked. I was different. I had ADHD and Im realizing now that perhaps I may have a spectrum of autism. But nothing that would debilitate me. I was high functioning and always in another world. I felt like school was a smothering institution and that what I was learning wasn't going to serve me. They didn't focus on my strengths, they only complained about my weaknesses. And my strengths could have made me famous! If anyone had cared!