So you're telling me it's Samhain...?

Janet is feeling fine; just a bit tired and achy. I'm still testing negative. Thanks for your kind wishes and thoughts. Who would have expected me to be blipping a bee at this time of the year? Certainly not me, as you can tell by the lens choice... I'm not ready for Samhain, and unmoved by Halloween. It simply doesn't feel like the moment yet. And yet, here we are.

Samhain is one of the key points in the year, and whatever brand of god-bothering you're into there's a death related commemoration on or around this time. All souls, Halloween, Dia de los Muertos... In times when the year was divided into just the light and the dark half of the year, it was winter's eve, and a time to both remember those gone into mystery and the harsh time that lay ahead. 

I am planning to light a fire this evening. Against the flames, I'll raise a glass to the newly dead and the old, to the fading year and those ancestors of blood, mud and tradition that might seek a touch of remembered life this night. We were a long time coming, and we will be a long time dead - what a fantastic brief spark of existence this is - what a gift!

May those who loved you and whom you loved be well remember this evening. Hail the ancestors, hail life, hail the bees! /|\

NB: It would appear the gods that be have a smaller fire in mind this evening, as it's a tad damp out there. Small boat damp.