Visit to the Harry Potter Studios!

So, a week or so ago the lovely Sunnysweetpea arranged for a group of 10 bloggers to visit the Harry Potter Studios in glamorous* Watford, England.

* Note for non-UK and Northern readers: Watford is not glamorous, it's a dump.  I grew up near there. Even at 7 years of age I knew it was a dump.  Thankfully, the HP studios are not actually in Watford proper.

Sunnysweetpea is a lifestyle blogger, and the other bloggers on the trip were also lifestyle bloggers.  I tell you, it's a side of the internet I'd never imagined existed!  I mean, these ladies run blogs that are overwhelmingly upbeat, pretty to look at, more or less devoid of in-fighting, bitching and self entitlement and on the whole positive and pleasant places to visit.  They take so much care over their blogs.  They craft their posts.  Imagine!  I've clearly spent too long in the comics blogosphere.

Don't worry though, I still brought the comics to the show:

Lantern/Potter mash up FTW. I'm quite enjoying the hand on hip pose I'm striking here.. although I have no idea what inspired it.

Entry tickets for over 16s are £30 each - it's quite expensive, and not something I would usually be able to justify spending, especially with the cost of travel to and from and site.  However, Warner Brothers kindly gave us all free tickets, because we are all bloggers and it's good marketing for them.  They don't appear to do any adverts for the studios, just press releases when it opened and now they rely on word of mouth.  It's a pretty good promotional system.

When we arrived we discovered we also had a goody bag each.  Marvellous!  A goody bag!  What did we get in it?  These delicious things:

Ominous frog:

See him stare you down. *glowers*

I've not eaten him yet.  The peppermint frogs are pretty nice though.

These goody bags must cost near enough £75 in shop.  Too expensive for me to buy, but for Warner Brothers, 10 bloggers is circa £750 for the goody bags, plus £300 entry fees.  Now I say that's darn cheap advertising.  And hey it worked, because I'm impressed!

So is my boyfriend, apparently.  You'll need the sound on for that one.

So, what do you see at the studios?  Well, you start with a short film where the 3 main actors tell you a bit about the filming and how much they enjoyed it and the crew were all one big happy family.  To be fair, it did look genuine although I was surprised by the apparent awkwardness of the Radcliffe/Watson/Grint in doing this presenting thing.

Then you go into the banqueting hall.  It's beautiful.  The walls and ceiling are made of plaster but the floor is genuine stone - they chose stone so it would last the 10 years required for filming.  The wall decorations and the costumes hanging up are beautiful - you really feel transported to Hogwarts!

After the banqueting hall you visit a huge room that is filled to the brim with displays to admire.  Credit to the designers - it never felt crowded, or like a warehouse.  It felt welcoming with set pieces to draw you in and information panels about the creation of the sets.  We saw the Gryffindor dormitory, Dumbledore's office, the potions lab, the Weasley cottage!  The Weasley cottage may well have been my favourite thing.  So homely, so welcoming, so full of love.  Professor Umbridge's office was also there, and if you ever needed convincing that pink is the colour of the devil, there you have it.  So pink.  So, so, so pink.

  

This isn't Umbridge's office, this is from quite early on in the exhibition and I think is from one of the earlier films.  It's beautiful.

We went at the end of half term which meant that we were there on the last day of the Animal actors visits.  We got to see Crookshanks and Mrs Norris (I think - she's a the giant tabby yeah?), Fang (big drooly dog, not my thing), and some pretty cool insects and reptiles.  The tailless whip scorpion was great.  The big hairy spider a bit creepy but mostly interesting.  The hedgehog alike creature was not a reptile or insect, but was with them because it was exotic.  And uber cute.  Then there was the bloody great snake.

I'm pretty certain it was a yellow python, a-la:

Pretty colours? Yes.  Unassailably freaky? Hell yes.  I don't like snakes.

So, to move away from that horror, I went and looked at the rest of the exhibition:

I honestly don't know what this is but I'm including it because the photo amuses me.

Magic is might:

 

Nothing like a bit of soviet inspired imagery to brighten your day:

 

After this section we went outside and had some butterbeer.  As you do.  I would recommend you don't. It's gross.  Seriously foul.  Incredibly sweet and utterly rank.  They even had a barrel you could pour your drink into if you couldn't cope with it, which most people were doing, it is that horrible.  I did buy a n official butterbeer tumbler, which was worth it, but the drink itself is revolting.

This photo was taken by Jenny of Sunny Sweet Pea and she owns the copyright.

My reaction to the butterbeer has been immortalised by Jenny on film:

Go to the 3 minute 50 mark for the butterbeer.  Also go to the 3 minute mark to see me being awkward in front of a mirror.  C'est terrible.

At this point we also saw the Knight Bus, Privet Drive and Hedwig!  Yes the ACTUAL Hedwig. Or at least, one of the owls that played him.  This particular owl was a right grumpy sod.

After the outside bit we headed back indoors, past the chess pieces...

... to the animatronic stuff.

A favourite was the mandrake:

A non-favourite was a giant Hagrid head.  I know they had reasons for making it, but c'mon, a giant Robbie Coltrane head?  It was as big as my torso!

I loved the giant Aragog:

Then it was on to Diagon Alley:

I love this photo and scene so much!  Simple yet magical.  Mushrooms are just cool.

After Diagon Alley we went into Ollivander's.  It was filled with wand cases, all labelled with the names of the actors and workers involved in the films.  Most of my pictures came out terribly, but I'm reasonably happy with this one:

I like the colours and the blurriness of the people.

Lastly we went into the shop, which was full of good stuff but on the whole pretty expensive.  Good quality stuff - the clothes were really nice designed and attractive and made out of good quality material.  They looked like high street designer clothes - think Superdry and Bench.  They also sold cushions:

 I *really* like the cushions.  However, the vests were about £18, the hoodies about £40.  The scarfs were about £20.  A wand or a Hedwig cost in the realm of £25.  This means that with the entrance fee of £30 for over 16s/£22.50 for 5-15 year olds that a trip to the Potter studios is a pretty expensive day out.  That said, the cafe was what I would call normally priced.  The food available was a range of basic salads, sandwiches, jacket potatoes and I believe some other hot foods .  The jacket potato and cheese that I had was about 5 or 6 quid.

Now, was it worth the entry fee?  Yes, I think so.  It is expensive and it's not something I would have been able to afford to go were I paying for it, so I'm very grateful for the free pass, but then again I don't think it's aimed at me.  I'm shortly going to become a one income household and I'm pretty sure Warner Brothers are going for the affluent middle class families/20 somethings with disposable income audience.  Neither of which I belong to.  This is fine - I'm not someone who thinks that everyone should have a right to visit these places.  It costs what it costs and they are clearly doing very well out of it.  It was a great day!  The visitor flow was handled really well so it never felt busy and overcrowded (and I cannot deal with crowds).  There were places to sit down if you needed a rest.  The staff were friendly and courteous.  If you like Harry Potter and have some spare cash then go!  You'll love it.

My fellow visitors pictures and reports of the trip can be found here:

The tea Drinking English Rose
Thursday afternoons part one and part two

Hazel's World of Joy
Stripes and Snapshots
Sunny Sweet Pea

At the time of posting this these guys haven't posted reports yet, so these are links to the home page of their blog:
Sophie in the Sticks
The Cup and Saucer
Thoroughly English (who has a heartfelt post up on the sale of medical data currently being proposed in the UK.  I recommend you read it.)

Do go look at their posts, they all have wonderful pictures and a really lovely turn of phrase.

Thanks to Warner Brother for providing us with the complimentary tickets, and thanks to Jenny for organising it all!

EDITED 14/03/2014 to add in this group picture that Alice of The Cup and Saucer blog has posted:

I think it's a cute picture of us all.  Just ignore my rubbish trainers that really don't go with the dress - I'm all about the comfort these days (ooh my back, ooh my knees etc etc ;)

Another ASN update/worldwide pickets planned for abortion clinics

40 days of Life are a Christian organisation that picket outside abortion clinics, over (I presume) the Lent period trying to scare and shame women into not having abortions.  Clearly, they disgust me.  If you want to lower abortion rates you need to provide good sex education, free contraception, free childcare and improved benefits for mothers (and fathers).  You do not lower abortion rates by protesting/gathering/praying outside abortion clinics.  A list of clinics they are going to picket is available on their website here: http://www.40daysforlife.com/location.html
I suggest that if you are near a clinic, and feel safe doing so, form a counter picket, or bring in nice goodies to the staff at the clinics.  Cakes, biscuits and fruit would probably be welcomed.

On a similar note, here is a direct fundraising appeal from ASN: 

Have you heard about the recent investigations into rogue Crisis Pregnancy Centres in the UK?Unregulated, anti-choice ‘counsellors’ are telling women that abortion could give them cancer, make them infertile, or even turn them into child abusers. Disgusting, isn’t it?

Unfortunately, this story is all too familiar to me. Crisis Pregnancy Centres inIreland are just as willing to shame, manipulate and flat-out lie to women to suit their anti-choice agenda.

Lorraine - a single mother of three - was over 13 weeks pregnant before she got our number. A ‘counsellor’ at a CPC in Dublin told her that doctors in Britain are “butchers” who would leave her “permanently scarred”.

But that's not all women in Ireland have to worry about. At ASN, we hear from an equal number of women who are horrifically treated by the people they should be able to trust - their own doctors.

When fifteen-year-old Niamh went to her GP for advice, he dismissed her fear and scolded her for wanting an abortion. After the appointment, he made sure everyone in the waiting room knew that the young girl with him was pregnant.

We believe that Irish women who need to end a pregnancy need practical advice, not shame, judgement, and lies. 

When women contact us, we are very clear to them that we are not counsellors or health care professionals. Thanks to your donations, our helpline and email are there to give information and non-judgemental, practical support; if a woman needs, we also arrange hosts and give grants towards their procedure and travel.  If a woman asks for a local resource for medical information, counselling, a rape crisis centre, or a place where she can speak to someone face to face, we only refer to non-directive, pro-choice organisations.

Your donations help us be at the other end of the phone for women like Lorraine and girls like Niamh every day – thank you so much. If you could spare a little more today, every penny or cent helps.

Thank you, as always - here’s to helping more women, together!

Mara Clarke
Director, Abortion Support Network
 
 
*Some details have been changed to protect our clients’ privacy.

Happy pancake day!

To celebrate, witness Green Arrow the second:

Them Green Arrows are good cooks.

As a bonus, witness this:

No idea where this second one is from - anyone know?  

ASN February newsletter

Here is ASN's February newsletter:

• We need to talk about abortion
• ASN in the News
• Women we’ve helped
• Get involved with ASN! Two roles available
• Change is coming/Save the Date

We need to talk about abortion

Despite the fact that one in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime, talking about abortion is not something that is often done. We love this poster from Heather Ault of the 4000 Years for Choice, which says, “I am proud to say it loud, ABORTION! ABORTION! ABORTION!” Talking about abortion is hugely important for many reasons. It transforms abortion from an abstract issue to something that can happen to anyone we know, and also helps make the women having abortions feel less shame and fear. 

We wanted to take the opportunity to shout out to all the women who are out there talking about abortion, from the group Termination for Medical Reasons for putting a face on Irish families facing the double tragedy of losing a much wanted pregnancy to a fatal foetal diagnosis, to the wonderfully brave Janet S who, during her week at the helm of @Ireland, detailed her experience of travelling for abortion. The entire feed can be found here. And while we’re at it, huge thanks to The Institute of Research in Social Sciences at the University of Ulster for hosting a daylong conference on access to abortion with a focus on Northern Ireland, Storifyed here.

ASN in the News

Speaking of talking about abortion, following are a few of the places ASN was featured in the media this past month. A number of people have asked why we’ve been in the news less this year than last, and we feel this is because, like the people above, more and more women are speaking out about their own abortions. This means there is less of a need for ASN to talk about the women we are hearing from and helping. Which is fantastic!

Jezebel
3 January
Abortions Now Legal in Ireland under extremely limited circumstances
“Even if this law is enacted, only a very, very small percentage of women who need abortions will be able to access them in Ireland.”

Voice of Russia Radio UK
13 January
Bleach and suicide mask Northern Ireland Abortion Dilemma
"We’ve heard from women who’ve been so desperate they’ve drunk bleach and attempted suicide and attempted self-abortion.”

Irish Times
22 January 2014
Women seeking UK abortions more likely to have suffered abuse
“In 2013 at least 26 of the women we heard from were in or escaping abusive relationships. We expect the number is higher than this as we don’t ask women if they are in these relationships.”

Women We’ve Helped

In January, ASN heard from 49 women, couples and families.

A woman with health issues that had a high chance of causing a stillbirth later in pregnancy. Not wanting to go through losing a later term pregnancy on top of her other medical issues, including a scheduled major operation and the need to take care of her existing children, she made the decision to travel for an abortion.

A woman who took out a loan where you borrow £600 but pay back £900. We hear from many women so desperate that they have taken out these loans despite having no way of paying them back.

A single, unemployed mother pregnant after being drugged and raped shortly after going through an additional personal tragedy. As she had no credit or debit card or internet access, we paid for her flights and arranged for someone local to print her boarding passes.

A single mother who found out she was pregnant at six weeks and started saving for her termination. However, nine weeks later she was still short of the fee she had been quoted and, since she was past 14 weeks gestation the price had risen by more than £200.

A young woman and her mother who were assaulted by anti-choice protesters outside their family planning clinic in Belfast.

A woman who came to England for her procedure only to be past the gestation she thought she was at. As there was no doctor available to perform the later procedure that day, she had to go home, book a second set of flights, and raise the additional funds for the more expensive procedure.

A woman who found she was pregnant while in the process of leaving her abusive partner and homeless.

Comments from women

“I’m freaking out about how far gone I am. I can’t have a baby for many different reasons and I am not against abortion but I have no money at this time and I’m so afraid because the price of an abortion almost triples the longer gone you are!”

“I was raped last month but never did anything about it as I blamed myself. I have now discovered I’m pregnant. I can’t possibly bring a child into this world at this time in my life and I would rather die than go through with this pregnancy. I need to have an abortion but I haven’t got a lot of money to spare. That’s another reason I can’t have this child as I’d have no means to support it.”

“I am a single mother and her dad left us when she was a baby and I am really scared of being left with another one. I cannot afford the fees of a termination and I feel like there is no way out.”

And our favourite comment, from a mother of two helped by ASN in January:

"What you have given me has just saved my life."
 
We thank these women and men for allowing us to share their stories – and for your support, which enabled us to help them. Please note that all monies are written as GBP regardless of where clients are resident, and that “Ireland” can refer to Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.

Get involved with ASN! TWO roles available

GET ON BOARD THE ASN BOARD!
ASN seeks up to two new trustees for our Board. Trustees work with ASN’s Director and have specified responsibilities along with providing strategic oversight for ASN and helping us fundraise. Desirable skills and qualities include some combination of the following: volunteer management; fundraising with major donors; grant writing; experience with signposting agencies (e.g. clinics, family planning agencies, rape crisis centres); and governance experience, including as a trustee  or knowledge relating to charity commission matters. Interested? Email ASN to request a role description and application. Applications are due Friday 28 March.

HOSTS IN LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER
Do you have a spare room, pull out sofa, or air mattress and the desire to help a woman in need? ASN is seeking a few additional hosts near the bpas Liverpool clinic, the South Manchester Private Clinic, and the MSI Manchester Clinic. You won’t be called to host often but when you are, you will know you are having a direct impact on a woman’s life. We ask that hosts live within a 30 minute commute of the clinic (public transport fine). If interested, please get in touch. Apologies for an incorrect email address in last month’s newsletter!

Change is coming/Save the Date

There are lots of exciting things afoot here at ASN towers – contacting potential sign-posting organisations in Ireland and Northern Ireland to help reach more women, planned updates to our website, and a date for our third AGM and party at which we will reveal our most recent annual report. The AGM and party will both be held on the evening of Thursday 15 May so save the date and watch this space for additional details.

***

Thank you again for all your support. Without you, we wouldn’t have been able to provide financial assistance, accommodation and confidential, non-judgmental information to the many women who have contacted us for support.

 Find ASN on facebook.
Find ASN on twitter.
Visit the ASN website.

Comic reviews for the week of 26/02/2014

Spoilers ahead for Lois Lane One shot 1, Hawkeye 15, Batman/Superman 8, Larfleeze 8, Adventures of Superman 10, My Little Pony: Friends Forever 2.  Big spoilers.  Do not click through until you've read these comics, especially Hawkeye and Adventures of Superman.

New Radio Bamf podcast

Another Radio Bamf recording is up here: http://wearearcade.com/?p=14039

In this episode we discuss Shulkie 1, Green Lantern/Red Lantern 28 (Supergirl becomes a Red Lantern!),Invincibles, Injustice, X-force and our special guest Andy Clift, creator of Bertie Bear, talks about his work and teaches us all about colour flatting.

Comics review for the week of 18/02/2014

This will cover Ms Marvel #1, She-Hulk #1, Batwoman #13 - 17, JLA's Vibe, Batman L'il Gotham #9-24, DC's Young Romance (2013), X-Men #11, Harley Quinn #3, Wonder Woman #28, Supergirl #28.  Clearly these will only be short reviews as I've read a lot.  Spoilers after the break.

House of M - Erik's global paradise (or not)

So I'm now reading the House of M tie-ins.  Some are better than others.  The Incredible Hulk ones are (so far) interesting.  In Incredible Hulk 84 we have some bizarre imagery:

That's the Australian government, looking suspiciously like Nazis.  In the House of M reality Erik Lensher is still a holocaust survivor.  I can't imagine him condoning the Australian's government's treatement of homo sapiens.  A view point supported by this entry in Secrets of the House of M:

Maybe I haven't read enough X-men but in my head Magneto is fighting for a fair deal for mutants, if homo sapiens are killed in this fight, fair enough, but he wouldn't approve of treating non-mutants like the Nazis treated their victims.

In this reality everyone is meant to have their heart's desire.  I don't buy that Magneto wants to enforce this level of suffering on humanity.

House of M

I've really enjoyed reading the House of M mini.  I read the main event first, and while a little confused as to the start of it, overall I thought it was great fun.  The preludes from Excalibur were shockingly bad.  For example, from Excalibur 11:

I honestly thought the floral wall decoration was part of Magneto's hairdo.  Which would be fine, but it's not.  This art is just dull and lifeless.

In contrast, we have in House of M 4, Emma Frost getting her memories back and becoming completely off the wall furious:

That's a much better piece of art.

 As for the rest of the tie-ins, most were fairly enjoyable, but only the Spider-Man ones, The Pulse 10 and Captain America 10 are worth keeping.

Secret War

A few images from Secret War before I start blogging House of M:

This series is really, really pretty.

Bendis' New Avengers - awesome poses

From New Avengers 56, I give you Mockinbird in the second panel from the top:

 

She is graceful and powerful.  And pretty damn flexible.

From New Avengers: Finale, I give you the main panel.  Now that's how you threaten a bad guy:

Bendis' New Avengers - Spider-man

I think these three pages from New Avengers 51, 52 and 61 respectively are really good showcases for Spidey's character.  Other fans may disagree, but to me, these stood out as key elements for who he is.

That will be the last of the New Avengers Posts.  Next up on my reading list os House of M and all it's tie-ins!

Bendis New Avengers - good art

Here's some pages I particularly like.

These 3 are all from New Avengers 23:

The layouts, the colours, the pencils *swoon*

From New Avengers 30:

The colours!  Dr Strange brings all the colours.

From New Avengers 39:

That's just a lovely page of Echo.

Wonder Woman Wednesday

I may have blogged this before, but it's always worth showing again.  It's by Lucy Knisley.

Bendis' New Avengers - babies!

Aw, these panels made me laugh.

From New Avengers annual 1, it's really the bottom half of the page that interests me - everyone's reaction to the child:

By the end of this series I was sick to the back teeth of double page spreads.  There seemed to be between 5 and 10 in every damn issue.  Enough already.

Also from the annual, it;s the little detail of Spidey and MJ in the left hand panel on the second row.  Namely, it's his spider sense going off at the possibility of him holding a baby.  Mate, I know how you feel!

Then, in New Avengers 49, Spidey discovers that babies don't smell too bad:

Bendis New Avengers - Iron Man

These two pages, from New Avengers 25, is the first time I've read Iron Man and understood why people view him as a hero.  Maria Hill also earned my respect in this pages.

Stark and Jarvis have been taken down by someone (I forget who) and a nasty bomb has been left a few feet from them.  Maria Hill arrives with a bomb defuser, but no real idea of the state of the situation.

Comic reviews

Over the last two weeks I have read X-Men 10, Forever Evil 5, Forever Evil: Rogues Rebellion 5, Green Lantern/Red Lantern 28 and World's Finest Annual 1.
Spoilers after the break.

Original Supergirl movie costume

I found this post over at CBR today, looking at Supergirl's movie costume and how it influenced the comic version.

The movie costume started as this:

Which gave us this:

But then the film went with this far more familiar version:

I love the headband costume.   That would have been great to see on the big screen.

Wonder Woman Wednesday

I believe these are from Adventure Comics 416.

Radio Bamf podcasts

I haven't done a plug for radion Bamf recently, so thought I should do one now.  I'm one of the hosts (I believe that's the right term!) and it's a weekly podcast about comics.  We cover the news and what we've read, occasionally do trivia and take questions.  Give us a listen, go on!

Details of the last few shows as follows (I think I have the topics right):
Episode 38: Happy New Year - http://wearearcade.com/?p=14032.  In this we covered what we got over the holidays, the something terrible kickstarter, forever evil, larfleeze and chew.

Episode 39: http://waabamf.podomatic.com/entry/2014-01-18T02_28_10-08_00. I rave about Sterling Gates' Vibe and Blue is the Warmest Colour.  We all discuss Sex Criminals (IIRC we talk mainly about porn in the woods and the letters pages).  News covered is Alan Moore and Peter Parker's return.

Episode 40: http://wearearcade.com/?p=14036.  This is a full house, with all 4 hosts there! I think I talked about Forever Evil: Rogues and Dan Slott's She-Hulk.  I may have talked Supergirl and I think we all discussed Hawkeye.  We also talked about the British Library's upcoming comics exhibition.

Episode 41: Breaking news - http://waabamf.podomatic.com/entry/2014-01-29T11_53_38-08_00.  All the news happened this week.  DC's solicits including Aquaman and the others, Teen Titans, the return of Wally West, Lex Luthor joins the Justice League and DC's tv shows/films. Marvel news was a  Spider-man weekly, Nightcrawler, Avengers Assembled, Marvel's film and TV news and Quicksilver's crappy movie costume.
Episode 42: Horror special - http://waabamf.podomatic.com/entry/2014-02-05T09_25_13-08_00 Special guest P M Buchan joins us to talk horror.  News is the Spidey and Bats/Supes movie, Earth 2 Batman ID is revealed.  This was the most recent one recorded on 3rd Feb.

Have a listen and enjoy!

Super Sexy Saturday

Isn't this the hottest thing you ever saw ?


That's Renee Montoya, aka The Question, depicted as the Queen of the Hunt.  I'm not sure who created this but I know I first saw it a few years ago.  It's amazing and I'd love it as a print.



EDIT 08/02/2014 - The original image can be seen here. It is by Shley77 and it is titled Artemis and the Nymphs, so it's not Renee at all, except for in my head.

Wonder Woman Wednesday

Ok so it's not Wondy, it's Marvel's Valkyrie.  But they are both mythic creatures and they both ride winged horses and if that above pane; can't inspire wonder in you I don't know what will.

From She-Hulk 34.

Coming out in comics: Thundra

This is from She-Hulk 34.  I'd not come across Thundra before, but I gather she's from a nation where men and women are at war with each other and she doesn't like men very much.

Whatever her story, it's always nice to see women in comics crushing on other women.

She-Hulk moments

So I finished reading Dan Slott's and Peter David's run of She-Hulk and I just wanted to share a couple of panels with you.

Awesome Andy is an android in love with Mallory Book. She doesn't return his feelings.  Andy has no mouth or vocal chords so communicates with his tablet.  The display in the last panel breaks my heart.  That is from She-Hulk 6 (Dan Slott).

 Then there's this:

I am such a sucker for team ups of awesome women. I know the art is a bit dodgy but I love the whole premise and layout of this.  I particularly adore Thundra - the redhead in the middle.
This is from issue 35 (Peter David).

Super silly Sunday

From She-Hulk 27.  Lol.

Happy Imbolc!

Imbolc altar, image taken from this website.

My favourite time of the year!  Imbolc is St Brigid's Day, the time of year when we notice the daylight lasting a little longer and the first bulbs start poking through the soil. Last year we had snowdrops in early January and snows in February.  This year I have yet to see a snowdrop, the weather has been exceptionally mild for winter and we have mostly had rain.  The temperature has stayed between 2 and 7 degrees for January, which I can just about cope with.

Brigid is the goddess of the forge, of poetry and of medicine.  Brigid means firey arrow and her day is a fire festival, a festival of light.  In her honour (and the season's honour) we should light candles and do something creative.  Brigid is also the goddess of childbirth so if you are pregnant or due to labour you could consider sending a few prayers her way.

I am going to be spending the day in London with family but I think I shall enjoy some sheep's milk cheese and biscuits on Sunday.  If I could I'd also have a beer as Brigid is known for turning water into beer.

Whether you celebrate the Celtic Brigid, the Christian St Brigid or the Chinese New Year I wish you a good weekend and health and happiness in the coming months.

Pendant showing Brigid with her fire aspect.  Taken from this Deviantart page.