BELTANE in Australia 2025....

Bealtaine Blessings to all my Witches, Wizards, Ghouls, Goblins and Fae Folk in the Southern Hemisphere...(even though this year it is actually on the 8th November - but I am getting in early hahaha!!)..

I know I had a rant about it being called Bealtaine in Australia seeing that is the Celtic word for MAY - and it's November.... but I have caved in under the pressure and am still calling it Bealtaine..

Bealtaine/Beltane/Beltaine is celebrating Spring's arrival with modern and traditional rituals.

Feasts, Fires and Abundance encapsulates the energy of this season - even though due to fire restrictions in Australia, we cannot have our bonfires to celebrate (like they do in the Northern Hemisphere).  

Here are a few ways we in Australia can celebrate:

Handfasting - a time to celebrate commitments and partnerships (or renew them).

Candle Leaping - instead of bonfire leaping - place a lit candle in a cauldron and leap over it for good luck, fertility and purification.

Incense Leaping - same thing with the cauldron, put a bunch of herbs relating to your intention - like purification or cleansing, releasing negative energies etc., light it so it smokes. Jump over the smoke and envision the smoke cleansing, purifying or whatever your intention was, and releasing it to the universe.

Cleansing Rituals - cleaning your home with herbal/floral imbued water (ie., chamomile brewed in water) to cleanse your home of any negative energies.

Altar Cleansing - cleanse your altar for the season and add spring colours like red, yellow, orange, gold and green. Add in herbs, flowers and candles, plus any Deities that you honour at this time.

Rituals - Perform a ritual to honour the power of female energy through meditation and affirmation.

Kitchen Witchery - bake a cake or make a feast for family and friends (or invited guests).

Nature - be in nature and give thanks to the land spirits for all that you have, take time, breathe and be enveloped by the sights, sounds and smells of nature. Give an offering to the land spirits as a way of saying thanks for your abundance.

So whatever you are doing, whichever day (1st or 8th November) you may be celebrating, may you have a Blessed time....

ALSO: Samhain Blessings to all our Northern Hemisphere folk too.

                                                        AND Happy Halloween to all!!       

Blessings to you all,

Annette )O(

Gloomy's Garden & Witchery - Garden Vlog # 17 (20th 24th May)

Hello Everyone,

Just following through with another gardening video for my third week of my holidays - it can be viewed here on my YouTube Channel:

Don't forget to like and subscribe as this really helps my channel grow, and just like a garden, I am planting the seeds in hope that the internet gods will be kind to me and grow my channel into a flourishing community of like minded individuals who cherish Mother Earth in ALL her glory.

So tell your gardening or witchy friends about my channel, hell - tell your neighbour, your grocer or even your pool guy hahaha..... just kidding, I really do want to grow this channel so I can keep making videos - my channel isn't monetised, I am not in it for that - it's just to show you all what I do in my garden and witchcraft practice, plus my herbal remedies, my sewing and crochet projects and any other things that I can come up with along the way - it's a Journey, and I hope you will come along with me on it!!

Anyway, I have one more week of holidays left and if I do not win x lotto, I will have to go back to work on the 2nd June.

I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead.

Blessings,

Annette )O( xxx

Witch Vlog # 7 - Samhain (Southern Hemisphere)

Hello my Magickal Unicorns,

It is coming up to Samhain this week (April 30th - May 1st), so I decided to do an Altar cleaning and repurposing it for the Samhain "End of Summer" season.

I do not talk in this one as I have a toothache/sore gum infection at the moment - which is giving me the heebie-jeebies I can tell you.  I am doing everything I can to get rid of it, but it will take time because I don't use "normal" pharmaceutical medicines, I use herbal remedies - which takes a bit longer but is more acceptable for my body.

Anyway - enough of me griping about my gob!!

I hope you enjoy the video 😁

As always,

Blessings to you all

)O( xxx

Witch Vlog # 6 My Mabon/Autumn Equinox Weekend.

Hello My Magickal Unicorns,

Better late than never - I have uploaded my Mabon/Autumn Equinox video to my YouTube Channel - I hope you enjoy it...    

Many Blessings to you all in the Southern Hemisphere, for the Autumnal Season.

Annette )O( xxx

Autumn in South Australia 2025

Hello my little Magickal Unicorns, 

Well here it is the 15th of March and we are supposed to be in Autumn now. 

Mabon is upon us next Friday (21st - is usually when I celebrate), and nobody has told the weather that it is no longer summer. 

We have 39 degrees Celsius today, so I am sitting in my witchy room under the fan - trying desperately to keep cool. I'm not a fan of the heat. I used to be when I was younger - pre going through menopause. But now I love the cooler months (still not liking the heart of winter when it is too cold hahaha).

Spring is my ultimate favourite season - when everything starts to burst forward with life. Secondly is Autumn (if one should ever get an Autumn that is) then I guess I would have to then take Winter over Summer. 

I find the heat of Summer drains the energy out of me - most days all I can do outside is water my gardens.... and then.... collapse!!! For me, it is easier to keep warm than it is to keep cool - yes we can put the air-conditioner on, but that dries the air out and causes breathing difficulties (though it is nice at night when it is still in the high 20's and you need to sleep). 

Just a quick catch-up - So this year - 2025 - is there any signs of Autumn yet? 

Yes there are - even though most of my garden is still quite green (other than the plants that have died in the extreme heat we have had), some of the leaves are starting to turn yellow. The trees are a bit confused though as they are starting to bud!! 

We have not had any rain for 4 months now, so I lost a lot of plants even though I have watered sometimes twice a day to keep them alive. 

Some of my produce I grew this year was disappointing - small and bitter. And everything in my top garden beds just turned up toes and died there maybe something wrong with the soil up there, so I am going to do some testing and amending of soil, plus put in some green manure to grow over winter - just so those beds will be ready for Spring planting. 

My greenhouse is still WAY TOO HOT to start any seeds off yet - it's going to be late planting this year.  

On Sunday there will be another Gloomy's Garden Vlog coming out with a little tour of my garden and all its issues.... I hope you enjoy a sneak peak into my garden world. 

PLUS - hopefully, if all the stars align, I will have a witchcraft video out for you the very next weekend to do with Mabon...

My Autumn Altar 2025

Until then - I am just about to go and process my pomegranates (which we harvested a couple of weeks ago and had so many that we have fed 6 families with them), so I can make some apple & pomegranate jam.  Plus I am hoping to save some of the peels to dry them out for tea making purposes.

I hope all is well wherever you are.

Have a blessed week ahead, thanks for catching up with me today!! 

Annette )O( xxx