Hello most of you probably haven't met me yet. I just wanted to say hello and leave a place to continue conversations I may have started in the chat room. People here seem nice and have interesting things to say. Drop me a note if you like.

Hi Heather!
It IS a nice place to hang! Catch ya around.

Hello Silk,
How are you doing? I'm having a great weekend. Went trail riding on my mountain bike. The river was beautiful. The water is so clear you can see the bottom. It looked like a ribbon of clear blue crystal with fish flashing silver all over. It was a breathtaking day. Talk to you later.

I guess I'll just have to start chatting with the zuchinni. There are plenty of them about.... what happened to the message board? No one uses it anymore. I hope that people don't forget that it is still here.

The message board has been insufferably active for the last week or so! Maybe you have bookmarked it to just your own sub-board? (or whatever the term is!) Try clicking on http://www.alia.ie/tir/discus/index.html and select "Recent messages in last day or week." You'll be inundated with traffic!

I wouldn't do that Heather. Me thinks Shae has some trick up his sleave to get unsuspecting woman to go to an unintelligible website full of misleading opinions, gobshite and other inalienable truths. Besides, who wants to be inundated with traffic? Stay here, have a cool glass of vodka (spiked) from Coll's Vat.

Did I just say that again? *gulps*

Heather come to the guest house!

Hello Shae, the day I wrote my last message, there was pretty much no one using the message board, but that's probably because they were all in the chat room. They seem to have come back. I figured they would. I always check the Recent Messages it was just a really slow day. Thanks for the suggestion.

The leaves in the tree outside my kitchen window are starting to turn orange and red and all the plants are going to sleep. My garden has been blessed with bountiful produce and I've more food than I can use myself.

Autumn is my favorite time of year with all the harvesting, beautiful colors, and the fascinating traditions observed by ancient cultures around the world.

Does anyone have any Autumn customs/celebrations to share, besides the modern Halloween, or any interesting Halloween information?

Indeed, Autumn is wonderful Heather! Your description of the view from your window is lovely. A good season to celebrate togetherness as the nights grow colder...families, friends...and the sharing of warmth and caring, good conversation and harvest foods.

It is, of course, Spring this side of the world (NZ) so for the 'traditional' celebratory purposes, Halloween would be out of order in this hemisphere, however, having said that, many still celebrate Halloween on the 31st October, and there is, of course, no reason why the Southern Hemisphere 'Spirits' can't join with the Northern Hemisphere 'Spirits' to honour the change of the seasons and of life, together as one.

I thought you may find this excerp interesting...A story that comes from New Zealand Maori tradition.

"It is time to hear the story of Hine-nui-te-po, goddess of death. Maui, after conquering the sun and succeeding with many other exploits, decided it was time to conquer death. He travelled west with his companions the birds, to where the goddess lay sleeping. If he could creep between her legs and enter her body through her vagina, reversing the journey of birth, and come out of her mouth, then Hine-nui-te-po would die and humans would live forever.

At first Maui considered taking on the form of a kiore (rat), but tataeko the whitehead said that wouldn't work. He considered changing himself into a toke, or earthworm, to enter Hine-nui, but tiwakawaka the fantail (an insect-eater) did not approve. So Maui changed himself into a moko-huruhuru, a small glistening caterpillar. As he began to wriggle into Hine-nui, his movements looked so ridiculous that tiwakawaka the fantail could restrain itself any longer, and burst into laughter! Hine-nui awoke and Maui was suffocated to death.

The story tells of the foolishness of trying to conquor death. Death is part of the law of the great goddess, who knows it is necessary to surrender to the darkness in order to be reborn."

The excerpt goes on to suggest that we "take time in nature...make the night journey into the bush, listening to the sounds of the wild creatures, taking time alone, facing into the dark...exploring our own underground, our own depths, to emerge into the season changeover."

It is interesting to compare other cultures seasonal celebratory rituals and beliefs.

For further comparison of Southern/Northern Hemisphere traditions..."Celebrating the Southern Seasons" by Juliet Batten, ISBN 0 908884 54 0.

Happy Autumn you Northern Hemispherers! :)

Thanks for the story Silk.

Anyone have any Samhain lore to share?

Hello good people of Tir. I have heard news that the "provisional"(?) government of Ireland has been relieved of it's authority. ( I don't know what this might mean.) I want to pray for those who live in Ireland and for our world in general today. To ask for strength in these times of uncertainty and instability. Please join me if you will in your own way to pray for Peace.

Hello wonderful People of Tir. How I've missed my visits
here! I really miss all the banter that went on. I've finally
graduated from university and what a rocket ride life has
been the last 6 months. Has it been that long?!!

Well, I miss it here. I hope that all are doing well.

Heather

Hellooooo Heather!! Congratulations on your graduation!!! *biggest fireworks display!!* The world's yer oyster Girl!...go get 'em! Well done!

Well, we're on the move again....sigh. Thanks to the rotten
economy my man has been laid off and we cannot survive
here in our current rural setting. We moved to this desert
waste for a university job that has been cut thanks to
funding cuts to higher education. I hope that "Luck O the
Irish" catches on soon. I guess I wore out all my luck early
on. I'll try to find my way back to Tir soon. Farewell for
now. I'll miss it dearly.

P.S.
Thanks for the celebration Silk. Take care.

You take care too, Heather. Keep your chin up, it's quite true what they say..."one door closes, another one opens". Just hard at times to realise that it's all for the best.

What did that guy "Seal" say in his song...."We're never gonna survive...unless we...get a little crazy". Most of us don't deal with change very well, but it is a fact of life, so we need to try and look at it with a fresh perspective of it being positive rather than scary and threatening. Let yourself get a little 'crazy' and you will survive!

New opportunities ahead! Go get 'em! :))))

Back finally. I have really missed the discussions here. There
are always such thought provoking and entertaining postings
here.

Things seem to have come full circle. How ironic it is. We
returned to the place we started out from last year. And live not
one block from our old residence. Last spring we had both just
graduated university, my husband had just landed a job after 6
months of hunting and I had just finished school, but had no
job. We moved to a small town based around a university, but
located on the edge of a high plains desert with a mountain
range to its back. It is located along a transcontinental highway
just after the mountain pass on the desert side where all the
rivers converge into one to flow through the desert together. (It's
positively amazing to see so much water flowing through a sea
of sageland, sand dunes, and cactus. The river canyon is so hot
it would seem like the gates into hell with a massive river
flowing through. Black rock cliffs on either side storing and
radiating heat. You can see the heat in the air as heat waves.)

We left to return to our hometown on the far edge of the high
desert where the land again transitions into mountain
wilderness. But here there is a large city not 20 minutes off and
many more job oportunities. I have gone through 5 different
jobs in less than 12 months, 2 of which I drove 1 hour each way
to get to and from. But have finally landed in a stable job that
has lasted the last 4 months.

Now both my husband and I have landed jobs at the university
from which we graduated and worked at for the last 4 years as
students. We could walk to work in about 15 minutes if we
liked. We have good pay and benefits. I just can't believe how
things have gone from one extreme to the other.

I think we've landed in a new Patch O Clover. I hope to be here
much more often now. See you soon.

Welcome back Heather!!! Great to see all has fallen into place for you both!, and what occurances to get to where you are! Life never ceases to amaze and amuse! Look forward to seeing you around regularly again!

Thought I'd say "hi" as this seemed to be the Silk & Heather page.

Heather: I've been talkin' to Silky for a while and I'm sure she'll vouch for my good character.
I seem to recall from the depths of time that "Fraoch" is gaelic for Heather.

anyway, Welcome back to the Family O'Tir!

Silk: Do you have Lacie's email as she has changed it?

Hi Ghost. Lacie never shared her email addy with me. Sorry can't help there. Perhaps Sorcha can help?

As for vouching fer ye...*L*...your a damn "GHOST", Ghost!! Since when did Ghosts require a Curriculum Vitae with references to blooming well haunt?! Good Lord...the world sure HAS changed! ;)

Yeah....he's okay Heather...just watch that shifty sheet *g*

Hey Silk, Ghost.
Nice to "see" you again Silk! Nice to meet you Ghost.

Yes I once went by the name Fraochin to put a feminine spin on
the name. Apparently Fraoch is usually a masculine name when
used? However, people didn't take to it well and were always
asking me what it meant. It doesn't really roll off the tongue if
you know what I mean.

Can anyone advise on the use of a Gaelic word for Heather other
than Fraoch?

Sorry Heather but bsides English I only speak spanish and it's "Heather" in Spanish, however my mate Marco says that "Erica" is italian for Heather.