Our seasons are blending, spring is crushed into summer as winter keeps its icy grip well into where spring once reigned. Autumn the same, we enjoy balmy weather sometimes up until the very edge of December. I sometimes wonder about the Celtic festivals and imagine them as being these totally in sync time keepers of the passing seasons. Bealtaine, now time to work on raising crops and animals, Lunasa, now time to gather in the years efforts , etc. Where are we now?
A couple of weeks back it was time for takingaleaf to sync with Bealtaine. A feast to welcome the Summer months is what I billed it as. And as luck and magic would have it the clouds parted an hour or so before drinks were served. Ans so the celebration took off with seasonly tuned food, drinks and sunshine.
About six weeks before the event I had synchronistically found a venue which provided all the character and mystery that the occasion called for. I the heart of Inchicore, not far from where I do a lot of my foraging, is the CIE Works, and in the heart of the works is a sports and pleasure centre. Built in the 1840's as a social and community centre for CIE workers who were working on the then new railroads. It boasted a sprung ballroom and also had sewing rooms to make and maintain uniforms. Since then it has been through several incarnations and today still serves the community and is run by a fiercely loyal and committed committee.
The ballroom provided the perfect atmospheric backdrop with lighting kept to a minimal except for a single mirror ball giving a desired ballroom of romance in a forest glade appeal.