...thanks for all the fish...

So long 2015 and thanks for all the fish...(excuse the Hitchhikers reference)...

I don't 'do' new year because it all seems a bit out of kilter to me.  I can understand the winter solstice being an ending and a new beginning of sorts because it is the point when the light starts to return but I don't get 1st January being the beginning of a new journey because for me January is still slap bang in the middle of winter.

January is cold and wet and damp and a time when I feel I should still be hibernating, sitting curled up on the sofa with a big bowl of casserole and a good book, although I do use January as a time to start thinking about new ventures and beginning to plot and plan what I want to do with the next year but I do not start January with the whole 'new me, new look, new diet, total detox thing'...actually I would never start any month, day or week with a detox and never will until detoxing involves chocolate and cake...

We have a saying in our house "tomorrow is a new day" which actually means we can start afresh on any day of the week, month or year and that works for me.

Actually I had a bit of a health scare in November which forced me to rest up...well actually I was supposed to but really I am useless at doing nothing so I was rubbish at the resting lark until the universe decided to help me out and gave me the worst cough I have ever had in mid December which really did make me stop and rest.  In fact if it hadn't been for the gift of Night Nurse/Day Nurse medication I wouldn't have been vertical for any of the festivities...

However as is the trend I thought I would do a quick summing up of 2015 which was a particularly fine twelve months for me and included the publication of two books - A Kitchen Witch's World of Magical Food in June and Pagan Portals Meditation in December.

I also got to visit Witchfest for the first time as a speaker and was overwhelmed at the response and...have been asked back this year too.  I also got to talk at a couple of local moots as well which is also fun and a workshop at The Enchanted Market (I will be back there again in February too).  It was an honour to do the first talk and book signing at the opening of a friend's shop in Glastonbury - Lady of the Silver Wheel (previously Padma).

Kitchen Witch has grown from strength to strength and we have had some lovely open rituals at the QE Park and the school is very proud to now have a team of Hearth Guardians to provide support not only to us but also to all the students (look out for more from them this year).  We also launched several courses in 2015 all of which are ongoing and open registration; Celtic Goddess, Celtic Gods, Herbal Pathways, Arc of the Goddess and Dark Goddesses.

And then on to 2016...as I mentioned above I will be talking at the Enchanted Market and hopefully at Witchfest (once a date is sorted), there is also a workshop arranged in Souls Journey, Havant in March (for more details see my website www.rachelpatterson.co.uk) and I am currently writing my new book Pagan Portals The Cailleach.  Two more books will be published in 2016...The Art of Ritual is due out on 27th May and Arc of the Goddess (co written with Tracey Roberts) will hopefully be out in the summer.

We also have a brand sparkly new Kitchen Witch course which we hope to launch at Beltane...keep an eye out for details and a new project to launch at Samhain...

Our focus this year will be on the Kitchen Witch online school with new exciting online events and more...

I also have a lot more regular blogging planned...she says hopefully...

Whether you go with the flow or celebrate the new year I hope 2016 brings you everything you wish for and I would like to thank everyone for their friendship and support over the past twelve months, it really is appreciated ♥