This is our newest addition to our family home, he was found abandoned in Cadiz and rescued from the perrera at La Linea by Brigitte Jaquillard who has left Save A Mastin and has now founded Mastin Matters, who are arranging for this young boy to come over to the UK and live with us.

Our lovely boy Jake is a young affectionate soul, he pretends his deaf until you’re calling him for food! and likes to think he is a lapdog!

As an overgrown puppy he has been a little challenging, choosing to chew everything insight except for his chew toys! but we’ve worked hard at it and he is at last coming out the other side. Another problem Jake had was when he got excited, was to use his mouth on us, as he would when he played with Bannana and Thor (Clarke Gable). For this reason we decided to keep our young grankiddies away until we got him out of it!

This weekend coming we have our oldest grankiddie, who is 7, coming to spend a couple of hours, so that Perun can start with his introduction to children. We’re hoping that by the time the Winter Solstice comes he will be able to meet all our grankiddies, who already get on with Bannana and Thor. We will ensure all 3 go for a nice long walk before the kiddies get here so they will be in a more relaxed state of mind.

Looking forward to updating you in the new year.

So this morning one of my wonderful female cousins sent me this beautiful rose to celebrate IWD 2018, which I sent on to all my female friends on my contact list.  I am not one to reply to chain letters or to reply to circle pics etc., but this rose had the benefit of not telling me to send it on, so I chose to do it, certainly not expecting any back!  However I got about 60% of those I sent out returned the rose to me which actually made me smile (simple things!!).  Although I did get one from my oldest and best friend saying

“Love the rose but why do we need a day? More rubbish from America!”   Now please don’t feel that she dislikes the US, she’s absoloutely in love with America!  Nevertheless it did start me thinking because I thought that women’s day started a very long time ago and in England.

Well I was almost right it started in the 1908 when the women in the US started fighting for votes and equal rights for better pay and shorter working hours with their first march through New York City and this was later taken up by Germany in 1910 and celebrated for the first time as an international day in 1911 on March 19 and then  in 1913 it was changed to March 8th and celebrated every year since.

So in 110 years and with a second female why are women still having to fight for equality?  Why are there still jobs where women are not being paid an equally with mens salaries?

All companies in the UK (but not in Northern Ireland) with more than 250 employees will be reporting on their gender pay gap and the Government Equalities Office will be reporting by the 30th March, and all companies by 4th April.   Companies will also be reporting the degree of differences between bonuses and wages between men and women. However the World Economic Forum reported in 2017 that globally the equality gap will take another 100 years to disappear completely.

Unfortunately, women’s health and education and opportunities for higher level positions in the workplace and in politics worldwide is worse off than for men and although there is more awareness now of violence towards men because at last there is more reporting of this, the figure of violence towards women is still very high.

In 2017 in America the #metoo movement started and continued over here, where women have been coming forward to tell the world of how they have been sexually abused in the film & tv world.  Some men have also come forward but not as many.  Whereas women are finally feeling empowered to come forward, men are still feeling that they can’t.   Some women will say that the number of women being hurt is higher than men being hurt, but I don’t think this is realistic because until we make it normal and more acceptable worldwide for men to come forward, the figures cannot be measured.

Today also there is a new campaign starting to #EndPeriodPoverty in the UK.  We are used to hearing that in the poorer countries sanitary products are not found and for years women here in the UK have been sending packages including sanitary products.  However, today I heard how young women are staying off school/college because their parents are unable to afford to buy sanitary products for their daughters.  In many cases mothers have been found to be stealing sanitary products for their daughters.  Really in 2018 in the UK should this be happening?!

Anyway I would recommend that even if a small way, celebrate International Women’s day! #IWD2018 and post a photo of yourself when you were a young girl with the #EndPeriodPoverty and then don’t forget to celebrate International’s Mens Day on November 19th for awareness on men’s health and sexual violence against men and make it normal for men to come forward also.

 #EndPeriodPoverty

Well we have now had a beloved two Spanish Mastin for two months and both are wonderfully settled and enjoying life.  It has been brilliant for the whole family and especially for me, I have been able to walk them twice a day and the when I can’t My wonderful husband Michael or one of the boys do.  Having lost our last three dogs, Tia (Neopolitan Mastiff) in 2016 aged 13, and both Lady,  (Collie x Doberman) 14 & Toby,  (Siberian Husky) aged 13.5 in 2017 from old age health problems which were impossible to cure, it has been a long time since we were able to walk dogs.

Its been fantastic to be able to give a home to our new furry babies.  Clark is 3.5 yrs and still has a lot of growing to do and Banana is 1.5 yrs and a Mastin x she has still got growing to do.  Neither of them like to be left alone and so someone is always with them.  They love digging holes and running and jumping over each other and although Clark is more dominant than Banana he does allow her to win most of their play-fights.

Clark was found abandoned in Sevilla, Spain and although he loves other dogs and is ok with visiting cats to our garden he is still a little nervous of people he doesn’t know and is more nervous of young children but he is a good dog and moves away from them rather than getting aggressive, he is so affectionate with his family and has great bouncy personality, he really should have been called Tigger!  He had been in a perrera (spanish dog pound) in Sevilla & Cadiz and then in temporary foster care in Malaga, rescued by Save a Mastin, and we adopted him in November 2017.

Banana was abandoned and living in a perrera from the age of 5 weeks!! in Alicante, from where she was rescued again by Save a Mastin, and was fostered nr. Brighton until we adopted her  in December 2017.  Although she was in a perrera from such a young age, she loves all people including children and loves all animals, so she is a credit to her foster carer Fiona.

Should anyone reading this should want to get a dog,so long as you can secure your garden and enough space, please consider fostering or adopting a Spanish Mastin from Save a Mastin (Brigitte Jaquillard) on Facebook.   If you would like to help with the care of these beautiful dogs, Brigitte pays out for all their care in residences including food and having them neutered and vaccinated for the mediterranean diseases and for passports so they can travel to the UK as you can imagine that all comes to a lot of money.  So if you think you are able to donate you would be able to do so on their paypal page of Save a Mastin (Brigitte Jaquillard).

As a Pagan priestess and mother of 6, all of whom had been home-educated, after trying and being failed by school education and one of the things I’m often asked is :

“How on earth did you get started with all this?” For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved to share my passions, stories, and points of view with others around me. Family & my Craft has added immense value to my life, and I love having the chance to share my ponderings and craft which is why I taught about Witchcraft and ran moots along with my husband, Michael, for many years while being on the committee and being a regional manager of the Pagan Federation for Greater London, Surrey & Middlesex.

Many years ago between 35 & 45 years to be exact my dad introduced me to a place which, in my family was called the woods, but was in fact Banstead Downs in Belmont.  It was a place I loved for all my childhood.

It was of very chalky soil with all sorts of trees and plants growing, especially wild Bluebells and silver birch and holly trees all of which were very rare there in 1990.  The downs used to spread from Belmont station all the way passed the totally un-pc name of Banstead Lunatic Asylum, later turned into a prison for mentally ill offenders.

As a child I was never concerned about the patients or even the prison inmates, even though there were often reports of escapees!  and I met a few of the patients on my travels around the wood.  I knew every step of the downs like the back of my hand, and felt completely safe under the watchful eyes of the fleeting glimpses of the Faeries.  I would run away from my dad and play in the trees and when I wanted to find him it was easy, even though the downs were huge.

As an adult myself, I took my own children there after a 14 year absence.  We drove there and parked in the same place my dad used to park. Instead of the old cafe that had been there all those years before there was a row of houses, with back Gardens going back on to the beginning of the downs.  Although it was the Spring, there were no beds of bluebells, we walked and instead of feeling free and easy as it used to with the feeling of friendly eyes.  I was filled with trepidation. The amount of green space and trees had diminished drastically.  We got to the top of a chalk hill and found an obvious circle that had been used the night before with remainder of a bonfire, now I’m obviously not one to be scared of witches, however this did not feel like a normal witches circle.   Instead of a warm and happy place I was filled with horrors and felt chased from the downs by fleeting figures, which were obviously not the friendly Faeries that had been there in my childhood.  There were many more homes built on what used to be wonderful ancient woodland, and even the hospital had changed names and had now been now re marketed into a building of very expensive, luxurious apartments.

A visit later next week will prove as to whether there has been a continuing of growing building on the woodlands or a reclaiming of the ancient grounds and indeed more trees planted.