My final offering of 2025 is a ride through the parish with the local carollers and a peek through the frosted windows of a Victorian Christmas. I share some folklore and superstitions surrounding the ancient act of bringing in the evergreens and round up the year with the Somerset Carol. 🌲✨

‘Rituals of Twelfthmas’ 🌲 The final instalment of the Wessex Hag series! I’ll be back in 2026 with a different format… wessexhag.bandcamp.com/track/decemb...

An image a day for December 2025 no 21. Mistletoe! Margaret Baker recounts the story of the Hay family in Perthshire. An oak on their land played host to mistletoe, and the family prospered for generations. The oak tree was eventually felled, and the estate passed out of the family soon after.

NEW EPISODE! We're in the season of illuminations! From the failed gunpowder plot of 1605 to the dazzling processions of Bridgwater carnival, Somerset has developed a dazzling inheritance of wielding light in the encroaching darkness of November 🔥🎡 wessexhag.bandcamp.com/track/novemb...

October's instalment explores the complex relationship many have with autumn, from the awe of the seasonal splendour to existential grief of the decaying environment around us 🍁 Ep.11 ‘Decadent Decay’ is up on Bandcamp and all the major pod streaming places! wessexhag.bandcamp.com/track/octobe...

My live Wessex Hag show is at @cafekino.bsky.social on 26/10 and tickets have been flying out the window! Very excited to bring some spooky tales to the stage with Blabbermouth. www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/caf...

Absolutely always my favourite time of year 🍂

"In an era when the one-armed bandit of social media vies for your engagement . . . the simple, archaic activity of squishing some free fruit into a secondhand jar feels like the ultimate hag remedy for half the world's problems" Listen to Ep.10 here 👇🏻🧙🏻‍♀️ wessexhag.bandcamp.com/track/septem...

Episode 10! ‘Eat the Equinox’ - an autumnal ramble about a cosmic connection between the loaf tin and the constellations (via the Anglo-Saxon coin purse) 🧙🏻‍♀️🍂💰 wessexhag.bandcamp.com/track/septem...

Smashing afternoon at @field-system.bsky.social - massive congrats Mark and Milly on such a successful knees-up! @alexmerryart.bsky.social the Boss Morris collection was to die for 🌞

Breakfast 🍄‍🟫🌝

This morning’s haulage 🧙🏻‍♀️

Look at this beautiful sentient tea towel I found backstage 🌸🌝 @alexmerryart.bsky.social

Green Man 2025!

Growing under the Sturgeon Moon is yarrow, a plant carried by Achilles to treat the wounds of his fellow soldiers. Common names include nosebleed, staunch weed and wound wort. [asteraceae family; achillia millefolium] #wessexhag #fullmoonflower

Clogs, salon talons and a Tupac t-shirt. Jennifer Reid is a stunner @jenniferballads.bsky.social

Incredible whopper Chicken of the Woods clocked up a Sidmouth chestnut tree!

Delighted to get a selfy with West Country legend Charlie Cooper ✨

We had a delightful day @sidmouthfolkfest.bsky.social yesterday (& wish we could have more). Highlights include bumping into @jenniferballads.bsky.social & @wessexhag.bsky.social & Socs getting a photo with Charlie Cooper after his fab talk. Hoping we’ll be more involved next year. Watch this space!

Made a friend 🐰 @sidmouthfolkfest.bsky.social #horsetrials

Isn’t that the bloody coolest album cover ever of all time ✨ @jenniferballads.bsky.social Ballad of the Gatekeeper 🌿

Author and horse puppeteer James Frost at @sidmouthfolkfest.bsky.social lovely guy and wonderful talk 🦄

Fair morn! The wonderful people of @folklorepod.bsky.social have very kindly pointed a few of you here, thanks for following! I’m an artist, producer, stroller + full-time daydreamer - I’ve managed to put all these qualities in my #WessexHag podcast, all about the people and landscape of #Somerset 🧙🏻‍♀️

EVERYONE! It was my absolute pleasure to meet Rosie May, creator of Wessex Hag podcast, this afternoon at Sidmouth Folk Festival as she was working the venue we gave our talk in I highly recommend following her @wessexhag.bsky.social and listening to her gentle and warming podcast, as I have been

LOAF MASS! 🌾🍞 Episode 8 of Wessex Hag is now live, a little nostalgic reflection on the Harvest Festival at a C of E primary school. Only a little one, because later in the month I’m releasing an absolute UNIT of an episode, all about the mythology of the Green Man + his place in Somerset churches!

Found a superb carboot yesterday near Clyst St Mary (near Exeter). Very small, with an immaculate vibe. Just look at this treasure. 📿

If you’re into your epic historic battles, and Somerset history especially, I highly recommend you see the ‘After Sedgemoor’ exhibition at @museumofsomerset.bsky.social in Taunton about the Monmouth Rebellion. It’s fascinating and includes huge paintings on loan from the Tate. On till 6th July

Pilton Pop Festival would be renamed and relaunched in the summer of 1971 as ‘Glastonbury Fayre’, drawing on the atmosphere of Avalonian mythology that even today attracts millions of New Age travellers, Druids and Christian pilgrims to the landscape every year. 🧙🏻‍♀️ #wessexhag #glastonbury

Episode 6 ‘The Glastonbury Fayre’ takes us on a mystical ramble along the ley lines of Wessex through wartime propaganda and the peculiar destinies of some rebellious aristocrats. A weird walk indeed! wessexhag.bandcamp.com/track/june-t...

Making the pilgrimage to Glasto, or managing the dreaded FOMO? There’s a podcast for that! Hear all about the cosmic and convoluted origins of the Somerset festival here 🧙🏻‍♀️🌀 wessexhag.bandcamp.com/track/june-t...

Holy Island! Been looking forward to coming here for years and it was very lush indeed 🦭

A big glorious shout-out to true hags @icysedgwick.bsky.social and @lucywright.bsky.social whose brilliant work informed some of May’s episode. Listen to ‘Hags and Haws’ for a wending ramble around the folklore of hawthorn and hedgerows 🧙🏻‍♀️ wessexhag.bandcamp.com/track/may-ha...

The etymology of ‘hag’ comes from Old English word ‘haga’ meaning ‘hedge’. ‘Haga’ also brought us the word ‘hagathorn’, which evolved into ‘hawthorn’. In an era of declining biodiversity, hedgerows are often the only safe habitat available to creatures in our over-farmed, overly manicured landscape.

I really love seeing the emblem plants of the British Isles all together ☘️🌹

The weather is all over the place this week! Yesterday the most intense rainbow kicked off over the Blackdowns! 🌈

The coif is here to stay ✨

The origins of ‘hag' wend their way along ancient hedgerows and exist as a living memento of Old English. ‘Hag’ has long been wielded as a tool for sexism + ageism; in our era of climate crisis, it is the perfect time to reclaim the word as a potent symbol of reconnection with the natural world! 🌿

wessexhag.bandcamp.com/track/may-ha... Episode V! ‘Hags and Haws’ - a linguistic ramble along the hedgerow to unveil the incredible origins of the word ‘hag’ 🧙🏻‍♀️

I like the Somerset name Onion Stinkers, which I learnt from @wessexhag.bsky.social 🌱

'Weird' comes from the Germanic root 'werden' meaning 'to turn, which evolved to mean 'fate' or 'destiny. Weird Somerset seeks to highlight and celebrate the changing face of the county along with the diverse customs of its people.

We soon realised that the common thread drawing us in was the passion and hard work poured into all these rituals. Some of these portraits depict typically bucolic scenes, whereas others capture lesser-celebrated forms of folk art that bring equal worth and meaning to Somerset's diverse communities.

Sumorsate Ealle! Our county's motto, meaning 'All the people of Somerset'; a call to arms by Alfred the Great to defend Wessex against the invading Danes. To mark Somerset Day (11 May) here are some of our favourite scenes of ritual and pageantry captured in our most weird and treasured county.

Happy May, everyone! Here is me grinning a gappy grin for the local paper in 1997. I loved the maypole, and think I could remember the moves even now! 🌸🌼

Hvrch Vilding Ociety - Isle Abbots

Don’t you just love a kneeler? Is that what they’re even called? My friend Kate described them as pixel art, and wondered if anyone has made a holy homage to Pac Man or Tetris. I for one would like to see more 8-bit art in churches, or maybe pastoral Christian scenes in games.

Today, George is the patron saint of many countries including Palestine 🇵🇸, Catalonia, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 and Georgia 🇬🇪 (hence the namesake) 🐉

The mythology of Saint George is… exactly that: mythology. He was a Roman military man who was martyred when he refused to renounce his faith, as a follower of a radical new religion (✝️). He was Turkish lad who never set foot on English soil (and never even slayed a dragon! Shocking 😱)

The visual accompaniment to this month’s episode of Wessex Hag, focusing on the mythology of Saint George 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

April’s instalment rambles through the lore and mythologies of this month, via Easter Sunday, car-boots, holy springs, dragon battles and the rather mysterious Saint George. If you haven’t yet tuned in, please do! 🧙🏻‍♀️🐉🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿