‘Stories of the Stones’ will be published in the UK on Feb 1st, one month from today! ‘In a magical yet historically grounded book, Robichaud reveals a new depth to these living stones whose enduring appeal is interwoven with folklore, story, identity, nationhood and spirituality.’ — Francis Young

The land has been year-walked. The future has been met in the lanes and ways. The cunning folk have conferred. On the doors of The Raven, The Woodwose's Crown and all the other pubs they use, the proclamation has gone up: 'This is the YEAR OF THE GREEN PATHS.'

Happy New Year, and best wishes for 2026.

The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame, illustr. Inga Moore, 1945.

Happy New Year! The Pogues, ‘Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash’ (1985; 2025 40th Anniversary reissue). My favourite Pogues album, sounding amazing in this recent reissue on 180g vinyl.

Goodnight from Cunning Davey Ash, readying himself to year walk the lanes in search of the new year’s secret name. Goodnight from the revellers at The Bell, waiting for the deer-skulled Lord of the Forest to bring in his blessings at the stroke of midnight. Goodnight from Hookland.

Happy New Year! At midnight on Hogmanay, the Watch Stone will move from its position guarding the approach to the Ness of Brodgar to take a drink from Stenness loch. (Or so it is said!) Wishing you all a wonderful 2026, filled with folklore, fun and many a hike to an ancient site 💚🪨🎉

I won’t miss 2025. My mother passed away after an 11 year struggle with Alzheimer’s; AI has made teaching college English increasingly difficult; and the horrors of the world continue. Nonetheless, there were some beautiful moments and I hope 2026 offers us more reasons for hope and joy.

Acadians in Chéticamp, Nova Scotia and the Îles de la Madeleine had a tradition of symbolically beating the old year to death by striking the outside corners of their houses with sticks. #Folklore 🎨Hooked rug depicting the Acadian flag from Chéticamp, Nova Scotia.

My maternal great-grandfather at the Toronto home of his employer, publisher Richard Southam, in 1930. Born and raised in Kentish Town in London, my great-grandfather worked as a gardener at Highden House in Sussex before emigrating to Toronto in 1913 to work for Sir Henry Pellatt at Casa Loma.

An old favourite for the last #TombTuesday of 2025, this is the Dolmen des Follets, a neolithic tomb in St Gravé, Brittany. It is said to be inhabited by a band of ferocious goblins (the 'follets') who fiercely guard a treasure buried beneath.

Wayland’s Smithy, Oxfordshire, July 2023. #TombTuesday

A chilly sunrise on Lake Winnipeg this morning. About -25°C, but no wind so it was a lovely walk.

My Christmas present to myself was ‘Great Lakes Suite’ by the Rheostatics, a band from my home turf of northwest Etobicoke in Toronto. The album includes readings by Ann Carson, Chief Stacy Laforme, Liz Howard, and many others.🇨🇦

Goodnight from The Bottled Imp tavern, where a pale ale fuelled punch-up has broken out on whether white horse of summer or grey mare of winter is the best Bone Horse. Goodnight from Rex Hill, wondering why his shadow has grown wings on the walk home. Goodnight from Hookland.

Finished rewatching Jon Pertwee’s first season of ‘Doctor Who’ (1970). Taken together, the stories seem like a fevered dream warning of the dire future faced by our fossil fuel obsessed civilization.

Some Sunday ‘Doctor Who’ viewing.

It’s the last #StandingStoneSunday of the year … thinking back to some fantastic sites I saw for the first time in 2025. This is one of the very best - beautiful Uragh on the Beara peninsula, Co Kerry.

#StandingStoneSunday Mitchell's Fold (sometimes called Medgel's Fold or Madges Pinfold) is a Bronze Age stone circle in southwest Shropshire, located near the small village of White Grit at the southwest end of Stapeley Hill in the civil parish of Chirbury with Brompton, at a height of 330m

This morning on the Rideau River in Manotick, Ontario.

I still use a daily, handwritten planner as my calendar. Which means I am a big fan of the ancient device known as the παράπηγμα (parapegma); essentially a Greco-Roman calendar and weather predictor with peg holes where you could keep track of the days and months. archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/24...

Goodnight. ‘The whole Moomin family had, as usual, hibernated for the winter and set the alarm clock to ring on the first of April. But the clock was old and not to be trusted, so it woke them up for Christmas instead. Since she was awake anyway, Moominmamma made coffee.’ ~ 🖼️ 🖊️ Tove Jansson

Ah, just saw Cure guitarist Perry Bamonte has passed away after a short illness. RIP 🖤

Stepson and uncle making some cat art on the frozen river this morning.

First time since Tuesday that I haven’t had a fever, so definitely feeling better.

A chilly Boxing Day morning on the outskirts of Ottawa!

This is the 4.5m tall isolated menhir which stands on the W edge of the tertre tumulaire (a low but long type of tumulus) in the NW corner of the alignments at Kerlescan in Carnac (Morbihan). Card by Laurent in Port-Louis c. 1905.

Three ghosts visited me last night, but I don’t really remember what all they said or showed me. Must not have been that important

Cheers, everyone!

Stalldon Row: This magnificent stone row (possibly the best in the land) stretches for over 500 metres in a north to south direction, mostly up the southern slopes of Stalldon Barrow hill, but with its northerly end just over the top of hill, and starting to wander back down the northern hillside.

Christmas is hard for many. The years roll, the ghosts at the table increase. We’re haunted by the absence of voices, of laughter engines who drank and ate with us. This can be day of remembrance rituals. For what it’s worth, Hooklanders near and far are in my candles today. Be gentle on yourselves.

From the diary of Reverend Kilvert, a Victorian clergyman in Wiltshire, Christmas Eve, 1874

Good to be back in Canada for the holidays. 🇨🇦

Spent the night tossing and turning with fever and chills in a hotel room in East Syracuse, New York, though the fever broke. Slept most of the morning and am feeling a bit better. Fortunately, my wife will be finishing the drive to Ottawa for Christmas. 🎄

In his ‘Hymn to Pan,’ notorious English magician Aleister Crowley urges the god to ‘Do as thou wilt, as a great god can / O Pan! Io Pan!’ #WyrdWednesday

Across the River from the Capital (A Northern Nativity) William Kurelek 1975

The oldest living thing in Wales: the yew in the churchyard of Llangernyw, #Conwy, which is believed to be somewhere in the region of 3,000 years old. #ThickTrunkTuesday #Wales

At West Kennett Long Barrow, Wiltshire. #TombTuesday 📷 June, 2023

22/12/25 - nocturn

Found this on a bookstall about 20 years ago: Pan No. 1, 50p!

This fascinating book by @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social altered my sense of European history; the story of the last European pagans in the Baltic and Fennoscandia is a revelation, but it also raises important questions about the nature of paganism, its relationship to Christianity, and religion itself.

Pan appears to be performing a song-and-dance number in this mosaic from a Roman villa on Cyprus (3rd century AD), but he's really about to launch his lagobolon, a throwing stick used for hunting hares and other small animals. Pan was god of the hunt as well as a pastoral god. #MosaicMonday

Winter Lights Roy Henry Vickers ~ Haida, Heiltsuk, Tsimshian 2024

Happy Winter Solstice everyone. One of my first oil paintings from 1996 of Avebury where I went to primary school. Being there had a profound influence on my work. Lighter days ahead.

For me, the weak light of solstice morning is reminder that hope always finds its way back into the world, but needs to be nourished.

On the loom of winter, shadows gather in a web; then the shuttle of St. Lucy makes a pause; a dark weave fills the room… —George Mackay Brown, “Maeshowe: Midwinter” in FOLLOWING A LARK (John Murray, 1996) #poem #poetry #Orkney #archaeology #prehistory 5/5

Wishing everyone a blessed Winter Solstice. Kercado chambered tomb, near Carnac, Brittany. Built c. 5,200 BCE, its entrance was oriented toward the rising sun on the Winter Solstice. 📷 June, 2023

🎨 Charles Addams

In Stephen McKenna’s 1926 novel ‘The Oldest God,’ a Christmas gathering at a country house is interrupted by the mysterious (and cloven-hoofed) Mr. Stranger after most guests decide to follow nature over social convention. Could he be Pan, or someone more sinister? #BookWormSat