Just Almonds
July Newsletter
Update - After a month of just almonds and then writing this newsletter, I got a little flurry of sugar - coated almonds, which I will of course share with you later this month. For now, here's the none sugar-coated version of last month’s freelance life. Spoiler alert, sometimes it's hard but it's worth it.
I’m not going to lie to you folks, this month has been a rollercoaster. Freelance life is always full of ‘yes until it’s no’, but there’s been a little more of that than usual this month. It’s often a yes to my ideas, my offer and the experience that I have is respected, but ultimately it ends up being a no because the cost of living is biting, heritage and the arts are woefully underfunded and if you can’t pay your staff, it’s unlikely you can pay a freelancer. So I’m left with just almonds. No sugar coating, just almonds.
In the Christmas bowl of nuts ready for shelling, other than the Brazil nuts, almonds were always the toughest nuts to crack but they were the ones I loved best. And sugar coated almonds … well that’s just 1980s wedding favour perfection.
Sugar coated almonds first appeared in the 15th century when sugar became more widely available and the art of dragée (sugar panning small edibles) was perfected. This confection has long been established as a wedding favour and originated from a Sulmona, a city in central Italy. The reason for them becoming wedding favours is that the bittersweet of the almond signifies the rollercoaster of marriage and the sweet sugar coating, the love that goes with it.
A little poem accompanies this tradition and it goes like this:
Five sugared almonds for each guest to eat
To remind us that life is both bitter and sweet.
Five wishes for the new husband and wife
Health, wealth, happiness, children, and a long life!
These little sweets eventually crossed the channel and became popular in the UK. And so it is that the sugared almond perfectly represents last month’s freelance vibe: a lot of bittersweet hard work, but also a lot of love. I hope that I will soon perfect the art of dragée and sugar coat the heck out of June’s almonds.
In the meantime, I have a few events coming up in July for your consideration and for paid subscribers I will be compiling a little video chat about the folklore of stone circles, exploring the world of the crab spider in my next ‘Symphony of Animals’ and Kitchen Witching with wonderful mugwort.
I wish you all a merry July and so we end on a sweet note, here’s some sugar coated almonds for you. Read on to find out what stories, events and recommended reads I have for you this month.
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July's Track:
Upcoming Events For July/August :
8th July - Tales Of Dragons - Family Storytelling for Monsters. Myth & Magic at Andover Museum - Book Tickets here
16th July - Alton Eco-Fair - Family Storytelling - more Information here
29th July - Storytelling Workshop For Yogis as part of Jo Standen’s Yoga Retreat nr Wickham, Hampshire. - more Information here
12th August - Iron Age Stories - Family Storytelling at Andover Museum - Book Tickets here
For more information visit my events page using the button below.
June’s Paid Subscriber Content, Available In The Archive:
Eight Arms To Hold You - Notes From The Downs looking at the octopus and its cousin the Kraken- Read Here
Celebration Sheet - Litha - A collaboration between myself and Tiffany Francis-Baker - Download Here
Thank you for supporting this newsletter through June. Supporting my work in this way allows me to continue to write freely and authentically and I thank you from the bottom of my storytelling heart.
Upgrade to paid with the subscribe button below and receive at least two extra posts a month exclusively for subscribers.
July's Read:
This book has been sat on my To Be Read pile for way too long and it’s time to dive in! A subject close to my heart, this book looks at the lives of the people who collected fairytales and how this influenced the tales they recorded.
