Looking ahead...be awesome this yule

We're off to Barley in the Pendle Valley, Lancs next weekend for the inaugural Northern Healing Arts Project Craft Fair. It's from 10-4, Sunday the 27th of October.
We've met so many amazingly talented crafters and makers this year I don't think we'll ever have to buy a commercially produced present EVER again. This got us to thinking...
Why is it that we (in general, as consumers) don't mind shelling out our hard earned money on "stuff and things" that aren't made in the UK, then imported and sold in shops that give little or nothing back to the immediate area (ok, I'm generalising MASSIVELY here, but you get the point right ;) ) and yet folk grumble about paying for hand made items from local crafters?
We'd rather get bits for our house from second hand or antique shops, buy our food from local markets and suppliers (places like the butchers in Wark or Bellingham, the street market in Hexham) than go to a big supermarket chain and so on.
This Yule we're definitely not going to be buying the kids' or our family's presents from toys'r'us or Argos - they will all be hand made, either by ourselves or some of our superbly skilled friends.
I know that I'm preaching to the choir here, since you're reading this, but we should start trying to get our friends, families, co-workers and so on to change their spending habits too.
So thinking ahead to Yuletide and into the coming years -
Buy Local, buy Handmade, be awesome.
See you at Barley!

A mad start to Autumn!

Well, where do we begin? Autumn is here and the fruit trees are bending low with bountiful harvest, waiting to be picked! The mushrooms are out and we've spent many an evening wondering about in the forest to see what we can find. The latest tally stands at a gallon of cider on to brew, 5kg of beef stew mushrooms
After the bike crash, resulting in a broken collar bone for Gordon, we've been working away carefully but continuously in the workshop - we've taken several commissions for very specific pieces and, having no doubt pestered our suppliers silly with specifications, we've received all the raw materials they are all well and truly underway! We are aiming to have all the orders completed by this time next week, so don't panic you'll have your horns for Samhain!
We've been up and down the country to trade events and craft fairs galore, met some wonderful people and even done some film work for a documentary on the "real Robyn Hoode" (more to come on that later!)
We've made some great friends in the Viking re-enactment groups and pushed forwards with our own little group of late Anglo-saxon to early Viking rabble! (again, more updates on this in the VERY near future)
Our upcoming events list is bulging with exciting fixtures. We're off to the inaugural Norther Healing Arts Project Halloween Fair, in Barley next weekend. so if you're in the Yorkshire/Lancashire part of the country come along and start your Yuletide shopping off right! Check out https://www.facebook.com/events/154554878046841/ for more details on that.
Straight after Barley we are heading to the wonderful Thirlings Farm at Bede's World, Jarrow, Newcastle. We'll be living on the farm as an anglo-saxon family for the whole of the half-term week with our excellent "Meet the Other Folk" overnight storytelling and music event on the night of Samhain, or Halloween...if you're not already booked to do something brilliant, head over to our events page and get yourself a ticket booked!


In summary, our summer has been manic for many good and one very painful reason! Wyld Fire is one year old this month and we're gearing up for a few changes for the years to come, but I can't tell you about them yet, it's top secret! Watch this space for developments!
See you at Samhain and until then, get out and forage your hearts out, Autumn is here and
ripe for the picking!