Collecting wishes in Lud's Church

Of all the things I expected to find in the basement of a cafe in Conwy, it was not a haunted dollhouse, crying boy paintings, and a mermaid

Folklore!! If that got your attention then you might be interested in pre-ordering mine and @odavies9.bsky.social book in its beautiful paperback design through @waterstones.bsky.social - 25% off if you pre-order before end of day tomorrow

Back to this magical landscape today. Still no sign that those slumbering knights have woken up yet though

Just leaving this here

I loved exploring the folklore of Hertfordshire - from bored devils and diabolical deals to graveyard lore - on 'Weird Britain', which aired on Blaze last night

Nature's AC

I loved talking folklore with @sachacoward.bsky.social @trumanbooks.bsky.social as part of their Weird Midsummer festival - what better way to celebrate the longest day than chatting about our ever changing ritual year, along with queer mermaids and (unrelated) udder suckers?

A brilliant time was had at the Midsummer Weird Folklore Funfair @trumanbooks.bsky.social today - as well as some fascinating talks by some fascinating people, a particular favourite of mine was the hook-a-hagstone 🤣

Ernie the Bartmann headed to Cardiff today for my keynote on witch-bottles at the fantastic Supernatural Event @cardiffuni.bsky.social - thank you for the loan @odavies9.bsky.social!

How proud I am of seeing one of the brilliant MA Folklore Studies @herts.ac.uk postgraduates delivering such a fascinating, insightful, and important paper on Black British music as folk at the @folkloresociety.bsky.social conference

Have loved today's @folkloresociety.bsky.social conference, not least co-presenting on how/why so many British letters to Santa made their way to Norway with the wonderful @idatolgensbakk.bsky.social. And now, being the exciting person that I am, it's PJs and junk food in the hotel room for me 😁

Fascinating panel on death rituals this morning @folkloresociety.bsky.social conference - thank you @stuartdunn.bsky.social, Helen Frisby & Eira Betthell for some really thought-provoking talks

Finally made it to Aberdeen for the @folkloresociety.bsky.social conference and am pleased to have encountered plenty of folklore already, just on the walk from the station

Making the most of a 40-min stopover in my former home city en-route to Aberdeen, where I'll be presenting at the Folklore Society conference - looking forward to catching up with many folklore friends

Today I'd been invited to view the Ice Age art, which @odavies9.bsky.social & I describe as potential early storytelling in our 'Folklore' book - and more recent, equally fascinating, carvings in the caves of beautiful Creswell Crags. A very happy work day!

Off to today's "office" 😄

I'm not telling anyone where this is because I want to keep it to myself 😍

Have arrived a little early to York for my talk on Folklore & Feminism. I can think of worse places to while away an hour on this glorious day

There are definitely worse places in the world to give a paper on Green Monuments for the 'Sacred Forests All Around Us' project seminar @oulu.fi www.oulu.fi/en/news/uniq...

Searching the Finnish woods for the rocky hill and spring where the witch Liisa Kupila would sacrifice black birds, bow to the sun, and gather mud for her magical cures

What does a group of folklorists do when they hear of a forest in Finland that, according to folklore, loses whoever enters it?

Why would we want to learn from our pasts, or ponder the power of the written and spoken word, or explore the deep questions of humanity? According to the University of Hertfordshire, we wouldn't. They've just cut all of our undergrad Humanities programmes

"With bold heart braving a world’s unrest, With banner waving, and glancing crest Comes the warrior woman out of the west." How was history & folklore drawn on in women's fight for rights? Find out at my Seed talk in York, 26 May url.uk.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/o40rCpRJOc...

Was so excited to receive this folklore gem in the post today. Thank you @rorywaterman.bsky.social for a brilliant book. The Lincolnshire Imp approved and I loved it so much I had them print it on the back!

Did you know that in China, apples are a good luck food because the word is similar to "safety", while in Japan it's the KitKat because it sounds like "I'm bound to win"? Hence class snacks for our last Folklore Studies workshop of the semester 😭

So proud of @clairerakich.bsky.social for a brilliant paper on gendered motifs in the uses of folk songs in movies at today's Traditional Song Forum @porticolibrary.bsky.social - I'll never watch folk song in film the same way again!

Mia Marta Ruus travelled from Estonia to give us a fascinating insight into the life, songs, and contradictory characterisations of singer Mai Kravtsov - Mia even treated us to a live Estonian folk song

The second paper was a thought-provoking delve into the mysterious White Fisher song and singer Bell Duncan by Julia Bishop

First up was this fascinating paper by Dr Catherine Ann Cullen on the trials and troubles of women street singers in C19th Ireland