2016 Winter Solstice

A Lovely Winter’s sunrise on a millpond in Wales

The Winter Solstice: The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year and traditionally is the first day of Winter. This year the solstice occurs on Wednesday December 21st at 10:44 GMT (Universal time). My Celtic forebears have always celebrated the solstice at dawn on the day of the solstice which will occur at 8:23 GMT. And, just to make things interesting in my part of Wales, the Cumbrian Mountains, the weather forecast is for light rain from 8:00 AM – 12:00 noon with temperatures in the low 40s (F). The peat braziers will be alight which will take some of the chill off and the Blackthorn hedges are a very effective windbreak. So, the celebration should be nothing like as uncomfortable as when I celebrated it at Location Z in the Scottish Highlands several years ago, with my wards, in ice and snow. The hooded shearling robes are quite warm, but cold of the stone altar seeps through and being wet makes that happen quicker. I would love to have ritual winter seed planted in me on a dry Winter Solstice day!  

The ritual planting of winter seed: As I mentioned in an earlier post my current sweetie Tim, a well-endowed SAS officer, who knows how to make me go boneless thrusting into my anterior fornix, will be on the main altar with me at 8:23 AM. Since I will be CD12 and fertile I’ll be wearing a stretchy latex flat spring diaphragm with an acidic gel in the dome as spermicide, for contraceptive protection. The latex flat spring is also amazing as a thrust buffer which can give me another centimeter or so of depth when on the upstroke, he forces the dome deeper into my anterior fornix while at the same time forcing my cervix higher.

An update:

The ceremony went well. It began at sunrise (8:23AM GMT) on an ancient Celtic stone altar surrounded by an impenetrable barrier of Blackthorn bushes, the fruit from which my estate makes sloe brandy, but only for local consumption. There is an underground passageway (newly refurbished) from the keep for access to the holy site so my partner and I could arrive and depart unobserved.  The temperature was in the high 30s(F) but the peat fires in the four braziers surrounding the altar took some of the edge off the chill and the Blackthorn barrier was effective as a windbreak protecting us from the wind coming from the south west off St. George’s Chanel. We were both a bit high on sloe brandy when we got up on the altar. I lay on my back and he knelt between my legs and prepared to enter me. I wore only a pair of Gaynor Minden pointes, my latex diaphragm and a hooded shearling robe. I had checked that my diaphragm was covering my cervix and that I was well lubed. Then as I fondled his erection with one hand I spread my labia with the fingers of the other and at exactly 8:23 guided him as he pushed his way inside me.

It was marvelous lying there beneath my lover arching my back and taking his thrusts as I channeled the Celtic Goddess Rhiannon and wondered how many women before me had lain on that altar beneath a man while he planted his winter seed in them and how many infants had been produced nine months later. Once we began time passed far too quickly. He brought me to a shuddering gasping orgasm and my contractions tipped him into ecstasy with me as he released hot jets of thick creamy semen to splatter harmlessly against the latex membrane of my cervical barrier with my fertile cervical mucus on the other side. It was all over before we knew it.  One amazing thing was that we didn’t get rained on! It rains frequently here seemingly when I want to conduct an outdoor activity of any sort. The rain began shortly after we had concluded the ceremony and returned inside.

Wishing all my readers good health and a lovely Winter Solstice!

Thanksgiving house party planning 2016

A traditional U.S. Thanksgiving holiday meal

The Photo: A traditional U.S. Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, dressing and gravy, green beans cranberry’s and fruit

Best wishes to my U.S readers: I may be just a tiny bit late in wishing my readers in the U.S. a very happy and safe Thanksgiving as some are already traveling to be with family and friends for the holiday to feast and watch parades and football. Even so, I hope everyone has good weather, travels safely and has a great time! (((hugs))) to you all!

Thanksgiving in the UK and U.S.: In the UK Thanksgiving (as a harvest festival) is of ancient origin, but not an official holiday. It is traditionally held on or near the Sunday of the harvest moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox, which this year was September 18^th. Thanksgiving is celebrated in the U.S. on the fourth Thursday in November which this year falls on the twenty-fourth. As I mentioned in a post last year the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, complete with roast turkey, seems to have caught on in the UK, perhaps because everyone likes another holiday.

For those not steeped in U.S colonial history: Thanksgiving in the U.S. is celebrated to mark harvest at the first permanent English colony at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.  Some would have us think that the first Thanksgiving was held in Massachusetts by the Mayflower Pilgrims who landed in 1620. However, the Mayflower landing was 13 years later than Jamestown.  

House party Planning:  The Super Moon aside (more about that below) I’m looking forward to my Thanksgiving house party at Blackthorn Castle from the 24^th through the 27^th. This year I’m having a Thursday through Monday house party. With a good bit of prior planning dancer friends from the RB will be able to attend as will my wards, Bea, who will come down from Cambridge and two others, Bryony and Claire, from grad school at University College London. I’m pleased to say that they are all bringing boyfriends with them! Too, there will be the usual gentry from surrounding estates and the father and step-mother of Bryony who live in Kent. In all there will be sixteen guest couples which fill the recently fully modernized suites in the new (mid-18th century) wing of the castle.

I’ve approved the menus so we will be having the usual U.S. Thanksgiving holiday fare here at my ancestral home in Wales: roast turkey, stuffing, candied yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, string beans and pumpkin and mince pie. As well as (from my estate) roast tenderloin of wild boar, venison steaks and roast rack of lamb over the course of the several days. One has to limit the size of portions and train extra hard this time of year to prevent gaining weight from all the holidays and heavy meals. But its such fun to have a house full of young people for the Holiday! Cook had asparagus is on the menu; however, I struck it off as it contributes an unpleasant aroma to the urine and genital secretions which many find off-putting.

One can never be sure of the weather here as it comes off the North Atlantic and across the Irish Sea and dumps its moisture as rain in the Cumbrian mountains.  My place is about Latitude: 52°26′59″ N, but the warm ocean current (the Gulf Stream’s northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift) moderates our climate so it is typically not as severe as a city at the same latitude in the U.S might expect. The current forecast is for cloudy but dry weather from the 24 – 28 November which would be lovely if that’s what actually happens! Then the men can go out boar and deer hunting while the girls and I take ballet and Pompoir classes, and gossip about boyfriends and fashion. 

Sex Thanksgiving week: My cycle is on schedule and I became fertile on the 21^st and should ovulate on the day after thanksgiving, the 25^th, so there is no way I will be able to safely take my lover(s) totally unprotected during that time as I did on Halloween. I’ll probably wear a tiny silicone Oves cervical cap screwed down tight on my ripe cervix the entire week as Oves can be worn at any depth during dive-sex. The only drawback with Oves is that you can’t use most silicone lubes – other than the specially formulated DiveGel+ - with it which is needed for dive-sex.

The Super Moon in western Wales: The names of full moons in November are, for the Celts it was a Dark Moon and for the English a Hunter’s Moon. A full moon becomes a super moon when it passes very close to Earth on its obit, making it up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than usual. The point in the obit of the moon at which it is closest to the Earth is known the perigee. This super moon was particularly large because it was the first time that the full moon has come this close to Earth since 1948. There will not be another super moon as big and bright as this one for 18 years until the next very close orbit in 2034.

Viewing the Super Moon in the Cambrian mountains of western Wales, November 14^th – 16^th was problematic. A Met Office spokesman said: “Monday evening and overnight Monday night is the best chance to spot it in Europe.” Although the sky will be cloudy, he said that there are likely to be cloud breaks in Eastern Scotland, North East England and East Wales. If you want to see the moon as it near the full moon stage, why not also go out and look at the sky tonight? The Met Office said that there could be cloud breaks in the same areas as Monday night, but also possibly in South East England for a while.

Unfortunately for western Wales viewers, it turned out that the Met office was correct. The Cambrian mountains of Western Wales was not a good location to view the Super Moon as there was solid heavy cloud cover where I was… Sigh!

Construction plans and Ballet as therapy

The Cambrian Mountains Powys on a clear day

The Photo: On a clear day it’s said that looking west from the highest rooms in the castle the Irish Sea can be seen. We must be at least 50 miles due east of the coast so that seems a bit much, perhaps an apocryphal tale. I don’t think we have had what I would call a clear day in the three weeks I’ve been here and its rained at least half that time. The moisture coming off the Irish Sea is released over these mountains and they are wonderfully green. The weather here so far reminds me a lot of when I was in San Francisco (Oakland) where the weather was cool and wet even in the summer.  At least we shouldn’t have any dust storms as we did in Vegas when the winds were up.

My wards depart: On Saturday the 17^th Bea, Willow, Odette and Odile in the care of my BFF Anya left from Gatwick Airport 30 miles south of London aboard Limnaea II, my G650, for Las Vegas and returned to school on the 20^th.  Since Anya is a Dominatrix and is in a relationship with the Swan Twins father she will keep them all safe until they can return for spring break (March 30-April 4, Monday-Saturday) and then at the end of the semester they will move permanently here for school in the UK for the Fall semester.  

Limnaea II in the UK: I think I will reposition Limnaea II with Gatwick as home base since it is close to London, and has rail access so I can take The Dragon to within five minutes of the terminal. I looked at the airport at Liverpool, but while closer to the castle it isn’t centrally located and we will be coming in to London frequently.  With Limnaea II at Gatwick Fiona, Jack’s sister who works for HM Government can travel back and forth to the U.S. when on embassy business and the courier service is going that way.

A new ballet studio: I’m converting the largest drawing room at the castle to a modern ballet studio. It is in the new part of the building with wonderfully large windows looking out over the mountains. I’m not going to destroy any of the marvelous 16^th C paneling. I’m having a fully sprung floor with a Marley surface laid over the present one and new walls to hang the mirrors on built four feet off the existing interior walls – which is why I chose the largest of the drawing rooms -  and it will still be a wonderfully large studio. The room behind the mirrors will give me room to watch the classes w/o being observed and a place to position HD cams at waist level.  The work is being done by the same company that upgraded the studios at White Lodge. I hope to have the new studio ready by May or before in time for a highly selective ballet summer intensive.

A new dive facility: I’m having a dive facility built that will be better than my 64 ft deep one at my former home in Nevada. This one will have two depths; one 64 ft. and the other 136 ft both 25 feet in diameter and within the same concrete silo.

At a depth of 34 ft. (10.4 m) of freshwater, the sum of atmospheric (14.7 psi) at sea level and hydrostatic pressures equal 29.4 lbs. at 68 feet the pressure will be 44.1 psi, at 102 feet the pressure will be 58.8 psi and at 136 ft. the pressure will be 73.5 psi or a hydrostatic pressure of five atmospheres. It will have the capability of surface supplying four divers simultaneously at the bottom of the 136 ft portion and have Nitrox and Trimix capability as well as refilling standard gas cylinders.

The dive facility will be buried beneath the ground on the opposite side of the castle from the stream, a tributary of the Severn, and will be reached by a passageway and dressing rooms off the castle cellars. Water for it will come from the stream and be heated by an extension off the hot water radiator system - on a different heating zone - from the biomass boiler. I’m hoping to have it also completed by summer. The surveyors arrived this past Wednesday and are drilling to test the underlying rock.^. A plan I had for a similar facility in Nevada is to be used and modified as needed depending on the foundation required. Fortunately for me construction jobs are needed in this area so work can begin as soon as the plans are approved.

Ballet as therapy: Rodger, Marvin’s patient coming for a week of therapy arrived this past Monday so there are three of us with Maya the Mariinsky dancer who is recovering from a termination. Roger is being worked intensively with Maya and me taking turns drilling him and partnering him for class and I’m having sex with him a time or two during the day and sleeping with him. He is suffering from depression and ED so is on Viagra and still has difficulty ejaculating which Marvin says is psychological. He is long enough to thrust into my anterior fornix and with me wearing a latex flat spring diaphragm he gets the benefit of the dome logo stimulator caressing his glans to get him to shoot his load.

I’m CD 14 and fertile and ovulated today which is why I’m wearing one of my latex Reflexions flat spring diaphragms. It’s a ‘death rubber’ which I harvested from an Escort in Vegas who died during a dive-sex encounter. Wearing it I have the benefit of the previous owner’s Chi as well as the security of the flat spring rim which is nearly impossible to under-thrust so I should be well protected from pregnancy with acidic DiveGel+ in the dome.

Maya is anxious to participate in Roger’s sexual rehabilitation encounter therapy as well as helping him with his technique in the studio, but she has been told to avoid penile-vaginal intercourse for another four days while her uterus continues to recover from the vacuum aspiration. Given the gradual progress Rodger is making he will almost certainly be here another week so Maya will probably get a chance for ballet-sex with him.

Having told her that she has switched to Gaynor Minden pointes and is  working to increase the interval that she can stand continuously en pointe since she will need to be on her toes for perhaps 20 minutes or more. She bought her GM pointes from a Dancia International shop in London, the one at 168 Drury Lane. They sent out a fitter in a van and she bought three pairs of hard shanked shoes in her size to play in.

Second thoughts and a change in plan

Canna Lilies the traditional flower of St. Canna according to Barony custom

Royal pressure: In my December 31^st post entitled “My Welsh roots” the trip to the muniment rooms of Blackthorn Castle and its chapel in the Cambrian mountains of Wales was on Monday the 29^th though it would have been much better weather had we waited a day. On Wednesday Dec 31^st I received a telegram sent to Crag Abbey, from the College of Arms that my succession to the title and dignity of the Barony of Blackthorn, as the 23^rd Baroness had been successfully vetted and was approved and I should expect to accept the associated documents that were being hand carried to Crag Abbey on January 1^st.  After I accepted the papers in front of His Grace, Jack and Marvin they toasted me with some 30 y/o Macallan scotch and that was that.

His Grace thinks pressure was applied from Sandringham since he had mentioned my situation to HRH while on a hunting outing more than two weeks ago with the view to getting my application for the title approved in time that I could receive the elevation as a New Years Presentation. I’ve mentioned before that His Grace is very pleased I’m no longer pursuing his only son and heir as husband material. I just wasn’t aware of how seriously he was taking the project to get me out of the way while not endangering the celebration of the four celestial Sabbats of the Old Ways at Location Z.

Now that we know my parents were married when I was born in the U.S. I have dual citizenship since in addition to being a U.S citizen I am also considered a British citizen which cleared up any possible ambiguity about my being able to accept the title w/o having to renounce my American citizenship. I already have a British passport. For more about this topic see the article HERE.

Nobility in Modern America: “The U.S. cannot grant titles of nobility, and foreigners who are naturalized must renounce all titles, but there is nothing that prevents a U.S. citizen from inheriting a title from abroad and using it as he pleases, unless it leads him or her to pledge allegiance to a foreign power, a case which could be grounds for loss of citizenship.” For more about this topic see the article HERE.

The Blackthorn Barony – second thoughts: Now that the title is mine the enormous responsibility of it has begun to sink in.  I will of course retain the domestic and administrative staff and the Chamberlain of the Household who oversees most aspects of the Barony until I see if there is deadwood anywhere or if the Baroness had continued to insist on excellent service even as her health deteriorated.

I had asked Charles, my Chamberlain of the Household (COH), come to Crag Abbey on January 2^nd to give me the security codes for the various property alarms and financial accounts and an overview of the various holdings and he will accompany Marvin and me on a tour of the properties. His Grace, Jacks father, has recommended a firm of auditors to thoroughly inspect the books to see exactly what businesses the Baroness had financial interests in so I will have a professional unbiased opinion of the true financial soundness of the Barony. I have no reason to suspect that there is anything wrong, but it’s best to give the finances a thorough scrubbing.

My second thoughts come late at night when I can’t sleep. It hadn’t occurred to me that as Baroness I would be responsible for the livelihood of at least several hundred people in just the running of the castle, Priory and the timber and mining interests in the general area. My responsibility may extend to many more in other aspects of the Baroness’s empire that I’m not presently aware of from the overview. And I’ll be moving to the UK so I’ll be leaving a lot of friends behind and uprooting my inner circle as well. Technically I could have renounced the title, but the Barony is mine by heredity right and who would care for it and the lives involved if I abandoned them?

I will not do that! I know, my detractors think I’m a libertine or immoral, but abandoning my responsibilities is not what I do! I’m so fortunate that Marvin is by my side! He is helping me work through these thoughts to come to logical and satisfactory decisions in so many things involving how I will relate to the responsibilities of running the Barony. He keeps telling me that my predecessor left the Barony in good shape with good people in charge and that I am a quick study and will do just fine. I hope that turns out to be the case.

A change in Plan: I had intended to take my four wards, Marvin and Anya along with their dancer bedmates to Lost Cove on Virgin Gorda for a few days of relaxation before they return to classes at UNLV which begin on January 20^th. However, now that I have immediate responsibilities in trying to assure a seamless transition of authority as the 23^rd Baroness Blackthorn I am going to stay here. I don’t suppose my wards will complain too loudly to have two weeks to do what they like in London while living at Blackthorn House (The Baroness’s London home) in Belgravia with their male escorts and Anya as their Dominatrix while I get a crash course in the Barony’s operation. I had Charles (COH) call Blackthorn House and alert the staff that they should expect five couples Anya, Bea, Willow, Odette and Odile and their male escorts to be in residence through at least the 19^th of January. They will ride down with me on the train from Inverness and we will be met at Euston station on January 6th. Then I’ll be immediately traveling on to Caersws and Blackthorn Castle.

It’s not quite as though I’m being thrown in the deep end w/o knowing how to swim as I  had some oversight of the casino’s books and the auditors will be giving everything a good scrubbing. So unless some irregularities are found I don’t expect to change any of the team that has been running the family business for years and apparently has it running quite nicely, thank you very much. It’s just that I’ll be on a steep learning curve for a while.

Travel by rail: Actually, a helicopter would be the thing to have to get between Blackthorn Castle and London and wherever else Barony properties are in the UK and of course to Inverness for Sabbat celebrations at Location Z.  But the weather can be so bad and a helicopter can carry so few people that it isn’t practical for me. Depending on the time of day and day of the week scheduled rail travel between the Station at Caersws which is relatively close to Blackthorn Castle and London can take from three to fourteen hours and you have to put up with other passengers and National Rail food. So, I’ve had my private Pullman car brought up to Inverness. OMG! That sounds so strange, “my private Pullman car”! This way I can hold meetings with the Barony staff and the auditors and have decent food cooked by my own chefs aboard while we are traveling and the car will sleep sixteen in great comfort. And as I mentioned earlier after Twelfth Night, January 5^th, I’m taking my wards to London on it and picking up an auditing team to take with me to the castle.

Security: I’ve already been told by my security chief that I shouldn’t fly the flag with the Barony’s arms over Blackthorn House or even the Castle when I’m in residence as Edith, the 22^nd Baroness, did. And I’ve approved an increase in the number of HD all-weather security cams at Blackthorn House and at several other key locations as security recommended. Now I also have a two man security detail 24/7 as well. Sigh! The 2012 Bentley which is kept in London for travel in the area was already heavily armored against kidnap attempts which, given that I am female, single and will have a much higher social profile than my predecessor in her later years, seems more likely. So I am told. Welcome to the Peerage!