Lammas 2023

Last Tuesday (1st August) it was Lammas, my favourite sabbat apart from Samhain! Some people may celebrate on 31st July or 2nd August though. My main celebration for this festival is baking (usually gingerbread) and this year I made Cornish style pasties as well. (You're not supposed to call it a Cornish pasty unless you're from Cornwall!)

Although I made a pasty the first time I celebrated Lammas, I don't make them that often. The last time was in 2020. The recipe is from Kate West's book The Real Witches' Kitchen. I can't post it online but I did link to a couple of similar recipes in my first Lammas post on the blog: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2014/08/lammas.html

I used Jus Roll pastry which makes it a bit easier, lol. The pasties (I made one for myself and one for my mum) ended up being a bit hard and the carrots could have cooked more, but apart from that they were ok, lol. Here's a picture of one of them: 

I had my pasty for lunch with some Inch's cider (also in the picture). My favourite cider is Bulmers and I also like Thatcher's Gold but they didn't have either of those at the supermarket. 

I also baked gingerbread, using the BBC Food recipe that I've followed for the past few years: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gingerbread_men_99096

I used to use the recipe off the back of the Tesco light brown soft sugar packet but they stopped putting it on there!

I iced the gingerbread (with an icing made up of icing and water). I covered some of them completely in icing, lol. Here's a pic: 

They got a bit messy but never mind!

Some years I bake bread but other times I don't because it can be a bit of a hassle! Lol. Last Lammas I baked Man Bread. I didn't feel like making any this year but I think I'll probably bake some bread for Madron/Mabon, even if it's just a mix!

I'd planned to go up to my favourite nature reserve on a hill for sunset but there wasn't much of one.  I stopped at the park and took a couple of photos. You can just see a little bit of pink sky:  

Buckingham Park, Shoreham-by-sea.

I lit a white candle when I got back. I thought I had an orange one (to represent the sun since it's summer) but I didn't.

On Friday (4th August) I did go to the hill because the weather was better. It was a nice sunset. Here are a couple of photos:

 Mill Hill, Shoreham-by-sea.

So now we're moving towards the end of summer! August is one of my favourite months but I'm also aware that it will soon be autumn. Lammas is a harvest festival and it marks the move towards autumn. I've already noticed a shift with the days getting shorter since Litha aka the Summer Solstice and just a different light. 

It's been a varied summer so far with some hot weather in June (as we moved into summer) and then cooler, rainy weather in July. Quite a contrast to last year's hot summer!

The next sabbat will be Madron/Mabon aka the Autumn Equinox and then autumn will start. I'll do a post about my celebrations. I hope that we do get some hotter weather here (although not too hot) because I'm not ready for summer to end! Hopefully August will be nice.

Hope you had a good Lammas and enjoy the rest of  summer! (Or hope you had a good Imbolg/Imbolc and enjoy the rest of winter!) :)

P.S. It was the 10th anniversary of when I started The Seasonal Life at the end of July! I was planning to write a birthday post but thought that the anniversary wasn't till next month, lol. Never mind. I will write a birthday post soon. Thank you to everyone who has read and reads the blog! 😊