This is my first attempt at audio recording, so be gentle with me. I change the pronunciation of Bride a couple of times, and I sound a bit nervous, and melancholy.  But I thought I'd share this wonderful story we read last night with our Imbolc supper.  We've been celebreating the Pagan festival on Imbolc, one of the 8 festivals in the Pagan calendar.  Imbolc is the first of the Spring festivals, and sits in the liminal space between the Winter Equinox and the Spring Equinox.  Spring is tangible, yet it can still feel very cold and bleak, but we see small little signs of hope of coming out of the dark days.  This is an old Celtic story of the Crone and Maiden, the Crone seen to sit over the dark half of the year, the maiden over the light half of the year.  It also includes Bridgid who is celebrated at Imbolc. The story is from Lisa Schneidau's book 'Botanical Folk Tales of Britain & Ireland'

Bride And The Cailleach

Raspberry Thief