Boscastle

Mm

... that is currently at, uh, Boscastle.

Mm.

So Gerald Gardner, another kind of...

Um, again, a- another sort of category in the book, there's quite a lot of, uh, witch stuff in it, witchcraft.

Um, so we've got the Witch Museum in Boscastle, Wi- Witchcraft and, and Magic Museum in Boscastle.

Um, there's also quite, and again, back to Oxford, um, the Pitt Rivers Museum, there's quite a lot in there.

Uh, it's a fascinating place, isn't it? It looks like the sort of a Indiana Jones storage place or something [laughs] like that, doesn't it?

afternoon.

Yeah, we can't go to Boscastle or anything like that.

It's a queue of people.

And you're like, no.

I think it's, I went to an exhibition that was...

Well, I went to the Witchcraft Museum in Boscastle-

Mm

... and they had a specific exhibition in there.

And quite often after private views at the Plymouth Art Centre, the curators would take the artist's down to the dolphin afterwards for you know get a get a get a pint and get get your fish and chips and you know get into the pub and there were a few occasions and i think it's just because the days that the private views would happen on there were a few occasions where we'd be there and there would be a shanty group just rehearsing basically just practicing away and i was just kind of like this is really mad because it was kind of like it was one of those kind of like It was one of those moments where it was kind of one of those really uncanny moments where life kind of becomes this almost amusement park of like, does this really happen? You know, you kind of go, does this actually really happen? And it does.

And that was another part of it because I kind of remembered that and Not long before I proposed the project, I'd gone on holiday in Boscastle and I'd been there on a Sunday evening, gone to the pub there and again, just sat outside in the smoking area, completely nondescript Saturday evening.

And then all of a sudden, this group of people appeared in the corner and started rehearsing shanties.

And I was

There's lots of examples of these types of events.

So one of the biggest examples from the UK, or I suppose it was a prominent example and actually one of the reasons we decided to, to try and develop these convection permitting climate models was the Boscastle flood in two thousand and four.

This was basically a series of convective storms, so a line convection it's called.

It's kind of all in a line, right, of these thunderstorms.

I think the world record for hourly rainfall is two hundred and four millimeters, so you're talking a lot of rain.

And these rainstorms came down this catchment, and there was no warning at the time because the weather forecast models couldn't simulate these systems.

Luckily, that, that was the case actually because suddenly this wall of water, this kind of huge flash flood came through the village of Boscastle in Cornwall.

People were surprised, but people hadn't gone outside to try and move their cars or try to get somewhere else, and so they were actually safe in buildings.

And you've done a fair amount of traveling in the UK.

Like I love seeing like when you went to Boscastle, I was like, I've been there.

I've been to the Witchcraft Museum.

So my question for you is, as someone in active connection to the land and land spirits and allies, Are there any differences between your practice in relation to the land in Ireland compared to like when you lived in the US?

Um, but it's good because it's given me lots of different experiences of how different spirits operate and how different and diverse they can be, which is nice as well.

Do you have any, like, what are your favorite places in the UK, particularly from like, uh, like feeling the awe when you're there or feeling that land energy?

Well, I was talking about Boscastle.

I love Boscastle.

Um, we went down to Cornwall.

Um, normally we stay in Boscastle, uh, but we decided to change it up a little bit and just stay just a little bit further down the road in Tintagel.

Um, so we had a, a little Airbnb, Airbnb place down there.

Um-

I will probably write something about it.

my weekend with you in a few weeks time you know and someone and I would hope perhaps someone who's writing it and if I do a bit because we're going to Glastonbury or the Essex or the witchcraft museum a bit further west than what I was anticipating on going but you've managed to twist my arm and we're And we're going down to Boscastle.

So that will be obviously, I can't ignore that.

But I would hope that someone would read it and think, oh, yeah, I think I'll go to the West Country for a holiday.