Essential work

Here are a couple of pics of John (aka The Boscastle Busker) and (Big) Martin fitting double layers of plaster board to the museum ceilings to comply with fire regulations. (Lovely chest hair lads.)Whist carrying out the annual fire risk assessment, Graham noticed that there may be a potential future breach of regulations. Maintaining an old building to meet modern regulations will always be difficult and expensive but safety must come first so we've enlisted the services of these two local builders to bring the ceilings up to standard. The extra plaster board should give the added benefit of improved sound and heat insulation as well.

Closed

The museum is now closed as of Friday Jan 5 till Easter. We'll let you know the exact date as soon as it's confirmed. I'll continue to put news on as it happens so keep checking the blog for any developments. See you soon.

Happy Yule

All at The Museum of Witchcraft would like to wish our visitors and supporters a Happy Yule and a wonderful New Year. The museum will be staying open till the beginning of the new year then will be closed until Easter 2007. Hope to see you then!

Huge Seas

Last Thursday as I was spending 6 hrs going nowhere on the M5, Boscastle was undergoing yet another battering from nature. The winds were horrendous and the seas were huge. One of the local boats was flipped over & a small dinghy was flung up to the bridge. The waves were coming over the digging works opposite the museum and Graham managed to get a photo. The 30 foot hole was totally full of water & the machinery surrounding it was submerged. The next morning we inspected the area and found the slipway next to the Youth Hostel was gouged out and a tyre & wheel from a car (swept out in the 2004 flood) had been washed in. See photos. The workmen had to replace some of the blue steel walls with more wind friendly wire walls as they were in danger of blowing over. Most exciting!!

Friends' Weekend Update

We had a fab time last weekend at our annual Friends' meeting. There were two speakers; Ralph Harvey spoke on The Realm of Fairy and signed his new 'fresh off the press' book called 'Witchcraft, Magic, Myth and Mystery and ...Not Forgetting Fairies'. He regaled us with many stories regarding the history & folklore connected with fairies. Joss spoke on Corn Dollies, a subject she is obviously very passionate about, and instilled a desire in me to learn this fascinating art. We're hoping she can be persuaded to do a workshop for us next year. The first Annual General Meeting was held at the end of the day. It was announced that 'Friends' will be seeking charitable status and will be more formalised from now on. We feel this is a necessary part of the future direction of the museum as a whole. The evening was spent at The Wellington being serenaded by Carole (from the museum), her partner Martin (a fantastic musician) & their friends. A great deal of beverage action was undertaken by all. Sunday morning we undertook our usual walk along the Valency Valley. Much has changed since last year with all the flood defense works going on. As Friends develops there will be some changes from next year so we'll keep you posted.

Lovely view

Just thought I'd share with you the lovely view we now have from the booth in the museum. As we look out our window we can now see a beautiful blue metal wall sunkissed by a gorgeous bright orange digger. Simply stunning!

Friend's Weekend

It's the annual Friends' meeting this weekend. Graham will be presenting an update on what's been happening this year & what's planned for the future. Joss Radmore will be speaking on Corn Dollies, & Ralph Harvey on 'The Realm of Fairie'. Levannah Morgan will also give an overview of the new Friends' Charity. Carole (from the museum) & her partner Martin will be playing some festive tunes at the Wellington Hotel on Saturday Night, so come along if you're around. Watch this space for reports on how it went over the next few days.

I go away for one week......

Good grief! I go off to New York for a week & I come back to mice, gigantic holes in the ground, yellow dots & a cat who seems to have forgotten how to go outside for a wee (and worse). The museum is looking even more like a building site with a 30 foot hole right outside the front door. Today they have put up a big blue metal building, to have cups of tea in I presume, in front of the door so we've put more signs up to let people know where we are. We've also had an influx of mice, probably disturbed by all the goings on, & Graham has humanely caught 9 to date. Here is a photo of Hannah letting one of the mice go in the woods. You'll notice a photo of some yellow jacketed chaps placing dots on the exterior of the museum. This is so surveyors can take an accurate measurement & check if their works are causing the building to wobble/crack/fall down. I've also included a photo of my good friends Roger Pratt, Billy, & Kathy (not pictured) from New York who I had dinner with last week. Roger is becoming very helpful by going through the internet photos of our artefacts & helping to identify some of the ones we're having trouble with. His photographic memory is coming in handy. He's the hair-free one, by the way. Oh yes, if anyone knows how to re-house train a cat, let me know!!

December Update

Well it's been a bit rainy the last few days but that hasn't stopped some hardened museum lovers from coming to visit. Obviously numbers aren't at August levels (hardly) but it's worth opening for those tourists who don't take holidays in the high season. There's been a massive amount of work outside the museum, with 30 feet holes being dug and cables being moved. I've attached a few photos for your viewing pleasure. Here is a lovely view of a hole for a pumping station and the view across to the museum with diggers in sight. Very attractive!!

With all the work, the builders have uncovered some interesting bits of history. An old culvert has been discovered running from outside the museum down as far as the slipway. Graham thinks this may harken back to the old pilchard press days and may have been a way of removing bits of fish back to the sea by slooshing them down to the slipway. Here's a picture of it. It's a little larger than a foot square. Rather interesting I think.

Graham has also been busy inside the museum working out how much we spend on electricity in a bid to reduce consumption & do our bit for carbon emissions. It seems we spend £3,600 per year on electricity, £1000 of which is taken up by dehumidifiers since the flood! So if anyone knows of any low electrickery dehumidifiers please let us know!!

Correction to Winter Opening Times

OOPS! I made a teeny mistake with the winter opening times. The museum will actually be closing at 5PM not 6PM as I mentioned in the previous blog. It has since been corrected. Sorry if this has caused any inconvenience. I have also been told that Graham did the actual carving of the happy smiling Halloween pumpkin and Carole had the lovely job of hollowing it out. I'm screwing up severely here. Anyway on a lighter note, thanks for the well wishes for Mavis. I must say she's taken to this recuperation lark quite well & has been glamorously tucking herself up in my bed under the duvet. She'll be expecting her pate in bed next. (Note to self: Must remember to iron pillow cases before next photo session)

Glass Knitting Needles

The museum is now selling replicas of the glass knitting needles on display in the Spells & Charms Section. Theyb prived very popular at the Halloween Festival in London a couple of weeks ago and have been selling well at the museum. I'll put some photos on soon.

Happy Samhain

Happy Samhain to everyone and apologies re the break in blogging. The re have been a few problems with blogger.com but they seem to have been fixed now. Mercury is retrograde after all! We have a rather fabulous pumpkin outside the museum which was expertly carved by Carole our resident crafty person. It looks so good we're loathe to remove it. Here it is in full beauty.

Winter Opening

The Museum will be staying open until Christmas this year. Normally we would close soon after Halloween but as there have been more people around than usual at the end of the season we have decided to stay open. Normal opening hours will apply: 1030AM till 5PM Monday to Saturday and 1130AM to 5PM on Sundays. If we must close occasionally (to have a day or two off) we will advise via this blog. Hope to see you over the winter!

Mavis recovers

A bit of an update for those who know my cat, Mavis. She was rushed to pussy hospital a week ago for an operation to remove a weird lump on her side. The lump was actually a large haematoma & it appears she may have had a bit of a scrap with a large black cat who keeps popping through the catflap uninvited. After a scary couple of days when we thought she may have passed over to kitty afterworld she has now made a wonderful recovery & is bouncing around like a kitten. Here's a piccy of Mavis (sporting operation bald patch) being adored by uncle Graham.

Congratulations to Harbour Lights

Last weekend Harbour Lights (across from the museum) reopened as a teashop. Who can forget those awful images of that lovely old building being swept away by those terrible flood waters? We would like to congratulate Trixie Webber, owner of the shop, on the reopening of her business. Those who enjoyed the items for sale in the previous shop should not be disappointed as the retail business continues to run across the river. All at the museum wish them well & it will be great to be able to nip across for the odd cup of tea.

The Hint is in the Name

Thank you to everyone who has left comments recently. We would like to emphasise that the Museum of Witchcraft is a MUSEUM where artefacts and educational information relating to the folk/witchcraft traditions and practices of the people of this country and abroad, both in the past and as they are practiced today, are on display. It is not a religious institution and does not pretend to be. There are more approriate sites for some of the comments regarding religious topics than this one. We do not believe in censorship so please moderate your comments accordingly, otherwise we will be forced to take action.

Calling Mike Fishwick

Mike Fishwick we are trying to respond to your email about the witch mirror but the emails are bouncing back. Please send us your postal address and we will send you a dvd that will interest you!

Graham

YHA open

Just wanted to let you kow that the Youth Hostel in Boscastle has reopened. The official opening is in October some time but people are staying there at the moment so if you fancy some inexpensive accommodation here you should check it out.

By the way, thanks to everyone for their supportive comments re my last blog. Perhaps it would be a good idea to make some of the comments a tad less personal though. (It may get us into trouble.)

Born Again Harrassment

Some Born Again Christian dancers and preachers decided to set up outside the museum yesterday afternoon.
It never ceases to amaze me how arrogant and provocative these people can be.
They had no permission to perform, they did not have the courtesy to ask if we objected and they were noisy - electric pre-recorded music, etc.
When told that they were spoiling the peace and quiet of Boscastle they simply didn't understand or even listen.
Not a good example of Christianity! According to the leaflets they continue to litter the harbour with, even yoga is satanic! What planet are these people from?

WEBCAM ALERT!!

Well many have asked for it & now it's a reality! Graham has set up a very basic webcam trained on the front of the museum. No, it is not to spy on who comes through the door (although that could be interesting hmmmmm). The main reason is to keep a log of the works that will be going on in front of the museum over the coming months. Further flood defense works will be carried out on the river & the bridge will be moved. A sewage pumping station will also be placed underground outside the museum so there will be a lot of action to keep up with.

As I said, the webcam at this stage is fairly basic just while Graham gets used to the running of it. He will upgrade when he feels he can cope with the advanced technology. Thanks to Max, our local village computer whizzkid, for helping with the webcam setup. The webcam can be reached by clicking here & I will also put it on the blog links section if I can remember how to do that. Let us know what you think. It'll be fairly drab before the action starts but should get a bit more interesting as time passes.