I got bitten by a fox
Published: Wed, 09/10/14
Okay, bitten is a slight exaggeration. More of a nip actually, the
closing of the teeth around your fingers that a cat sometimes does
when annoyed but not quite ready to send you to casualty for
stitches. The Mercian Gathering raises money for charity, in
particular the Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctury. On the Sunday
morning this organisation had representatives present, both human
and non-human. The non human presence included owls and other
birds and a fox which took a walk around on a lead. Apparently
this particular example of Vulpini had been rescued very young and
was fully imprinted by humans. As such the creature was perfectly
tame but still a wild animal at heart. So having a lot of people
wanting to fuss the animal and stroke it was creating a little bit
of stress. So when I went to stroke the fox I got a nip which
clearly meant. "I really have had enough of this so please
give me some space." Which was fair enough. So that is how I
got bitten by a rather cute fox and still have all my fingers
intact.
What else happened at the Mercian Gathering this year? My talk on
learning self protection from animals, both 'real' and
fylgia went down well. We had some nice Stav sessions each
morning. I attended Don Kavanagh's Chi Gung session on the
Saturday and Sunday mornings, his sessions are held at 11am rather
than 0830 like the Stav so get a few more people attending.
Problem is that I found the Chi Gung so relaxing that falling
asleep in talks later in the day seemed pretty much inevitable.
Enjoyed listening to an Australian Electric folk band called Spiral
Dance on the Saturday evening and caught up with old friends and
met a lot of new people. If you would like to come to the MG in
2015 then book your tickets well before Christmas as it is usually
sold out before the end of the year.
So that is the last camp of the year over and it has been a good
summer. Each camp I have been to has lifted my spirits and helped
me reconnect to myself as a teacher as well as just enjoying the
company of good people.
So now it is time to look towards the Autumn. I am willing to
travel to teach Stav if anyone needs me to. This coming Saturday,
the 13th I will be teaching in Salisbury, more details at
http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/train.html . Apart from this I will
be focusing on making stuff happen in Crewkerne at the Stav Centre.
So on Saturday the 20th of this month I will hold three taster
sessions and a self-defence workshop at the Stav Centre during the
course of the day. The taster sessions will cover: Adult Stav
which are the classes running presently. A juniors class with the
emphasis on unarmed training and self-defence and a seniors class
which will have the emphasis on training with the cudgel (walking
stick), stances and gentle exercises for health and well-being.
Anyone is welcome to try out any of these classes but there is a
minimum age limit of 14 for weapon training. The self-defence
workshop is open to all. More details on that tomorrow.
regards
Graham