Enchantments

Fully-grown changeling. Writer. Makes a big fuss about stories, folklore, faeries, food and wild things. Dances with my little music Daisy in the pale moonlight.  Queer. Trans. Values kindness & beauty and how they can be the same thing.

[heathergorse]

Hello! If you find yourself here because your copy of "Tales from Fiddlers Green" is now in your hands then welcome to my site and I hope you're enjoying all of the wonderful stories that Tales #2 contains!

I'm only an occasional poster, but perhaps you'll find something here you'll enjoy.

If you're already a Tumblr follower and are wondering what I'm talking about then my short story, 'Knots', has been published as part of this collection of mythic arts story and poetry.

I'm so honoured to have had my story selected from over 1700 submissions for inclusion in this amazing collection. You can get your copy HERE

[heathergorse]

Its spring, undoubtedly spring here in the northern hemisphere and I haven't posted here since the autumn, not since the light faded and the dark and cold returned.

Now its spring, but instead of being able to feel all the joy of that it feels like the depths of winter for trans people. Bit by bit, as spring as slowly opened, so things have progressively closed for trans people.

Trans women are told that they are unequivocally men, and belong in men's spaces. Trans men are told that they are reluctantly women, but stay the hell away from women's spaces. Enby's are rendered non-existent, invisible. Trauma and fear and pain are the inevitable and intended results.

The widespread response to this is to hunker down, thoughts moving from thriving to surviving, an entirely winter response from our ancestral DNA. That it has come at a time of culturally embedded hope, of a promise that things are getting better makes the dissonance all the harder to digest.

Things are getting better, says spring. Except for you, trannies, say governments.

Winters can be survived. Death before detransition is an oft repeated rallying cry and yet it is almost impossible to contemplate the scale of deaths that may result from this. Needless, avoidable, but entirely the point of the persecution that we are facing. Winters can be survived, but it is threatening to be an incredibly deep and harsh and punishing winter.

So many dreams and plans and hopes of mine are now deep in winter, instead of thriving in springtime. I want to survive, I can survive, I hope to survive. As for me, my rallying cry will be this GNC absolute slay queen and her shout of defiance: I am no man. I am no man. I AM NO MAN.

[heathergorse]

A teeny bit of a spoiler for the next Wicked movie, but for any trans people enjoying Wicked as a bit of a trans allegory then the Grimmerie artwork for the transformation spell is caterpillar to butterfly and this is basically everything right now.

(artwork is from the endpapers of the Insight Editions replica Grimmerie journal)

[heathergorse]

How could you resist giving Mister Boo a boop?

[heathergorse]

Spotted while out hunting fungi, Heather and Gorse, blooming together. I feel so seen.

England, October 2024

[heathergorse]

Fungi hunting in the October woods, part 5. The quarry is finally found!

Always need to go hunting for the amanitas when autumn comes around. I love how many people get to be surprised and delighted to discover that they're real fungi and not just something from art or emojis.

England, October 2024

[heathergorse]

Hunting for fungi in the October woods, part 4

England, October 2024

[heathergorse]

Little wonders in the wet woods.

England, October 2024

[heathergorse]

The tiniest of tiny snails, living their best life on a feather in the woods.

England, October 2024

[heathergorse]

The ogham wheel of the year has turned to Reed.

[heathergorse]

Meep!

I haven't enjoyed any novel more this year than I've enjoyed The Spell Shop. It's the absolute coziest of cosy fantasies and I love all of them. Especially Meep.

[heathergorse]

October fungi hunting in the woods, part 3

[heathergorse]

October fungi hunting, part 2.

England, October 2024

[heathergorse]

The woodland path.

England, October 2024

[heathergorse]

Hunting for fungi in the October woods, part 1.

England, October 2024

[heathergorse]

The oak king has given way to the holly.

England, October 2024.

[heathergorse]

October and books wrapped in brown paper and string is a truly magical combination.