Ahhh, these threads and you lovely lot are a breath of calm in the insanity that is modern life (maybe just my life?!)
Welcome fabulous new humans! You've found the best corner of the whole internet :) And @GaeasDaughter what was your previous username if you're happy to share? Don't feel you have to though, and sorry if I've missed you already saying! Made me think that I still have friends from the early 00s who I know well in real life now but we primarily refer to each other as our first forum usernames 😂
Re hagstones, my mum regularly finds them with her pebble hunting club, her record is 17 in one day and I always tease her that she thinks she's Catholic but actually my witchy tendencies are clearly a mashup of Dad's Celtic origins and her hagstone affinity 😁 it's lovely to be able to be open about it with her, it wasn't always that way and I'm still a bit wary around some of my extended family - they're not exactly religious and not really practising, but would definitely all class themselves as Christians, and one aunt and uncle do loads with their local church. If I can find the photo of the enormous hagstone mum found me for my garden I will attach it :)
Love the creative musings and bugger the rules @speakout well said and so true. I'm currently helping a friend get to grips with photography, which she wants to learn and turn into a career, and that drive has come partly from learning that I have no formal photography training but it's my main work now 💙 without going off on my usual feminist rant, photography is dogged by very traditional male views and there are a few of us speaking up and making women professionals more visible - and it's always really interesting to hear the differences between male and female talks at big shows. Although there is of course much to be learned from both, the delivery and the focus is different and I think that carries through into magic in all its guises, and probably a lot of other things in life too.
Also struggle with "arty" and prefer "creative" although that took me a long time to embrace and accept, as did "photographer". I'm now trying to get my head around calling myself an artist - even though I firmly believe that we are all artists in our own ways, and our art takes different forms. Hmmm.
My practice is totally informal and both woven into my everyday and a bit intermittent, in the sense that some things are so second nature I almost forget they're magical until someone notices or asks. But definitely more of the everyday magic for me. Love reading about everyone's differing approaches.
Ok, time for bed - @EmmaH2022 my current favourite book is Hedge Witch by Rae Beth but as the others have said (and my inner ex-librarian concurs), lots of it is about figuring out what you like best. If you have a Kindle or the app, downloading a few of the samples can be a good way to start hunting for the authors and titles and areas which call to you most; or head to your local library (London is full of truly epic libraries, including Barbican which used to have a really good selection fifteen or so years ago) and see what's there - I can find the Dewey numbers to look for if that's useful :)
Sleep well, sisters!