It’s a bumper spooky season issue!

Settle in for safe fear, one of the coolest independent shops in Scotland, and what we really love about this time of year!

The evolution of the autumn season as a full-on personality is one I have watched unfold for decades. Hell, I have been embodying this personality type since I was a teen in the ’90s. And it all started with a now-dissolved coffee shop called Seattle Coffee Co.

Stumbling upon this absolute gem of a place was a series of unexpected events. One day, a friend and I decided to do our weekly shop in Bathgate, west Lothian. In the seven years I have lived in Linlithgow, never mind the previous decades I’d lived in Edinburgh, Bathgate was only ever 20-30 minutes away by train or car, yet, I had never been.

We all have an alter ego or two… who is yours for the season of the nights drawing in…

As we come to the end of the first of the ‘ber’ months, and I was putting this issue together, the same question kept coming back to me: why do we love this time of year so much?

It’s our first issue! And right in time for the start of Cosy Season!

Grab a goblet of mead and settle in for articles and very insightful quiz…

While tending to all the things in life that demand our attention, energy and presence — work, relationships, recycling yoghurt pots — it’s too easy to forget to tend to ourselves.

This is one of the most beautiful witchy books I have ever been gifted. My lovely friend Claire - who is one of the most thoughtful gift givers - gave it to me for Christmas. Did I tear up when I started to leaf trough it? Yes, yes I did.

Are you Curious + Discerning, Romantic + Independent, Playful and Profound or Soft and Formidable…take the maiden archetype test and find out!

I love cosy season.

Everything about it feels like coming home. Rain falling on scorched grass, apples from the community orchard adorning the ground instead of tree branches, the sound of matchboxes being struck round the Northern Hemisphere, as clove and cinnamon permeate candlelit living rooms.