Eileen Budd explores the multifaceted concept of home through evocative stories and songs, featuring musical contributions from Laura Gekiere, Ian Kinnear, and Helena De Cauwer.
3 May 2026TRANSCRIPT
The Moon Episode
The moon and its many phases has all kinds of names and lore associated with it, for this episode, I want to share with you some traditional Scottish stories where the moon plays an important role, sometimes acting as a catalyst for transformation, sometimes acting as a sympathetic witness, but always, ever present. In this episode you will hear a traditional Gaelic blessing for the new moon, a piece of 16th century music played on lute by musician Matthew Spring, transformation stories and stories of enchantment.
Harp music throughout is by fantastic Helena D Cauwer, singing by the wonderful Laura Gekiere and me and Sound production has also been expertly done by Laura.
The first 2 of my Seasonal Folklore booklets with St Andrews Botanic Garden are out now and you can find them at the Gardens, at a number of independent bookshops and also via the publisher directly here:
Spring:https://www.wideopensea.co.uk/product/seasonal-folklore-spring (https://www.wideopensea.co.uk/product/seasonal-folklore-spring)Summer:https://www.wideopensea.co.uk/product/seasonal-folklore-summer (https://www.wideopensea.co.uk/product/seasonal-folklore-summer)
24 Dec 2025
Yuletide Special
This time of year is said to be a liminal time and so this episode brings you stories of creatures and spirits who flit between worlds, as well as a non Scottish story of the Snow Queen, a story I always love for this time of year.
This episode has been made possible thanks to these incredible people:
Playing harp : Helena De Cauwer
Choir vocals : Marie Cocriamont, Roos Denaeyer, Laura Gekiere
Sound editing : Laura Gekiere
You can find everyone on Instagram: @vitrifrancesca @medinktation @hym.we.are @rosabutsi @eileenbudd
#folklore #yule #scottish #winterstories #christmas
Inside a recent episode
The Home Episode
Published 11 Sept 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] And women who protested against this were arrested and many have since gone missing. Things like that can change your idea about what home means. Can't it? Here in Scotland we have this concept of duchas. It's a word that describes our feeling of belonging to or being connected to our land and culture. This is something deeply embedded in us and I'm sure other cultures have their own words for the same thing. So I went looking for some. I found two similar ones in Welsh. Hiraeth, which I hope I've pronounced properly, which means a deep longing for home, a place or a country to which you belong. […]
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