To begin with:

 

I have lived in the city of Canberra, Australia's Capital, for nine years now. I've moved around a lot during this time as the life of a twenty-something renter generally dictates, however in September of last year after living in multiple houses I didn't in any way own and sharing my space with a Rouge's Gallery of different faces; I moved to the outer suburbs of the city I call home and into a house that my partner owns.

When I first moved to Canberra, the idea of living in a suburb like where I now live, with the houses which are bought off-the-plan and all look the same and the cul-de-sac streets and the seeming complete lack of personal space or established trees; would have been ludicrous. And yet now, almost ten years after moving back to the city of my birth, I am living in just that. Our home mirrors the others in our street, with only the front gardens and the cars in the driveway to differentiate our properties.

These areas have always reminded me of Stepford, the fictional gated community where men have their wives re-wired into sexualised whitegoods, and everything is pristine and morally decent. And to the witch within these places have never appealed: too sterile, too new.

For how can one possibly practice the olde craft when so thoroughly removed from the ancient secrets in musty old tomes, rotting thickets of noxious herbs, and the steady and reassuring heartbeatdrum of hundreds of years of brothers and sisters handing down ancient secret knowledge? How does the Hearth Witch witch when the Hearth consists of an electric stovetop?

The answer is simple: you adapt.

Witching Stepford will be an avenue for me to discuss the modern brand of Hearth or Kitchen Witchcraft I am forging for myself as I work towards coming to grips with what that means for me in my day to day life. As a Public Servant, boyfriend, aspiring writer, renegade foodie and so much more, this was never going to be a quick skip down the laneway.

You can expect to find me ranting about my own perceptions of my chosen path/s, discussing recipes and showing off photos of food, growing herbs and vegetables and trout in my back yard, eating, and generally sharing tales of the life of a contemporary male witch, living in the outer suburbs, and doing his best to adapt the craft to the modern world to suit his life and needs.

I hope to entertain you enough to have you along for the ride, and to encourage you to share your 

thoughts and opinions as we go.