Flogging

I keep starting to write this, and then finding myself stuck.  For someone who has the capacity to blather on and on and on, I feel strangely awkward; like a newbie; as if all those many, many years (documented in this blog and The Swan's Heart that came before), count as so much nothing with regard to BDSM play.

The weekend days are so precious, and as I indicated in the last post, my Saturday was spoiled to a large degree by a nasty migraine headache.  If I say the "M" word to Himself, that is the death knell for any sort of spanking play or even plain, old, garden-variety sex.  My headaches are taken so very, very seriously, and He won't do anything to make them worse, or make me any more miserable than I already am in the throes of an attack.  So... that was the story on Saturday.

By the time I got sort of over it, and began to feel better, it was late in the evening.  Too late.  And so, we sat up together, watching football (yes, it is the season), and probably baseball (that season, too).  It was well past midnight when we finally headed off to bed.  And so, we slept very late on Sunday morning.

It was a nice waking up time.  I felt pretty good.  He rolled over and put His head on my belly, and I rubbed and scratched His back.  We talked.  Nothing heavy.  Just chatting -- the sort of drowsy, just coming to awareness sort of back and forth that I've always loved.  Back and forth; sharing ideas and tidbits of our lives.

But then, we get hungry, and given our various blood sugar issues, there is no way to delay that -- when it is time to eat, it needs to happen as soon as possible.  Nothing for it.  I piled out of bed and hustled out to the kitchen to put together some pancakes and scrambled eggs and bacon and coffee.

We ate, and then I got busy doing the various weekend chores:  laundry, school work, baking, cleaning chores, garden stuff...  He gets wrapped up in watching the digital video recordings of the Sunday morning news programs; and then, the Sunday TV sports programs -- football/baseball.  Somewhere along the line, in the midst of all of that, I start to figure that the weekend is basically over, and that, since we tend to only spank in the mornings before we get up, it isn't going to happen...maybe next weekend.  I really try not to get all bent out of shape over that, but I can't claim to be entirely easy and sweet about it either.  I miss that intimacy.

So, I was a little surprised when, after dinner on Sunday evening, He looked at me and suggested that maybe we could set up the flogging frame...   No.  I was not just a little surprised.  I was amazed.  And thrilled.

The flogging frame has not been up since long before His shoulder replacement surgery.  Before the surgery, His shoulder was so painful that there was no way we could contemplate wrestling the heavy top off the flogging frame, and even if we could have managed to get it up, the arthritis in His shoulders would have made flogging just impossible.  After the surgery, the recovery and rehabilitation period extends for a full year.  His shoulder healed perfectly, but by the time He was feeling capable of swinging a flogger, He needed another knee replacement.  That was last summer -- just over a year ago.  It wasn't easy, even as knee replacements go, and the rehab course took longer than we anticipated.  Then, His other shoulder started to hurt...  and so it goes.  We are definitely headed for another shoulder replacement.  It is only a question of time, and probably not a lot of time either.

So...  I was torn.  Of course I wanted a flogging, But things are complicated for us.  There is a tentativeness between us that is hard to navigate.  But, beyond that, I did not want Him to hurt that shoulder.  Actually, I didn't want Him to hurt either shoulder.  Not with the flogging itself, and definitely not with the sheer brute strength required to set up the flogging frame.

We wrangled back and forth, considering the possibilities... until, finally, I suggested that maybe we could use the spanking bench instead of the flogging frame.  THAT was the ticket.  He quickly agreed.  I went and pulled the bench out of the bedroom and into position in the living room.  I messed and messed, trying to remember how to get onto the thing and be halfway comfortable, and He rounded up a pile of floggers... and other things.  Of course.

It was good.  The floggers fell this way and that.  He used His hands and a variety of knives, and had me squirming, feeling sensations that haven't visited this part of the world for a very long time.  From soft, sensuous suede and the heavier buffalo flogger; working up to the sharpness of the kangaroo-hide cat, the flogging was amazing.  There were paddles, of course... and the rattan cane, and one of those birch-rod styled thingys.  All the way along, I was entranced and fascinated by the waves of sensation He was causing to play through my body.  It seems I've finally found my way back to "it."  Finally.  Yeah.

It was good.  Good.
swan

Then and Now

A year ago, we were still in the very early days of the physical therapy protocol aimed at the rehabilitation of His right shoulder replacement.  After weeks and weeks of total immobilization, the PT was excruciatingly slow and gentle, allowing that prosthesis to stabilize...  For what seemed like forever, the exercises looked like this:

Today, as we were hauling bags and bags and bags of groceries into the house, He just reached right up and grabbed the hatch on the car and pulled it down and closed it.  I remarked on the change, saying, "You just reach right up and pull that down and never even think a thing about it.  Your shoulder doesn't bother you even a little bit."

 He agreed that it was true, and said, "My replacement shoulder feels better and stronger than my other shoulder."  And then He said, "I think it is better than ever, and I think it is stronger because of spanking you."

Smile.

swan

P. S. - I did suggest that, if spanking was good, then surely flogging would be even better...

Snow Day Flogging -- It Happened

It was a long, long day of waiting and trying not to fuss, and by late this afternoon I was ready to declare that there was no Santa Claus. 

He had lots to do today... lots of serious work-related business to tend to.  I took off in the middle of the day to go run some errands and gather more odds and ends out of Grandpa's apartment.  I got home, and we had some lunch and He headed to the bank -- more serious business to take care of. 

I'd gotten pretty convinced that the promised flogging just wasn't going to happen, and then it was 4:30 PM and He was there asking if I still wanted to get flogged -- or did I want to take a nap instead?  Are You kidding me?  Sir?  I was feeling sleepy, but the whole reason I was so sleepy was that I stayed up all night thinking about getting flogged.  So.  No.  Thanks.  No nap for me.  Sir.

So, I cleared off all the accumulated junk that seems to pile up on the top of the flogging frame when it is in its coffee table disguise.  Honestly, that 4' x 8" surface just seems to attract junk of all sorts.  We worked together and got it all set up -- noting along the way that He is now officially cleared of all post-surgical restrictions (like lifting heavy stuff) as of yesterday. 

It was amazing!  Amazing!  He started with my beloved floggers, and spent some really nice time with the buffalo floggers, landing heavily on my ass and my back -- knocking the wind out of me with every crashing blow.  He worked me over with a whole range of quirts.  Somewhere in the middle there was time spent with the kangaroo-hide cat and the dressage whip.  I know there was a paddle toward the end, but I'm not sure which one.  He finished up with a pretty intense caning. 

I got sort of loopy toward the end, finding that if I opened my eyes, the room seemed to spin slowly but crazily. I remember telling Him that I was afraid I was going to fall. That made Him laugh.



And then -- a few awful moments of disbelief as He went to get the signal whip, and did not find it in its usual place...  I was not feeling very coherent, but was in a near panic trying to think where I might have stuck that darned whip.  Finally, He spotted it where it had apparently fallen off the hook and slid behind the door where we usually hang it.  I was relieved but also shaken.  When the third or fourth whip strike landed square across the small of my back I lost it and came completely apart...  That ended it for us for the day.

He took some pictures at the end, and although I look very post-session sad-eyed, it was really very good for me... that face seems to be the common "after a beating" look for me these days.

swan

 

Snow Day and a Flogging

School has been called off for tomorrow due to the unprecedented amount of snow we've received here in the last day...

Master has promised me a flogging in the morning.  And so, while He sleeps soundly in our bed, I am wide awake in the middle of the night -- like a child awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus!

A flogging!

It is a bit of SM play that has fallen away in over the months and years.  As He has struggled with increasingly painful arthritis in His shoulders, it has become more and more difficult for Him to swing His beautiful, sensual, heavy floggers.  So we've moved more and more to play with paddles, straps and canes. 

He promises the floggers tomorrow, with a bit of derision in His voice -- telling me that He'll flog me, and it won't hurt at all.  I know that isn't the truth, but I understand that He experiences it that way...  Because I can fall into the pain that the flogger creates.  I can sail off into the heady fragrance of leather in the air, and I can sink deeply into the sensation created by the luxurious texture of leather on my skin, and I can revel in the pure beauty of the craftsmanship that went into making these amazing toys -- and all of that makes the pain somehow more accessible for me.  So, He doesn't see them as toys that hurt in the way that He so enjoys. 

I imagine that we won't only flog tomorrow.  I am sure there will be paddles and perhaps straps and canes as well.  He's said as much, and that is fine.  It won't be all paddles.  There will be pleasure mingled with the pain.  The floggers will be like the maple syrup on top of otherwise plain pancakes; like luscious blackberry jam on dry toast.  Sweet...

I haven't anticipated a session like this in I cannot remember when.  I am so excited and so grateful.  I can barely hold still, and sleep eludes me.  Usually, I curse the coming of the dawn, but tonight I am breathless waiting for the morning...

swan

Toy Collection #10

It has been awhile since I wrote a toy collection report. I was doing them pretty regularly for some months, and then I guess I got distracted. It wasn't like I'd run out of toys to talk about -- not even close. Anyway, maybe it's time to return to "our regularly scheduled programming."

Floggers. I think, that when I got started into exploring BDSM, and before I really knew anything much at all, the whole idea of floggers was perhaps one of the scarier things on the horizon. What I thought I knew about floggers came from historical accounts of slavery in the United States, and accounts of maritime justice, and it was pretty intimidating. In my mind, flogging was about blood and torn flesh and horrible shame and extremely harsh punishment. It was not something that I was inclined, in those days, to see as erotic.

So, in a sense, it seems odd that one of the very first things that we explored together, at that very first face to face meeting at Ohio Leather Fest, was floggers. I learned, then, that a flogger was simply a short whip with a number of tails or falls, and that the intensity that might be experienced during a flogging was widely variable depending on both the construction of the flogger, and the intent and skill of the Top.

Today, in our collection there are a variety of these short whips. This post will deal with the ones that are simple, straightforward, leather floggers. Master likes to do two-handed flogging. That isn't the very elaborate, and showy, florentine style that some employ, but a much more prosaic style that lands a rapid fire volley of strikes. Two-handed flogging is more intense for the bottom, and more physically demanding for the Top. In order to accomodate that prefrerence, we have two matched sets of floggers; a pair of suede floggers, and a pair of buffalo hide floggers. We also have a single flogger made from the very stiff and very intense leather known as latigo. All five were purchased from DeTails Toys, and are lovely pieces of leather worksmanship.

Floggers can be manufactured from almost anything, and we have some rubber floggers that I'll get to in another post. I've seen people make floggers from a wide variety of materials -- everything from boot laces to licorice whips. I've experienced some very sensuous floggers: deerskin floggers -- very light and soft; and elkhide floggers -- heavier than deer, but incredibly soft and sensuous with the most overwhelmingly lovely leather scent. Those went away with the former husband, but I imagine that even if we'd kept them, Himself would find very little reason to use them. They are the quintessential "service top" implements, and hardly the sort of thing that a sadist would get excited about.

The lightest floggers in our collection are suede. Suede floggers are great scene toys. They make an impressive slapping sound when they land, and a bottom with a flair for the dramatic can make an uninitiated observer believe that she is being hideously beaten. I find suede floggers abrasive, and sometimes "sharp" at the edges and tips of the falls. Depending on the condition of my skin, those sharp places can leave me with a sort of very mottled buising. They have very little in the way of sting, and are generally light weight enough that the thud is more like an intense and choppy sort of massage. Like most floggers with fairly wide, flat falls, suede floggers can whip up a significant breeze, and I often have to concentrate to avoid becoming obsessed by the wind tunnel effect.

Personally, I like buffalo-hide floggers. Buffalo has a weight that is impressive, but the leather itself is soft and supple without any of the roughness that suede has. It is possible to create some sting with buffalo, but the predominant sensation is going to be thud. Buffalo lands heavy. The other thing about buffalo, is that it has a unique, pebbled sort of surface texture. It isn't rough, but that texture seems to allow it to channel the airflow in such a way that the falls land flat against the surface. I never notice the edges with buffalo floggers. Unfortunately, swinging a pair of buffalo floggers is heavy work, and most Tops are easily worn out by the sheer effort that it takes to use these implements.

Last, in our group of DeTails leather floggers, is the Latigo flogger. Latigo is a very heavily tanned cowhide that delivers a very intense sting with very little effort. Most often, latigo is used for the cinch on a saddle. It is stiff and hard, and when used in a flogger, it creates an outrageous cutting sort of sting and burn. Latigo can be pretty brutal -- a very high-end toy.

Our floggers don't come out very often these days. They take a lot of work and physical stamina. Of course, right now, while we are all wrapped up in our OTK phase, floggers are just not a practical choice. Still, sometimes, there is a flogging that happens, and that encounter with leather is almost always something that I appreciate.

swan

Flogging

We have a pretty wonderful collection of floggers.

Most of the floggers that we own are from DeTails Toys, made back in the days when Shelley was still making all their whips by hand. We've got matched pairs of suede and buffalo floggers, along with a matched pair of braided rawhide lace floggers. We also have a rubber flogger and a very intense, sharp and heavy, latigo flogger. The collection of also extends to a handful of quirts, and a lovely, kangaroo-hide braided cat. Too, for whatever reason, it seems that "flogging" almost always includes a variety of straps, and we've got a wide range of those as well. Several of our straps and tawses come from Hanson Paddles. Another, called "The Viper," was made by the now gone Toybag. It is an intensely fiery toy that leaves very distinctive two-pronged marks.

Master is wonderful with floggers and all the related implements. He likes to do two-handed flogging, and has a unique style that is not at all like the "Florentine" flogging that seems to be all the rage. His technique reminds me a little of "Double-Dutch" jump-rope -- it has that sort of cadence to it, and the blows fall very quickly when He's got two floggers in His hands.

Last Sunday, He set out to do a "flogging demo" for our guests. Flogging is something that we don't do very often, and I was thrilled. We set up the frame, and He worked at showing them style and techniques to use in a well-developed session. He ran up through the range of floggers, landing heavy blows on my back and my ass. He switched late in the session and worked on me with a quirt, and a few of the straps. Nothing terribly heavy. It was heavenly, although it ended too quickly as He moved from demonstrating with me to working with our company. Still, it was a joy to have had a session with all that wonderful leather.

Best of all, when everyone else was done for the night, and all had retired off to sleep, He had me put on some music, light some candles, and we began again -- just the two of us. I was so thrilled and happy to be there in that place with Him! I don't think our second session went very long, although I know I've worn those lurid "Viper" tounge marks all week long -- a very present reminder of our time together.

For me, flogging is like a present. I love the feel of the leather, and I can find a rhythm and lose myself in the ebb and flow of the sensations. I am still, a week later, smiling quietly to myself as I replay all the nuances and moments from that wonderful session.

swan

The Session with the New Cane

Long week last week and we don't recover as fast as we used to. I suspect there was the potential for us to get to this on Saturday, but truthfully, neither of us were up for it. Besides, I was in some pretty grim headspace and just not in a frame for anything very heavy. He surely could have proceeded anyway, but was (I suspect) happy enough to wait me out, and get to this when I was feeling a little more "level."


So, today dawned sort of sunny, and we were both feeling a little more lively. Of course, the prospect of setting up the flogging frame is a little daunting -- it is not a light weight piece of furniture. Getting it up and ready to go is a serious bit of heavy lifting. We managed it between us, and I got all the floggers out and set up. He gathered a variety of paddles, straps, and floggers, a few knives -- and the new cane...



And then, we noticed that we were hungry. Time out for breakfast. First things first.



So, I got the waffle iron out, and fed the poor starving Dominant. Wouldn't want Him to keel over in the middle of beating me, after all.



We put Solas on the stereo. Brings out the Irish in Him. Works pretty darned well as scene music.

I got to be on the flogging frame. I am always surprised and glad to get on it and remember how really good it feels. It is so "right" for me. Exactly the right kind of support in all the right places. Of course, since I designed the thing, and had it built exactly to my measurements, that should not be all that surprising.

He started off with some lengthy and delicious hand spanking. Seemed to go on for a good long while, and I loved it.



Things took off from there. Floggers. Suede and buffalo. We don't do flogging much anymore, and I miss it.



After that -- paddles, straps, quirt, and the wonderful, sensual, unbelievably intense cane. Finally, a cane that does what I remember the good cane doing. He laid fire all over my ass with that beast.

He even brought the whip out for just a bit, but by that time I was so spent and so bleary, that I just cried and begged through that part of things. He didn't push it. Thank goodness!



It was, start to finish, really good. Sometimes sexy, sometimes really difficult, sometimes full of joy and power and intense awareness of Him.

It was a really good way to spend a chunk of time on a lovely Sunday.

Thank You, Sir.



swan