Wishing you a blessed Summer Solstice

Good morning, how are you?

No, really how are you doing? It’s been a strange year and a bit hasn’t it, I hope you are ok in the grand scheme of things.

The Wheet has turned once again, it doesn’t stop, no matter what is happening in the world, it keeps on turning and we are back to the Summer Solstice. As usual, I had plans, plans to mark it, a small fire out the back, making a honey cake or sun biscuits to simply lighting a candle on my altar. Yes, you guessed it….I havent done any of it!

My altar had had a clean up at the New Moon but I didn’t Solstice-fy it, I didn’t have a fire, I never made any cake or biscuits….I was about to give myself a hard time like I usually do, call myself a rubbish pagan blah blah blah…..but I didn’t do that either.

I havent got the energy, plain and simple. I am tired, there are lots of things going on in my life that are taking up my time and an awful lot of my energy, mainly looking after my family, who all have their own rather large issues going on from mental health to physical health, along with doing all the other bits like dog walking and food shopping as well as trying to build up a small wood carving business. I am learning, thanks to walking my pagan path and all of the wonderful friends I have made along my path, that I can’t do everything. Yes, it would be nice to do all of the above mentioned ways of marking the turning of the wheel, it would be wonderful to go out and do something Instagram or Pinterest worthy….but I can’t, I am tired. So, this morning I set my alarm clock stupidly early and I got up to welcome the sunrise from my little back yard.

I had a candle lit (and a warm drink!), I played my drum quietly and I watched the sky brighten. I could tell when the sun had risen by the slight change in clouds, I could see white ones instead of just silhouettes.

I looked around my quite wild and overgrown container garden and gave thanks to my fruit trees, my herbs and all the other plants….my St John’s Wort (Hypericum Perforata) is about to flower- I wonder if it will open by the 24th, St John’s day/Midsummer?

I then went back to bed, satisfied that I had marked the Solstice in a little way…but I had marked it. See, I’m not such a rubbish pagan, I mutter to myself as I climb back under my covers.

I have now done the first part of my day job and I had to call in at the depot for new paperwork, and just to remind me how beautiful and resilient nature is, this poppy bank is growing year on year in a very dry, dusty, industrial area….it is so cheery, was fullnof buzzy bees, ladybirds on the daisy types, mugwort growing in the cracks between containers.

All in all, I feel good about my Solstice so far and this makes me happy.

So I would like to wish you all a wonderful and blessed Solstice, however big or small you plans are, enjoy your day, x

A much needed Nature fix!

Afternoon!

It definitely feels more autumnal outside today, I discovered this when I took the dog out for a walk.  I haven’t walked our dog for quite a while now, since my husband has been off work on long term sick-leave, he has been walking the youngest to and from school with the dog so there hasn’t really been much point/opportunity.  This in turn means that I haven’t been outside in nature for quite a while and I was starting to feel this.

So as I had already been up and out to do some overtime for work, I decided to make the most of my momentum and to take the hound out as well as reconnecting.

As soon as I got to the park, Nature was showing me that she has the best crayons and the most impressive paintbox,

oh it felt good to be back in the park, there is a slightly wild element to the park I like to walk the dog in, it isnt as well manicured and maintained as some of the other parks about here, it is also where I do most of my foraging.

As part of my reconnecting I decided to walk the labyrinth that is cut into the grass, taking the time out to do this is always worth it I find, the sloughing off of cares and woes as I walk inwards to the center is so rewarding! Once at the center I can lose myself in a meditation and my faithful companion goes into guard dog mode.

 (the only reason he is muzzled is to stop him eating any and all food he finds, it makes him ill!)

This is the only time he sits and stays in one place without being told to, he wont leave my side while I am in the center of the labyrinth, which i find very touching as the rest of the time he can be a total muppet!

I decided to practise casting a circle again, this time I added in that I didnt want nosy or prying eyes to see me. With my eyes closed I just breathed and listened to the sounds of the park, I could hear a football game int the distance, wild crows cawwing behind me and winter birds, robins and tits I think over to the left of me, it was all lovely. I decided to leave an autumn offering to the spirits of place at the center of labyrinth, with the leaves I had collected on my walk so far.

Once I had finished my meditation and offering, I closed my circle again. I had noticed another man and his dog walk into the same part of the park I was in, however judging by the sudden surprise on him when I started to walk out of the labyrinth, I would say the cloaking part of the circle worked (I shouldnt have laughed but I did, a little bit!). The other man then beat a hasty retreat so maybe he got more of a shock than I first thought?

As usual I collected the rubbish and dog mess from the labyrinth on the way back out as well as took some photo’s of the tiny details of nature that had been noted on the way in.  Like the perfect symmetry of a crown of plantain, the underneath of an upturned fungi,  a little collection of the same little fungi, an orange flat topped variety that looked like it had a small face on it,

With thanks I left the out of time feeling of the labyrinth and carried on walking the dog about the park, we stopped regularly to collect rosehips, some are to be dried to keep them over winter and some I intend to infuse into oil so that I can make some natural foraged skincare for gifts at Yule/Christmas.

All in all, I had a wonderful time reconnecting to nature and getting some much needed fresh air, must make sure not to leave it so long next time.

Sacred Spirals in Nature

Taken in my backyard this morning…..perfect beautiful spirals!

Crows

Hi again…two posts in as many days!

Felt I had to share what happened this afternoon in the park whilst walking the dog.

I was throwing his ball for him with one of those plastic flinging devices, so when you throw like a girl (!) he at least gets a good chase, anyway I digress.  Throwing his ball across one of the fields in the park I notice a group (a murder) of crows creating a racket on the ground about the same time the dog does. Now I love corvids…especially crows but the dog likes to charge them like a bowling ball and make them all fly. He duly did this and all but one took off….he was then shouted at by a couple of crows who kept trying to charge him. Thinking this wasnt right I made my way over to find a not-quite-fledgling on the ground, mum and dad trying to protect it from the other birds doing what crows do and trying to kill it, in comes Dufus-dog just to add more confusion!
Its parents flew off to one side caw-ing loudly as I approached baby…it wanted to fly but it still had some pin feathers and not quite enough strength so I picked it up so the dog wouldnt get too interested, its mum and dad were watching me closely as I walked over to the tree line where I presumed its nest was…

Gorgeous……simply gorgeous!

Mum and Dad followed me, shouting as I tried to put it in a tree.

Only I had put it in the wrong tree, its parents were sat in another calling it! After a few minutes the silly bird tried to fly again…only to hit the floor and then it was a race between me and the dog to get to it first, Dufus-dog didnt want to hurt it, he isnt like that but I wasnt taking the chance!

This time I put it in the tree its parents were shouting it from…of course they are near the top and I am trying to pull down a large branch (yeah…that wasnt painful at all!!!) for baby bird to sit in and recover…the hope being it could walk and hope further up the branch and into the tree. Kept telling its parents what I was doing, because of course they could understand me, as well as talking to baby!

I left for a bit to carry on walking the dog, after telling them I would walk back this way to check on them before I left the park.  As we came back past them baby was walking along the branch and then thought it had obviously had enough rest and was going to jump a gap…it missed but at least I was there to shove its bum up with the ball flinger so it could get back on a thicker branch again.

I left it to mum and dad at this point but I have to admit….I want to back out again now to check on it but I will wait for the dogs evening walk and we might take a longer route and swing by the park for a looksie….I really want it to survive…I know nature is survival of the fittest but falling out of a nest isn’t fitness is it?

My heart is heavy…I really love crows and I really want this little one to live!

One of my favourite things to do

Happy 1st June to you all…this year is just fair skipping by isn’t it?

Thought I would share with you, one of my favourite things to do when its just me walking the dog.
In one of my local parks there is a Labyrinth cut into the grass in a quiet spot of the park…here it is.

When I dont have the kids with me I can walk this in peace! Anywhere else in the park, the dog barely stays with me but in this bit he sticks quite close, I feel be knows that I am in a different place when walking the Labyrinth so he doesn’t disappear, when I get to the center (and if its dry enough!) I like to sit and try to meditate. At this point the dog normally sits close by to watch over me…this is him sat right behind this morning..

Sometimes however, watching over me looks like this..

Sitting down on the grass, with the ‘walls’ of the Labyrinth at eye level..

…listening to the buzz of insects going about their daily lives, the songs of birds in the trees and the sound of the trees rustling in the breeze, its very easy to forget I am in an inner-city park and I can reach a place that leaves me feeling….blissed out is the phrase that comes to mind.

By way of a thank you for the time spent at peace in the Labyrinth I tend to collect litter and dog poo as I walk the spiral back out again, there is always litter and dog poo in the Labyrinth much to my annoyance but its a public park so I can only do my bit! Here are today’s finds….not a big collection today!

After leaving the Labyrinth I feel taller, more upright and lighter…it really is good for my soul spending time in there.
If possible I then like to go and visit my serenity tree, the big Oak further round the park.

It really is a magnificent Oak, I always ask permission to approach before I walk under its boughs and I will place my hand against its trunk. I usually then ask if I can hug it, if I get a positive feeling then hugging this wonderful tree is again good for me and I would like to say the tree benefits too. I can ground myself and the feelings I get while under the boughs of the tree cant really be put into words, I cant describe it and do it justice but take a look at these shady boughs…

So now, feeling totally relaxed, lighter and more at ease I then get the pleasure of seeing the wild roses and the very happy bumble bees staggering laden down with pollen from one rose to another…all the bushes were alive with happy buzzing!

Walking the dog in this particular park really is one of my favourite things because I get quality zen time with Mother Nature!

Images of Spring

Just a few of the numerous photographs I take whilst out walking, tiny details that can sometimes be missed if we dont take time to stop and look around us.

Nature Finds.

Nature’s design and symmetry!

Sound of Silence

Hello again, two posts in the same day…go me!

I went for a walk today, to the woods.  I wanted to go the other day but couldn’t because I had to wait in for a parcel (that didn’t arrive might I add but that is a different story!) and I felt bereft deep in my soul, very disappointed.  So today I got to put this right, I needed to spend time amongst the trees so I took the dog and off we went…it was bliss!

(Here is Fergus..my walking buddy!)

How can this NOT be good for your soul?

Anyway, I walking along, through all the trees, marvelling at the way the vistas open up as the trees become more and more bare, you can see all the little details and new things now the leaves aren’t covering everything, like the way the low sun slants across the bark of a big Oak tree.

While walking along, I could feel all the tension slip out of my shoulders and my breathing become deeper and more relaxed,  I met another dog walker.  She stopped to talk and said to me that she hadn’t been to these woods in many a year and wasn’t it quiet?

It was only after we had parted ways I started thinking that the woods were not quiet…I could hear the wind blowing gently through the branches of the nearly bare trees, I could hear the soft rustle of the leaves as they fluttered to the ground and moved along in that giddy dance they do, I could hear the winter birds flitting from tree to bush and I could also hear a squirrel scold Fergus for disturbing it as it ran up a nearby tree, so no the woods were not quiet, I could hear Mother Nature lulling everything into a sleep for Winter…….because I have tuned my ear into her.

Needed this today!

Its been a hard couple of days, with one thing and another.  I hadn’t been out for a long walk with the dog either for a few days so I took myself off earlier to a local park and just strolled in the sunshine and the wind, breathed deeply and felt some tension slip away.

Collected a couple of feathers, one white with brown spots and one small black one as well as harvested a few not-quite-ripe apples from a tree that I dont think a lot of people know its there, its a cultivated apple that has gone wild and its hidden from the main paths so still laden with fruit!  Will put the apples in a fruit jelly mix I am making later (with them being under-ripe they will have plenty of pectin).

Definitely feel better for some fresh air and all those autumn colours….

Needed this today!