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Surviving September

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  Well as we find ourselves at the back end of September and having passed the Equinox, it feels like a survival of the fittest to have made it though these brutal shifting energies. Wow what a ride! Did you make it through? I seem to have been constantly talking, writing and sharing about the turbulence of the cycle and how it is so out of balance. Yet she hit us right when we didn’t expect it with a disproportionate blow right as we shifted through the time of balance at the Equinox. The very nature of the seasons is battling against itself and we are feeling it at a core level. The anxiety and stresses of September have just been so unbalancing. Thrusting us out of alignment to all we know and have held onto as a place of security. She has ripped off our band aid we have plastered over the self to hold us together throughout 2020 and its harshness. With no notice or care for all we have built and surrounded the self with. So here we are just a few days into the new month, and we
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Well! Just what is going on?

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  Well! Just what is going on? Is the world going mad? Or is it just unmasking the the undertow of currents that have always been hidden? That society has pushed aside and refused to accept is there. Kind of like the ‘mad’ Victorian relative that nobody spoke about! It’s like all the social masks have suddenly been ripped off all at once! I’ve always been an observer, maybe in my younger years I was a bit more hasty to speak, but time has taught me that once the filter has been engaged to off its better to steer myself and the truth it holds away from the falsehood of society ‘Norms’ So I have been quietly watching the response to the Pandemic we find ourselves within since the beginning of the year, it’s been an interesting watch as ‘new’ groups have formed in uprising. There have been the obedient ones who have followed the rules doggedly to ensure their own wellbeing and that of others. There are those who push the boundaries a little but soon step back in line. There are thos
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Harvesting and making Rose Hip Syrup

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    Harvesting and making Rose Hip syrup. As the season of autumn is gathering pace, the lands are offering their fruits so early this cycle. The hips are ruby red and plump to the touch, so many are already falling to the ground. It’s just so very early this year, but if we wait any longer we will lose out on this rich nutrient valued treasure. Its custom to gather them after the first frosts, as it activates the richness that hold in vitamin C. So this year I will simulate the process by a quick time in the freezer to bring that arctic blast to their being. So this weekend I spent the time (along with my trusty tall helper – Husband) at a beautiful nature spot that is nestled alongside a stream that babbles and flows. The Rose Hips (Rosa canina) grow on the streams banks and entwines through the Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) which is also abundant in Sloes. As I gather them I listen to the sound of the running water and the Robin chirping in the crown of the trees, and thin
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Embracing the energy of September

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  So the cycle turned, rapidly here in the south of the UK. I woke on the 1 st of September and it was as if the Great Mother had turned down the thermostat over night, it had gone from summer warmth to autumnal chill overnight. So many of the hedgerows are abundant with the red berries of medicinal and nutritional value, yet some are already going over, the hips are all ready starting to fall and I usually wait for the first frosts before gathering, but this year I am having to harvest them now and will simulate the cold by popping them in the freezer for a few hours. We must always go at her pace and this year it feels it has been a frogmarch to keep astride hers. I am actually looking forward to the slower, darker and colder months for that momentarily pause she offers outwards. Yet this time also offers the time of deep introspection, a time of clearing the decks as it were for the storms ahead. To batten down and to let go of the ballast that will hold us down when we need to
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A deepening of being

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  How are you? Now how are you really? There is such a shifting energy currently it’s really hard to truly know how the self is. One day it feels like we are up then the next we are back down and it feels further than before. A true yo-yoing of being. It’s exhausting and and exhilarating at the same time. It’s vital in the now that we support the self and its needs with fresh and vital nutrients, gathering locally from our local farms and providers of fresh produce. To eat seasonally and to cook and process the foods as swiftly and as naturally as possible. I have been foraging fresh fruits from the hedgerows to turn into autumn and winter tonics to support the immune system in the darker months. Making balms for aching joints and and thinking ahead with the four thieves oil that will help to keep illness at bay. So now is the time to begin to ready for the winter months that are beckoning here in the UK and to fully ask yourself how are you? Listen to your true answer an
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Infused oils

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  One of my greatest passions and connections in life is being in and working with nature, it absolutely completes my soul being and purpose in this world. It gifts me such deep healing and serenity. Woking with the earth, nurturing is delicate equilibrium, feeding it and watching the markers of the seasons pass by on a daily basis. Communing with the nature in all forms of insects, wildlife and flora. I am a passionate gardener, I always have been whether it’s been in the smallest of spaces in dwellings where I have lived, or inside the home in care of house plants. It’s certainly not just a passion I have developed, it’s in me, from within the soul and I find it an expression of my being to create sanctuaries within the garden. ‘She is of the Earth’ describes all I am in wholeness and complete awareness. As the year turns alongside my garden, my focus is on my Apothecary herb garden, tending and nurturing it, listening to all it needs and being sure to work with the cycle. From
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Harvesting and making Elderberry Syrup

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  Harvesting and making Elderberry syrup. This time of year is one of my most favourite. I can smell the air and its already cooling, the air is thinning and the autumn is calling its whispers to the soul. My walks wander through the hedgerows and to my favourite foraging places that yield some of nature’s best medicines. It’s always a competitive time between the birds and me as they gorge themselves on the bounty and can strip them bare in just a few days as they fatten up for the coming winter months. I have always believed that we have an unspoken communication and they wait for me to harvest the amount I need for healing and nurture and I respectfully leave the abundance of the main crop for all of nature to thrive and to flourish. The last couple of weeks I have been harvesting Elderberries from the Elder tree (Sambucus Nigra). The area that I visit must have over 40 mature Elder Trees and this year’s harvest has come early. I check on a weekly basis of the ripening and a
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