What were we thinking when we introduced the Autumn Olive? Autumn Olive, Elaeagnus umbellate, of the Oleaster family, is a migrant from central Asia. Actually, within close proximity of our beloved fall fruit the apple, who is considered naturalized to the United States. That means this flora been here long enough to play nice and…
Category Archives: Natural History
Mabon Winds of Change talk to me through the trees rattling out the old, whispering in the new, and Oonagh is gifting us the tools of Transformation so that we may learn to live in harmony with the cycles and processes of Nature. Sticks clap like hands to the heartbeat rhythm of a drum that…
Our Beloved Fall Fruit: the Apple “There is no fruit, in temperate climes, so universally esteemed and so extensively cultivated, nor is there any which is so closely identified with the social habits of the human species, as the apple”. ~ Robert Hogg, British Pomology, 1851 The Apple, Malus domestica, is a member of the…
We come together to celebrate the Sun’s heat, the Sun’s radiance. We come together to honor the Gods and to celebrate life’s bounty and our ability to produce abundance and share. We come together to honor the animals who labor for us – the bees, the goats, the horses; and the animals we learn patience…
As you may have noticed we are experiencing a drought. You may be watching your garden, fretful, wanting to water all the thirsty “kids” out there in the yard. Some plants may look stressed; droopy leaves closing against the heat of the sun. But there is a plant that appears happy as a little lark.…
I find Milkweed so curious. The flowers’ scent is so intoxicating; an alluring sweetness that simply draws you in. But YOU can’t eat it. Not raw anyway. You can watch Monarch caterpillars munch on the leaves and butterflies sup on the nectar, but don’t you go doing that. Monarchs – as a well as Queens…
Fireflies are MAGIC! While researching simultaneously on my work of historical fiction and a natural science article I was writing on fireflies a few years ago, I discovered that Fireflies exist in Great Britain as well as my home in New England. In fact, Fireflies are found on almost every continent. They love warm, humid…
A tantalizing, if not low-hanging, wild edible “What is that intoxicating scent?” I look around but I’m not seeing a flower at nose level as I walk the back road this early June day. I close my eyes and slowly move my head around, taking in the all the scents I can. Ah, up. I…
We are literally the salt of the earth. Stardust creatures made of air and minerals. We belong to the Earth – this living world, this super-organism in which we all live and die and are recycled to live and die again and again, in a new form, in a new way. We cry tears…
Lesson of the Crocus Does the crocus study? Investigating springtime history, computing sunlight minus darkness times mean March temperature? Calculating root depth by height needed to clear the snowfall? Or does the crocus just say, “ready or not, here I come,” and have faith in its ability to survive the cold, the weight of snow,…
Hearken to Avalon 