The Longest Night is approaching. How do you keep warm? With good food and good company. Seconds on hugs and lots of blankets. The Longest Night of the year is approaching. Now you may say, “Bah! What does it matter? It will still be dark and cold for months to come.” And of course you…
Category Archives: Natural History
To Trust in yourself and the Land By Arianna Samhain, Summer’s End has past the ones we tend to come in from grazing and huddle close for bodies’ warmth. What now will sustain us in the dark months ahead? Apple and Autumn Olive Grape and Cherry Beech and walnut Nettle and herbs dried by the…
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…
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…
