How the Otter Half Lives (in Winter) The North American river otter (Lontra canadensis), a member of the subfamily Lutrinae, in the weasel family (Mustelidae), is an equal opportunity player on both land and water. This mustelid LOVES to have a good time! And in winter you can find their slides along the forest floor,…
BRR! It’s cold out there! How do the “wiuts” – the wild ones – survive the winter? Time for a winter ecology lesson – a study of relationships among living organisms during the coldest season of the year and how they relate to their environment during this season. To our New England flora, winter is…
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…
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…
You can feel the holiday approaching; the veils between the worlds are thinning. Spirits are dancing out in starlight. Who do you call out to? Who do you mourn who has passed on? What needs to be let go, released, and left alone? What needs to die to be reborn in your life? Prayer…
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…
Growing up Left in a Right World I am left handed. I grew up using special scissors, the handles covered in green rubber to mark their difference from the “regular” scissors that everyone else in class used. I didn’t mind this actually, as the rubber coating was easier on my fingers. As I watched my classmates…
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…
Hearken to Avalon 