Slainte!

Winter announced itself with a flash and a flood this week, as a month's worth of rain fell in a night, and a spectacular show of lightning lit the sky accompanied by crashing thunder that rolled and rolled around the summit of the Mountain for hours...

Last month's glorious copper beech shed its leaves to reveal its supple silver skin, whilst the rough and ancient wattle giant opposite dropped a few brittle old limbs, and struggled to remain upright throughout the violent storm...

Tucking into my lunch today, I thought about light, & heat, and the way the human animal instinctively seeks warmth in the cold weather for comfort and survival. As I considered my steaming bowl of fragrant soup, I was reminded that all of these vegetables had absorbed the sun's warmth in order to grow, & now it was my turn to absorb this stored heat, by consuming them so my body can convert light into energy...
...... And then I remembered warm sun on my skin, & the light of a sunny day... of how I loved the sunshine so much one day that I took a photo of the sun directly with my phone, just to see what it would look like... And here is the result...

....I think it looks like the iris of an eye...

A Druid summer solstice ceremony I love, says:"as I stand in the eye of the sun"... it is about making vows, & being open to scrutiny... the sun burns away dross as well as giving life...

Our ancestors held a great & simple wisdom: without the sun, without its light, without its eye of fire, even now, in 2013, with technological sophistication the ancients may not have believed possible, we would still cease to be. How did they know it looks like an eye?

The wheel of the year turns, & winter solstice will soon be here, on June 21st,.

I shall be giving thanks this year, for the light stored inside food..........

Seems rather magical to me to eat light....

Slainte!

leaf carpets

 This week the deciduous trees here shed their foliage, so I've been raking & composting, enjoying the crisp, clean air & welcome sunshine that defines autumn on this Mountain.
 
The simple beauty of leaf carpets has so impressed me this season... 

I thought you might appreciate my sharing some with you before I rake them all up!

 colours so rich yet subtle....

shapes so diverse yet harmonious....


A camera is a wonderful invention... I can explore these images in paint when the weather is too cold to work outside

From the window

Last week, I was admiring the coppery beauty that clothes the trees outside my window. I was preparing the garden ready for a winter snooze...

This is the same view exactly a week later! Still lovely, but now a near naked tree, viewed through mist, instead of sunshine... how quickly things can change....

Today, I sit within in a cloud, feeling that winter has really arrived... the seasons just don't fit neatly into 4 sets of 3 months here, but judging by what I saw on the news last night of English snow in May, perhaps even that is a thing of the past, falling away, like autumn leaves....

The future is obscured as in a mist, & the past clings like the leaves on this Maple, but soon, it will also be gone... making way for a new season of growth, with new experiences and challenges...
an old cliche, but one I understand well...

In Earth's South, may you be wrapped comfortably in winter's mist, to drift & dream of good things to come.... & may you be cloaked in summer's golden light to grow & manifest such wonders if you're in the North.

Back in the Autumn Garden

Greetings!

Almost a year since I last posted on this blog...the wheel of the year turns fast... once again it is glorious Autumn, & I am very pleased to be here.

See how Holly waits to get my attention as I gaze up to admire the golden light?

I flirted with another blog for a while... I even tried having a business selling fibre arts supplies.... but when I come back to myself, it is always the trees & the garden that hold my heart & health...

So, here are a few images of how the enchanted Misty Mountain garden presents itself today...

I sat under this huge spreading Copper Beech this afternoon with Mr Treadwell on my lap, soaking warm sunshine into my skin...the tree dipped its branches & brushed my upturned face ever so gently... leathery leaves like old weathered palms caressing my cheeks....

And here is the guardian of Weeping Birch, ever watchful, still hiding under a mantle of gold...

My vegetable garden is enjoying a bumper crop of silky green Italian parsley this year. It loves the coffee grounds I have been fortunate enough to glean over the past few months. In the background, are shoots of new Broad Beans. I planted a red flowering variety this year, just to see what they're like. Naturally, there are self-sown Marigolds everywhere, & plastic bottles I cut down to protect seedlings are long outgrown... I really must tidy up a bit!

So there you are... and here I am..... back again...

Oh! & here is Mr Treadwell! The finest assistant a Marigold could ever find........

Misty Winter Dreaming

Winter's a good time to dream...... especially when the mist settles in for the day........

It's so quiet, but for the occasional drip, drip, drip on the roof...shhhh...listen.....


What is there?


.....a chilly breeze rattles empty branches & sends droplets of moisture flying in all directions over leathery brown leaves .....





...........underneath this fine carpet, the earth is bone-chillingly cold...... wet.........dense....heavy.......


........shhhh...

.....be still....it's nearly Mid-Winter....




What do you dream of for when the light returns?

What do you hope for?

What do you love?




Come, my friend, make yourself comfortable, join me at the fireside.......

wrap yourself in a well-loved blanket and dream with me.....

Let us dream of approaching sunshine & abundance, love & laughter, comfort & ease......


let us dream of every noble thing.......


.....and every thing that makes hearts sing........



Blessings upon all beautiful dreams, for they create the world.......

.............believe in them .........

...............remember them.......

............always.......

There and Back Again....

 

I thought I was getting another chance at Summer. I thought I'd be spending Summer Solstice in England..I was on a pilgrimage, & once I had visited the lands of my Grandfathers in Scotland, & paid homage to Avalon, it was all over & time to return.....

Above is a secret faery place untouched since the bronze age....it welcomed my bones.....the trees danced in the evening light....the hill is untouched since the bronze age......

....it was the flowering time of Rowans, Hawthorn & Elder....it was still bluebell season...

There were magickal gateways in Avalon.....

Oh, this is me on Glastonbury Tor.....And now I am back on the Misty Mountain, about to celebrate Winter Solstice after all ..... 8 weeks work done in 3, & I continue to wonder what happened....Faery time is not the same as clock time, & after "loosing" a day flying through the air in a plane, I am inclined to think time is a rather silly invention......

Greetings! This sight greeted me as I my made my way up the Mountain path to to the Melbourne Grove's Autumn Equinox ceremony on Saturday. Already the leaves are turning, but the Mountain is green & lush, due to a cool Summer & MUCH rain!
I am hoping you approve of the new picture I have put up so people can see what we look like. It was taken at Beltaine by my friend Lyn, who is a great champion for animal rights. She does Tarot readings at a minimal fee so that people can afford her service, & donates all the money to Animals Australia.


Some of you may be wondering how Mr Treadwell is settling into his role as my P.A.....
I am pleased to say he is beginning to grasp the subtleties of human behaviour, & seems to have been swatting up on Machhiavelli whilst I have been out, because he is now the perfect little Prince!
This is a photo or the veg. garden a couple of weeks ago. It is lush with leafy greens & not much else, although the flowers are lovely & I haven't had to water all summer. Hmmm parsley & walnut pesto made with the garlic I harvested earlier is delish! Sadly the rabbits ate all the green tomatoes, but the bushes remain healthy & robust. My beloved zucchinis were also munched, & some actually rotted on the plants, which have succumbed to powdery mildew due to so much rain this Summer.

This trio were regulars for seed last May. They are superb, but don't be fooled - they are very mercenary, & mostly just visit me when the cafe across the road is closed! Unfortunately, they don't wait until it opens, & prefer to raid my garden until it's coffee time....
But this year, I've had a little win! I discovered that Rosellas & King Parrots, who love eating the seeds of green peas & beans before anyone can pick them, can't see Purple King beans! I was surprised to discover some long pods hiding like dark jewels amongst the leaves yesterday. I had quite resigned myself to just enjoying the heliotrope-coloured flowers this year, but the birds seem to be less able to detect purple....has anyone else found this to be true?

Blessings of the Balance, blessings of Equinox, blessings of change,
with love,
Marigold & Treadwell