A Time of Changes

7/11/21 15:35
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There's no season as showy as autumn. It's hardly the subtle power of spring or the rolling bounty of summer. Nature steps aside in winter and leaves the big gestures to the weather, enduring whatever it brings. But autumn you cannot ignore; the combination of the shorter daylight hours, the cooler mornings and evenings and the plants and trees preparing to sleep the dark and cold away. Change is everywhere at this time of year and it means business.

For me, this is a time to prepare - to get ready for what comes next. This extends to many areas of my daily life - not only is it time to make sure that the house is fit for the cold, making repairs, changing curtains and rugs for something warm, buying candles and matches for cosiness and for the occasional power cut, ensuring that there is fuel to combat the chill, but also on a more personal level than that.

Some scholars believe that for the ancient peoples of Europe, Samhain was the beginning of the year. Summer's end is one proposed translation of the celtic word for this time in November. It is the end of the harvest, the third harvest festival. The cereals were in, the tree fruit was in, the roots and berries that would see them through the dark months were safely stored in the hope that they would last. In my family it is the beginning of the season of anniversaries and celebrations - weddings, births, deaths - for some reason they seem to cluster around this month and the next, as if all the business of living had time to bloom now. It is a time of change - my spirits rise as the days get cooler and the leaves fall, new plans are hatched, creativity has time to bubble up and dark afternoons give me time to read, write, bake, sew and craft like no other season. It is truly when I feel most able to express myself, to dream and make plans. Before the cold comes and after the work of preparing is done.

I think this is an ancient drive, the habits built by hundreds of generations of my ancestors. I take comfort from the thought that in my 21st Century way I am still honouring and showing respect to what the changes in the year might bring.
  • Mood creative
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Seeing the signs

18/10/21 21:11
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Autumn this year is doing things old school!

We have three types of fungus growing in the tiny wild corner of our garden, I was pleased to see this weekend when we mowed and sowed new wildflower seeds for next year. They are amazing, one growing on the stump of the chopped-down Rowan tree, one beneath the bird bath we made and another with just one specimen - I must identify them while they are still growing.

There are Starlings in the field behind the house - just hanging about on the telegraph wires and the grass. Walking the dog today, they moved before me like a big, dark blanket, shaking out ahead of me before returning to the ground again and again. Then they took to the sky in a swirling mini-murmuration. Beautiful and spell-binding.

The hedgerows are filled with the bounty of a fair summer - haws and hips and blackberries. We have our latest vintage of Slow Gin started on the kitchen counter,already turning garnet and burgundy.

And the sunrise this morning! They sky was burning crimson and magenta textured clouds that shaded to peach and lilac before it became that fragile robin's egg blue. A great way to spend fifteen minutes, charting the changes.

In two weeks it will be Samhain and the business of winter will begin in earnest, so I will savour these moments before then.


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The dog days of summer

25/8/21 15:07
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Autumn is just over the next hill - it's in the berries on the trees and in the hedgerows - it's in the cooler evenings and the over-ripe bedding displays - it's in the misty mornings and the farmers busy-ness. It is my favourite time of year.

In the old calendar archaeologist think that Samhain was the new year - the first celebration of the season. It is the last of the harvest festivals. The food has been grown and nurtured and brought in for the winter months when the world becomes cold and wet and inhospitable. You can see how this way around, the seasons are tilted towards the human experience in a way that appeals to me and feels more natural than celebrating at the deepest point of a season.

Mabon will be on the 20th September this year - the middle harvest. It is a time to reflect on what has gone well this year and what could be improved. Our potatoes and tomatoes for example. For some reason this year was terrible for both - very little yield. Later this year we are undertaking a garden project that will give us a more structured place to grow fruit, vegetables and herbs. We are picking out dwarf stock versions of plums and apricots, blueberries and more, so let's hope that next year is a better harvest and that our dedication will be rewarded. This harvest time, I will reflect on how the love and care we put in is what we get back. In all areas of life.
  • Mood reflective
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Happy Samhain!

31/10/20 13:22
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The best wishes of the season to you and yours.

It is one of my favourite times of year (as I may have mentioned). The trees are a riot of colour - the horse chestnuts have already thrown off summer and are bare but the elder statesmen of the country are more majestic about it - the Oaks and the Maples are gold and green still, brightening my drive to work. Speaking of which, on my commute this week I have passed homes selling flowers, plants, pumpkins and squashes, eggs, honey, walnuts and cooking apples. How lovely to have these homegrown gems on offer. I will miss that about Suffolk.

Samhain is also the season of my birthday and, like Christmas, I treat the days on either side of these special dates as being almost as important as the day itself. Samhain actually begins this evening and ends tomorrow evening - it is my birthday the day after that. The Christians call it All Souls Day. For me this period of All Saints, All Souls, Bonfire Night and Hallowe'en are like Christmas Eve, Christmas day, boxing day and New Years - the transition between periods doesn't all happen at once and it is good to take the time to reflect, celebrate, and consider at these liminal periods.

So, happy Samhain, and don't rush to throw out your Samhain altar, if that's what you do. Life is not a race, it is an education. Take a few days, appreciate and grow. I have reflective jobs to do over the next few days - scrapbooks to fill with photos and words and mementos - a baby blanket to complete - gifts for midwinter to consider and buy - and of course, this journal to write with my pagan journey through the year.

Happy New (Celtic) Year!


My family will all be back together tomorrow - Sam and Agne are due back in the morning - Agne's birthday is today - she really is a Samhain baby. Kes is making a surprise visit to celebrate my birthday with us which was unlooked for and very much appreciated. This is how I love to mark the transition periods in my life - with family and food and a little time to spend together and in nature.
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Samhain Ideas

21/10/20 17:10
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A post to be added to as and when, these are some suggestions on how to celebrate Samhain. It's a fire festival and the last harvest of the year. In the Celtic calendar it is the beginning of a new year. It is time to rest and be grateful - to live off the harvest you have gathered during the year. It is a time for reflection, a time for resolutions and new habits. It is a time to remember and appreciate.

Consciously clean the entrance to your home, the front door, the porch, the hallway. Make it welcoming and warm. Decorate with found objects from nature or seasonal blooms. Light scented candles. This is the beginning of the Celtic year, make clean sweep of the old year.

Walk in nature. Farewell to the land after the year's last harvest, be thankful for its bounty. Litter pick. Appreciate. Enjoy the final flourish of the leaves changing colour and the fungi.

Celebrate with a harvest meal. Hedgerow or apple crumble. Cider, maybe mulled. Meat -this was the time of year that animals were used for meat, so as not to have to feed them all through the winter. Be thankful for their sacrifice. Light candles and speak of the dark months in positive terms. Reminisce about those who are not here to celebrate with you, those who have passed on. Linger over your food, eat well. Celebrate what the year's work has given you.

Make your sleeping area and your living room clean and cosy. Wash throws and blankets. Wash pillows and cushions, update them. Buy new bedding. Put away summer things, put fresh candles in holders and lanterns. Hang heavier curtains.

Fireworks - this might just be me - and a bonfire. This is a fire festival. Cook food over the flames. Embrace the dark evenings. Light sparklers and fireworks to remind us that the light will return.

Put up pictures of your family, particularly those who have passed on. Bring them back into conversation, appreciate the touch of their lives on your own. Recall them with happy stories.
  • Mood grateful
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Autumn

20/10/20 20:14
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Autumn is my favourite time of year. I enjoy the transition times; autumn, spring, dawn and dusk (and Bronze Age to Iron Age from my days as an archaeology student.)

This year the change in seasons came within a week. We normally have a gentle slide into the next season, giving us time to adapt and embrace. This year the cold came overnight and the trees rushed to catch up. The field behind the house is littered with walnut shells that the birds have taken and opened to get to the prize inside. The hedgerows are glowing with the garnets and rubies of haws and hips. Suffolk is not my home and there are some aspects of life here that I still struggle with after seven years, but the natural world is not one of them. I had never seen such a bounty. The hedges are endless colours or crab apples (pink and yellow and green), the thousands of haws and sloes and the gold of field maples and oak. It's glorious.

There's no shortage of wildlife either - another joy. I regularly see Barn Owls and I have heard a Tawny Owl at night in the summer. And there are hares up here which I have only ever seen in Italy before. Earlier this year in the spring we drove back from Knettishall Heath through local village to see a field full of hares - there must have been eight or ten, all racing around, chasing and leaping. It was glorious - something I hope I will never forget. We have deer in the fields behind us - roe and muntjack. There are not many rabbits or foxes and I have my suspicions why that should be. There are badgers too, but I have not seen those other than beside the road having been hit by cars.

This year the summer stayed hot and a lot of hedgehogs had a second litter of hoglets. These babies were born too late to gain enough weight to hibernate and many of them have died already or will die in the coming months. It such a shame as hedgehog numbers have been in decline for years.

Next weekend the clocks go back and it will be Samhain. Pumpkins and decorating as we embrace the US version of this festival more each passing year. It will be food to find some authenticity to this festival this year and see how I can embrace that. I was born on the 2dn of November - all Souls day. Like many ancient celebrations, the date for each is not set in stone. I believe my birthday is within the window of the Samhain festival, which gives me more determination to give it its due.
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