THE MIGHTY OAK

Before I begin, my computer screen has gone a rather unpleasant pink colour, so my colour values etc are distorted, so it is fingers crossed that my text and illustrations work as I can't see the true colours until my screen is sorted Ansel Adams

On 10th June, the Celtic month changes again and this month will be the month of the Oak. A tree to me that is quintessentially English, phrases such as the Mighty Oak, Hearts of Oak and From Little Acorns Great Oak Trees Grow. The Oak has always protected England from time immemorial, it was the sacred tree of the Druids, they had their Oak Groves, and throughout history the boats that were used by the English Navy to defeat invaders to our isles were made from from slabs of the mighty Oak. The Armada was turned back by these ships crafted from English Oak. Therefore, from the 10th of June we have the 7th Moon of the Celtic Year, Duir, the Oak Tree. Duir meaning door.

Herne

The month of Duir, also contains the Summer Solstice, and of course, the symbol of the Summer Solistice is the magnificent Oak tree. Every civilisation that has had access to Oak trees seems to have realised the mystical properties of it. The Oak is one of the three most sacred trees, Oak, Ash and Thorn and is thereby known as King of the Grove. English legend believes that King Arthur's Round Table was made from a massive slab of Oak tree. The oak is allied to the element of Fire and is ruled by the Sun. It also has associations with the God of the Forest Herne and the Wild Hunt and the Oak or Green man who is a potent symbol in English folklore. It was an Oak tree that Robin Hood was supposed to gather his men round and an Oak tree in which King Charles is supposed to have hidden to avoid detection by the Roundheads. It is a very long lived tree and grows to enormous widths, therefore it is a symbol of long life. It is also associated with the Gods of Thunder and Lightning, due to its reputation as a lightning attractor. The bird connected to this Oak Month is the wren and the stone is moonstone.


The Green Man

The parts of the Oak used are the bark, wood, leaves, and acorns, which I will leave until last, as they are another interesting part of Oaklore. Oak bark tea is very astringent and is thought to be good for sinus infections. Oak can be used in spells of healing and fertilitiy, protection, strength and success. One belief is if you listen to the Oak at the Summer Solstice you can hear what the future holds by listening to the wind rustling through its leaves. Oakwood is a very powerful protection herb and are used as land boundary markers because of this. Also an Oakleaf worn next to your heart is said to protect the wearer from decption and falsehood. Try a handful of Oak leaves in your bath to cleanse you in body and spirit.



Acorns, themselves are very useful and powerful small items. Acorns are said to be able to increase fertility, not just of the body but your creative fertility too. Play with a couple in your hand to ease pain or put some in your window or on your windowsill to deflect lightning and protect you from night creatures of evil intent. You can also carry them in your pocket for basically the same reasons, to protect from storms, from getting lost and from those spirits or people intent on ill wishes towards you. Three acorns threaded together can be made into a charm to preserve youthfulness and to help you achieve in life. You must thread a piece of your hair with the three acorns, and bless them every new moon and full moon, for twelve months. Acorns can also be planted in the dark moon days to bring financial rewards. You must harvest the Oak tree by the waning moon. The acorns in daylight and the wood and leaves at night. Don't forget that part of your Summer Solistice fire should be of Oak wood.

Mercury

Remember what I said about my computer at the beginning of this posting, well going round the blogs quite a few of us are having various problems with our computers at the moment. Dare I tell you, guess what it is? Yes, Mercury goes into retrograde in a few days time, so don't forget everyone be careful around items of communication. This retrograde Mercury will last from 15th June [with a build up from about ten days before that] until 10th July , but don't forget about the kickback effect that lingers on a while.

A Wren

Keep having a look at my Poetry Fest Website, link near the top of my sidebar, poems are still coming in, and if you haven't participated yet there is still time for this month's Poetry We Loved as Children.

THE MONTH OF THE HAWTHORN

It is almost the start of a new month in the Celtic year. On 13th May, we will enter the month of Huath, the Hawthorn. This tree, though in England it is used as hedging and can be more like a shrub, is also known as Maybush, Maytree, Thorn bush. It is one of the important triad of trees, Oak, Ash, and Thorn, and it is said that when those three species grow together if you are quiet and patient you may be able to see the faeries. Also to fall asleep under a blossoming Hawthorn, is a risky thing to do, you may be captured by the faeries and whisked away to their lands never to be seen again.



The Greeks and Romans saw the Hawthorn as a symbol of hope and marriage, yet in later times, Europeans considered it a bush that was associated with witchcraft. These two contradictory sides to the meaning of Hawthorn, mirror the bush itself, with its dangerous thorns and beautiful blossoms. It is unlucky to cut the flowering Hawthorn and bring it into the home before Maytime, but hawthorn has many uses in the home. If it is hung from the rafters it will keep evil spirits away. To hang a branch of Hawthorn on the roof of your house is said to protect your home from lightening. It is also used hanging from the roof of the milking parlous to make sure the cows continue to be happy and give large yields of milk. The wood of Hawthorn also makes one of the hottest fires and it burns well. Beware, though, if wanting to use the wood of Hawthorn you must never cut it while it is flowering. To cut a flowering Hawthorn branch to use or burn the wood, is to upset the fae and they will take their revenge on you. Many Country people plant a Hawthorn bush outside their homes, also as protection, though it has been heard that a witch has the ability to hide in the shape of a Hawthorn. A thorn from the Hawthorn bush can be carried in a pouch to ward off depression, and is also supposed to be good luck when fishing. Hawthorn has an affinity with water and is often planted next to sacred wells, especially in Ireland where you can see rags, and strips of material hanging from the tree where people have asked for favours.

Paul Nash

Herbally, berries, bark, seeds, branches and flowers are used. The berries are a cardiac tonic, but they must be mixed with other herbs to dilute its potency. Please do not try to make this tea if you are inexperienced, it really does depend on the other herbs in it as well. Its leaves and blossoms can be brewed to create a tea to aid anxiety, and poor ciculation. Hawthorn can be used for health, prosperity, protection, love and marriage, purity, cleansing, happiness and to lose old habits and dusty old ideas. John Piper

Village cottages would be decked with Hawthorn on Mayday and the Maypole often had a crown of the same. Some villages would have branches of flowering Hawthorn that they would carry from door to door, bestowing blessings on all the village homes. Kissing balls and Mayday crowns also incorporated Hawthorn, and these crowns would be left at the end of Mayday under Hawthorn trees for the faeries to reclaim.


Our weather has now settled back into its normal pattern of early May, heavy showers and gusts of wind. These wild gusts of wind come from a local wind that blows at this time of year, it is known as the Helm Wind. It is a wind that develops, a curious pbenomenon that occurs along several miles of the local fells. Though we just get the tale end of it in our village.
The helm wind is a strong, blustery easterly wind that descends the western slope of the Cross Fell Range in Cumbria, northern Enlgand. It roars as it gusts and seems to be able to penetrate the smallest gaps and make your house chill. In certain years it has been so strong that it has wrongly been called a hurricane. A predictor of this wind is the helmet or cap of a certain type of cloud that forms above Cross Fell escarpement itself.

Matisse

Even between the showers, when the sun comes out and the clouds scud across the sky, it is too gusty and blowy to chance doing anything in the garden. Luckily none or my plants are large enough to have been damaged, apart from the honeysuckle its wire backing has been partly ripped from the wall. I am hoping for a good weekend to sort that problem out. Today I am determined to sort my desk in my workroom which is an absolute disgrace, and I must get Sweetpea's bedroom put to rights [I have been storing things in there] and after she has been to Jamaica, at the beginning of June, she will be coming to stay for a few days in the middle of June. So the bad weather is the perfect excuse to sort out her room and make it welcoming again. I know when the weather gets better, I will make any excuse to put off doing her room and to spend my time in the garden.


By the way, if anyone wants to take my 'Greedy Juicy Summer' banner and use it as a badge on their sidebar that's fine by me. The painting is a still life by Cezanne and is not copyrighted and the words are mine.

HERE'S TO A GREEDY, JUICY,LEARNING SUMMER OF PERSONAL DELIGHTS

Stanley Spencer

At long last by the end of last week I had finished all my outstanding swap committments. All that is left is the ongoing Hello Dolly Swap and a healing doll, I promised someone, and even these two dolls are now at the actually being made stage. The little grey cloud rumbling above my head in a thundery manner started to disperse once I had posted, my woodland sprite, my crow chunky pages and my Shhhh! project. Sometimes I find that group projects, seem to stifle my creativity in my own art for art's sake. I become so aware of not letting a group down and my responsibility to the those people, that I actually seem to freeze when I want to involve myself in personal work.

Laura Knight

I have decided, and I know that some of you know about this, as I have mentioned it in a couple of emails, that I am drawing back from group swaps for a while, apart from the one that is still ongoing. I am going to concentrate on my art and probably just get involved in one to one's and RAKs. I was stretched out in too many ways before, with the amount of swaps. For now I want to concentrate on my art, my garden, my history research, my blog and putting more time aside for my favourite occupation reading. I want to have a greedy, juicy, learning summer of personal delights. I fully intend to make myself a banner saying just that 'Here's to the greedy, juicy, learning summer of personal delights'. Raise a glass with me to that and have one too. What fun we can have in the autumn revealing what we gained through these months. Southern Hemisphere, do the same with Winter using suitable winter words.



You note I have a new sidebar item that advertises National Faery Day on 24th June, if you click on it you should be taken to the site and you can choose one for your own blog. There are lots of things going on around that time, such as in Bodmin in Cornwall, a three day faery
festival. I'm sure we can all think of lots of lovely things to do to celebrate this day.



A very good friend of mine from the blogs, and I have been talking about Druids and Driudism recently. This is really quite apt as the doll the Hello Dolly Group are making this month is a Celtic Goddess. Druidism is fascinating, and has reinvented itself many times throughout history. Basically it is similar, I think to wicca, and to various pantheistic religions [ one with many gods and goddesses, often associated with nature, eg rivers, trees, rocks]. It is also a belief that really looks after our Earth. Listed below are the main attributes of certain types of Druidism.

John Piper

~Love of Peace~ Love of Beauty - the bard and artists within~ Love of Justice - non punitive justice and law ~Love of Story and Myth - the power of mythology~ Love of History and Reverence for Ancestors~ Love of Trees - sacred groves and study of treelore~ Love of Stones - stone circles and crystals~ Love of Truth - wisdom~ Love of Animals - druidry sees animals as sacred ~ Love of the Body~ Love of the Sun, Moon and Stars~ Love of Life.

Jill Worthington

The Druids came from pre-Celtic times and by Celtic times had a long history of lore and beliefs. It they had any written words they have been destroyed long before then and a lot of our information about them come from Roman writers, such as Julius Caesar. The Druids, deified elments of nature, such as the moon, stars and sun, and looked to them for signs and seasons. The also held as holy natural elements such as. rivers, lakes, tops of hills, groves, trees, and plants. Fire was regarded as a symbol of several divinities and was associated with the sun and cleansing. The calendar was governeed by the lunar, solar and vegetative cycles. There were three categories the Bards, who knew the songs and stories of their people, the Ovates who were gifted with second sight, and were the seers and healers and the Druids who were the philospohers, judges and teachers. There was much maligning of the Druids by certain Romans and talk of human blood sacrifices though some of what is written must surely be taken as anti Druid propaganda. It took many years of learning to become a Druid and it was open to both men and women. I feel aspects of it mix in well with wicca and solitary hedgewitchery, it also brings back to us the importance of never losing our traditions and lore, our history and beginnings are what makes us the people we are. Even in today's age of technology we should never forget how to use the oral storytelling tradition.

ONE SWALLOW A SUMMER DOTH NOT MAKE

This is the Silver Birch tree that is in on the common ground behind my house and garden. This was taken in the early morning sunlight, which seems to be glinting on the new leaves which have just unfurled in the last couple of days. Look at that beautiful cloudless sky.

I was sitting in my workroom on Monday afternoon and looked out of the window across the street to my neighbour's yard and barn when suddenly a bird swooped and swerved in front of it, yes, it was a swallow, then another appeared and for some minutes they performed their acrobatic flight around the yard. Today, Tuesday, they are no where to be seen. I have noted this happens every year, the only thing I can think of is that a few swallows make up an advanced party fly ahead and check out their summer habitat then return to report to the rest of the group who are winging there way here. I am confident within the next day or so they will all be wheeling and diving in the sky. The weather has turned slightly chiller which reminded me of the above adage which I have used as a title.

This is the dove cote entrance to the barn that the crows are using, if you enlarge the photo you can see a large stick they have not been able to get inside, and it has got stuck behind the guttering.

I have been trying to photograph my crows, but they are such crafty birds. I got up early with the camera and went down into the garden as I noted from the bedroom window they were busy flying in and out the barn. I quietly positioned myself in the corner of the garden and waited, and waited and waited! I looked round over the common land behind and there were the cheeky birds just out of camera range sitting in a tree looking at me. So no luck yet, but I spent some time photographing various items which are illustrating this posting, explanations are underneath the photographs.

This is the ruin of an old forge [it has no proper roof just some corrugated iron thrown over some of it]. Inside, although the entrance is blocked up now, the forge fireplace is still in the corner. Look at the old wooden dovecote on the side. This is situated on the lane that leads away from the land behind my garden.

On Sunday we entered the fifth moon of the celtic year in which every month has a tree and I did promise to follow the months and tell you a little about the tree of the month. The tree is the Willow, also known as pussy willow or withey. In herbal lore the bark of the willow is used as a pain killer, it contains an ingredient that forms salicylylous acid which is actually the active ingredient in aspirin. Which shows there is a lot of truth in old time herbal lore. The Willow tree is connected to water and is also a tree of the moon. It is one of the traditional woods to be added to the bonfires on Mayday evening. It is said that if you sit under the Willow Tree and listen you will hear the voices of the fairies when the wind stirs the leaves. To plant a Willow tree near your home is to protect it and its branches make superb wands or dowsing tools. You can also carry a little piece of Willow with you to protect you when travelling. Folklore tells tales of Willows uprooting themselves by night and stalking travellers!

These three photographs were taken at Easter when the garden was just showing signs of Spring growth, the beds look sparse but beside some of the markers there are tiny plantlings coming up. The next task will be to put down a new layer of bark chippings.

This is my shrub corner, the lavender is sprouting new shoots and the broom is getting ready to flower and at the fore of the photograph my white lilac bush is showing off its new leaves.

This is the bed I was hoeing before I stopped to take photos. The honeysuckle is flourishing and the new growth of herbs has started in the pots.

Here is the Easter Branch I decorated for Easter, as I have said before, we don't really do decorations over here, but this was a late attempt at me doing some. I will be more organised next year and do more decorations. Unfortunately, by the time this photograph was taken the chocolate minature bunnies seem to have all been eaten.

Many thanks Pea, for telling me the name of the little girl in the red cloak in American comics, of course, it was Wendy the Little Witch. How could I have forgotten that.