Earth Gazer

Here goes with the January task update... Hawthorn and elder tree mapping The task was to... " Map all the hawthorn and elder trees within a mile of where you live. This means going out and locating them and drawing a map showing where they all are. Notice where they are growing in relation to roads etc and see which ones would be suitable for you to harvest from them. Try to do a bark rubbing from several trees of each genre and see how similar/diverse they are. Label and date the bark rubbings. Take photos and notice the shape of the trees. " -- Scanned image will go here shortly --

A theme or phrase has been pounding me a lot lately - 'disconnected'. I hear people say it, both friends and those on video from the internet. It resonates deeply with me. Are we disconnected from life, from humanity, from nature, from reality?

Today is Imbolc - happy Imbolc blessings to everyone! This Sunday, I'm off to Derbyshire to attend an Imbolc ceremony 'Celebrating the Wheel of the Year', run by Glennie Kindred, Rosemary Greenwood, Marion McCartney and Annie Keeling, which I'm really looking forward to. I attended a Samhain celebration last November at the same place and it was an incredibly moving and spiritual experience! Imbolc is a celtic/pagan celebration that is held around the end of January/beginning of February (in the northern hemisphere). Following on from Samhain (which is about death - metaphorically speaking - with the energies of life etc being withdrawn into the earth), Imbolc is a celebration of the life-force, of love, of a new cycle of growth, and of new beginnings. Winter is passing (slowly) and we can begin to move forward into springtime energy. This is a time for planting visions and ideas! My friend Sarah Head has written a couple of Imbolc stories which are published o