This post is just downloading some pics of plants including some rare and unusual plants we have acquired through the years. Some pics are from last year.
Cornus mas - Cornelian Cherry Dogwood - blooms in March
- fruit makes delectably awesome tart preserves
Sakura baby - Yoshino Flowering Cherry - sometimes the flowers
seem so bright in the morning it seems as if a white light is shining in
This is what can happen when you toss peaches off the deck
Ramps are up. Got them in West Virginia and transplanted last yr.
This and other types of wold leeks were called "son of the ram" as
they appear when sun is in Aries
Rosemary makes it through the winter - (barely) buried under sawdust
- I like to go along the herb garden and nibble on a medley of parsley,
sage, rosemary, and thyme
Fixing up the ole veggie (er weed) garden
A wild saxafrage
Kwanzan Flowering Cherry
Kwanzan Flowering Cherry - Inside View
A patch of ragwort with our cat Peace
Pink Quince tree blooms with white blossoms of the hardy orange -
The hardy bitter oranges make a great lemonade, a wonderfully
complex bitter marmalade and I plan to use the rinds ion homemade
beer this coming autumn
Mayhaw blossoms. Hawthornes and apples seem to have these cool
red blotched blooms, perhaps a symbol of the red and the white,
female and male energies entwining - and a symbol of Beltaine
Tulips are just fun
Thistle (and her shadow - Lucifer)
Japanese Flowering Ash Tree
Purple Mitsuba (aka Japanese Parsley) - good in salads
and pesto. Also a perennial that reseeds and spreads around too
Alabama Snow Wreath - rare Spirea relative
Crandall American Black Currant - good fruit too
Forget-me-nots
Wild Delphinium, ie. Larkspur
seeing hillsides full of these is magickal
Shisandra vine - leaves and berries said to make an adaptagenic tea and berries for juice - have yet to try
Dead Nettle not looking dead
Bonnie Virginia bluebells
A bonnie red Scotch broom
Pulminaria, ie. Lungwort - March flowering with nice spotted leaves
The beautiful Red Buckeye
Sapphire Berry, aka. Sweetleaf - has neat blue berries
Fothergilla - nice woodland shrub
Poison Ivy - what's itchin' me now
Alternate Leaf Dogwood, ie Pagoda Dogwood - found in Ohio
Japanese Snowbell (Styrax japonioca) from last May - seeds make great malas
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Imbolc Time
Milk Flow and Sap Flow and Lichens Painting Trees
Moss Glistening Gold and Green
Cold Barren Winter holds on and berry and seed are scarce indeed
Numen of the Land is readied Underground for the Rising to Come
All is Known
And yet the Mad Old Woman and the Trickster Boy taunt us with snow and shiver
They beg us to chase them away with noise and projectiles
And so goes another turning of the wheel
The turning is the imparting of knowledge
Of Record and of Law
Widdershins went this medicine stick
The Sun Fire Grows
Soon enough the perils of winter will yield to the relative comforts of summer.
Scrying in my Beer (not the country song) - This dark concoction is actually still fermenting, merely a sampling of a homebrewed gruit.
We long for stability in a sea of change
As the Sunwheel Churns
Reflections on the past
Projections on the future
Probing and reaching
To receive some teaching
Uncertainty cannot be undone, hidden away, or truly avoided
It is ever our companion
Expectation brings reality according to our focus
Yet we bring only the spoils of tainted will
It is merely an occasional worthy spell
I am fire I am steel
I am plunder I am deal
I am shadow I am real
Fly with me
We’ll fly unseen beyond the veil
Worry churns the glands
Winter stokes the furnace
Twisting wrings the serpent river
Pumping and stroking make flow
And we all just want to know
That we will be safe and healthy
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
But we know that one day the answer will be no
But beneath appearance we will be fine
As our basic nature reveals
What we think is now is really then reconstructed
We are consciousness, brain reading brain
We know we know and yet
Good fortune
Om Swasti Ka!
We fall asleep and rise awake like the sun and the moon
We come and go
Only half of our life we remember and know
Perhaps the need for rest is the price of knowing and its
comforts
May we all relax aware into smooth and seamless transitions
Rocksprings We used to go to the very ancient spring down the
road and clean it up of debris and trash. It was even our source of bathing and
cooking water for several months on two separate occasions. It is a very neat old place with ever-flowing water trickling into a stone bowl. Frogs will sometimes dwell there.
There used to be a sign there denoting it as an ancient
spring from pre-European Indian times but only the place it was once hanging on
remains – it may have blown down into the creek. When it warms a bit I will
have a look. The ivy hanging above the rock is interesting as ivy is common on Ireland and
associated with the Goddess Brighid and the sacred well of St. Brigid at
Kildare. I can only imagine that long ago Irish immigrants consecrated the springs by planting the English ivy. Our family has always seemed to have a connection to this “bright one”
– not sure why – Brighty Smile is one name Re calls her. Brighid is also associated with bees. So happens there was a bee expo that day that I attended.
The space built into the rock is actually pretty awesome.
One of two carved stone benches within
Light streaming in from one of the windows
The pool for drawing water (could be good for scrying as well)
I added a very crude Brigid's Cross to the hidden side of a well carved Beech tree with a quarter
The Lady of Springs and of Wells
Come forth the Lady of Springs and of Wells
We call you with charms and with drums and with bells
Stir ye awake as we mutter your spells
Our fear and despair your breast quells
Come forth the Mother of Wells and of Springs
For here amongst us she dances and sings
And she is the guardian of Queens
and of Kings
Her fire breathed in to all things
Such is the nature of Time and of Space
From Before and Beyond all known era and place
I hear your voice in the songs of the birds
You bring forth the meanings in arrangements of words
You plant melody in the midst of the chords
You fashion our tools and our swords
Such is the nature of Muse and of Grace
From Above and Below may we know your Embrace
Scottish bard Andy M. Stewart from the Fire In the Glen
Callegari - Brighid's Kisses
Nice Video graphic about Brigid
St. Brigid's Well and Rag Tree
One year we did hang cloths near our spring.
Gabhaim molta Bride (Praise to Brighid) by Claire Roche at Lendrick Lodge
Offer them food and
they will come. Birds, deer, turkeys, squirrels, raccoons, mice, even bears. Often
they will come with a vengeance for dining is a big part of the way of nature.
Tracks of the Trail of Deers
We feed the wild
animals (our friends) all year - sometimes trying to keep them alive while the
hunters come from other places to kill them when they step off our property -
or like last year to ask permission to search for one who went on our land
after being shot with a bow - I said OK but was not happy about it. Many of
them can get maimed and wounded and die slow agonizing deaths. I see people
buying bags of corn to lure them to their deaths. It is well known that it is
cheaper to buy deer meat than to kill it. Perhaps it is that the Art of Stalking
is so compelling. We have had to stalk coon hunters at night on several occasions.
I thought about getting a game camera to watch things at the feeders. It could
be fun as some take pics and movies via a motion sensor. Some guys at work did
this with a corn feeding setup and watched the night feeders. Most all were
deer but one showed a mouse eating the corn getting taken by what looked like a
small bobcat. It could have been a domesticated cat but we were way back away
from any inhabited areas. It might also be interesting to get to know specific
deer. We have done this with bucks due to the size of their antlers and a few
family groups when they have young ones.
The deer can be rather greedy.They frequent certain oak trees after the
acorns fall and develop feeding trails on their daily rounds as do the wild
turkeys. Squirrels seem to prefer the hickory nuts. We feed the birds near the
woods – one reason is that they are further away from the cats who can threaten
and catch them. The deer have broken several of the bird feeders so I have to
hang them up high and prefer the box-type squirrel feeders. Some deer come
close and wait while I feed to come and eat.
After a storm
felled a large oak tree, I noticed that the outer wood, about 2 inches thick
had separated from the inner so I was able to cut this off a big chunk to make
a roof for a large bird feeder. The roof piece is about 5ft long and a foot and
a half wide. I attached it to two locust posts inserted into the ground and
made a tray with plywood and small pieces of wood for a border. It sits in like
a shelf. With occasional repairs the whole contraption should last for years.
The birds enjoy it and the deer can also pull it out a little and eat from it.
I had to put some fiberglass panels around the locust posts so the cat would
not climb up and lie in wait for unsuspecting birds. The squirrels climb up and
hide in the space between.
We always have an
abundance of feathers since we have chickens, a turkey, geese, and ducks – also
a few groups of wild turkeys and all the wild birds at the feeders. Morning
Dove, Blue Jay, Crow, and Wild Turkey feathers are fairly common finds.
Deer block with 'irresisitible berry flavor'
I have not had good
luck with bird baths – at least with non-concrete ones. The deer or possibly the squirrels or raccoons
seem to knock them down. I guess I’ll have to get a concrete one but I fear
they will somehow break it too.
One year during a
cold winter we hung many pine cones slathered with peanut butter. These were
popular as most got emptied fairly quickly.
In the winter
through early spring the birds begin roosting in our biggest bamboo grove in
the front yard. Usually – the starlings come by the thousands – making a
powerful cacophony – otherworldly at times. I have heard it said that starlings
are aggressive at bird feeders but have never noted this at our feeders. They
are the blackbirds of European lore but have migrated to North
America a couple of hundred years ago I think.
Animals seem to understand food. It is their prime need and securing
it often requires danger and struggle. They are keenly aware of its presence or
absence, it’s time and place, it regularity. Food is energy. It is fuel. All
energy comes ultimately from the sun, our patron star. The activity around the
bird feeders is nice to watch and hear. The birds, the squirrels, and the deer
all seem to be enjoying themselves. Unfortunately, due to having many cats we
never feed close to the house or where cats dwell so we have to wander off a
ways both to feed the wild ones and to observe them so most of the observing is
done before, during, and after feeding. I think they like it better too having
food where they are less disturbed and where the birds are safer from
predators. One year when we fed out in the open the hawks would swoop down so
we put up an army camo net.
I have some CD’s and tapes of specific bird calls but have
yet to listen. I can recognize a few so far but hope to learn many more. Been
meaning to do this on long drives but I guess I’m a bit lazy. A few years ago I
went on a May morning bird walk at friend’s place with a bird guy there to
point out birds and calls. That was cool. Often I will carry food with me in
the car– corn for birds, squirrels,
geese, ducks – esp. in snowy times where it might be hard for them to get food.
Actually, I often have bags of bird food in the car since the raccoons are
adept at opening containers and raiding the food which really sucks if it rains
right after they leave the container open. Animals can convert food into heat
rather efficiently I am guessing. Also, as I know from having quite a few cats
and birds – they can covert food into shit rather efficiently as well. Another
thing one can do for birds is to plant things that leave big edible seeds that
birds like – millet, sorghum, sunflowers are examples. One might also plant
berries and fruits that they like in various seasons as well such as viburnums,
mulberries, and a million others.
Hungarian Broom Corn (a form of sorghum)
Chionanthus retusus (Chinese Fringe Tree) - from olive family - birds seem to enjoy them
