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This is the most work in progress-y part of the website.

Although all the text has migrated from Squarespace I’ve got image issues and so many things to sort out about the design/layout. I’m so sorry if it’s difficult to look at.

But I want the writing to be available so I’m keeping it published despite my icky feelings about how rough and ready this is. I’m sure you get it.

view of wet country road and harvested field blue skies and white clouds

Dare you ask yourself these questions ‘in your night’s quietest hour’? Do we have the courage to live a creative life without ‘asking after the rewards that may come from outside’? This is a thought-provoking book, with some challenging opinions. Why not slip it in your reading pile and see what happens?

Seasonal reflection prompts

golden field of harvested barley with blue sky and white clouds at lammas time

Lammas – gratitude for what is being harvested

We’ve reached the mid point between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox, a time that traditionally marked the first harvest and a celebration of the earth’s bounty. Summer is still in full swing, during the day it is warm and bright, and yet we have begun our journey towards autumn. It’s a good time to feel gratitude for what has grown and emerged in the light half of the year, the work we have done, whilst noticing the subtle shift towards the dark.

summer solstice orange sunset in the south of france

Summer solstice – contradictions in these brightest days

We have travelled through space back to this point when the sun is at its highest and the days are longest, full of bright potential. Nature is bountiful with colour and nourishment, we are gathering in and appreciating all the growth of previous months.

yellow rapeseed field under blue skies with white clouds at beltaine

Beltaine – a time of emergence

A time when we traverse from spring towards summer. It’s a time of emergence and rapid growth, the air full of insects and birdsong. There is such a palpable sense that we are headed for the brightness of summer – the warmth and light feel a bit more reliable, we can dare to trust in the season in ways we couldn’t six weeks ago at the equinox. And, with the lengthening of the days, there are things that have been brought into focus and clarity that maybe before were held in shadow.

white blossom against a blue sky at spring equinox

Spring equinox – no more illusions of balance

Equinox – the time of equal day and equal night – a moment of balance, and the threshold into spring and a new astronomical year.  Beginnings, new growth visible after months of seeds germinating inside the darkness.

sunset over the silhouette of the ridgeway winter solstice

Winter solstice – in the darkness turn towards

We’ve reached another point in the year – winter Solstice – which held such significance for our ancestors, and which offers us a chance to reflect within the context of this seasonal change.

a country road next to a large tree disappears into the fog on samhain

Samhain – welcoming in the dark

Samhain traditionally marks the shift from the light half of the year into the dark. All around us, in nature, things are dying back, are being composted into material that supports the new growth in Spring. Vital processes which cannot be rushed, which give all life the quiet, slow time it needs to transform.

writing archive

Paying attention

Today is Imbolc, the ancient celtic festival associated with the goddess Brigid. It’s the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, and it heralds the shift out of winter and towards the spring.

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