Seasonal Weather Unwelcome

We awoke this morning to an all-over whiteness everywhere, snow lay like a lovely, smooth velvet, that draped itself over our rural scene. 

Mrs H fed the birds who hopped here there and everywhere so the white mantle became pock-marked by their little feet or claws,alas !

We took photos, mine from indoors with the window wide open and then quickly closed again, as I enjoy fresh air but at a temperature that is above freezing. Mrs H, not hardier, just younger and more full of vigour, braved the outdoors. 

Well, we hope that you enjoy our photos.

Below is the worst winter that I have ever experienced, the Winter of 1963 when I was a youth working in the Teignmouth shipyard [Devon, England]; when the sea froze and there were large snowdrifts on the beach that the tide took simply ages to melt away and on Dartmoor fires were lit under lorries to thaw out the diesel which had waxed up.

A HELPING HAND

As many of you are aware I am not a Christian and the path which 
I walk is that of a Druid. In a few days time on the 22nd December (this year) it will be the Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year. Daylight will increase on the following day making our days longer but we will still be in winter and temperatures will drop.


I am very aware that these cold days are a burden and make life a lot harder for people who are without the basic necessities of life; shelter, warmth, food and enough clothing. 

Many druids and pagans exchange gifts and send cards at Solstice but rather doing this I donate money to a worthy cause which will help people who are in need.

Today I made my annual donation to Brother Kevin at the Capuchin Day Centre for Homeless People in Dublin. This year the Centre has seen a huge increase in people needing help.
Brother Kevin is well known here in Ireland, always taking time to listen to others in a non judgemental and accepting way.

http://www.capuchindaycentre.ie/Capuchin_Day_Centre_2013/Capuchin_Day_Centre_-_Donations.html

However you celebrate at this time of year may you have warmth, good food and

the companionship of friends.

Seen Within 200 yards

I walked no more than two hundred yards to take these photos of our locality and as you can see the greening of spring has yet to arrive. For it is only in the among garden plants: daffodils,croci and buds on the roses bushes where spring has pushed through.

A Lone Tree around which the faeries dance ?

Acres upon acres of grassland where winters bleached stalks stand pale.  

Faintly on the horizon a transmitter known locally as the Iron Man stands as a sentinel of modern communication. On the left in mid picture smoke pours  from the chimney of an isolated cabin, I was tempted to drop in for tea.

Beyond the electrified wire young Friesians graze and hopefully grow fat.

A patchwork of fields on a distant hill in another county.

Housing density is not a problem in this area. I looked up just after taking this photo to see a Crow flying overhead with a twig in its beak,to make a nest to home this years clutch of eggs; so yes spring has arrived!

Our Daily Visitors

Our regular morning visitor the friendly hen pheasant.

We place three heaps of cous cous around the garden for those birds who are ground feeders, for their anatomy is such that they are unable feed from the hanging feeders. These birds are the Robin, Thrush, Blackbird and Pheasant.

To prepare the cous cous we put a small amount dried grain into a bowl, pour on hot water and let it stand until it has swollen up. 

Excess water is then strained off with the whole process taking about 5 minutes. 

The cous cous is left to stand until cool before putting it out for the birds.

Mrs H gets great pleasure from putting out this feed as she is eagerly awaited by the robins and a blackbird who follows her around the garden.

WINTER: Food and Cures

A Cornish Pasty

The pasty has to be one of my favourite dishes and especially at this time of the year. This one was made quite recently by Mrs H when I was feeling slightly under the weather and her culinary skills cheered me up no end. It contains cubed swede, parsnips carrots and lean beef steak, plus white pepper and an oxo cube for additional flavour. 

It was absolutely delicious and very filling, so much so that I was unable to consume all of it at one sitting and approximately half of it became a meal on the following day  

A cough remedy

I recently suffered an irritating dry and tickly cough which disturbed me both day and night. After having tried homeopathic drosera which helped, that alone was not sufficient and so I resorted to Manuka honey to which one drop of thyme oil had been added and stirred into; the dosage I took was one teaspoonful twice a day for about four or five days which am delighted to say completely cured me.

Cayenne Pepper

Another one of my home remedies is cayenne pepper which I use fairly frequently throughout the year. It is well known for improving the circulation and has many uses; my best advice is for you to look it up on the internet and make your own decision.

I take it once a day: one teaspoonful in a small glass of cold spring water.

The Cayenne Pepper Drink

The cayenne pepper drink is extremely hot and the way I take it is have one large mouthful and to hold it in the mouth for about three seconds before swallowing down as rapid as is possible, quickly followed by drinking second glass of water to flush away any residue from the gums, of course another way to reduce the burning sensation in the mouth is to have a spoonful of honey.

I try to avoid pharmaceutical medicines and visits to medical practitioners as far as is possible, unless it is absolutely unavoidable. My preference is to eat wholesome foods, exercise regularly, do nothing to excess and maintain my height/weight ratio.

My plan is to grow old disgracefully by being a geriatric hippy !

Dark v Light

You are welcome !

It is perhaps the growing dark, the cold chilling gloom, the quickening fall of night and those pretty illuminations that sit in windows and on eaves, gable ends, the cold electric guttering lights of my unseen neighbours, that cause Mrs Heron to talk of sympathetic magic and of trying to bring the Sun back ?

Are they, the good Christians around us, aware of what their hidden Pagan soul has led them into ?

The Solstice Tree, the evergreen a display of continuing life is being decorated, as I write.

Mrs H is well able for that, her skilful hands and artistic bent do it well.

She has just asked me 'What do we have at the top?' 'A Frog !' I said, pausing then to say 'Well how about the Witch instead?' I am of course totally wrong. It is the returning reborn Sun

The Frog goes over the door attached to the Deer tine and The Witch is hidden in the tree somewhere and The Owl perches wherever he can find a prominent place, among the lights which have been neatly spun around.

Don't look too close though, for there is naughty gnome in a state of undress sitting beneath the tree.

Some echoes of Winter sit below

A WINTER OFFERING.

Winter’s sharp passion sings

Thro’ black brittle thorn limbs

Over old Áine’s fertile plains

Where summer ferns once grew

Lush: in valleys - hidden places

Deep where springs weep.

Eriu’s blood flows fresh, new

birthing stone frosted icicles

to glint in watery sunlight,

as a rapier

sword of

youth.

© MRL 26. 12. 2001

SOLITUDE DISTURBED

The Sparrow Hawk on patrol

soundless swift sweep of wing

Prey in sight divides light

To kill disappear beyond bright.

Creeps child of forest's edge

stop, listen, one white scream.

A rapid rapier's beak struck

twilight to red dark death.

A spiral hidden from sunlight

tunnels through black earth

Family cavern warm mourn

their summers first born.

©MRL NOV 2007

Spatial Battle

Unhindered swirling waves

born of an untamed power

rotated by Sun Moon energy

Whose long seas seek

scream a wild throaty roar

To smash the fortress cliffs

asunder; wet wearing winds

In unceasing hunger battle

Plunder an ancient guard

of old Devonian stone.

To reclaim space, land

on which to expand.

Pulverised rock - small sand

floods wide the old boundary

In pride of new sea-room !

© MRL NOV 2007