September's harvest

September has started and the swallows have all but gone, as the wheel of the year turns, even the Skylarks have faded. The skies seem quieter without their cries.

The colours are changing, slowly swinging from the rich greens and jewel-bright flowers at the peak of the year into the warm, sun-beaten tones of late summer.

All around, harvest is in full swing and Nature's larder is well stocked this year. After three or four years of sparseness, the yew and elder trees are heavy with berries. The rowan has sprays of scarlet fruit, each carefully maked with a pentagram at the base, added by the Earth Mother herself.

The branches of the apple trees are weighted and bent and the brambles, full of berries as black as scrying mirrors, each reflecting the late summer's sun like little jewels.

Cloudberries hide lower down in the undergrowth of forgotten path edges, perhaps to tempt out the smaller folk, the unseen Fae. Even the Wayfaring Tree has full boughs.

Acorns upon the oak are ready for bushy-tailed squirrels to steal and hide away for hungrier times.

Elsewhere, the sloes are slowly ripening but need winter frosts to bring out their flavour before adding to gin. For now, they soak up the sun.

The scent of wild marjoram is thick in the air, soothing and lifting. Hawthorn berries hang nearby, medicinally said to be a tonic for the heart and St. John's Wort, such an important part of Nature's medicine cupboard, is considered to repel all sorts of negativity - from driving out depression to offering gentle protection.

While the farmers gather their crops, the remaining flowers attract bees and hoverflies and the seedheads rattle in the breeze - impatient for the wheel to turn a little more for them to scatter.

"And as the seasons come and go, here's something you might like to know
... there are fairies everywhere under bushes, in the air, playing games
just like you play, singing through their busy day. So listen, touch, and
look around -- in the air and on the ground. And if you watch all nature's
things, you might just see a fairy's wing."

   -Unknown

If you wish to see more photos, read similar quotes or to simply be updated when new items are available, please "like" our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/spiritofoldUK

Also see our main website at www.spiritofold.co.uk

We stumbled across a crop circle!

We were driving through the countryside this afternoon and spotted a crop circle in a wheat field next to the road. I haven't walked inside one for years! You can get an idea of the size of it from the picture above - one large centre circle with eight smaller ones around the outside. The outside circles were all interconnected with a thin ring, shown below.
You can find some more information here on an interesting website called Crop Circle Connector. You can find a good diagram of the circle layout here. Our littlest boy is now completely wowed by the idea of crop circles and ufos ... what's your theory on it all?

When I look through these photos I realise just how beautiful the land is around us! A very English summer's scene :)

Bushcraft weekend

What can be more perfect than spending a long weekend in an English woodland? We've been lucky enough to enjoy a few weekends away this year, all to the Swift Valley bushcraft meet. It's an informal get-together held roughly once a month and it's such great fun!

Last weekend, we did have a few torrential downpours (hey, this is a very typical summer!) but even that didn't put the gaggle of children there off racing round at full speed. They made swings, climbed trees, played hide and seek and had the times of their lives. We drank too much and stayed up into the wee small hours laughing our socks off round the fire. Fun all round then! :)