Setbacks

It has been one of those months where lots of little things went wrong and set me back on what I was trying to do. I always think that these kind of things come in threes so I must be on my third set of three by now.

I can’t remember now all of these little things but some stick in my mind. While doing a lot of sewing the needle broke on my sewing machine. Luckily I had one to replace it but it took time as it was fiddly to do. Then I chipped a tooth. I don’t have many left at the top so chipping one of these was not a good idea! Then a light bulb went in the kitchen and I had to ask a friend for help as I couldn’t get the old bulb out. That’s three things but there are more. My rose got black spot and had to be dealt with, the storms knocked down a lot of plants and had to be staked so they stood up again and then on Tuesday I got a very bad sting while watering the garden. Poor bee; sat on my arm and I didn’t notice it so bent my arm and squashed it. Of course it stung me and also bit me! The sting is still bothering me as I have a problem with my body dealing with stings and bites. A visit to the pharmacist helped but it is still not getting much better so a visit to the doctor on Monday maybe. On top of all this a parcel has not arrived having been sent back to the sender from the delivery depot as it was damaged!. I wonder what else there is to come along to set me back.

The weather is certainly not helping me get back on track with the garden as it is pouring with rain. It is good for the plants of course but it also makes the weeds grow as well. The area of the sting is still red and itchy and is in a place which makes doing things harder as it is on the inside of my elbow. But life goes on, as it does and I take each day as it comes, doing what I can and resting or reading when I can’t do everything else. But I do miss being outside in nature. I can however watch the birds through my window and that can be quite interesting. Last week a sparrow hawk shot into view and dived into the hedge but came out empty handed but from what my neighbours have said, it did get a pigeon later on. One day I will get a photo when it comes as it is a regular visitor.

So setbacks have happened and maybe there are more to come as our country faces turmoil and changes as does the whole world. I am trying to live each day without anger and worry but that can be hard to do when you get other little setbacks to stop you from moving on. How do you deal with these little setbacks?

Transformation

I think most people know about the transformation concerning the butterfly. The butterfly lays eggs on a leaf which then hatch into caterpillars which eat the leaves around them then later they form into a chrysalis and hibernate. The next spring they emerge and transform into butterflies. Some other insects lay eggs in water which then change into larvae. The dragonflies and damselfies do this and can live in the water for a long time generally around one or two years but it can be longer. When ready they crawl out of the water and find a strong leaf or stalk where they begin to remove their outer layer and out comes the dragonfly or damselfly. I have seen the emergence of the dragonfly and it is amazing to watch. As it emerges, it slowly puffs up its body and opens its wings which are iridescent and absolutely beautiful.

Birds lay eggs which hatch and the baby birds eat greedily until strong enough to get their feathers and learn to fly. I have many young birds in my garden and have watched them as they learn to fly and to perch on the bird feeders. All of the natural world can show us transformation. Seeds grow into plants and then flower and make more seeds. It is never ending.

I feel we could learn a lot from watching the transformations taking place in our gardens, ponds and rivers. But we have to learn how to transform ourselves, it does not happen naturally. There are so many influences on our lives that we tend to go with the flow instead of being who we really are. It is too easy to follow the rest and be like them so transforming into a better person with our own beliefs and ways of living can be hard to do. Many do not like to stick out in a crowd! But we are not meant to be the same, we are all unique and need to work on that and transform ourselves into that unique person that we were born as. Take the opportunity to start this process now and see the future unfold as you wish it to be.

Trees and the Ogham

I could write about trees for a long time. This week I have been looking through the thousands of photos that I have. There are two boxes of printed photos taken before the days of the digital camera, then there are the thousands on my computer taken with a digital camera. Each year I ‘cull’ my photos and try to keep the ones that mean something to me, but the number of photos that I keep is around 1500 each year.

I love the way that paths wind through trees, leading us into magical spaces. Often in a large wood you come upon a clearing and when the sun shines this too is magical. I have walked in some woods where these spaces, or glades, are made deliberately to let in the light for the woodland flowers and butterflies. Woodland does have to be managed or it becomes a jungle where each tree jostles for space with another one and both trees end up being only a small part of what they should be.

During my training as a druid I was introduced to the Ogham tree alphabet. This fascinated me and as I did not like the Ogham cards that I had bought, I decided to make my own. After much contemplation I sat down one day and did just that. I used watercolour pencils for the design, finding that the interpretations that I wanted to hear, flowed through my mind as if channelled. I called them Tree Medicine. This was twenty years ago now and it was not easy to sell these to others as I did not have the means of good reproduction. However, together with my son we did a ‘computerised’ version drawing each card with great care. We then designed a small booklet to go with the cards and I made small cotton bags to keep them in. They were meant to go in your pocket so you could use them outside with the trees when you found them. I still use mine. I do have a few sets left but they are no longer on my web site.

Although I live in the UK there are many trees which have been imported from other countries. Rich land owners with a lot of parkland often imported trees from Europe and other countries so that there is a rich mix of different trees to be seen. At one time I used to ‘run’ workshops about working with trees as I lived near a large park with an arboretum. I enjoyed working with others learning to communicate with the trees around us, giving thank for their presence and how they keep us alive.I do love trees!

My photo does not appear to be straight but whatever, it shows a couple of my tree cards

My love of trees and woodland

I have always loved to be among the trees, but there have been some very special trees in my life too. I have always been an outdoors kind of person. I walked and cycled for many years among the lanes of my home and then further afield ending up climbing and scrambling in the mountains of Snowdonia. But trees have always been special.

There is something about woodland and the tracks through it that feel different to anything else I have experienced. It is magical. The sunshine filters through the leaves and moves the shadows around and changes the colours of the leaves as they move. Then there is the smell of the trees and in dense forest the smell of the moist earth.

One of my ‘special’ trees was an ancient beech tree in a small woodland around an old ironstone pit. It was originally part of a large forest but a road runs through it separating this small section from the main part of the wood. This ancient beech was quite near to the road and it was obviously loved by those who found it. The branches were strong and low enough to sit on and its roots were huge and spread over a large area. I have spent many happy hours there with others, meditating and giving Reiki attunements. It was a very special place for these kinds of things. Sadly, this tree has been cut down maybe because it was too near the road and had got dangerous.

Another tree I loved was again an ancient tree in the same forest but a few miles away. Its canopy was huge and made me feel tiny when standing under it. A photo of it was the heading photo for this blog a while back. Sadly it was also cut down, first in half and by now I suspect that it has completely gone.

But what of other trees? Some 20 years ago now, I gave money to the Woodland Trust to plant twenty small oak saplings. At that time you were given a map of the area where your trees were planted and a reference number so you could go and visit them. I did this several times and together with my friend Simon we produced a small booklet called a ‘Year in the Grove’, taking lots of photos through the seasons to see how the trees changed and adding poetry and text as well.

I have always loved the birch tree which to me always feels feminine and I call her my lady birch. The willow is another tree I love especially the weeping kind. Then there are the redwoods, the giants of trees. I am lucky to have them locally and find them wonderful to hug, their energy so replenishing. I could write more about the trees in my life but will stop here otherwise it will end up as a book. Now that’s an idea!