Orchards Forever

Orchards in the news...

2011-11-16T10:02:00.001-05:00

An orchard near Glastonbury, England (part of the Shepton Mallett cider mill) has been cited as being eco-friendly in its efforts to encourage wildlife and encourage sustainable models for planting. I have been to this area (I took this photo in 2002) and it is renowned for its many lovely orchards, and some very delicious locally-produced cider.

Northward in Ireland, the Irish Times published this fascinating article on heirloom apple grafting in County Clare. It's nice to see heirloom apple preservation efforts happening worldwide.

Stateside, orchards in Washington State are desperate for workers to help bring in their apple harvest. Many American orchards are dependent upon migrant and immigrant laborers to harvest their crops. The shortage of workers in Washington is blamed on a late harvest due to unusual weather conditions. In some parts of Washington, prison inmates are being put to work picking apples due to the shortage of civilian workers, and it seems to be working out well for all: the apples are getting picked and the inmates are enjoying some time outdoors.

In other harvest-related news, the apple crop in New South Wales, Australia was decimated by severe hailstorms, and will lead to a spike in prices.

And of course, you have probably already heard about the couple who got lost in an apple orchard who were forced to call 911 to be rescued. At least they were apologetic and somewhat sheepish about it, unlike the folks that got lost in the corn maze...

Cider, Cider, Cider

2011-10-19T09:56:00.001-04:00

My fellow apple loving pal Rosanna shared this with me, from Mother Jones: resources for learning to make your own hard cider!

It's not easy and is a skill that seems to need some time to hone, but what could be more satisfying than making your own? You could also try making apple wine, which is delicious and somewhat easier. But be sure you get cider that has no preservatives added! Also it's best to get cider that has not been pasteurized, which some farm stands that press their own can make available. I have friends who made their own apple wine from apples, without a cider press, which tasted amazing.

This article offers recipes for using apple cider in marinades for meat: yum!

And here's another recent piece on the Hudson Valley Apple Project, an organization seeking to make hard cider more popular.

Find the Cider!

2011-09-16T22:22:00.004-04:00

My friend Rosanna, a fellow lover of orchards and all things appley, found this terrific website: Hudson Valley Cider Route. The site provides a guide to places to buy cider, and the site includes information on orchards who produce and sell sweet and hard cider. The interactive map lets you find an orchard or farm stand near you.

The website was created by the wonderful folks behind The Apple Project, which promotes heirloom apple growing in New York state. There are many, many working orchards in New York, and the Hudson Valley in particular is rich with them. I know an orchard not far from me in Castleton-on-Hudson even has an event with a contest for the best home-brewed hard cider! It doesn't get better than this for those of us trying to keep old foodways alive and celebrate and promote the preservation and revitalization of orchards. So when you're seeking some autumnal pleasure, be sure to include a jaunt or two in search of delicious cider!

New Moon, Rich Harvest

2011-08-28T23:30:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted here in a long time. Sumer solstice and Lammas have both gone by, in fact. It was both a wonderful and a difficult summer. I'm looking forward to the autumn. Classes start tomorrow and my new teaching job begins Tuesday. The apple harvest should be amazing; we're having our annual Heartsong Harvest Festival at Brushwood and after two years in which a late spring freeze killed the blossoms on the wild apple trees, we will have a bumper crop of apples this year, despite a very hot summer and partial drought.

I always enjoy the shift of late summer into autumn, and truly feel summer does not end until the last week of September, regardless of when people stop going to the beach or when school starts. I intend to enjoy the warm weather, dreamy afternoons and pleasant evenings as much as possible in the coming weeks.

This new moon is coming right on the heels of Mercury going direct, so here is hoping it renews our energy and sense of purpose. Now is the time for new ventures but also new approaches to old problems. Seize that summer day!

Visit to the blossoming orchards

2011-05-13T21:05:00.002-04:00

We went to Indian Ladder Farms today. It was cloudy and it rained a tiny bit, but the blossoming orchards were still delightful to behold. We walked around, took photos and bought donuts. Walking in the orchards recharges my soul. The sight of the Helderberg range, awash is subtle shades of spring green, rejuvenates my senses. Even the spraying couldn't sully this day.

(By the way, Indian Ladders uses minimal spraying and integrated pest management for their apples and are known as growers of Eco-Apples)

Opal: The Jewel of a Washington Orchard

2011-04-05T09:09:00.001-04:00

I've eaten apples called "Opalescent" and they're not only tasty (crunchy and sweet with a touch of tartness) but beautiful to look at. Now a recent introduction from the Czech Republic, which has been growing in Washington State, the Opal, is poised to make one orchard very special, possibly wealthy. The Broetje Orchards have been selling the Opal apples locally and are looking to gain exclusive rights to market it in Washington. Consumers have been willing to pay almost an extra dollar a pound for these beauties. Word of mouth has spread about this delicious apple and in recent months the Opal has also been sampled at Whole Foods markets in Michigan.

Unlike the Opalescent, which is green flushed with red and pink, the Opal is a bright yellow color. It's said to have a very complex flavor, even drawing comparisons to wine. It's a cross between a Golden Delicious (itself a surprise discovery that proved very popular) and a Topaz.

Washington apple growers have been diligently introducing newer varieties to the local markets, some of which have been seen in the Northeast, like Jazz, Pacific Rose and the popular (and premium-priced) Honeycrisp. The Honeycrisp, according to this article, commands high prices not just because it's delicious, but because it requires special care while growing. Honeycrisps are available more widely now, but some Washington growers want to be able to grow and sell varieties unique to them, and new licensing laws are making that possible.

Given the growing interest in reviving heirloom apples, it's exciting to see the same interest aimed at developing new varieties. Whether through discovery (the Granny Smith was found randomly in a New Zealand orchard) or breeding, the introduction of "different" apples is definitely having an impact on the worldwide marketplace.

The Gala: Britain's Most Popular Apple? Say It Isn't So!

2011-03-25T09:34:00.000-04:00

Don't get me wrong; I like Gala apples. Sweet, firm, and juicy; they hold up well in winter storage, too, even until spring when the pickings of apples in the grocery store are starting to look sad. But if given a choice, I'll go for an Empire or a Braeburn, or that once-exotic but now pedestrian Granny Smith.

The most popular apple in the United States has been and still is the Red Delicious, despite the fact that most people have never eaten a decent one. At their prime, this apple has dark, sensual notes of wine and maple to its sugary juice, and can be as firm as any of the crispiest varieties out there. But normally it is mushy, bland and insipid.

Britain's most popular apple for many years has been Cox's Orange Pippin, but this story in the Guardian claims that the top apple is now the sweet Gala. The writer goes on to encourage readers to sample Britain's heirloom varieties, some of which have continued to be sold at greengrocers for years, and some of which are slowly being re-introduced on the wave of love for heirloom apples that is also sweeping the Unites States.

The Guardian has published some terrific articles of interest to apple and orchardist enthusiasts in recent years, like this one on cider apples, or this one that suggests that mistletoe may become scarce as its favorite habitat, the traditional country apple orchard, becomes a thing of the past. This writer praises the English apple and all its variety, and this piece bemoans the British trend of importing most of its apples instead of relying on local abundance.

Nature loves diversity, and, as Michael Pollan describes in fascinating prose in his book The Botany of Desire, apple trees reward human intervention on their behalf with sweeterm more delectable fruit. Let's help them along, shall we?

How to Prune Old Apple Trees

2011-03-17T20:23:00.000-04:00

My friend Joey spent some time today pruning some old apple trees, and found this Youtube video series on pruning overgrown standard apple trees. I've been told one should not do major pruning in spring, but rather in late autumn/early winter when the trees go dormant. But you can trim smaller branches at any time.

I did a lot of pruning this past fall at the Brushwood Folklore Center, and hope this will help the wild apple trees to bear more fruit. Plus to pruning: you have plenty of apple wood for burning, and and it smells great in campfires, or imparts a nice fragrance and flavor to your barbecues! Just add apple wood chips or branches to your charcoal fire to flavor your food.

March wandering

2011-03-16T20:14:00.000-04:00

The weather forecast promised sleet and snow today, but surprise! After a few hours of off and on rain, the day became warm and even sunny. I went for a nice long walk to Washington Park (pictured above in late April of 2008) and enjoyed the burgeoning signs of spring. Plenty of robins and starlings crowded the trees and I saw plenty of daffodil shoots and even some clusters of crocus in bloom!

This poem by Archibald Lampman, one of my favorite poets, sums up the subtle and joyful changes of the season.

In March

The sun falls warm: the southern winds awake:
The air seethes upwards with a steamy shiver:
Each dip of the road is now a crystal lake,
And every rut a little dancing river.
Through great soft clouds that sunder overhead
The deep sky breaks as pearly blue as summer:
Out of a cleft beside the river's bed
Flaps the black crow, the first demure newcomer.

The last seared drifts are eating fast away
With glassy tinkle into glittering laces:
Dogs lie asleep, and little children play
With tops and marbles in the sun-bare places;
And I that stroll with many a thoughtful pause
Almost forget that winter ever was.

~~Archibald Lampman

Creighton Lee Calhoun: A Master Preserver of Heirloom Apples

2011-03-03T21:57:00.004-05:00

This fascinating article from the New York Times today features a man from North Carolina who specializes in grafting heirloom apple trees from some very old and nearly-forgotten Southern varieties.

Mr. Creighton Lee Calhoun, Jr. is 77 years old, and a retired army lieutenant colonel. He also seems to be on a one-man mission to preserve heirloom apple varieties, and to share his knowledge with a new generation of apple enthusiasts, orchardists and backyard growers. He currently maintains an orchard with 300 varieties of apple, which used to contain 456 varieties. He also wrote a book called Old Southern Apples which catalogs the many varieties he's helped preserve.

This in-depth article is not just a profile of Mr. Calhoun, the pomologist, but offers sobering facts on this most precious resource. Apple varieties in the United States once numbered over 16,0000, but this number has dropped to less than 3,000, and this lack of genetic diversity may be bad news for apples, just as it is for other species who have seen their diverse permutations dwindle in recent years.

The apples Calhoun champions have names like Blacktwig, Carter's Blue, Magnum Bonum, and Summer Orange. He offers to graft trees for their owners, and give them a new tree from the graft to plant. His enthusiasm and knowledge, not to mention a sensitive palette that can differentiate among hundreds of apples, just may create a whole new legion of heirloom apple enthusiasts.

Mr. Calhoun, I salute you! And I'd love to get one of those Magnum Bonum trees to plant out at the Brushwood Folklore Center, where we gather apples for fresh cider in September.

Art and inspiration

2011-01-13T17:16:00.007-05:00

I randomly found an image I liked online and decided to post it on Facebook and use as my newest profile pic. This painting is by Jessie M. King, from the Oscar Wilde story "A House of Pomegranates." (I also have a framed print from this book on my wall that I found in a thrift shop years ago.)

I also found this great blog full of pre-Raphaelite images.

Then, a few minutes later, I randomly decided to check out Terri Windling's blog and found this post on inspiration and art. And lo and behold! there is the same image by King that I found and posted today. Many of the images were already familiar but I was also delighted to discover some new ones.

I am a very visually oriented person and yet not really an artist. I enjoyed art when I was younger, and was even considered prodigiously good at until I was about 12 and other kids caught up. I didn't enjoy my high school art classes and got involved in other activities in college, but I did enjoy a calligraphy course I took and still do calligraphy on occasion (and have taught classes in it myself). And I worked as an art model for, oh, at least twenty years.
But illustrations and paintings greatly inspire me: especially those images that tell a story, that seem infused with mystery, history, magic or folklore. The pre-Raphaelites' pictorial depictions of mythology, legends and nature are a particular source of wonder, as well as the fairy art of Arthur Rackham, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, Sulamith Wulfing and Margaret Tarrant, and the dreamy watercolors of Andrew Wyeth and Jessie Wilcox Smith. And so Windling's collage of images naturally contain some of my own personal favorites.

Orchards in the news

2011-01-04T17:52:00.003-05:00

From traditional apples and stone fruits to sunny citrus, orchards all over the world are making headlines this week! From Salisbury, England (a lovely historic town I have visited twice; it's not far from Stonehenge, and has a delightful pub in a medieval-era building called The Haunch of Venison), comes the news that two orchards totalling twenty-two trees will be planted for the benefit and pleasure of the community: twelve apple trees in one location, and a mix of apple, plum and cherry trees in another. Given the recent concern over loss of orchards in various parts of England, this is wonderful news! Well done, Wiltshire.

And in Arizona, a bumper crop of citrus fruit has area food banks near Phoenix offering to "glean" fruit trees for free so that the extra bounty can be distributed to those in need. This is a forward-thinking and environmentally-friendly, not to mention compassionate, initiative and should be applauded!

Blessings of the Solstice

2010-12-21T18:16:00.003-05:00

What I love about this time of year, is that, because I celebrate both Yule *and* Christmas, it's like having several holidays all in one week. Many pagans celebrate both holidays, whether because of family obligations or choices, or merely because Christmas is so ingrained in our culture, and there are so many ways of taking part in the festivities, that it seems silly not to take part. Whether you enjoy stringing lights in your trees, decorating with greenery, exchanging gifts, baking cookies or singing carols, there are so many wonderful things to do to keep our spirits uplifted at this dark time of year.

My husband and I exchange gifts on Midwinter day, and have a special meal (today, rib eye steaks with fried mushrooms. sauteed kale and roasted fingerling potatoes). It was too cloudy here to see the eclipse, but I'm sure the energies will continue to be felt for the next month.

I enjoy throwing parties and attending them, too. Sadly I don't have a Yule ritual to attend locally and am too far away from my coven to attend their Yule rite, but I think there are ways to observe the holiday and feel the magic without performing ritual. Harnessing the energy of this full moon for meditation, creative work or renewal of vows (to oneself, to others, to our work or art) is also a way to make Yuletide a powerful festival.

I'm looking forward to at least one more holiday part this year, at New Year's. I know there will fine food and drink, music and singing, and possibly sitting in the hot tub in the open air under the stars (or the snow). I'm thinking of proposing a wassail ritual, too, because the party hosts planted a small orchard of fruit trees this year.

My 2011 Apple calendar, on sale!

2010-12-16T12:57:00.003-05:00

So, if you still need a 2011 calendar, today is the day to get one for you or your loved ones. Lulu.com is having a special today only: 30% all calendars. Just put the code "DEC16" into the line at check-out.

My calendar "Brushwood Apples" has photos taken in the past two years throughout the seasons, featuring the wild apple trees of the Brushwood Folklore Center in Sherman, NY: a beautiful campground where many music and pagan festival events have taken place over the last three decades.

All photos were taken by me with a 1960 Pentax Spotmatic, or a Nikon Coolpix digital camera. I hope you'll get one of my calendars for yourself or a friend or family member.

Mistletoe, orchards: endangered?

2010-12-07T09:05:00.005-05:00

The Guardian reports today that mistletoe may disappear in the next two decades, due in part to the continuing decline of traditional orchards in Great Britain. Fortunately the National Trust and Natural England have united to try and forestall this complex and alarming problem, by encouraging the growing of orchard fruits in "traditional" forms. To qualify as a "traditional orchard" there must be at least five trees evenly spaced, and they must be"allowed to grow gnarled, hollowed and eventually fall where they stand." These "unique habitats" provide shelter and food for many animals and other species and their loss may well irrevocably alter the British landscape, as in Devon, which the Guardian reports has lost up to 90% of its orchard in the last 50 years.

Of course, this is not "new" news. The Telegraph reported on it in 2008 (as did I). Websites designed to encourage apple growers in Devon and Exeter (which has many apple varieties unique to the area, like the "Cornish Pine" pictured) may help generate some interest in this enriching, environmentally useful activity.

If you're reading this blog, you know that orchard activism is my passion. I'd love to hear your own observations, stories and ideas for helping to preserve the beauty and utility of this agricultural tradition.

The orchard photo above was taken in Glastonbury about ten years ago, in the old orchards at the base of the Tor.

All apples are good in this state, and your jaws are the cider-press.

2010-12-01T17:46:00.002-05:00

"Before the end of December, generally, they experience their first thawing. Those which a month ago were sour, crabbed, and quite unpalatable to the civilized taste, such at least as were frozen while sound, let a warmer sun come to thaw them, for they are extremely sensitive to its rays, are found to be filled with a rich, sweet cider, better than any bottled cider that I know of, and with which I am better acquainted than with wine. All apples are good in this state, and your jaws are the cider-press."

Henry David Thoreau, Wild Apples, 1892

This charmingly fine piece of writing, in which apples in the wild are discussed in delicious detail, can be read entirely online here.

The Quixotic Quince

2010-11-30T21:16:00.003-05:00

I was gifted with a big box of quinces a couple of weeks ago. They've been in the garage, which doubles as my cold cellar, and making my husband's "smoking lounge" smell heavenly. In the past I have enjoyed putting a few in a bowl (after grabbing them off the ground when they fall from neighborhood hedges or trees--no one knows what to do with these fruits! I am an inveterate fruit forager) and letting them scent the house for weeks; as they mellow in the bowl the sweet but herby fragrance is wonderful.

I once gave some quinces to a friend who was a mead brewer and he made some amazing mead from them; this is a fine use for these fruits if you know any mead makers.

But I recently learned they make a really good jam, and since they have so much natural pectin, I get to use my tried and true method for jam making, which is, you guessed it, not using pectin. I found this simple recipe and this website seems to have a pretty straightforward approach to canning and preserves.

I visited the Cloisters in New York two years ago in early November when the quinces were enormous on the trees: perfect, round, yellow, blemish-free. The garden there also has some delightful herb gardens and some espaliered pear and apple trees.

Alas, the fruits I have are likely to be worm-ridden...but I get I can still get some jam out of them!

Orchard Visiting

2010-11-05T01:23:00.013-04:00

I've visited some orchards over the last few weeks, both wild and cultivated, and took many photos! I'll share a few of them here with you.
This is one of the orchards at Indian Ladders Farms, in Altamont, NY. A beautiful place with many acres of old and newer orchards. They have a wonderful shop and cafe, too, featuring fresh cider doughnuts (of course!), cider, gifts, jams, and local cheeses and other foods.
It was a gorgeous sunny day when we visited two weeks ago. They were no longer offering "pick your own" apples, alas! The trees stopped producing a bit earlier than usual with the weather this year. But we bought a nice big bag of Jonagolds which have been delicious.
Plenty of dropped apples remain. I wonder what they do with them? Let the deer eat them? Make cider? I imagine they must clean up some of them. They do bottle some good cider, but I'd love to see them sponsor an event like Cider Days, featuring hard cider craft brewing.
The orchards stretch along a mile or so at the base of the Helderberg mountains, which were ablaze with glorious color. It's always a lovely drive there, but doubly so at the height of autumn's changing hues.
This is one of the older wild apple trees at the Brushwood Folklore Center near Jamestown, NY. I was there for the weekend of Hallowe'en/Samhain for a ritual and potluck feast and party. It was cold, windy and rainy for much of the weekend, but invigorating! I was also there the weekend prior, and it was warm and sunny!
There weren't many apples this year. A few remain on the trees. I brought some drop apples from my neighborhood to spread around for the deer and will bring more in December.I did some pruning in the orchard last weekend, to help the trees produce more apples. This also gives us some nice apple wood to burn in our campfires, when the branches dry out.
Last year, I designed a calendar at Lulu.com which featured photos of the wild apple trees at Brushwood, and I'm working on a new one for 2011. I'll link to it here when it's ready. I hope you enjoy my orchard visits!

Remembering Connie

2010-10-14T22:08:00.004-04:00

In August, Connie Baker passed away. She was a friendly presence at our local farmer's market, where I have been selling baked goods for two years. Before that, I bought fruit from her, and she always had a smile, a joke or a helpful tip about their products. She helped operate her family's orchard business for 42 years, selling plants and fruit at local farm markets. The Hudson Farmers' Market website posted a nice tribute to her.

I wanted to mention Connie, even though she passed a few weeks ago, because at this time of year, when orchard businesses are so busy, "u-pick" businesses are such a wonderful feature of life in our communities. Connie helped run the "u-pick" aspect of their business, and also helped sell fruit at the markets, and without her, the family has had to hire additional help.

I know women like Connie are a rare sight these days: working with family-owned farm businesses their entire lives, bearing up through extremes of weather (the market could be hot and humid, or cold and rainy), and through lean seasons of drought or other challenges for fruit growers. Her legacy is an honorable one we should all take a moment to appreciate.

Some poetry, plucked for October...

2010-10-10T18:58:00.004-04:00

My favorite month. I often feel both melancholy and happy on any given day in October. The weather, the scents, the colors, make this time of year a sensual carnival. Here, some poems that capture the month nicely. I'm feeling a poetry writing mood coming on...

A child looking at ruins grows younger
but cold
and wants to wake to a new name
I have been younger in October
than in all the months of spring
walnut and may leaves the color
of shoulders at the end of summer
a month that has been to the mountain
and become light there
the long grass lies pointing uphill
even in death for a reason
that none of us knows
and the wren laughs in the early shade now
come again shining glance in your good time
naked air late morning
my love is for lightness
of touch foot feather
the day is yet one more yellow leaf
and without turning I kiss the light
by an old well on the last of the month
gathering wild rose hips
in the sun.
~~ W. S. Merwin, The Love of October

How innocent were these Trees, that in
Mist-green May, blown by a prospering breeze,
Stood garlanded and gay;
Who now in sundown glow
Of serious color clad confront me with their show
As though resigned and sad,
Trees, who unwhispering stand umber, bronze, gold;
Pavilioning the land for one grown tired and old;
Elm, chestnut, aspen and pine, I am merged in you,
Who tell once more in tones of time,
Your foliaged farewell.
~~ Siegfried Sassoon, October Trees

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
~~ Robert Frost, October

The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on."
~~ Emily Dickinson, Nature 27 - Autumn

And this charming bit of prose about wild apples, from Henry David Thoreau:

"To appreciate the wild and sharp flavors of these October fruits, it is necessary that you be breathing the sharp October or November air. What is sour in the house a bracing walk makes sweet. Some of these apples might be labeled, “To be eaten in the wind.” It takes a savage or wild taste to appreciate a wild fruit. . . The era of the Wild Apple will soon be past. It is a fruit which will probably become extinct in New England. I fear that he who walks over these fields a century hence will not know the pleasure of knocking off wild apples. Ah, poor soul, there are many pleasures which you will not know! . . . the end of it all will be that we shall be compelled to look for our apples in a barrel."
~~ Henry David Thoreau

I am a Witch. I’m Everything You’ve Heard. I’m You.

2010-10-05T13:21:00.008-04:00

Christine O’Donnell apparently thinks the way to win the hearts of the conservative base is to continue to try and spin (nay, backpedal on) the outrageous statements she made about “dabbling in witchcraft” when she was in high school.
Her most recent video to go viral was one she had made as a political ad. And once again, she doesn't appear to think that offending the many thousands (millions?) of people who practice modern witchcraft or other nature-based spiritualities is a problem. Apparently, we are simply not people who are anywhere near her calibre of human being.

The blogosphere, pagan and otherwise, is full of commentary on the fallout of her first series of unfortunate remarks, made during an appearance on Bill Maher’s ABC show “Politically Incorrect” in the late 1990s. She claimed to have had a picnic on a “satanic altar” while out on a date. Of course, her remarks were clearly an opportunity for her to condemn modern paganism and reveal her titillating insider secrets (“You can’t make this stuff up! I know what these people say they do!”)

O’Donnell was a frequent guest on Maher’s show, especially around Hallowe’en, since she often had entertaining things to say about the occult. My personal favorite was her pronouncement (unchallenged by other guests or Maher) that the origin of trick or treat lay in the custom of the druids, who “would go door to door looking for a human sacrifice.” That is verbatim, folks. Given the recent recognition of druidry as a legitimate religion by the British government, I am fervently wishing for Maher to unearth that video clip and share it with the world.

Personally, I think this painting is where she came up with that lame-brained image:

Apparently some ultra-Christian websites such as Jesuswalk like to refer to it from time to time. O'Donnell's grasp of history (or should that be art history?) is as nonexistent as her vaunted claim that she always tells the truth. What she doesn't seem to get is that we've all seen this before: the innocent Christian who, during some youthful phase of rebellion, hung around with "real" witches or satan-worshippers, only to reject their evil ways, but not before she got a big eyeful of the naked midnight rituals complete with dancing goats, devilish orgies, and the sacrifice of innocent little babies on on satanic altars. (Because obviously, that's what witches do. Just ask Christine, who gets her history from fantastical pre-Raphaelite paintings.)

This "insider knowledge" is a tired old trick, utilized frequently during the height of the Satanic Ritual Abuse scare in the 1980s; talk show mavens like Oprah and Geraldo whipped audiences into a frenzy when they'd host guests who claimed to have seen every disgusting atrocity known to mankind, all perpetrated in the name of satan worship and witchcraft. Too bad the FBI never found a scrap of evidence to prove that children were being tortured or sacrificed in the name of Beezelebub, despite investigating such claims for years.

Christine O'Donnell is trading on the same methods because her followers, Tea Baggers who barely have a passing relationship with factual information, eat it up like miniature candy bars. Her scrubbed-face innocence (she's like a pious Rachael Ray) ensures people will forgive her youthful folly, and worship her for escaping the evil influence of witches like me, or you.

Many of us, as practicing neopagans, witches and druids, will no doubt become enraged by O'Donnel's ignorance and prejudice, by the news media's insensitivity as they, like her, continue to miss the point. Which is this: regardless of how unusual or "different" anyone thinks practitioners of witchcraft might be, we're still people. Our indignant response to the media's ridiculous and condescending attitude towards our beliefs and practices is entirely appropriate. We're not some fringe element living on the edge of society. We call ourselves witches, druids, neopagans, heathens and many other names, because this identifies our spiritual path. Like other spiritual people, we must live within the framework of contemporary society.

We have jobs, we raise families, we vote, we walk our dogs, we grow tomatoes, we pay taxes, we have gym memberships, we buy groceries, we visit Salem during October. Gods help us, we believe in evolution, and yes, we masturbate. We also believe in magic, and in the healing and awe-inspiring power and beauty of nature. We are teachers, firefighters, secretaries, chefs, accountants, personal trainers, doctors, lawyers, journalists. We're everywhere. We're you.

Festival of the Trees! Fruits

2010-09-02T08:12:00.018-04:00

As we enter September, trees in the Northern Hemisphere are changing: the leaves are morphing and showing new colors, readying for autumn. And many trees are sharing a glorious late summer bounty of fruit: peaches, plums, apples, pears, and more. This month I asked for posts that celebrate fruiting trees from all over the world.

Later this month, I will travel to the Brushwood Folklore Center for their yearly autumn festival known as Heartsong, where we will pick apples and press cider! Last year, a late frost killed the blossoms on most of the widld apple trees, and the harvest was so slim that our coder pressing had to be augmented with apples purchased from a nearby farm stand. But this year the trees are full of fruit! The header photo for my blog was taken there this past July.

From Australia, the Box Elder blog shares a wonderful journey past several fruiting trees and vines, to see the mirabelle trees full of deep red juicy fruit. What a beautiful name for a beautiful tree and fruit.

Are nuts a fruit? Well they are most certainly a food, and for that reason we are grateful for them, as are many woodland creatures who use this nutritious bounty to get them through the winter. From the Beneath the Water blog, we go on a magical journey through the woods to a hazel tree coppice, seeing some stunning images along the way.

The Growing with Science blog tells us all about the lemon tree; where would we be without this nutrient-packed, flavorful fruit? I use it in my cooking at least twice every week, sometimes more. Lemon trees are also lovely to look at, like the song says: "Lemon Tree, very pretty!"

I've never eaten a paw-paw, and I'll bet most of you haven't, either, but after hearing that it tastes like a divine combination of cantaloupe, mango and banana, I am curious! This blog tells us all about this native fruit which is now ripening all over North Carolina, and shoes us some lovely paw-paw trees. Now, doesn't that look simply delicious?

Speaking of exotic native fruits, the persimmon has always fascinated me: dreadfully sour until the perfect moment of ripeness, it is an elusive treat. The blogger at Anybody seen my focus? shows us some local persimmon trees in flower and fruit.

Some trees fruit so heavily, they can become a burden to the very branches that bore them. Via Negativa tells us about the black cherry tree, and a quote from the blogger's mother talks of the many birds that feed on its fruit, and the black bears that will break the trees in order to get at the abundant fruits. I have never been a fan of cherries, but I love seeing the trees in fruit in the summer, and Black Cherry was my favorite Koolaid flavor as a kid!

Speaking of black bears, the blogger at Yips and Yowls tells us of her yearly race to get to the sweet crunchy fruits of her local pear trees before the bears do. Will she be successful?

What about trees that provide food to the soul? This thoughtful post from the Hillstead Blog tells us all about the Tree of Heaven, and its fascinating folklore. And from the Nutcase blog, a view of the ancient bristlecone pines of California's White Mountains; surely these stately, serene trees nurture us with their wisdom and beauty.

Over at Rock Paper Lizard, we visit a Pacific crabapple tree. These curmudgeons of the fruit tree family flower beautifully in spring but then give us small sour fruits. But some people enjoy the jelly made from crabapples (I am about to send some to my friend Wren in Florida so she can make jelly), and the birds eat the plentiful fruits.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this month's 51st edition of Festival of the Trees! Next month, the festival will be hosted at Kind of Curious. The theme is open, and submissions may be sent to John at kindofcurious2000 [at] gmail [dot] com. The deadline is September 28th.

Heirloom Apples Planted!

2010-06-14T21:25:00.010-04:00

So sorry to have neglected this blog for so long! We moved house in early May and it's been busy to say the least. But here is an update on those heirloom apple trees...
We planted the White Pearmain soon after we moved into our new house. Alas we could not plant it in the front yard because of the water line. But I found a sunny spot in the side yard.

The Smokehouse is now planted right near our new campsite with the orange trailer at Brushwood. Being a semi-dwarf tree it should fit well into that spot. With any luck it should start bearing fruit in 3 years or so.

Recently spoke with a guy in our old neighborhood who planted a few heirloom trees; he bought and lives in an old church and the lot is very big. One of the trees he planted is called "Bullock" which is my grandmothers maiden name! He ordered from the St. Lawrence Nurseries which is owned by my friend Nova's family (she goes to Brushwood every summer and her family have been going for years). I plan to order our next tree from them. They don't have alot of dwarf trees but I bet a standard would be fine. I'd also like to get some berry bushes from them.

Two heirloom apple trees ordered!

2010-03-29T19:39:00.004-04:00

Well, I ordered two heirloom apple trees from Trees of Antiquity today! One for our new house and one for Brushwood. I was unable to get the trees I had wanted (the Karmijn de Sonnaville and the Sweet Bough both need slightly warmer locations (their hardiness zones start in Zone 6 and we're closer to a 5 here).

So I got a Smokehouse and a White Pearmain (which has been named since 1200 AD in England!), both of which are very interesting varieties. Smokehouse apples are good for cider, so that will be the Brushwood tree.

Thoughts of spring...

2010-03-02T20:05:00.002-05:00

Went for a lovely long walk in the sunshine today, the dog happily loping alongside, sniffing at the muddy mounds laid bare by melting slush. Plenty of birds were out, including some playful chickadees flying around and chasing each other in the limps of a huge maple tree, and a big crowd of sparrows cheeping and chirping inside a group of forsythia bushes, their chests puffed out so they all looked fat. Maybe they were trying to expose their feathers to the sun. They sure sounded happy!

I know winter has a few weeks left, but when I can feel the warm sun, can see the buds and smell the soil, when there are daffodils shoots showing their green tethers, I get so excited for spring's arrival! Also, I got five garden catalogs today! Well, four, one was a duplicate, and I gave the extra to the gal who is buying our house; she was here for the inspection today. I walked around and told her what was planted where, and she seemed excited by all the possibilities. She said I must have done a lot of work; I sue did! I enjoyed it for the most part, but I do hope the soil at our new place is easier to work with.

I came across this poem by Robert Frost and it sums up my dreaming hopes for spring:

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

- Robert Frost, A Prayer in Spring

Time to order apple trees!

2010-02-22T15:15:00.003-05:00

If you're considering ordering some apple trees, now is a good time. Heirloom apples tend to sell out quickly and shipping has already begun in some areas. Trees of Antiquity begins shipping in January and continues shipping apple trees through early April. I think this year I want to get a Sweet Bough, an early riperner with showy blossoms and attractive fruit, apparenty first discovered in New York State, and a Karmijn de Sonnaville, a mid-season Dutch apple with showy blossoms. Yes, I am thinking showy blossoms would be lovely. This company is excellent to deal with. They recommend planting we before the last frost date in your area, so in the Zone 5a locations I plan to plant in, that means mid-to-late April.

I also like the Miller Nurseries website, have heard good things about them from a friend who ordered a number of trees from them this past year, and might consider ordering from them in the future. They have a terrific selection of semi-dwarf trees.

Any of you planning on planting apple or other fruit trees this year? Any plans to plant heirloom trees? Here is a list describing some wonderful heirloom apple varieties. Tell me about your own favorites or what's on your wishlist.

Terry Maloney, Cider Maker and Apple Enthusiast, Dies in Colrain, MA

2010-02-02T18:46:00.005-05:00

Terry Maloney, know by many cider enthusiasts as the man who (with his wife Judith, with whom he ran a cider and winery business, West County Cider) was responsible for the current cider-making renaissance in the United States, died this past week in his home in Colrain Massachusetts, in a freak accident while checking his cider brewing equipment. Cider making has become particularly popular in New England, with many orchards seeing renewed interest in fruit growing and planting heirloom cider apple varieties. Terry and Judith were consider cider making experts who were frequently interviewed by local media, and their founding of the annual Cider Days has created a yearly event that people travel to from all over the country and abroad.

I didn't know Terry personally, but I salute his pioneering spirit and his love of nature's delectable, useful bounty. Let's all lift a glass of cider in his honor.

The following excerpts come from an announcement earlier this week in the Cider Digest, an online list for cider makers and hobbyists:

It is my sad duty to report the untimely death of one of the best-known and best-loved of America's craft cidermakers -- Terry Maloney of West County Cider in Colrain, Massachusetts.

Terry died in what can only be described as a freak accident yesterday (Friday) in the basement cidermaking room at his home. From what I understand, a piece of filtration equipment full of cider under pressure "exploded" with sufficient force to knock Terry back, and he hit his head hard, causing his death.

Already this morning (Sat), some of Terry's closest friends in the cider community have been on the phone with one another, discussing this shocking and unexpected event. In the course of time, I'm sure that we will organize at least one memorial or tribute (and probably more) to this gentle, affectionate man who -- as much as anyone -- was responsible (along with his terrific wife Judith) for the modern rebirth of cider culture in the US.

I first met Judith and Terry Maloney more than 20 years ago, and we almost immediately became friends. The Maloneys came to western Massachusetts with experience from California vineyards. The beautiful hill towns of Franklin County, MA are a traditional apple-growing and cider-making region, so Terry and Judith began a winery that focused on locally grown fruits like apples and blueberries. Over the years, they have everything from unfiltered Farm Cider (still one of my favorites) to artfully crafted cidre doux and a whole range of distinguished varietals that included Reine de Pomme, Baldwin, Roxbury Russet, Kingston Black, and the astonishingly good, copper-colored Redfield, a signature product of West County Cider and an example of Terry's skill as both a cidermaker and fruit grower.

In addition to making their own cider, Terry and Judith have been central players in promoting craft ciders from all over the US -- as founders and organizers of the annual Cider Days festival, which over the past 15+ years has provided an ever expanding showcase of the best American ciders. All of us -- producers and drinkers alike -- owe the Maloneys our profound respect and gratitude.

Those of us who knew Terry personally will always remember him as a thoughtful, soft-spoken, cultured, but also passionate man, and will miss him greatly. But Terry's death is also a loss to many in the cider world who never met him -- he was a real pioneer who showed the way for so many of today's craft producers. He will be missed.

In honor of Imbolc: The 5th Annual Brigid Poetry Festival

2010-01-31T15:38:00.003-05:00

Hosted by Blog o' Gnosis, this poetry festival is intended to celebrate Imbolc and the goddess Brigid who is often associated with this pagan festival. She is the Irish goddess of poetry, healing, and smithcraft, and so a potent symbol for inspiration and creative endeavor, and very welcome during the dormancy of winer.

Some neopagans celebrate Imbolc as a festival with overtones of its Roman festival that occurs a few days later, Lupercalia. (I discuss this in last year's blog post for this holiday). So Imbolc becomes a time to honor Pan, wild god of the forest and its creatures, who are beginning to stir and ready themselves for spring.

But whether your main deity focus for your rites is Pan or Brigid, both can certainly be said to spark creativity: one via the hearth of the heart, one via the fire of the mind (and other places perhaps).

So, a poem for Imbolc (actually, this is a song I wrote some years ago; it still doesn't feel finished):

Man in Green

Saw him in the forest,
His eyes speak trees and vine
Saw him bless the harvest,
His lips taste songs, sweet acorn wine

Green, green his cloak
green, green his hood
green, green the garments of the man in the wood

Saw him dancing shadows
Misty meadow grey, dew-dropping rain
Watched him waltz with the barley mows
Gold and silver shining, warming grain

Green his hazel wand
Green his oaken shield
Green his ivy-covered mantle, the lord of the field

From his hands sweet berries fall,
To the winter sun standing tall,
Autumn’s circling seedlings he returns,
Springtime’s Beltane branches burn.

Running through the forest,
Hunter, brother, master, the Horned One,
Creatures by the Oak King blessed,
Flee forever poison, crossbow and gun

Green the twilight glows
Green the water gleams
Green, green his secrets, the lord of dreams

Dark the midnight forest,
Shroud of starlight, cup of moonlight in your hand
Singing weary souls to rest
All is silence, all is peace o'er all the land

Green, green the stars
Green, green the fire
Green the whispering glade around us
Green the shade of desire

Green, green my eyes
Green, green my heart
Green my love's dusky shadow
The man in the dark.

Happy New Year! Wassail!

2010-01-01T12:04:00.003-05:00

Blessings of the New Year to you all, and may your 2010 be full of joy, abundance, and love. My plans for the new year include finding a new home once our house sells, and finding a place with enough space to plant some heirloom apple trees. I also plan to pursue my new hobby interest of brewing apple wine and cider. This will allow us to develop a tradition of wassailing in the new year: here's to pagan homesteading!

If you haven't purchased a new calendar for 2010, I have designed two different calendars with photos of the wild apple trees of the Brushwood Folklore Center. The photos in this post were taken there with my old Pentax. The calendars have many photos of the trees through the seasons, and are on sale now at lulu.com for 30% off if you use the code "AFTERXMAS" at checkout. You can check them out here (basic version), and here (deluxe large version): they have slightly different images, and all photos were taken with either my 1967 Pentax Spotmatic, or my Nikon Coolpix.

(The runestead at Brushwood)

Traditional Yuletide Food and Drink

2009-12-21T18:15:00.014-05:00

(Image from starofthebards.com)

Blessings of the Solstice to you all! I have been somewhat remiss in posting to this blog in recent months and I hope to be back here more often from here on in.

This Yuletide, I've been reading a fascinating book written in 1973 by Tristram Potter Coffin called An Illustrated Book of Christmas Folklore. It's well written and very well researched. It covers the history of the holiday from its humble beginnings (yes it mentions Mithras, the Celts and the ancient Romans!) and looks at many customs and traditions regarding foods, agriculture, greenery and rituals and celebrations.

It's particularly fascinating to read about the customs of decorating with trees and greenery, as holly, ivy and mistletoe all have specific folkore attached to them. Yule was time of welcoming back the sun, of course, but also a time to celebrate life, abundance, and fertility in the dark time of the year. Today's customs of celebratory eating, drinking and gift-giving are based in the countryside traditions of people of all social classes sharing their wealth with servants, peasants and all their neighbors. Hence the many traditional songs wherein people appear to be asking for coins, food or drink, and offering a blessing in return.

Of course, one well-loved dish is the boar's head, prepared in Merrie Olde England in a very labored manner. It even has its own song, sung when the dish is brought to table! When prehistoric wild boars became extinct, the dish started to fall out of favor but is apparently still served at one of Oxford's college every year, complete with ritual procession and singing of "The Boar's Head Carol":

"The Boar's Head in hand bear I,
bedecked with bays and rosemarye!

The Boar's Head as I understand,
is the rarest dish in all the land!"

And so on, with a stentorious chorus in Latin.

Not sure where one would get a boar's head these days, but I recently saw a post on the Garden Rant blog about a New York state pig farmer who raises pigs in a humane and natural way, so that is a good place to start. I am always happy to see farmers raising their meat for slaughter in a humane fashion, and think we should all support them when we can.

I also enjoyed reading about the origins of wassailing, and wrote a post about it last year here. The apple orchards were an important source of food and drink to agrarian cultures in the British Isles and Europe, so it is not surprising they were included in the rituals of blessing at Yuletide.

Apparently there is a real rising interest in this custom today, as seen in this article from The Wild Hunt blog last year, and from the looks of events like this one at an orchard and winery in Wisconsin. Wassailing has a long tradition in England, where it's traditional to do it on Twelfth Night.
(Painting by Henry Justice Ford, "The Sun Hero Guards the Apples of the Sun" from Victorianweb.org)
American pagans seem to enjoy making it part of their Yule traditions. I'd certainly love to see this tradition on the rise in the United States, as more and more people plant backyard orchards and try to support local farms. It seems to me a most pagan custom, and surely one that will insure a fruitful yield, if you believe that talking to plants helps them grow better (and I do).

This chant is sung at the "Wassailing the Apple Trees" event in Carhampton, Somerset:

"Old apple tree, we wassail thee,
And hoping thou wilt bear
For the Lord doth know where we shall be
Till apples come another year.
For to bear well, and to bloom well
So merry let us be,
Let every man take off his hat,
And shout to the old apple tree!
Old apple tree, we wassail thee,
And hoping thou wilt bear
Hatfuls, capfuls and three bushel bagsful
And a little heap under the stairs,
Hip, Hip, Hooray!"

How could the orchard not be heavy with fragrant, juicy fruit after being thus blessed?
(Painting by William Holman Hunt, "Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides" from Victorianweb.org)

Cider Renaissance in New England

2009-11-20T21:07:00.004-05:00

This story on National Public Radio explores the growing and exciting hard cider industry in the New England States. Cider and apple fans in the Northeast have already been able to attend workshops on cider making, cider tastings and dinners featuring hard cider at the annual Cider Days festival in western Massachusetts.

So, is hard cider brewing poised to be the microbrewing of the new millennium? Please let it be so. This blog seems to be forging ahead with plenty of great information and anecdotes. American apple growers, who used to be able to sell their drop apples for cider making, now have to deal with the fact that cheaper Chinese imports are now the main source of cider apples in the United States. So some orchards are feeling the pinch from this lack of livelihood.

Hard ciders are best made from flavorful apples high in acid. These varieties are often unsuitable for fresh eating or baking. The antique varieties have delightful old world names like Ashmead's Kernel, Roxbury Russet (which originated in the Boston area), Muscadet de Dieppe, Newtown Pippin, Sweet Coppin, Harry Masters Jersey, Tremblett Bitter, Kingston Black, Hudson's Golden Gem, Brown Snout, and Foxwhelp. There are a number of tree nurseries that specialize in such antique cider apple varieties, including the Raintree Nursery, Trees of Antiquity, the the Greenmantle Nursery,and Burntridge Nursery.

So get out there and support hard cider brewers! Remember, they keep orchard businesses thriving.

A Poem for Samhain

2009-11-01T09:27:00.005-05:00

This poem was writen on the plane from Amsterdam to Boston, after a weekend spent in Leiden for a conference. It was a wonderful weekend, with a very small group of scholars (thirty or so) giving talks in one room (on The Erotic in English Poetry), and we even had a terrific evening of poetry and song. Great food, beautiful city, made some new friends and had one of the best Samhains I have ever had, despite not formally celebrating the holiday. The capital city of Holland is both very ancient and very modern: at night, through my window open to the street below, I only heard footsteps, bicycles, occasional hoofbeats and the occasional soft voice or click of a lighter. Very civilized and peaceful. I can't wait to go back.

Transplendent We

It's deceptive, this light at Hallows.
A mask of wind and water, spinning, sparkling,
like silver spokes, or falling leaves, or candy floss,
or false conviviality, too-fast friends.
As the river curves to meet us, we shamble along,
soaked with mist, parched for ale,
like troubadours, or troubled ghosts,
on our way to a midnight market,
there to choose cakes and berries from the goblin stalls,
in the shadow of forbidden castles and glowing maples,
the walkways bright as coins beneath our feet.

Here where the sloping banks converge,
the trees lean in, as if to kiss,
thorned and black on the right, airy and golden on the left,
Bacchus, Hecate, Apollo, Aphrodite,
nuzzling, glancing approval as we invent words
to mark this season of harvest.
No yellow moon, no sheaves of wheat, no bawdy lyric,
but ploughshares swinging,
hoofed beasts clocking over wet grey streets to sleep in tranquil barns.

The red blush creeping up your throat surprises us all,
like brazen hollyhocks that suddenly realize
they've reached the second floor.
Dizzy with drink and drunk on autumn's ether,
we find the otherworld we've sought all evening.
Its hollow hills ring, empty as dessicated bulbs,
yet bright with color, flowing with nectar,
its great halls lit with rustic lanterns,
candles set in carved-out turnips, meant to keep spirits at bay,
and yet soon the very air is keening.
The sky is slowly tinted green.
Our tongues are slippery with juice.
The clock strikes three, three times,
and we are younger than we were.

I started to like you, your small hands like Proustian sweets.
I started to like you, you and your words like dark abundant rain,
poppyseeds poured out on cobblestones.
Simple folk we, laughing long songs like books of fruited verse.
There where the cats consider the canal,
the moon at last emerges, and we become
more and more unfashionable by the minute.
I conjure a forest from a single tree:
like ardent sloths, we hold fast to its mutant trunk,
hard, rough, pulsing with faint heat.
It multiplies into a fairy-tale wood, varied as Paradise,
thick with English bluebells and rhetorical mushrooms;
it smells of sex and stagnant water,
hashish, leafmold, bile and burnt sugar, rotting velvet,
and tobacco that ought to be Turkish.

We could be anywhere: a Holland of the Mind,
or drowned Ys, forgotten Brittany,
a temple of jewels in Morocco,
a chalk hillside hewn by pagan muralists,
a Danish bog stuffed with dead druids,
a green field in America,
Constantinople, Brigadoon,
or a fragrant churchyard that beckons in dreams,
like mementos from a love lost in war-time,
coal-dust in your hair, violets in your pocket.

The veil between the worlds is thin, they say, tonight.
And if we walk now to the marketplace
(we fancy it built of fog and fireflies)
the goblins will smile, cry hail and welcome!
They nod their heads, stroke our hair, grasp our fingers,
whisper, yes, the veil grows thin, grows thin.
They hand us three lengths of shimmering cloth,
dyed the colour of winter plums, smelling of old roses.
We give them all the gold we have.
We wrap ourselves in purple.
We wake, and seven days have passed, or seven years.
Our fingers are torn, stained red with fruit.
Our lips are bruised, and taste of truth.
I touch your mouth, and it is the sun.

Leiden, Samhain, 2006

This poem was first published in Goblin Fruit Autumn 2007.

Poetic thoughts for September's New Moon

2009-09-19T09:34:00.010-04:00

(Photo taken by me at Brushwood Folkore Center in Sherman, NY in September 2008)

September, like the advent of school, seems to arrive determined to educate us in the ways of deja vu and that most human emotion of melancholy. The days and nights struggle for balance as the equinox approaches: between light and dark, cold and warmth, color and sere greyness. I crave words that will make sense of it all and often find myself scribbling bits of verse or seeking out obscure and near-forgotten prose and poems. John Updike, one of my favorite writers, was my thoughts this week when a New England friend mentioned that her close friend is his daughter. Reading The Widows of Eastwick a few months ago, not knowing Updike was struggling with cancer, I found myself thinking more than once that this might be his last novel, and it was.

Updike studied to be a painter before he became a writer, and his novels and other writings overflow with stunning, thoughtful imagery. Like this short piece, called "September."

The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.

Wordsworth also wrote a poem called "September":

Departing summer hath assumed
An aspect tenderly illumed,
The gentlest look of spring;
That calls from yonder leafy shade
Unfaded, yet prepared to fade,
A timely carolling.

And this piece by Thomas Parsons captures the unique happy melancholy of the month:

Sorrow and scarlet leaf,
Sad thoughts and sunny weather.
Ah me, this glory and this grief
Agree not well together!

- "A Song For September"

And these endlessly evocative words that I was compelled to sing one morning this week to greet the blue-gold day:

Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh so mellow
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain so yellow
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a young and a callow fellow
Try to remember and if you remember
Then follow...

- Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt

Want to read more? Check out one of my favorite websites for quotes about nature and the seasons.

Summer hiatus end at last!

2009-08-15T13:52:00.005-04:00

Hello friends.

It's been a few weeks since I last posted in this blog, and mostly this is due to haveing been away for much of July at the Brushwood Folklore Center, and then being busy or beaten down by ennui since my return! Ennui may be too strong a word; I had a bit of post-festival, post-camping depression, which was not helped by the solid week of rain that occurred when we got home, after having already lived through a solid week of rain before that. Yes, Starwood was wet, horribly so. I may yet post a review of it and of Sirius Rising on Witchvox, so stay tuned...I did get some lovely photos!

Just to let you about a couple of things I'm up to...

I'm organizing a Samhain/Hallowe'en/Hallows ball/dance/costume party (it will have a definitive name soon, promise!) this fall, hoping for October 24th, in Albany. I haven't reserved the space yet but am hoping it will take place at the Woman's Club of Albany, who have a gorgeous Edwardian mansion on Madison Avenue, complete with a ballroom, verandah, fireplace and beautiful furnishings. I've created a new blog for the event and for what I hope will be future events...

I've been wanting to get some sort of pagan events happening in this area, mainly because there is so little going on here. The two main local groups seem to have a bit of a witch war going on, and the city itself doesn't seem to have any centrally-located events happening, not after the demise of one space in my neighborhood. And many of the local pagans seem to live outside the city and don't have much reason to come in. Well, I have been trying to work on that. I started a Pagan Night Out a few months ago, and it's been relatively successful. I've also created a blog for that as well, to keep folks informed of any events.

And finally, my friend Byron Ballard and I have created a new blog that may speak to many of you: Pagan Foodies! Hope you'll visit us there and share your own thoughts, experiences, cravings and recipes!

Wife Swap seeking Pagan or Wiccan families

2009-06-29T13:07:00.002-04:00

I received the following email this week:

Hello,

I hope you are doing well! I am a casting producer for ABC's "Wife Swap" and we
are looking to feature a Wiccan or Pagan family on the show. If you are
interested or know someone that might be interested in the following
opportunity, I'd love to hear from you. Please review the announcement below for
more info :)

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and I look forward to hearing
from you!

Best,

Jessica Jorgensen
Casting Associate Producer
RDF Media USA
100 6th Avenue, 3rd floor, Suite 3-29
NY, NY 10013
P: 646.747.7947

So, there you have it, If you or someone you know is interested in this opportunity, feel free to forward this contact information to them. I've seen at least one episode of this with a pagan family and it was fascinating, to say the least.

Blessings of the New Moon and Solstice

2009-06-22T21:38:00.003-04:00

It's been hard to connect with the solstice energy to an extent, because it's been so cloudy and rainy for weeks now. I haven't posted here much lately, but have been doing a lot of online writing in various other places. My dear friend Hannah came to visit for the weekend, and we got lots of work done on our four different book proposals. We also had a wee solstice toast in the backyard with some nice rose wine and lit a candle and left some wee glasses of wine for the fey folk.

The new moon energy does feel palpable today. We sent off our proposal to a publisher on solstice day and that seemed a powerful day to start a new venture. Now I'm trying to think of something I can do to celebrate this new moon. It's in Cancer, and that always means food preparation to me. I made a great dinner of baked chicken, mashed potatoes and green salad, and baked a batch of brownies that I'll be selling at the farmer's market tomorrow. Tomorrow morning I'l make cookies and cupcakes for the market.

Maybe it's time to search for some freelance writing gigs online and send off some queries. The new moon is good for new ventures. Oh, and for fasting! But I may be too late for that today after that filling dinner.

Hope everyone has had a powerful solstice and new moon week. Oh, and a Happy Father's day. That is still sad to me since losing my dad three years ago.I like to think he's there, still enjoying the change of seasons and the food and garden traditions he loved so much. My love of these ways helps him live on in me.

Apple Blossom Day!

2009-05-17T16:11:00.004-04:00

From the UK, the Wildlife Volunteers Blog reports on a delightful day long event at the King's Lane Community Orchard, in celebration of the orchard in blossom, with music, games and traditional spring festivities. The BBC filmed the event as part of a program known as "Homes Under the Hammer!" which follows properties in danger of being developed. The community orchard has been opened as open public space and the community will be holding this event every year for the foreseeable future. Well done! This should ideally have been included in the Festival of the Tress, except that the event had not happened yet!

Festival of The Trees! Flowering and Blossoming Trees Edition

2009-05-01T00:12:00.011-04:00

(my own photo from Brushwood, May 2008)

Today, May 1st, I celebrate the festival of Beltane, an ancient holiday originating in Europe. Its name means "fires of Bel" who is a sun god. We welcome the return of the sun's heat and light, reflected in the many blossoms and flowers around us. I am happy to say I am headed to my summer camping spot, the Brushwood Folklore Center, later today, to get my camp set up for summer and celebrate the holiday with friends, with a maypole, a bonfire, feasting and fun! (photo by Peg, 2008)

Beltane was originally a fertility festival, and what better inspiration for love and romance than a trees festooned in delicate, fragrant blossoms? These lovers in Kashmir, India have the right idea:
(originally at nimg.sulekha.com)

Brushwood is blessed with many wild apple trees, and they all blossom in spring, with that fleeting, heavenly scent that simply can't be bottled and is all the more precious for being so temporary. (more beautiful Brushwood apple blossoms captured by me!)

I hope you will be able to see a blossoming orchard in your area this spring; it's always a heartening and magical sight to me. I saw hundreds upon hundreds of blossoming old apple trees as I was riding through the Hudson River Valley earlier today. Here closer to home, of course, are the wondrous orchards of Indian Ladders. The owner is planning to offer some heirloom varieties this year, like Fameuse, Old Smokehouse, and Chenango Strawberry, in addition to their bounty of Yellow Delicious, Jonathan, Empire, Mcintosh, Mutsu, and others.
(photo taken in spring 2007)

My partner and I ordered an heirloom apple tree (Summer Rose) from the mail order grower Trees of Antiquity that has been planted at Brushwood this month, near the spot where we got married last summer. We look forward to seeing that apple tree grow and blossom in many springs to come.

(another one I took in 2008)

To begin, we acknowledge the passing of winter. It was a long, cold one, followed here in the Northeast by several recents days in the high 80s and 90s, very unusual for April! Fortunately, though some gardens have seen their flowers get a bit crisp in the sun, the blossoming deciduous trees are right on schedule and lighting up the parks, mountains and forests with their graceful sprays of pink, white, yellow and purple.

This is a fascinating piece on conifers: the great giants that rule the winter landscape with green. They bless us with color until spring's blossoms invigorate the landscape with subtle and then brighter and brighter color. More conifers are featured here in the Walking Prescott blog. Evergreen trees give us a much needed reminder of vibrant life in the plant world while we wait for the ice and snow and freezing temperatures to leave us for another year.

Despite being welcome, spring briefly brought somewhat unwelcome surprises in the form of high temperatures, setting records in many areas. The local blog Cold Climate Gardening looks at the statistical information that reminds us climate change is an ongoing issue.

From Brambleberries in the Rain, one of the prettiest blogs in my blogroll, here is a lovely early spring nature walk including colorful flowering trees (one of them is pictured above).

This is a fascinating article on the evolution of aphids, and research done on apple trees, at the Agricultural Biodiversity blog.

From Riverside Rambles, some beautiful images of flowering trees!

From Rock Paper Lizard some finches frolic amid blossoms!

The Via Negativa blog has this unusual and excellent post combining blossoming tree imagery and a poem called "In Shadblow Time."

This recent post from osage + orange outlines the plight of the disappearing Ghost Oaks of Chicago.

Yearning for more exotic locales? Travelogged features this tour of the hanging bridges of Costa Rica. This adorable photo was taken in Kasmir, India in March:

(originally appeared at newshopper.sulekha.com)

From southern England, Somerset Seasons offers a quick, excited peek at flowering trees and shrubs in a Dorset garden. This blog post explores flowering trees in autumn in Lima, from Gunnar Engblom. And below is a stunning photo taken this March in Iran:

(from payvand.com)

I wish you all a colorful, sensuous, fragrant and colorful spring!

Busy and travelling!

2009-04-18T20:01:00.003-04:00

I returned from New Orleans last week and feel like it's been hard getting caught up on everything. I have posted some photos on Facebook, but here is one, taken at Marie Laveau's tomb.

We had a wonderful time seeing the city, and made some good contacts with publishers and other academics at the Popular Culture conference. But the event was so big we didn't feel badly about missing much of it; besides with such good weather, who wouldn't be tempted outdoors? We ate lots of good food, visited the Voodoo Temple and chatted with Priestess Miriam, visited the Garden District and basically had a wonderful time. Then came back to cold windy weather in Boston!

Spring has finally arrived in the Northeast, however. I've been working in the garden, trying to get caught up on everything. Just finished a book editing project and now on to other writing activities. I hope to keep this blog up a bit better now that I'm around again.

Excalibur or Mists of Avalon fans?

2009-04-05T10:02:00.004-04:00

Hello, friends. I've been very busy and not posting to this blog very often.

I am off to New Orleans this week to present a paper at the Popular Culture Association annual conference. My talk is on the influence the film Excalibur and the novel The Mists of Avalon have had on the contemporary pagan community. I'd absolutely love to hear any anecdotes from any of you who care to weigh in. This research will go beyond this paper and be applied towards two books I am working on.

I am particularly interested in any references to these works in rituals or other magical events, or the way they may have inspired your own or others' personal beliefs or practices. Cheesy as well as profound anecdotes welcome!

Post here or email me at albion.peg@gmail.com. I appreciate any responses.

A great herbal resource

2009-03-19T18:45:00.003-04:00

I found this blog recently and am very impressed. The author also owns and runs a mail order business crafting herbal incenses and oils and supplying all kinds of raw materials; the website is here. Big plus: he works and lives in my hometown of Elmira, New York!

So if you're like me and enjoy an old-fashioned and very artful approach to herbal magic, check out Alchemy Works. This makes me want to go back to my hobby of crafting herbal incenses, which I did well before the age of the internet took over!

(Image from the Flickr stream of HaggisVitae)

Spring is Autumn is Spring

2009-03-02T11:23:00.003-05:00

I remember once when my high school teacher made fun of us on a chilly autumn day for complaining about how cold it was. It was maybe 50 degrees. She said this was the exact same temperature it would be in spring on the first day when we declared it to be spring, and we'd be ripping our sweaters and saying "Oh, It's so warm!"

I wonder if she knew that one day throughout the Northeast United States people would think that flip flops were appropriate footwear all year 'round?

Today's massive snowstorm makes me think that we (and by 'we' I mean those of us who live in parts of the world with clear and dramatic separations of seasons) approach spring in the same way we do autumn, but in reverse. In autumn, we understand that snow and ice and cold temperatures are a sign we're meant to hunker down indoors, prepare our homes for the inevitability of being snowed in or unwilling to venture out in the cold, and get used to taking extra precautions when traveling. We know we'll eat more, to keep warm, and probably put on weight, as our ancestors did. We buy a lot of potatoes. We might get sad or tired from lack of sunlight. We swathe ourselves in wool and polypropylene. We hibernate, like bears. We watch the squirrels and birds and deer forage, and toss them some bags of seed. We also become used to a mostly colorless landscape, and the loss of the smells of the plant world as the trees, shrubs and flowers die or go dormant. The color goes out of our lives.

In spring, these expectations reverse. We expect rising temperatures, we know we'll become more active outdoors. Going from one place to another doesn't require as much forethought. We dress in lighter, more colorful clothing, in celebration of the arrival of buds and blossoms and blooms. We eat lighter foods, and our clothes fit the way we want them to again. We make fiddlehead soup. We're assailed by smells: rain, mud, rising sap, flower nectar, baby animals and insects. Like honeybees knowing it's time to pollinate, we flutter here and there, attracted by colors and shapes and feelings we thought we'd forgotten. Spring fever, they call it, but it's really more of a temperate, uplifting feeling than a heated delirium. We're not drunk or dizzy; we're just aware again.

From here on, or for a few months at least, we know it will grow warmer, brighter, more fragrant and colorful, until that bright shining day of late summer when, in the glimmering dusk, we begin to notice the first fading shades of green that announce the season's dying fall, escorting us slowly but surely to autumn's brown and gold, and the thoughtful sere scape of winter, once more.

(photo by Joan Z. Rough)

Dreaming of a home orchard?

2009-02-22T18:14:00.005-05:00

I certainly am! Fortunately for us city dwellers, dwarf fruit trees are all the rage now. These trees not only don't grow as tall as standard ones, they tend to bear fruit at a younger age, too. Less waiting, more munching!

Check out the Garden Web forum for a discussion of recommended fruit tree vendors. Also, Trees of Antiquity specializes in heirloom fruit trees. And here are some top UK suppliers for you Brits.

(image form Gene's Backyard Orchard--go Gene!)

This seems like a good idea.

2009-02-16T12:10:00.002-05:00

This website offers a novel service: a place to share with close friends and keep track of who borrowed what from you. Let's face it, most of us don't lend out books or DVDs often because we have all experienced not getting these items back from well-meaning friends. But wouldn't it be nice to be able to share big-ticket items like specialty garden equipment or a pasta maker or the newest hardcover best-seller or that full series DVD collection to people we trust to take care of them and return them? Families with kids can also share toys and games, maybe even Halloween costumes. And how many times a year do any of us use a carpet shampooer? But it's useful if you have carpeting, and sharing is cheaper than renting one every time.

I am thinking of things we might find useful on occasion but don't have space to store, either; like a power washer before painting the house. Or a canning pot for putting up tomatoes in the fall.

I am all about reducing, reusing and recycling. GoodSharing.com seems to be a good way to create an organized system for sharing stuff with friends. So check it out!

The Age of Aquarius Dawns...at last!

2009-02-14T15:57:00.007-05:00

This article is one of many that announce the alignment of Jupiter and Mars this morning. Yes, folks, on this Valentine's Day, "Love will steer the stars" from this point onward.

The song "Aquarius" from the groundbreaking "tribal love rock musical" Hair was a catchy invocation of this celestial phenomenon. The "dawning" of the Age of Aquarius is certainly the appropriate way to put it: the new astrological age, like the ones that came before. We are leaving the Age of Pisces, dominated by Christianity (ever wonder why Christ is symbolized by a fish?) and entering the sign of The Water Bearer, which is meant to signify a time of social upheaval and potential for positive change, a time of enlightenment and personal freedom.

"Harmony and understanding,
sympathy and trust abounding,
no more falsehoods or derisions,
golden living dreams of visions,
mystic crystal revelation,
and the mind's true liberation!"

Some analysts believe the true age will not begin until 2600 AD, when the Vernal Equinox moves into the constellation of Aquarius. But today's alignment signals that we are well on our way for the New Age that will last roughly two millennia. And we thought New Age was a fad of the 1980s! That was just a warm-up, witchlings. Let's see if we can work some serious magic for change now. And be sure to get your tickets for the new production of Hair in New York this spring!

(Image from www.maniacworld.com.)

CSI: Bio-diesel and tree-huggers named "Silver"

2009-02-08T19:47:00.005-05:00

This week's forthcoming new episode of CSI (entitled "Deep Fried and Minty Fresh") features shenanigans at a fast food restaurant that includes theft of large drums of cooking oil. Cue the investigation of a local bio-diesel co-operative, where a loopy tree-hugger who calls herself "Silver" works. The video preview can be found online here.

So...we've seen plenty of pagans portrayed in ridiculous ways on prime time TV; it appears now they're going after environmental activists, too. Watch for Silver to say we all need to care for Mother Earth. Amen, sister! But do you have to act so flakey when you say it? And why is she called "Silver"? Is this meant to be a wee slight against neo-paganism's most famous author of that name, Silver Ravenwolf?

No wonder global warming is simultaneously melting and freezing the planet (it does both, you know; climate change is about intensification of weather patterns, not just overall warming). People seeing these sorts of portrayals are very likely going to become convinced that giving a crap about Planet Earth is for geeks and weirdos.

ETA: The bio-diesel angle was interesting. A couple of "hippies" (why do people call modern-day environmentalists by this quaint archaic name, I wonder?) steal barrels of leftover cooking oil from restaurants, process it into bio-diesel and then return the containers. But one of the barrels turns out to contain a dead body. (well, that's recycling too, kind of) It might have been interesting to explore these characters further, especially since they were prominently featured in the preview. But the show basically treated them as fringe types who literally live on the edge of the "normal" community.

Blessings of Imbolc

2009-01-31T15:11:00.015-05:00

With this winter having been an especially brutal one in some areas, I think it is safe to say we all could use a festival to remind us that spring is, if not just around the corner, at least not too far in the distant future. Cue Imbolc.

Some pagans refer to this as the Feast of Februa, or the Feast of Brigid, or Candlemas, or Imbolc, Imbolg or Oimelc. For some history and folklore related to this festiva, see my classic Witches' Voice article "You Call it Groundhog Day, We Call it Imbolc".

I have never quite understood why so many pagans want to associate this holiday with Brigid; I have nothing against her, she's a lovely goddess, inspiring and calming. My own coven celebrates Candlemas, or the Feast of Februa, and the ritual is focused on Pan, including ritualized scourging (shades of Lupercalia, the ancient Roman festival celebrated closer to Valentine's Day). For those who refer to the holiday as Imbolc or Oimelc (literally "in the belly" or "ewe's milk" depending on your source), it makes perfect sense to forge (no pun intended) a connection to the female goddess of poetry, healing and smithcraft. But I like the idea of a focus on a male god figure, especially one associated with sexuality and the forest.

The former is more of an indoor archetype, the latter outdoors, if that makes sense. The threshold, the door allowing us to shut the cold out or brave the biting winds, is a liminal place. This feeling of being on the brink is a powerful catalyst for many of us, urging engagement with new projects, or a return to old ones that haven't been fleshed out yet. Mercury's retrograde periods in winter allow a perfect opportunity to return to unfinished work. We dig in, hibernate, reflect, craft, repair. Brigid approves, this stoking of fires as intellectual as it is visceral. But so does Pan, his jollity a balm on grey days, wafting Arcadian breezes into our winter dreams.

So, too is the groundhog myth a liminal one. He is lifted from his burrow to divine the weather, blinking and wriggling, perhaps squinting in the sun or indifferently sniffing at the cloud cover. Then he is returned to his cozy winter abode. We accept his pronouncement, and return ourselves to wait out winter, industrious or lazy in our habits, hopeful or stymied in our daydreaming, brazen or apathetic in our socializing, chipper or aggravated while doing our outdoor errands. Now is the time for crockpot meals, novels, television reruns, hot toddies, and maybe some snowshoeing.

The snowdrops are imminent, the daffodils will shadow the snow with gold sooner than we may think possible. Time now for planning, plodding, pot roast, and making the best of it.

This Week's "23" Headline

2009-01-29T03:43:00.001-05:00

The number of deaths so far in the winter storms sweeping the country is, yes, 23.

More can be found here.

More 23 News from December: blogged here.

And a link to more 23 info is here.

Soon on ABC: The Witches of Eastwick!

2009-01-23T14:32:00.002-05:00

Variety.com reports that ABC is developing the John Updike novel (or, more likely, the schlocky film somewhat based on it) for television, with Maggie Friedman of Dawson's Creek as head writer.

My main problem with the film is that, first of all, the main characters were made far more glamorous than their portrayal in the novel. Sukie, Jane and Alexandra were played by Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon and Cher, respectively. This took away from the significant issues of competition and sexual viability these women-approaching-middle-age were feeling. Alex was meant to be considerably overweight, for example, and, in the novel, envied Jane's and Sukie's thinness. The competition among them was so fierce, in fact, that the three witches decide to create a spell to kill a young woman who steals the object of their affection from them (Daryl Van Horne, played with delicious devilry by Jack Nicholson). That's the other very omportant plot point left out: the decision to perform an act of magic that amounts to murder. The sequel novel, The Widows of Eastwick, begins with the idea that the guilt over this murder (performed fifteen years earlier) is still very much alive in Alexandra, at least (I have only read 22 pages or so).

Why can't Hollywood engage a complex, realistic novel in a complex, realistic way?

Next Week on NCIS: Satanists!

2009-01-22T21:02:00.002-05:00

The previews for next week's new episode of NCIS show an episode dealing with satanism and the occult, complete with one victim who has a huge pentagram tattooed on his back. Because this show is both smart and funny, I hope they'll deal with this topic in a less offensive way than The Mentalist did last week. Check out the controversy over that on the Wild Hunt Blog.

A delicious future

2009-01-20T18:34:00.003-05:00

Zilly Rosen of ZILLYCAKES in Buffalo, NY, builds a likeness of presidential candidate Barack Obama using 1240 cupcakes.
Originally uploaded by shastio

A very cool celebration of Obama's candidacy, rendered in cake and frosting!!!

A Day to Remember

2009-01-20T18:28:00.003-05:00

It has been a surreal day, ablaze in the cold crystal light of winter. Words invoking strength, hope, caution, determination, wisdom, passion, patience, faith, compassion poured forth from the many speeches at the inauguration ceremonies, many from our new President.

How long has it been since so many of us have felt hope and optimism about being Americans? A very long time, my friends. May we go forward towards the difficult days ahead with courage and faith and the willingness to dig in our heels and do our best to survive and prevail and show compassion to those who are worse off than ourselves.

May the pagan community, many of whom supported and voted for our new President, gaze forward into the future and adopt the same spirit of powerful transformation and courage to change what needs changing. So mote it be.

Orchard revives Wassailing, suffers theft

2009-01-14T19:35:00.002-05:00

I first found this story on Wren's Nest at Witchvox: An orchard in Hull, UK revives pagan tradition of wassailing.

Turns out the orchard suffered the theft of valuable gardening equipment and are accepting donations via tree sponsorship. I am going to call them and see if there is any possibility they might have a Paypal address for donations for any Americans who want t o help out. Or, UK'ers can call them directly. To sponsor a tree, call Yvette Grindley on (01482) 503577 or chairman Arthur Wilson on (01482) 561616.

More soon...

Bay Area Orchard fans...

2009-01-11T08:54:00.002-05:00

There is a workshop coming up for people interested in growing fruit trees in the city. Put on by Garden for the Environment, "I Heart Fruit Trees" is scheduled for Valentine's Day and promises to offer tips on growing apple, pear and plum trees. And it's only ten bucks! This organization sounds wonderful. They have other great workshops on offer, including making herbal medicines for winter. Let us know if you intend to go! (thanks to www.gardenrant.org for the story, and the lovely pear tree image originally appeared on the Greenwalks blog.)

Wassail, Wassail the new year

2009-01-05T19:29:00.005-05:00

Chas over at Letter From Hardscrabble Creek shared this link with me from the Hereford Times on January wassailing customs. The article comments on the growing popularity of cider helping to keep this ancient custom alive. Apple growing the world over is enjoying increasing interest because of cider-based events like Cider Days and even the humble little Harvest Moon festival I organized at Brushwood Folklore Center this past autumn, where we pressed fresh cider from the wild apples that grow abundantly all over the property.

England of course has a rich history of customs celebrating harvest and propitiating nature spirits of fields and orchards. I've tasted some wonderful regional ciders in England, from the sweet pear cider made by Brothers in Shepton Mallet (near Glastonbury) to the sublime, dry Kingfisher made in Norfolk, and the excellent Special Reserve cider made by Samuel Smith's and served on tap at the Chandos Pub in London's Trafalgar Square. May American cider brewers one day approach England's diversity and quality of cider.

I remember wassailing the orchard trees out at Mike and Penny Novak's farm one Yule. It's a lovely tradition. I also enjoy the songs associated with wassailing sun during Yuletide. The Gloucestershuire Wassail describes the blessing of livestock with cups of cider tossed in their faces:

"And here is to Cherry and to his right cheek; May Yule bring our master a good piece of beef!" The winter solstice as it was observed during the agrarian era was a time to share food abundantly with all in the community; singing by peasants was rewarded with comestibles from the "big house" during the days of feudal farming.

I served hot mulled cider at our Yuletide Open House this past weekend. A number of people who arrived, having come in from the cold, said no when asked if they wanted a drink, but when I mentioned there was hot cider on the stove they all changed their minds immediately!

Wassail, wassail, 2009. We drink to thee.

Blessing the New Year, under the holly bough

2008-12-31T14:38:00.006-05:00

I know some pagans consider Samhain the "Celtic New Year." I have never understood this. I always thought it was someone's idea of how to make life as a modern witch even more "authentic" by co-opting or creatively adjusting actual history and folklore to suit their own preferences. And if one were to choose a pagan holiday other than, say, Yule, to celebrate the new year, what more "witchy" one than Samhain? In any case, I'd love to know if there is any any sort of historical, cultural or folkloric basis for this belief. Any historians of our fair spiritual path out there who know the answer? (Maybe a perusal of one of Hutton's volumes is in order).

My own coven celebrates a Rite of the New Year, but we also have the welcoming of the new year "built in" to our Yule festival rite. There is a poem by Charles Mackay, collected by our heirophant and ritual author, which suits our purpose, and it is spoken three times through as everyone, singly or with a chosen partner, walks beneath a holly bough suspended from the ceiling in the center of the circle. It is a renewal of the trust and strength of our relationships with others, a reminder to forgive others, to stop dwelling on misfortune and move forward with hope. It seems especially pertinent this year for me.

Ye who have scorn'd each other
Or injured friend or brother,
In this fast fading year;
Ye who, by word or deed,
Hath made a kind heart bleed,
Come gather here.
Let sinn'd against and sinning,
Forget their strife's beginning;
Be links no longer broken,
Be sweet forgiveness spoken,
Under the holly bough.

Ye who have lov'd each other,
Sister and friend and brother,
In this fast fading year:
Mother, and sire, and child,
Young man and maiden mild,
Come gather here;
And let your hearts grow fonder,
As memory shall ponder
Each past unbroken vow.
Old loves and younger wooing,
Are sweet in the renewing,
Under the holly bough.

Ye who have nourished sadness,
Estranged from hope and gladness,
In this fast fading year.
Ye with o'er-burdened mind
Made aliens from your kind,
Come gather here.

Let not the useless sorrow
Pursue you night and morrow,
If e'er you hoped—hope now—
Take heart: uncloud your faces,
And join in our embraces
Under the holly bough.

May your new year bring hope, prosperity and peace.

(Here is a link to a gorgeous image from Flickr user Brenda Anderson, who entitled the photo "Apple Holly" for its resemblance to holly berries.)

Merry Winter

2008-12-25T09:41:00.003-05:00

Winter Uplands

The frost that stings like fire upon my cheek,
The loneliness of this forsaken ground,
The long white drift upon whose powdered peak
I sit in the great silence as one bound;
The rippled sheet of snow where the wind blew
Across the open fields for miles ahead;
The far-off city towered and roofed in blue
A tender line upon the western red;
The stars that singly, then in flocks appear,
Like jets of silver from the violet dome,
So wonderful, so many and so near,
And then the golden moon to light me home--
The crunching snowshoes and the stinging air,
And silence, frost, and beauty everywhere.

~ Archibald Lampman

(photo from user "Muffet" on Flickr.)

Happy Yule!

2008-12-21T20:22:00.001-05:00

Bright blessings of the returning sun to all! May the solstice sun warm you through the ice, snow and wind, and bring you light in the darkness.

A Christmas Carol

2008-12-20T14:57:00.005-05:00

I simply never get sick of this story. This season so far I have seen the version starring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge (and Edward Woodward as the Ghost of Christmas resent!), and now am watching Patrick Stewart as Scrooge and Richard E. Grant as Bob Cratchit.

But my all time favorite version? Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol! The animated musical version. It's simply wonderful.

It just occurred to me: with all the wonderful actors who have played this role over the years, is it similar to King Lear for actors of a certain age? You haven't really had a proper acting career until you've played the Scrooge?

I also appreciate the pagan sensibility that the Ghost of Christmas Present has; he's a merry, Father Christmas type of figure, holly in his beard, furs twinkling with snow, and lives (literally) in the moment. Woodward is especially wonderful in this part, and they make him appear about eight feet tall!

Lots of 23 news this week...

2008-12-15T09:53:00.003-05:00

This week's news headlines with the number 23 in them:

Ferry Accident Kills 23 in the Phillippines

23 Pirates Captured in Somalia

And in sports: a guy with the number 23 on his jersey and an exciting game that had 23 in the score, and another, and one event with 23 Saves! (I don't know what sport either of these is and the articles did not say).

Winterfest, Indian Ladders Farm

2008-12-08T13:08:00.007-05:00

After a last-minute suggestion while we were chatting on Facebook, my pal Kate agreed to come to Indian Ladders Farm for their winter activity day. Most of the fun was indoors (music, Santa, cookie decorating and crafts) but I wanted to go on the orchard walk with the owner, Peter Ten Eyck. We got a late start and got a we bit lost at first, but we arrived just in time for the walk! (It had started late, lucky for us).

It was very cold; and some of the folks who started out on the walk turned back before it was over (a group of developmentally-disabled adults and their helpers--I salute them for being troupers, it was freezing and windy in the valley!). Ten Eyck told us all about the place, where he'd lived his entire 70 years. With humor and old-school wisdom, he talked about the property's glacier-formed rocks, its trees and most of all its history as former pasture land (some of the parcels, divided by rock walls, had hills and valleys forty feet high!), and its past orchard lives growing pears and plums and heirloom apples. Much of the former pasture land had been planted with pines, and some of it has been reclaimed by florabunda roses and other thorny shrubs.

One old orchard planted in the 1970s with heirloom trees was being "brought back" and Ten Eyck listed the varieties: Snow, Spitzenberg,Old Smokehouse, Sheepnose, Chenango Strawberry. I asked about when they might start to blossom so I could come photograph them. He described the time when the shad trees bloom in spring in the forest : "first there's nothing then suddenly there are white blossoms everywhere; the apple blossoms appear about a week later." The timing can vary each year depending on weather.

After a brisk and invigorating walk, we returned by way of the barn and saw some goats and sheep in the yard. There was also a huge Highland cow named Rosie (I thought it was male at first since it had huge horns), looking like a huge stuffed animal, regarding us from under its shaggy forelock. Ten Eyck called it a "Yuppie cow" bought a few years ago by his daughter and son-in-law.The furry animals looked as if the cold didn't bother them at all.

We had hot cider and delicious homemade Knudsen caramels in the cafe, then bought some goodies to bring home (I got a few apples, some peach preserves, cheddar cheese and a half dozen fresh cider doughnuts. A wonderful way to greet the coming winter and bid farewell to the season of harvest. The farm store is open through Christmas so I hope to get out there one more time, as I forgot to bring my camera! But Kate took some great photos on her cell phone!

Apple photos (A Chenango Strawberry above a Spitzenberg) from Apple Journal and Trees of Antiquity.

Amsterdam to become less fun, more safe?

2008-12-06T17:06:00.003-05:00

This article from BBC news discusses the plan to close down many brothels and coffee shops in Amsterdam, to try and drive out organized crime from the city center.

I had never realized this was a problem there; Holland has always seemed to be relatively crime-free to me. I only got to spend a few hours in Ametsrdam, during the day and on a cold autumn day. I'd love to go back some day. What a beautiful city!

Welcome December!

2008-12-02T12:18:00.002-05:00

the new orchard image for the blog this week is by photographer J. Scott Bovitz.

Sustainable Farming Grants

2008-11-30T09:41:00.004-05:00

The Garden Rant Blog (listed in my favorites) featured a link to these grant opportunities for sustainable farming initiatives all over the country. Go ahead: I dare ya to grow food and help your community!

I am going to look into what is involved in turning an empty urban lot into a public garden space...we have so many of them in Albany. Even better would be to turn it into a vegetable garden where people can grow and eat their produce, and maybe even sell it in local markets.

I spend half my days gardening or thinking about it. Mostly flowers. But having grown up in a family that grew much of our food, and having really enjoyed the fruits of my labor this past summer (mmmm, tomatoes, basil, parsley, dill), I know it is something I will try to do on a slightly larger scale from now on. Home-grown food is the future, people.

Heirloom Apple Poem

2008-11-24T16:14:00.005-05:00

Thanks to my friend Anne of the Green Leanings blog, who shared this wonderful poem with me. It's by Emma Lee, and celebrates the quirky, musical names and remarkable qualities of many heirloom apples from the region of Devon, near Cornwall in southern England.

A BASCOMBE MYSTERY FEATURING DEVONIAN APPLES

He was tall and slender like a Longstem,
eyes soft of grey-Blue Sweet, alert, witty brain,
blemish-free, clear, pale skin like Hollow Core,
hair blue-black as the stem of Loral Drain,

restrained with a Dufflin’s subtlety,
the opposite of a Hoary Morning,
well-respected - unlike Slack Ma Girdle -
our hero composed as a Keswick Cooling.

Our heroine has grace of Sour Natural,
the fairness of Jacob’s Strawberry,
had rejected suitors like Johnny Voun,
and Johnny Andrews, such was her beauty.

For the rest of this delightful poem, go to the Lost Stones blog.

(photo from veggiegardeningtips.com)

What does "Green" Mean?

2008-11-17T12:40:00.002-05:00

Okay, somehow I missed the launch of the Green is Universal website last November. Now they're celebrating their second Green Week on MSNBC. (One anchor recently made the point that Ebay and Craigslist are "green" because they encourage recycling--I totally agree.) I guess for a giant media corporation to show its concern about environmental issues is a good thing, but how much of it is pandering to consumers with deep pockets? Let's face it, for the most part, people interested in these issues tend to be liberals and liberals tend to be urban and often well-heeled. This is not to denigrate all the wonderful liberal Democrats, Libertarians, Greens and unaffiliated folks out there who are trying every day to live their lives in an environmentally-responsible way and have done for years.

But have we not heard and seen all this before? "Green" might as well be a coat of toxic paint. Remember when the lawncare giant ChemLawn changed their name to Tru-Green? Did they suddenly stop using dangerous pesticides and herbicides? No! A number of large manufacturers are claiming to create and market "greener" products (like Clorox's new green cleaning sprays, or Clairol's Natural Instincts haircolor). But what about smaller companies that have been making these things for years, like Simply Green, and Arm & Hammer, and Trader Joe's, Burt's Bees, The Body Shop, and good old Dr. Bronner's?

Sadly some of these companies are no longer the small concerns they used to be; Burt's Bees has been sold to Clorox. That's right, the company that used to be owned and run by a former beekeeper is now under the auspices of the biggest bleach makers on the planet. The wide range of body care products made from herbs and natural plant oils has given way to more make-up and a smaller range of choices. The Body Shop, the UK-based international company that was a fine model of environmentally-friendly practices including using fair-trade ingredients, was sold two years ago to L'Oreal, a big traditional cosmetics company. These changes in ownership affect products; The Body Shop no longer carries many of its original products made from simple natural ingredients and now focuses on "home fragrance" and cosmetics.

So I guess what I am wondering is, will the green revolution ever really happen? Or is it all just a big scam designed to make rich corporations richer? Isn't environmental responsibility connected to economic responsibility too? I know one can chose to have one's investment portfolio concentrate in "green" companies. What would happen to our economy if more people did this?

Sarah Palin on migrant labor and apples

2008-11-12T22:58:00.006-05:00

This article from the Reuters blog mentions a pre-election conversation the Vice Presidential candidate had with a Pennsylvania apple grower, in which the Alaska governor assumes his biggest worry must be Chinese imports. But in truth the grower is more concerned about Washington State apples, which represent 60% of the apples grown in the U.S. The Pennsylvania orchardist expressed concern that he could not find enough migrant labor to pick the harvest, and no other local workers could be found who would do it.

The comments this article sparks, about immigration and migrant labor, among other things, is interesting.

In other related news, this video from BBC.com looks at a similar labor shortage in Europe during crucial periods of fruit harvesting.

This article details the history of migrant labor and fruit harvests in Washington State. And, from 2006, an artic le on the importance of migrant labor in the NY State apple harvest, in Poughkeepsie.

I am of the opinion that jobs should be given to whoever needs them, and in this case, whoever wants them. What troubles me is that, with such high levels of unemployment is so many areas, how is it that people are unwilling to pick apples for a living? I honestly believe one reason we have been looking at the erosion of small farm concerns in this country is that people just don't see this kind of work as proper employment any more. If it's not in an office or a shopping mall, it's somehow not worthy of us. This is silly. What happened to good, honest, physical labor? And what better work is there than growing healthy food?

BTW, the new blog image is from Flickr photographer LinnMarr:
www.pbase.com/linda01302/november_orchard

Willie Nelson sez to Obama: It's all about food!

2008-11-09T11:17:00.002-05:00

Pro-pot, pro-farm, awesomely-cool country music icon Willie Nelson has posted an open letter to President-Elect Obama on the Good Food Movement. This movement has swelled and thrived just fine without government interference, but now, Nelson insists, is the time for the federal government to create policies that support what many in America think will save out ailing country and its farms and foodways.

Supporting local farms bolsters economies, provides fresher food for everyone, reduces use of fossil fuels (and thereby may lower food prices in the long run), and preserves small farms (which have disappeared at alarming rates across America. Family farms also embrace alternative fuel sources and environmentally-friendly and sustainable practices.

Check out the many links in the article (yes I blogged it and sneakily made you link to it, ha ha) to learn more about family farms and how to support local food.

It's one thing for journalist and food activist Michael Pollan to offer advice on food policy to the White House via the New York Times, but when a celebrity and known mover and shaker (remember Farm Aid?) does it, let's hope it has a more populist impact.

True Samhain: November 7th

2008-11-04T22:09:00.003-05:00

Since Jason on the Wild Hunt Blog linked to last year's post on True Samhain, I thought it would be a good idea to post here with this year's update. True Samhain, or the time when the Sun enters 15 degrees of Scorpio, the true cross quarter, is November 7th.

So those of you who want to follow up your Hallowe'en celebrations with a more somber, calmer observance apart from the high-energy (and undeniable power and cultural passion) of Hallowe'en, you now have another day to do so, nearly a week later!

Blessings to you all in this season of reflection, harvest, and anticipation of darkness.

(image from lunasisters.com)

Today's featured blog: Fruits and Votes!

2008-11-04T10:57:00.003-05:00

Seems appropriate. And the author once contacted me because of eerie similarities in our blogs (not subject matter so much but terms we chose, etc.) and I have linked to it for a while now. It's a great site and has some helpful and sane info for those wringing their hands today, on this most significant occasion of electing our next leader.

Don't fuck it up, people. Go vote. Vote your conscience, vote strategically, vote out of spite, but VOTE. It's your duty.

Orchards dying out?

2008-11-01T22:53:00.003-04:00

I found this distressing article from September about rare and heirloom varieties of orchard fruit dying out in the British Isles. This represents a tragic loss not only of fruit varieties but also of habitat for virtually millions of living things.

Why the first snow matters

2008-10-28T16:14:00.003-04:00

The first snow. Dry and powdery, wet and heavy, sparkling, dirty. Nothing is the same now, not for another few months.

You're a New Englander, or a New Yorker. For you, the first snow may be banal, or exciting, depending on many variables: your penchant for romanticism (that first touch of white is an epiphany, a signal of transformation), your love of nature (seasonal transitions are times of sensual pleasure), or your occupation (postal carriers may heave a general sigh).

It may come early, in October, or puzzlingly late, in December. It may color the holidays with pixie dust or rent them asunder by making travel dangerous. It may coax you to buy winter sports equipment, or invest in a Pendleton wool coat, or make you yearn for sandy beaches. Snowfall at night can be magic, or terrifying. It can quicken your steps as you walk through falling flakes towards a fire-lit room or twinkling nightclub. It can slow the wheels of the car as you drive into flickering walls of white, wondering if you're seeing what you're seeing. It reddens your cheeks and whitens your hair.

The first snow makes beer colder, apple pie spicier, lovemaking tenderer, walking to work more memorable. The first snow lets us know we're in for a few weeks of Nature's impulsive and naughty tricks. The first snow makes us feel wrapped in warmth and ancient human fear. The first snow is inevitable. And when at last the time comes when we know we've seen the last of it until winter returns, we face the yellow sun with relief, and perhaps a bit of sad regret. Now, we say, now will live outdoors. But we might have done so before, wrapped in cloaks, clutching pots of embers, bellies full from autumn feasts.

In other blogging news...

2008-10-26T16:29:00.002-04:00

I am now the "Boston Nutrition Examiner" at Examiner.com. It's actually shocking how many categories of examiner they have on topics that, to me, seem to be really closely related. I mean, they also have one on "food and drink" and one on "organic food" and one on "food culture." I mean, can not all these be covered by the same person? Oh well, at least I have the green light to cover green living, too.

Anyway, I have just started out but hope to turn this into a lucrative (as I am told blogging can be, potentially) and fun thing, so please to be reading, sharing and subscribing to me! And thanks.

How to Flirt with Survivalism

2008-10-21T11:43:00.001-04:00

I am finding this topic intriguing these days. Today's Msn.com headline offers the context of the current economic crisis for the reason all sorts of people are looking for ways to squirrel away necessities for the coming...troubles. But obviously some people have gone well beyond flirtation to courtship and flat-out marriage proposals.

What we pagans like to call "homesteading" is starting to become one aspect of survivalism. The notion that survivalists are all gun-crazy bullet hoarders who are stockpiling antibiotics, freeze-dried eggs and bottled water has given way to the idea that some of us who find that kind of stereotype disturbing are actually engaged in the same kind of preparations, albeit with less emphasis on guns and more on food storage. The antibiotics might translate as a colloidal silver making machine (built from an inexpensive kit), the freeze-dried eggs become canned tomato sauce from our gardens and dried beans and lentils, and the bottled water replaced by a water filtration system.

Nowadays it's not about waiting for Armageddon; it's wondering if the looming shortages of everything from petroleum to coal to food, not to mention the possible freezing of the banking system, may start to directly affect our ability to procure food, medical care and other basic needs. So liberals as well as conservatives are united in wanting to make sure there is enough food on hand for their families and maybe some neighbors in need. I like how the article acknowledges the different approaches to survivalism that people with differing socio-political attitudes might embrace. It also mentions something which I had suspected was happening but that other articles on survivalism had not mentioned: people are starting to hoard gold and silver as eagerly as canned beans and propane.

Those of us who live in the Northeast have been told for many years we need to keep a few days (if not weeks) worth of food in our homes in case of severe winter weather. Of course the majority of people don't bother, due to lack of space or money, or simply not thinking it's necessary. I for one don't really buy that worldwide food shortages are imminent, but there is no denying that more and more people are interested in growing and storing their own food. I have not seen this level of home-based agriculture and canning since I was a kid. People used to do it to save money, and of course there is that impetus now, too. But it's also about preparedness, the notion that there may come a day, and not too far off, where, for one reason or another, we won't be able to just head to the grocery store or phone for a pizza, and having some non-perishable food on hand will be not just comforting but mandatory.

Ever seen the wonderful and hilarious French film "Delicatessen"? It's based on a "Soylent Green" principle but with the addition of an underground (literally) band of seed hoarding vegetarian mercenaries. The notion of a food shortage in food-obsessed France was, at that time, nasty futuristic fun. But now?

Apple Picking

2008-10-12T09:19:00.005-04:00

We had a very successful day at Indian Ladders yesterday. The place was packed with other like-minded people; who doesn't want to go pick apples on a sunny beautiful fall day? Unlike last year's adventure, when dwindling supplies of apples made people crabby, there were plenty of ripe apples practically falling from the trees. We filled a bushel bag in about five minutes with gorgeous Empires and Jonagolds. I had wanted to get some Golden Delicious but we didn't have any more room. I hope to go back and pick again maybe later in the season. We also found a handful of huge Red Delicious apples someone had dropped on the way back to the car and I grabbed a couple of those, too. I normally dislike this variety since its supermarket version is alway bland and mealy. But I've had fresh, fragrant crunchy ones fresh from an orchard when I was a kid, so I knew these would be worth a try.

The fall foliage color was simply stunning. The orchards lie at the base of the Helderbergs, and a more picture perfect fall day could not have been ordered. We watched for houses for sale in the area, and there are quite a few. But an unsettling number of McCain/Palin signs in peoples' yards; WTF? At least compared to Obama/Biden signs. Then again most people do not have signs in their yards so who knows what their leanings are?

Now--What to do with all these apples? I still have tons of apples from Brushwood (not as ripe and lovely as these, but all organic!), and now another bushel. I have been storing them on the front porch, but with the weather getting so warm I hope they don't get soft. Maybe I will put them in the basement. I am not much of an applesauce or apple butter person. I'll definitely make some apple crisp. I have been looking into apple wine making and definitely want to give this a go. I still need to get a few bits of equipment: an air lock, a corking machine, and probably a big glass carboy. And the wine yeast.

We also stood in line to get fresh cider doughnuts. Yum. Worth the wait. I had three in the car, warm and soft and covered with sugar. I also bought some whole wheat pancake mix and a jar of red raspberry preserves. The farm also had Pick Your Own raspberries yesterday but when I asked about them the lady behind the counter said there might not be many left so late in the day. Must plan for this next year, and call ahead and get there early.

I enjoy seeing so many people enjoying this yearly ritual. The kids love running around and playing in the orchards. People can;t wait to open their jugs of cider and swig from them standing in the sunshine. There are Clydesdale horses pulling a wagon, and hayrides and a petting zoo, plus people picnicking or just sitting on the ground amid the orchards. I don't like seeing so many apples with single bites taken out of them and discarded on the ground, but amid such bounty I guess people think nature is an endless fount of abundance. Yesterday, this seemed very true. Here's to a beautiful harvest season.

Gardening Day

2008-10-04T19:58:00.002-04:00

I must have gardened for about seven hours today! First I worked at Emack & Bolio's for over 3 hours. I dug out a bunch of those horrible invasive daylilies (the ubiquitous ones that grow like crazy everywhere). I then planted some tulips (red and yellow,not my color choice for sure) and daffodils, and 3 red lilies. Then I created a shade garden bed with some lovely old bricks they had lying around. The bricks were huge and had words on them like "Catskill" and "Tidewater." I dug out all the grass in the oval garden bed, then added three bags of compost-y topsoil. I planted daffodils, forget-me-nots and some hostas, plus one astilbe and some ferns. The owner Amy and I talked about what to do for the side of the building, which really just needs all the old shrubs removed. I decided to just plant some tulips to spruce it up for spring and then maybe the area will get an overhaul next year. I filled two big lawn bags of debris. I rewarded myself with a well-deserved ice cream cone: a scoop each of peach and pumpkin; yum-o-rama.

Then I came home and planted the rest of my daffodils. The usual: digging out roots before planting. Sometimes I hate my yard and all the damn weedy roots that grow everywhere. I also planted some bi-color grape hyacinths and some drumstick alliums.

I look forward to planting my tulips and getting some more to complement the purple ones I already bought. I'm trying not to spend much on them. I have a budget to buy plants and bulbs for Emack's and also a client in Boston, and if I get large amounts of them I can grab a few for myself. I will probably get this collection and it will be enough to plant everywhere I need to plant things...or maybe this one although Amy does not want any pink flowers at Emack's. Maybe these? But I sure don't need 100 crocus bulbs. Of course what I really want is this one but it's kind of pricey and I don't need all those daffodils.

Maybe I should just get tulips by type. Like 50 of these, and 50 of these and 50 of these and 50 of--well there goes my budget! This collection here is a good deal: 300 tulips for $95. And it has all the colors I need to please everyone, including some for me.

Any thoughts? Help me decide!

mmmmm...

2008-10-01T00:49:00.001-04:00

Pie anyone?

poem to welcome October and bid September adieu

2008-09-30T21:18:00.002-04:00

BALLADE OF SUMMER'S SLEEP

Sweet summer is gone; they have laid her away--
The last sad hours that were touched with her grace--
In the hush where the ghosts of the dead flowers play;
The sleep that is sweet of her slumbering space
Let not a sight or a sound erase
Of the woe that hath fallen on all the lands:
Gather, ye dreams, to her sunny face,
Shadow her head with your golden hands.

The woods that are golden and red for a day
Girdle the hills in a jewelled case,
Like a girl's strange mirth, ere the quick death slay
The beautiful life that he hath in chase.
Darker and darker the shadows pace
Out of the north to the southern sands,
Ushers bearing the winter's mace:
Keep them away with your woven hands.

The yellow light lies on the wide wastes gray,
More bitter and cold than the winds that race,
From the skirts of the autumn, tearing away,
This way and that way, the woodland lace.
In the autumn's cheek is a hectic trace;
Behind her the ghost of the winter stands;
Sweet summer will moan in her soft gray place:
Mantle her head with your glowing hands.

Envoi.

Till the slayer be slain and the spring displace
The might of his arms with her rose-crowned bands,
Let her heart not gather a dream that is base:
Shadow her head with your golden hands.

Archibald Lampman

(photo by Phil Childs)

Apple wine

2008-09-30T10:21:00.002-04:00

(New blog image is of Gays Mills orchards in Wisconsin)

So, we picked a bunch of apples at Brushwood, I really want to make wine out of them. But I don't want to invest in a bunch of expensive doodads. I remember my Dad used to make dandelion wine with nothing special. Is it possible to make wine with stuff lying around, apart from having proper bottles and corks, and the necessary yeast? Anyone have experience with this?

If I can't make wine I have to think of something to do with these apples. I have been including them in my morning juicing ritual.

Coming soon: photos of Harvest Moon weekend and cider pressing!

busy week

2008-09-26T19:43:00.002-04:00

Just briefly...it's been a crazy week.

Laptop achieved! I still have to rescue the data from my old one and get MSOffice installed. The new Ipod has been a fun toy and I look forward to getting the application that allows me to record voice dictation notes and then save them as text on my computer.

Harvest Moon at Brushwood was a great success. We made gallons and gallons of delicious cider from organic apples. Yum! The ritual and bonfire were also wonderful and there was a bountiful potluck feast. Everyone is already looking forward to next year! I will post photos as soon as I have them.

Sadly, my cat Trivia passed away on Wednesday morning at 3 am. I have a write-up about her on Livejournal, to be found here.

computer kaput

2008-09-13T17:25:00.003-04:00

I dropped my Mac laptop and the hard drive is toast. I am looking into getting the hard drive repaired or have the data retrieved soon, but until I can do that my computer access is going to be somewhat limited.

Fongers crossed: some dear friends may be offering to get me a new Mac as a business expense and tax write-off. I think, anyway, the phone message was a bit unclear. This would be wonderful, since I cannot afford a new Mac right now, and would at best only be able to get a refurbished one, repair the old one IF it is repairable, or get a piece-of-crap PC.

Positive techno energy welcomed!

Update: My wonderful friends are getting me a new MacBookPro. It's being shipped here. i am speechless with gratitude and feel very blessed. They buy and maintain their own home computers as business expenses too and since I write for their website and have done for years they saw no reason not to help me out in my time of need, because they can. Wow. I grew up in a family where generosity was highly valued and now I can appreciate this lesson.

Can I just say...

2008-09-08T18:10:00.003-04:00

I freaking LOVE this blog. I sometime go a few days or even weeks without reading it so I can gorge on its simple beauty and deft poetry.

The ginger cats and their cohorts feel like a part of my daily life, even though they're thousands of miles away. They remind me of how important my own silly pets are to me.

prose poem for September

2008-09-06T19:44:00.005-04:00

Autumn Landscape with Tossed Hair

I wanted a grey day, the beggar said, one with huntsmen lurking in the bracken, willowy girls in wet dresses skipping through the bogs, ginger cats slipping down silken copses to dispatch voles and snakes and buckets brimming with mist-ripened plums.

I remember the cries of the blackbirds, the poet mused, in the heat of the afternoon, swirling over the burning cornstalks, black liquid spirals tracing otherworlds beneath blue clouds gleaming, disappearing into the ravine, into imminent twilight, where brown armies of scurrying ants and black covens of twitching cicadas converge, oblivious, waiting in the whispering dark for dew.

I wanted the smoldering brush, the husband said, the winnowing baskets and wagons piled with pumpkins and leeks, the last sheaf of grain held high by the harvest queen, lips like wineskins plump and red, copper bracelet flashing like green fire.

I know the old ones scythed and hacked these fields, the wife insisted, scraping wheat and barley for winter stores, salting the meat of blood moon-slaughtered cattle for Yule's feasts, blessing the horses with cups of cider, rolling russets into the bins and hoarding twists of sugar between candle boxes.

A frightful day in the dull countryside is what I wanted, the child said, one that should end as it begins, with tinkling lamps, our skin scented with sour sweat, hot chocolate, by the fire with cheese and bread, songs sung in my head at sunrise, offered as blessings from travelers at midnight, sending us off to sleep with melodies, memories, circling like crows at dusk, hawks of morning.

We go to Safeways now, but it still tastes like magic if we walk 'round the garden three times before supper.

New Moon, Farewell August

2008-08-29T20:06:00.014-04:00

We're off to Brushwood Folklore Center this weekend, and with the clear skies in the forecast and the new moon fast approaching, it should be a perfect weekend for star gazing! The moon is in Leo, the sunniest sign of the zodiac, so it seems fitting that summer's last gasp is a loud lion's roar, giving way to Virgo, often represented as Demeter or Ceres, the goddess of grain, or Pomona, goddess of fruit and orchards. (The Pomona mask image is by artist Lauren Raine, a frequent visitor to Brushwood.)

We missed the Perseid Meteor Showers this year because it was so cloudy here. So a sky full of stars, all the brighter for no moonlight, will be a delightful way to say farewell to August. I love late summer; and unlike a lot of people I don't think summer "ends" when September arrives. Some of the nicest, warmest, sunniest weather of the summer occurs in September.

September is summer tinged with cold, and gold. It's summer packing its woolens for autumn, still clothed in its holiday linens. September is fragrant with the perfumes of harvest, awash in the lush Arcadian colors of meadows and forests, sun-dappled, dreaming of the bloom of frost on its lawns and leaves. September wants a jug of golden wine and a hearty loaf to sate its parched august heart.

(Images from www.rainewalker.com, Cafe Tarot, and www.Israelity.com. Apple photo from malverntrail.co.uk.)

Well! It's About Time! (European Witch Pardoned)

2008-08-27T20:32:00.006-04:00

200 years after the last so-called "witch" was executed in Europe (Switzerland, to be exact), she has been pardoned. Read all about it here.

I wonder if this woman really did try to practice the magic she is accused of having perpetrated? Or was she just another victim of hysteria, prejudice, mean-spirited pettiness? What went through her head before she was killed? Did she believe she was dying a martyr's death?

May she rest in peace, along with everyone else that has ever been executed for crimes they did not commit.

wedding pics!

2008-08-24T20:05:00.009-04:00

Here we are with Burchard, the wonderful guy who delivers our firewood; he showed up just before the ceremony started.

Here we are during the ceremony:
Here we are in the grove after the ceremony. (If it had not rained all night we would have had the ceremony here; but it was a bit too muddy for folks in wheelchairs, etc.)

Here we are cutting our yummy cake!

MMMMM.....cake....and cupcakes!

Here we are at the reception with my new brother and sister-in-law.

More photos in this album on Photobucket. I am new to this so they are not all edited and resized or in any special order.

I will be uploading another set of them taken by our friend Roy soon.

help a friend with kidney disease

2008-08-18T19:23:00.002-04:00

My pal Brent has put out an appeal to raise money for kidney research, hoping to benefit himself and thousands of others with kidney disease. Won't you pledge a measly $10 (the cost of two pints of Guinness or three cappuccinos) to help?

(message from Brent)

As some of you know.. I have Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) and have
just been put on the transplant list. This starts a 5-7 year wait for
a new kidney. Until then, I can just take care of myself and try to
put off dialysis for as long as possible.

Currently, there is no cure for PKD. There is only treatment in the
form of dialysis and transplant. I don't believe this needs to be the
case. That is why I've signed up for the North East Ohio PKD walk pn
9/21. I want to raise $1,000 for research. I need your help.

So- what can you do? Well.. its easy...
The easiest thing you can do is go to

WALK.PKDCURE.ORG/GOTO/THESMITHS
or
http://walk.pkdcure.org/site/TR?team_id=34930&fr_id=1842&pg=team

and donate. I think it would be really cool to get 100 people to
donate $10 each. Yeah.. that's my goal. 100 people @ $10.

What? You don't think that's enough.. ok.. then how about this...
let 10 other people know about this little project. You see... I
don't know 100 people's email addresses. So, I can't send this to 100
people myself. So, forward this. Cajole and embarrass people until
they donate. You know the drill.. pretend you like me and want me to
stay around a little bit.
(tell ya what, if ya raise the 1000 yourself, I'll never bother you
again, deal?)

Seriously.. any help you can give (financial or networking) is
greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Brent

A poem for summer's dying fall

2008-08-17T22:29:00.004-04:00

This stunning poem appears in the summer issue of Goblin Fruit. It's possessed of a lusty pagan worldview, dying vegetation god-style, and it makes me want to dive into the change of the seasons head first.

The Seasons' Dying

by Samantha Henderson

Summer dies warm in the brown arms of Fall
who lays her down easy
by his cool streams, takes the name Indian
Summer and runs.
Calloused barefoot, beloved of apples and witches,
his eyes are tawny and green trees turn glorious
musk at his touch. He does not flinch
when Winter slays him. Winter, warrior,
banners streaming white and blue,
dons the medieval robes of the last small Ice Age
and metes out justice. 'Til Spring
grows from the foot of his throne, twines about his limbs,
and tickles him to death.
Born of melted ice and mud,
weakest-seeming of the seasons,
she makes the aching buds burst.
She kisses her favorite frogs awake
who cannot save her from Queen Summer who,
imperious,
passes her hand before her face,
closes her eyes with bright copper pennies,
and covers her with cloth of gold.
Summer strides,
eating peaches, until weary,
she faces handsome Autumn, walks into his embrace,
and lays her head down.

Neil Gaiman giveaways

2008-08-11T21:37:00.001-04:00

Cool contest on this blog with books, Lush products and other groovy prizes.

Barack rocks!

2008-08-11T21:19:00.001-04:00

This is very funny and strangely moving:

Nice bit of YouTube.

Nature's Foodie Wisdom

2008-08-09T10:00:00.003-04:00

The Planet on a Plate blog published an intriguing post on the connection of the shapes, colors and benefits of various foods to the organs of the body. I've reprinted a bit of it here. Those familiar with the Doctrine of Signatures will recognize this theory. My favorite example comprises the Venusian fruits that benefit the skin, hair, and reproductive organs, like berries, apples, peaches, and mangoes. The goddess of love, sex and beauty takes care of her children with foods that draw us in with their seductive colors, shapes, scents and tastes.

From "Planet on a Plate":
A friend recently sent me an email that I thought was wonderful. I'm not sure who wrote this originally, so I'm unable to credit the original author:

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and YES science now shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm cells to overcome male sterility.

CHeck out the blog link above to read the entire post. Fascinating!

Heading Home

2008-07-08T10:09:00.005-04:00

We're leaving tomorrow to go to Brushwood, and getting handfasted on Sunday! There's lots to do today. I probably won't be posting too much over the next three weeks, as computer access is not easy there, but I will post some photos when I get a chance.

Have a wonderful summer, everyone!

Running! (Okay, jogging)

2008-06-26T08:56:00.003-04:00

After a very long hiatus, I have decided to start jogging again. Last week I started running a mile on the rubberized track at a nearby college campus. A mile is a short distance but I thought it best to start slowly so I can really make this a habit. I did four days in a row! Now I am in Boston, but when I get back today I will start up again. Not sure how I will continue this new routine when I am out at Brushwood as it is hilly and tends to be very hot during the day, but I did used to go for jog-walk sessions there (before I broke my leg) so I will try it. I am eager to get back to it, actually.

I used to be a runner, you see.

Starting as high school was ending, all through college and graduate school and beyond, that is to say, from ages 17 through 35, I was a regular runner. At my peak I was running 5-6 miles every day. Not much compared to marathoners, but it kept me in very good condition. At one point in graduate school, when I had taken up smoking after a bad summer studying abroad, I was a jogger and a smoker! (William Hurt in Body Heat anyone?) Then, I started to get injuries. Not running-related ones: clumsy accidents that resulted in sprained ankles broken toes, etc. And then the running would stop, to maybe be replaced eventually by brisk walking, maybe careful jogging, hiking, cross-country skiiing and augmented with yoga and Nordic Trak. I always thought I'd get back to my regular habit of 3 miles a day, six days a week. Then I broke my leg in two places, requiring surgery. That was in 2004, and since then jogging has been only very tentative and brief, and only after a year and a half had passed. I hope I will be spared the early onset of arthritis, but this is always a danger with broken bones.

But I finally feel like my bones have fully healed, the occasional pain and swelling I get at the injury site is minimal (except in winter), and I am ready to add some high-intensity exercise to my life. The last couple years, commuting between Albany and Boston, I have found myself doing less walking just as a mode of travel. So I have added walking for exercise, plus my usual gardening activity, and also occasional use of my Nordic Trak. But it has not been enough. Damn this post-40 metabolism! I recently read about "postman's plateau" or something like that. It refers to the fact that postal carriers who get a fair amount of daily exercise (say, 3-4 miles of walking per day) reach a point where the activity becomes the norm for their body, and they start to put on weight. A sedentary person could add 3-4 miles of walking per day and drop pounds and firm up quickly; but poor postal carrier then has to add extra exercise, and usually of a much higher level of cardio intensity to see any difference.
I just read an article in The New Yorker by a Japanese novelist who wrote about running and writing. He said he was thankful he was someone who tends to put on weight because if he was naturally thin, he would not have started running and might be living a much less healthy life. That made a lot of sense. Some of the naturally thin people I know are not very healthy: they smoke, eat fatty foods, and are inactive. And when we get older and our metabolism slows down, we have to add new lifestyle habits to maintain our level of fitness.

I realized that the postman metaphor was where I was at. My daily walks, gardening, etc. which I considered part of an active lifestyle, were not intense enough to jump-start my metabolism. And despite enjoying the occasional challenge of fasting on fruit for a few days, I do not in general think dieting is a good way to lose weight (it lowers the metabolism). I just try to eat right as well as I can. Of course, I am sure I still eat too much of the wrong stuff, but I'm not going to become a vegetarian again. But despite trying to be healthy, I still managed to put on 15-20 pounds in the last 2 years. Hence, adding jogging back to my life.

I had forgotten how much I missed it. Of course, right now it is painful and horrendous. But I have missed the rhythmic, meditative quality it has, the raised amounts of energy it gives me, the satisfying muscle tightness in my legs. It will take a while but the raised levels of endorphins will kick in soon, too. They say you have to do something 21 times (or every day for 3 weeks) for it to become a habit. So I am working on jogging 4 days a week for the next month. If I keep that up until we leave for Brushwood, I will get myself some new shorts and a jog bra (my running wardrobe is pretty much non-existent right now). And if I keep it up until September, I will get new shoes. I have some walking shoes from New Balance that are decent and working for the moment, but a bit small (I got them on sale), so I want to get something better fitting and designed for running. Don't expect me to get matching outfits or anything! I used to run in polypropylene leggings in winter and nylon short shorts in summer, and gods help me, I used to jog in these heavy cotton tube tops I had in high school. They worked fine, then again my breasts were smaller then. Being older and heavier now, I need to be a bit more comfort and decorum in my gear.

Anyone else out there have experience of jogging or running after 40?

Blessings of the Summer Solstice!

2008-06-20T10:05:00.005-04:00

Tonight at 8:59 pm EDT will be the summer solstice.

We've already had some very summer-like weather this year, temps in the 90s (even up to 103 in Boston!), so this weekend's chance of showers and cooler temperatures makes for a gentler experience of summer. Ah, summer! Cookouts and pagan festivals and bounteous flowers.

Of course this time of year also makes me recall fondly my times spent in England at this time of year, including the memorable trip with B. where we attended the first open summer solstice celebration at Stonehenge in more than a decade. We also went to a private sunrise ritual inside the stones with a druid group that reserved the space; we got to meet Emma Restall-Orr (aka Bobcat) and Greywolf. Also spent time in Banbury (where we attended a conference on sacred landscapes put on by ASLAN), including a night spent sleeping outdoors at the Rollright Stones (where they held a wonderful celebration with the Wild Hunt Morris and Damh the Bard performing) and Glastonbury, where we met some cool people at the King Arthur Pub (which has since been sold to a new owner).

This is one holiday I have not written about for the "You Call, We Call It" series on Witchvox...I guess this would have been a good year to do it. I also have not done one for Lammas, since there is virtually no observance of that day in the mundane calendar...Still, it would be good to have the series be complete.

Todd and I will be utilizing the energy, weaving our handfasting cords for our Big Day next month, and finally opening that nice bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne our realtor got us for a housewarming gift..and maybe eating a nice juicy steak.

Blessings of the summer sun to you and may your fires burn bright!

Yay!

2008-06-14T20:15:00.003-04:00

The online poetry journal Goblin Fruit has agreed to publish my poem "Atlantis" in their Spring 2009 issue. They must be getting a lot of submissions if they're now accepting work so far in advance...the first poem I had published there was featured in a review of the website by the Endicott Studios blog which, sadly, has decided to cease publication...but they're keeping the archives active.

I am happy for this poem to find a home. An earlier version of it was published on Gothic.net which went belly-up several years ago. I have been reworking a couple of older poems lately, and also working on some new ones. Most of the new pieces are at the idea/scribbling stage so far, I hope to do be able to finish them this summer.

The title comes from a bottle of nail polish. I was bored at my office job, decided to do my nails. I was into blue and green polish then, which was very widely available in many many colors! Not so much now, I mainly see pinks and reds in stores. This color was a pale blue with a gold sheen. The idea for a few lines of verse hit me and I started writing there at my desk and finished it within a few days...I like it when the muse arrives at unexpected times and places.

Unicorn Deer!

2008-06-11T23:28:00.004-04:00

I thought this was a charming story, about a deer with a single center horn who looks a bit like a unicorn. Interesting that it is a naturally occurring phenomenon, unlike the goats that Otter and Morning Glory Zell turned into unicorns by grafting their horn buds together when they were babies...

I was quite obsessed with unicorns when I was younger; of course they were very popular images in the 1980s an 1980s. But I recall having lots of books and illustrated calendars, etc. My mother made me a really nice statue in ceramics. The base is broken and Id like to find a way to fix it so I can display it.

Survivalism is Green?

2008-05-25T09:45:00.003-04:00

I find the current discussion about this trend to be rather disturbing. I recall a thread on the Garden Rant blog not long ago where some of the comments took on a survivalist tinge (as when one guy mentioned land in western NY, south of Buffalo, was selling for cheap and it was possible to homestead there effectively so buy up some acres now and you'll be all set, but BE SURE TO HAVE SOME GUNS...

Yeah, it is the guns thing that disturbs me. I think people living in rural areas and planting orchards and vegetable gardens and raising their own animals that they slaughter themselves for food and learning herbal medicine and eschewing constant automobile use is all a great thing. But apparently this neo-back-to-the-earth movement is not about connection to nature and rejection of urbanization, but instead a full-fledged panic-driven effort at extreme self-preservation. The attitude seems to be: we are going to be prepared for what's coming (widespread food shortages apparently borne of fuel depletion), and when the people who don't bother to prepare come knocking, we have guns to keep them away.

There is something wrong with this picture. It just gives me a weird sense of cognitive dissonance. I associate organic gardening and "green" practices with liberal peace-loving humans. Sure I grew up in a family that grew our food and also hunted for it, with guns among other things. But there was never an attitude that guns needed to be around to deal with our fellow humans. Especially fellow humans in need.

I am picturing that opening scene of 28 Weeks Later where a group of random people have made their way to a huge country house that happens to have some canned food and bottles of wine socked away and they are doing just fine until the bloody, rage-ravaged "infected" happen upon them and try to tear their way in. The infected don't want the wine and vegetable stew on the table; they want the flesh of the survivors. The infected can be killed: but you have to be quick and brutal about it cuz they are FAST and STRONG and HUNGRY. So you'd better have big clubs, or knives, or guns. Or an impenetrable fortress to hide in.

This "green survivalist" scenario feels a lot like a horror film to me.

Heirloom apples...and writing

2008-05-16T23:58:00.006-04:00

Thanks to the Evil Fruit Lord for posting a link to this article about heirloom apples. Most grocery stores sell no more than five or six varieties of apple, maybe more during the harvest season. But more and more at farmers' markets these days you see a wider variety and an exciting array of heirloom apples. I have tasted some wonderful apples that had been more or less lost to history for many years, except to expert apple growers. Now all sorts of growers are getting in on it, just as enthusiasm for other heirloom crops like tomatoes is also increasing. You can even order trees to plant, like the ones offered by Trees of Antiquity.

I really want to write about them, too. The idea of them interests me a bit more than the pragmatic aspect of how to find and grow them. Seeing this, I had the thought that I really should try to follow up on researching and writing about things that interest me and try to submit them more widely...ya know, start acting like a freelance writer again. I guess I just kind of assume that magazines and newspapers are starting to be a thing of the past and that blogging is the only place anyone reads anything anymore.

Or maybe I am just losing focus and discipline. Writing has fallen to the wayside. I always kinda feel this way just after the semester ends. Must regroup now and get back in the habit, before summer teaching starts. These book projects will not complete themselves!

Not feeling particularly loquacious just now. More on this later perhaps.

But I leave you with this reading recommendation: Apples by Roger Yepsen, a gorgeous and nicely-written little gem of a book about heirloom apple varieties. I got this as a gift from my sweetheart during our first year together and I treasure it.

Orchards in Blossom

2008-05-12T20:06:00.004-04:00

Todd and I visited Indian Ladders this morning. The farm store was not open (no coffee or fresh cider donuts, boo hoo) but we walked around a bit so I could photograph trees and enjoy my favorite smell in the world: apple blossoms!

I was reminded of that scene in Excalibur where Arthur drinks from the grail and is renewed: the knights ride through the blossoming orchard, with petals raining down, as the Carmina Burana plays...one of my favorite scenes in all of cinema.

These orchards have been farmed by the same family for several generations, and sit at the base of a huge mountain in a gorgeous area in New Salem, NY. There was a house for sale up the road. I would love to live near this place!

Trees Make Breathing Easier

2008-05-08T07:44:00.003-04:00

This news story cites a study that suggests children who live on tree-lined trees suffer from asthma less often than children who live in treeless neighborhoods.

There is no direct correlation suggested, other than improved air quality and the fact that children may be encouraged to play outside more in such neighborhoods.

In my own experience, I have never wanted to live in a neighborhood where there were not plenty of mature trees, so I always have chosen apartments based on the surrounding area as much as what the actual living space had to offer. It seems like this should be easy enough to achieve even in big cities (like Brooklyn, New York, pictured above). Treeless streets seem unwelcoming, ugly and unhealthy. This makes me wonder if kids who live on tree-lined streets are just plain happier, and less stressed out, and thereby less prone to chronic illness. Of course, there may be an economic connection, too, although asthma seems to strike well-off kids as much as it does poor ones.