Moonlight

On Friday night me and my husband spent some time in the garden, gazing at the moon. It was the biggest and brightest I have ever seen it. It almost hurt my eyes to look at the moon. The sky was beautiful and clear and we could see Mars to the left of the moon, which looked like a reddish star. It was stunning. January's moon is known as the cold moon or wolf moon.

My husband also took these beautiful photos. Both are 4 minute shots. You can really see the reddish glow on the top of the trees and if you look closely at the top of the tree in the second photo you can see a red dot which is Mars. Both photos have not been touched, no editing at all. I think they are lovely.

This photo has been edited in photoshop by my husband. It has gorgeous spiritual feel. I like both the edited and the unedited versions but I think I prefer the natural photos with no touch ups. What do you think?

Spring is coming

Stepping outside yesterday morning, the air felt like spring, loamy scented and moist. But I know it won't last. I can feel cold air looming, we might get a bit more snow just yet. Tomorrow or maybe even tonight the temperature will suddenly drop. The birds who welcomed me this morning will huddle together for warmth. Much as I wish it is spring, its not quite here yet. But its coming, its just around the corner.

I am at a stage in my life where equally big changes are happening. I finally feel I have dropped all the pretences and layers that I have always carried around with me. Imbolc seems a perfect time to celebrate new beginnings even if you are not particularly spiritual or attach any religious meaning to this time of year. Everyone feels they spirits lift when spring approaches. It feels lovely to be out in my garden with this feeling but its still a little bit cold to plant my seeds. It will be better for me to plant my seeds under a cold frame or inside before transporting them to my garden. My wish for this years garden is to grow herbs and vegetables. I feel that starting at Imbolc would be a very special time to start, especially in blessing my garden and the seeds that will wake up as the earth warms up. Blessing my garden in this way feels very potent because it allows me to sow seeds for making changes and breathing new life into the coming year.

It was so cold last weekend that I ended up poking my camera round the side of my curtain and captured these beautiful birds. I love chaffinches and we have had an abundance of them coming to the garden. It looks like the birds are already starting to find mates. Two robins were tolerating each other very well. Both of them have come to the garden and the bird table for the seeds. In the main time the chaffinches are gathering in crowds of twos. This lovely couple enjoyed the table for quite along time. The robins were going mad. singing and making high pitched noises to try and scare them both away.




Here he is watching the bird table. His mate is in the bush hiding. This fellow is the bolder of the two. Watching the birds finding mates reminded me that spring and Imbolc is almost here. I'm looking forward to celebrating this in my garden and on my walks.

For those of you who are wondering what on earth I am talking about. Imbolc is the pagan festival to mark the quickening of the year, which takes place on February 2. The word imbolc is thought to be derived from the Gaelic word Iomelc, which means ewe's milk, and may originate in an old Irish festival at the start of the lambing season.

Here are a few links for those who are interested in this festival

Traditional Witch

BBC Religions

Witchology

Imbolc

Digging and worms for dinner!

‘Our’ robin is a bold one; he or she will sit a mere couple of feet away as I dig, waiting for me to find him food, if the food has run out, he perches on the fence and stares in through the doorway window until I have remedied the situation. I’ve also heard of other robins staring in through the windows when they want food. Over a year ago we knew a little robin who flew to our hands for the worms. I haven't met such a bold little fellow since then. But I am hoping our current robin will be as bold. He perches very close when I'm digging. here he is about a foot or two at the most away.
He sat on his perch for ages, watching me dig the soil over. While he was sat here, he chortled a little song without opening his beak too much. His song was so beautiful and the garden was very quiet. It was a lovely feeling, makes me feel very much a part of nature.


Here I am looking very funny, in about five layers of clothes. Yes that's right, five layers! It was absolutely freezing. I had a vest on, long sleeved top, a thin jumper, a thick jumper and a large cardigan. This is my usual winter garden attire.

I was very excited because my compost pile is doing so well. Here I am with a little pile. Ohhh dear, I am far to into my garden.

My Husband kept taking photos as he finds my layers of clothes very funny.

Heres me in my garden at a very different time of year. This was just last summer.

Finding a path

I have been thinking about my own nature based spirituality and how it can help me cope with life, well mainly how it can help me cope with my battered head and emotions. I have yet to come up with an answer other then through following my own spirituality and not someone else's rigid rules, helps me to be true to myself. I think I thought that following my own path would help me with my depression. But I am finding out that while I feel I have grown in lots of ways, growth has also been quite painful. It's involved discomfort and disorientation , feeling disoriented is becoming a regular thing. The thing is I have always felt different, I don't really fit in anywhere. The problem with that is I am forever feeling judged by others or at least I feel I am being judged by others.

I'm sure that lots of people feel this way. But sometimes it makes me want to scream. We are all complex people, yet people are often put into boxes or have labels attached to them. Take me for example, my label at work is scatty, forgetful, which must mean I am also stupid and live in the clouds and of course choosing to follow my own spirituality enforces this in peoples minds. I am many other things too as many of us are.

Over the last five years or so I have allowed my spirituality to grow naturally and have been practising as a solitary. However I would like to reach out to others to discuss, share and learn.

Will I be asked where I fit, for example are you a practising witch, pagan, wicca, what tradition?
Why do many of us feel that we need to fit into a certain criteria. Certainly many of us want to feel part of a group, we feel the need to belong. But I think first and foremost We should know ourselves and learn to feel comfortable in our skins.

Trying to find out about me and feel its ok to be me, is something I still struggle with on a daily basis. It certainly is not easy trying to be myself around others who find it very bizarre or just difficult to understand. But I believe its well worth the effort. While I am finding out about me my spirituality is growing and developing. Isn't this how it should be? I believe if we grow then our souls do too. After all my spirituality is an essential part of who I am.

Spiritual Garden

Lost in the Garden by Angela Jane Barnett

When considering my health and my husbands, I have always known that health and environment cannot be separated. However I am still no where near where I would like to be, in living with the environment. Because I love nature and respect her, I am particularly responsible for looking after the environment . I feel spiritually connected to nature and understand the interconnectedness of all life. With this in mind I feel that the garden is an excellent place to begin a ripple effect of healing by looking after it in a sustainable manner. I can already see subtle ripple effects in the garden. I can tell that the soil has become much more rich and fertile, and I know that this is due to organic and natural gardening. I do not use any pesticides or chemical based products in my garden. All signs of life are slowly filling my garden. This year there has been an increase in the different types of birds in my garden, I can't believe how many thrushes are now visiting my garden, the robins still live close by and there's an abundance of sparrows, blue tits, long tailed tits, great tits, wrens, chaffinches, black birds, jays, the list goes on, I have also seen a recent new addition; the pied wagtail. This year I hope to do more and increase my activity in the garden through growing organic vegetables. I hope that more forms of wildlife will return to my garden, which will in turn renew the essential balance. My garden has always been a wonderful spiritual place to me. I hope that this year the garden will help me renew my balance and life force. Tending the garden will tone your body, clarifies your mind, and energizes you Spirit. Other side effects of a healthy garden will hopefully become more apparent to me in other aspects of my life. To understand the method and spirituality I am talking about, go to an undisturbed area like a woodland plot, secluded area of a park, or under a large, healthy shrub. Notice that when you're under a canopy of foliage the atmosphere is different. It smells fresh, moist, and soothing. Touch the soil. Generally, it will be soft and spongy, with layers of newly accumulated debris, and below that, humus rich soil in many stages of decomposition. The soil here contains micro-organisms whose sacred names include fungi, protozoa, yeast, worms, and insects. Life flows through everything here and you may begin to feel more balanced. This feeling is the essence of a spiritual method of gardening.

The snow has melted in my winter garden

I love a winter sun and it just looks so beautiful through the branches of my tree

Now the snow has melted, I moved back the leaves and found these lovely little shoots popping through, there's lots more around the garden. Spring is on its way.

When I was moving away the leaves and digging the soil over, who should return but my garden friend, and he seems to have found a possible mate. He was quite happy to allow another robin to take some worms, which is most unusual. I tried to photograph them but every time I tried to capture them, they kept flying away. So here is an older photo.

Dream land

I had another one of my strange but wonderful dreams last night. I was in a cave with lots of Egyptian beetles. One of them was really big, bigger then my hands and gave off a sheen of beautiful rainbow colours on its back. I kept having to pick the beetle up but I was really frightened of being eaten!!!! In the dream I was sure that I was going to be eaten. very Strange, no idea how to interpret this one. But I had the feeling on waking, that the dream had quite a spiritual significance.

Nature Art

Personally I have always loved to be surrounded by forest and nature, which to me was a vast place, where I could create thousands of games or build a den in the woods. Nature could be a spiritual place where I could climb up to the higher branches of the trees to listen to the wind in the leaves and branches ... I often think I am a born again pagan, In that I really love being with nature, I can spend hours simply sitting under my tree. Since my very early childhood, I was aware of the power and magic of nature. Already my Nana and Granddad had provided me with a most magical place to spend many happy hours...... the garden. My granddad also taught me certain things about nature and about plants, My Nana always told me that she spoke to the plants, because she knew they could listen to her and had a soul or spirit just as we do. I was always aware that nature had a true spirit.

These days I am becoming more aware and more in tune with nature then ever before. I don't even have to venture very far, I simply step outside my door and I am greeted with numerous sweet voices....... bird song. Because of this I am itching to paint my feathered friends, but it is far to cold, I am afraid there will be icicles hanging off my fingers. As much as I love and am awed by nature. I don't particularly like freezing my bits off. I can't paint in the living room because my husband has made this room off limits to my creative fingers. I can't blame him, as I am terribly messy and usually end up looking like my paint palette. So I will be very soon creating a new studio space in my home. We have bedroom number two to empty and turn into my art room. I am hoping this will commence this Saturday, so watch this space, I will be keeping my blog updated with my art rooms progress. I am hoping that come next weekend, I can begin painting, I will be able to see my wonderful birds right outside my art room window. Can't wait!!!!

This brings me back to thinking about renewal and reflection. I have started to make changes in my life. One of these changes is that I want to have more balance spiritually. To help me achieve this I have cut back on my teaching, which I love but it has been taking over my life. At the moment I am teaching part time and have a part time job has a care worker for the rest of the week. I love it and there is so much less pressure involved. I can now concentrate more on my spirituality and art work and also spend more time with my husband. I am hoping that this will be just what I need to energise my spirit and help me connect both to my own spirituality and with the spirit and energy that surrounds us.

The Edge and the surrounding woods - a place I want to reconnect with. Here are some of my favourite nature escapes

In my garden looking for the robin