July/August Nature Musings 2023

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the July/August 'Nature Musings Blog' - a chance to look back over these last 2 months and remember and honour what nature has provided for us all.

These last 2 months have been filled with joy, wonder and great sadness too - and the natural world has been there always teaching and nudging me in the right direction.  Comforting and nurturing me when I have needed it most and bringing together a new community of people who enjoy the natural world as much as I do.

Although the temperatures are dropping, and the air is more autumnal now, it is so lovely to just sit back and remember what has gone before.  Time does go very quickly, so having the intention to remember and enjoy all that has happened shows us how much we have achieved and been part of on this wonderful planet.

I hope you will enjoy walking with me........

These last two months have given me the chance to get out more and enjoy the delights of Exmoor; and to share one of my favourite places with the Dowsing Groups in Devon and Somerset, to guide them to explore a deeper nature connection was a really magical day for everyone in July.

I am most definitely an Exmoor lover and walker.  I love the softness and beauty of this amazing National Park - and the hours spent out there never disappoint.  

Many of my walks recently have been circular walks through amazing landscapes of ancient woodland, streams, ancient hill forts and barrows.  Walking amongst the natural wonders on this amazing land always feels nourishing, and more recently a real sense of walking with the ancestors - being in their footsteps and experiencing the wonders that this landscape offers, and feeling their hardships too.

The many miles of stone walls, mining buildings and cottages now derelict and partly hidden under the green blanket of moss and roots makes me wonder at the sheer tenacity of the ancestors to keep going through all weathers, not just to build these structures but to exist out on this land too.......and building miles of stone walls on steep slopes that you just wouldn't think possible!  The manpower and willingness that has been employed on the land throughout Exmoor is vast.......and in some areas manpower is all that there was!  A real sense that our ancestors really knew more about the land than we do now.

I have been walking on Exmoor now for over 20 years and normally I have my favourite spots, so using the time this last few months to explore other areas has been quite revealing - both awe inspiring and physically challenging.  Walks around Exford, Hawkridge and more recently Simonsbath are filled with such beauty that to totally respect this beauty requires a slower walk than normal......even a few 'getting lost' phases have been filled with wonder (of course they were planned!!), and what has become the norm now of seeing a 3-4 hour circular walk in print, actually becomes 5-6 hours (stop, stare and just be requires time)!  You can't rush these walks........

Exmoor is a place I can totally relax into, can really feel my body relax into the softness of the landscape as I saunter through the valleys and woodland areas.  The rivers and streams always a delight for Willow to paddle through and the lush green blanketed trees, covered with moss, a welcome place to sink my face and hands on a cool damp summers day.

Exmoor is always special for me due to the wildlife too - Red Deer (stags barking to announce their power and to stay away), Goshawk skimming the tops of the trees with its young, Raven always sending a playful 'goink' here and there, Red Kite gracing the skies to remind me always to look up and stop to watch the beauty of this birds' glide, and of course the Buzzards.....their haunting call, a call to my soul to be with them, to soar to new heights, to be like them, free to glide wherever I want.....they always call to me so loudly on Exmoor.  

And I so love the trees on Exmoor...the ancient Oaks and Beech groves, twisted and gnarled in places, showing lots of faces to ponder and allow my imagination to run wild......

"Wonderful how completely everything in wild nature fits into us, as if truly part and parent of us.  The sun shines not on us but in us.  The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fibre and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing.  The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own love song, and sings our love." 

John Muir

July was a chance for the students on the Summer Wellbeing Programme to learn all about Mugwort and her magical and healing teachings.  A plant that I absolutely adore working with both physically and energetically.  

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) is a common plant found throughout the British Isles and has been utilised for centuries for both its medicinal and magical qualities.  She can be applied topically to the skin as an anaesthetic with antibacterial and anti-fungal properties, and favoured herb by midwives as it is used to to strengthen contractions, promote labour and help expel the afterbirth.

She is the Witches first herb for psychic protection - beautiful silvery colour on the underside of the leaves, and brings us back into alignment for deep healing. 

Traditionally recognised as a moon plant, Mugwort allows us to work with the hidden depths of our psyche and the unseen.  A very powerful plant spirit ally for those wanting to go deep with their plant spirit medicine teachings.  

My first magical meeting with Mugwort began some 30 years ago when I attended my first energy teaching in plant medicine.  A day's workshop with a lady who knew so much about this plant, in fact looked like the plant spirit too.  Her introduction to the plant was that of total honour, reverence and such a calmness that I totally softened into Mugworts embrace throughout the day.  

At the time I was struggling with severe pain still from the car accident in my early 20s, and finding the numbness in my left arm and leg still causing me problems.  BUT that day totally opened up the plant spirit realm to me in ways I find hard to write down.  I was filled with so much love, from the plant, and held with so much tender care, I totally fell in love with this plant.  My journey time with her blew my mind and even now looking back at my journal notes I just couldn't find the words to describe that interaction.  She taught me to relax into the pain, to trust that my body was healing, to trust her guidance...which I  have been doing now ever since.

To have such a profound and deep connection with the plant world really gave me the background needed to help introduce others to this amazing realm.  

I have for the past few years been guided to co-work with Mugwort and co-create Mugwort Full Moon essences during the main times of her growth - bringing in both the Moon energy and her energy as we move through the year.   I have never co-created an August Moon essence until this year - with good reason, she was making me wait!  

This year August has had two full supermoons, one on 1st August and the second (Blue Moon - even closer to the Earth) on 31st August.  The 1st of August also happened to be the Celtic festival of Lammas so what better time to make a Mugwort essence than with these amazing energies happening this year!!  I knew there was a reason for waiting to co-create an August essence.  

So an essence was co-created on 1st August and another will be co-created this evening with the Blue Moon.....2 new essences for Mugwort will appear in the essence shop on the website by the end of next month.

I love how when you really connect deeply with these plant spirits your life starts to unfold in very magical ways. 

For the month of August I have been deeply connecting in with Bramble, that wonderful hedgerow plant, giving so much with its abundant fruits from August into September.

This plant always takes me back to my childhood, spending summer evenings out along the country roads in south-west Scotland picking the juicy sweet black berries for crumbles, pies and jam.  How many of you remember blackberry picking as a child and eating more than you collected?  And getting prickled by its thorny branches and normally a good cluster of nettles too!!  Bramble provides one of the most popular 'free foods' in our countryside, something our ancestors would have picked for sure.  

But have you ever really looked at this plant?  If you're a gardener you probably curse the bramble growing through your flower beds and vegetable plots.  But take a moment to really get to know the plant, look at how it grows and behaves and look at how it survives....it can teach us all so much.  

Let's think about the root structure first - the tenacious roots that seem to go on for miles as you pull and pull and yet never get to the end of the root.  It knows how to put down its roots to survive - do you?  This plant is not going to be pushed around it knows how to sink its roots down deep and wide - it certainly is well rooted, something we can all learn from Bramble.  

Its spiky branches too offering protection for those smaller birds, mammals and insects hidden within, keeping out the larger mammals, including us, from going too far within the Bramble thicket.  

The beautiful, delicate pink flowers evident from May onwards, very resplendent in the hedgerow...a slight scent too if you can get your nose in close enough for a sniff.  

And then the lovely fruit going from green, to red, to purple/black...healing, grounding and full of so much possibility.  The blackberry itself is made up of individual plump seeds held within that mass of juicy blackness......yum!   

A plant that has woven through our land with such force and yet nowadays we barely give it the time of day.  I haven't seen many people locally collecting blackberries, which is a shame.  It is such a great way to connect in with the land on your doorstep.

Remember if you are collecting blackberries to only take what you need and leave some for wildlife too.

Autumnal air is upon us......you can feel the change in the air, you can start to see it too.  

We have had a strange summer here in the UK - lot of windy and wet weather during the last few months.  The wet weather bringing out a lot more fungi on the trees and ground.  Fungi always remind me of Alice in Wonderland - little houses for lots of animals to take shelter, always thinking I will see the smoking caterpillar sitting atop one of those mushrooms at one point!

The world of fungi is simply fascinating.  I can happily spend hours looking and photographing the different fungi that I find on my walks.  And to think their fruiting bodies, the actual thing we see, have root structures (actually mycelium, fine hair like structures) underground that extend some 10s of meters away interacting with the soil, plant and tree roots.....a fine network of interaction below the ground, feeding the fruiting body above ground.  We too are part of that mycelium network, in terms of energy, we extend our energy out to connect into the world around us as it too connects in with our energy.  A reminder of the amazing network of life being shown by the simple fungi.

And the trees are starting to turn too.  Their deep green leaves through July are now starting to change, getting ready to be dropped to fall to the ground to provide next years nutrition.  

My beautiful Birch, growing next to the owl aviaries, has started to show signs that the air is definitely changing.  The male catkins are now fully swollen and will remain on the tree all through winter, and some of her leaves now yellowing a sign that they too can feel the change in the weather. 

On my walks in Exmoor these last few weekends I have also noticed the change in the Beech tree leaves - slow colour change now evident as you look across the valleys.

The world around me is changing and I too can feel that change within me.  I know I need to let go of things that I've held onto this year that no longer serve a purpose.  Some of these changes are easy, some are hard and I will find the time to tune into nature more and allow those changes to take place.  

The natural world around us changes through the seasons in slow, steady, gentle and joyous ways - think of all those beautiful colours that are due to be seen by the leaves on the trees changing to their vibrant reds, oranges and yellows, before being blown down to the ground.  What a great way to let go...colourfully, joyfully, knowing that new energy can come in when all has gone.

I mentioned at the start of this blog that there was also great sadness.  My beautiful male Harris Hawk Kai had to be put to sleep towards the end of July. 

Kai was my first bird...I had previously flown other peoples birds for some time before deciding to take the plunge and have my very own.  His energy woven so much through mine and vice versa.  I knew what he was thinking, what he was about to do, and when he was ill...and he knew me too.

He caught me off guard, as all birds of prey tend to.  They have this teancious spirit of keep going until it's too late, and then they are gone.  The night before I took him to the vets he couldnt stand, he went downhill so fast.  I wrapped him in a towel and held him listening to what he wanted, not what I wanted.  I wanted to cure him, to save him, to get him better.  BUT he wanted me to let him go.....thats all he was teaching me that evening, to let go.  But at the same time remember so much of what we had done together, of what we had shared.  Of the times he would fly above me, following my every step and being just there by my side in the trees; of searching for me, calling out when I would decide to hide from him and then racing in to hit me with his wing as he flew past me; of being there for me when I needed that connection more than anything during the last 10 years; of bringing so much joy and laughter and constant companionship.

He was also an amazing therapy bird, really understanding children who were neuro-diverse.  He would form amazing connections with children who found life really difficult, bringing them joy and happiness and a lot of laughter (normally landing upside down in a tree or bush!).

For 17 years his energy has been physically with me and now his energy is with me in Spirit form.  I miss him so very much and the other birds felt his passing too.

Grieving any animal is hard, grieving one that has woven so much through you has been heart-breaking. 

I hear him often in the places where we fly, and see him too in my minds eye when we go out with the other birds.  He is still very much part of me and I'm slowly getting used to him not being in his mews.

RIP little guy

This last couple of months I have witnesed the growth of a new community through the Summer Wellbeing Programme.  It has been so lovely to watch everyone share their nature connection stories and experiences as we moved through the months, week by week.  Of sharing that deep love and connection with the more-than-human in our natural world has been really uplifting and inspiring.  

Looking forward to those new connections being woven within the Autumn Wellbeing Programme, starting 4th September.  

"It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living."  

David Attenborough

Thank you for reading my nature musings for the last two months.  I would love to hear your connection stories with the natural world, and the plants and animals that have helped you too - send me an email or respond via Facebook. 

Look out for the next Nature Musing Blog which will appear in your email boxes from end of October.  A list of what is going on re workshops, talks, etc., will appear as a separate 'newsletter' flying into your email boxes tomorrow.  If you would like any of the essences of the plants I have been working with then these are available to buy from the shop page on the website.

Enjoy your own nature musings throughout September and October.

Nature Blessings,

Karen x