October 2012

Autumn Fairyland

Dear Friends,

Some notes about equinox,
and the first full moon of the fall season.

I have been re-organizing plants.
Dividing perennials.
Harvesting roots and babies and putting them into pots,
to be planted elsewhere.
Moving plants that are not happy where they are.
Gathering seed heads.
Clipping away finished plant material.
Building soil with the clippings.
Making plant art.

What a feast for the eyes plants create, come autumn.

We are getting more and more hours of darkness.
I am processing herbs,
when it is too dark and rainy to work outside.
Washing roots.
Admiring their shapes, smells and medicine.
Peeling lavender flowers and mint leaves off their stalks.
Crumbling them to bits for tea or baths or sachets.

But the plants, the plants in their autumn glory! 
Little aster flowers, like beacons against a background
of rusty red, dark brown and deepening gold
provided by the the withering leaves
and the finished bloom-heads.
Raspberries are surprising me with blooms and berries.
Rain makes ground soft for pulling out
the long thin burdock roots
I am eating while taking my detox herbs.

Liver cleansing.
Removing all the toxins of the stress of the summer,
the intense heat, intense insects, intense plant growth.
Intense rapidly expanding understanding
about plants and their care and consciousness.

They are holding me in thrall
with their amazing beauty and adaptations.
I spend my happiest hours in the fairyland they create.

Blessings,
Rita