I have been reading much of late…in particular, two books by James Lovelock, setting out the case for Gaia and the ensuing extreme weather generated by a change in our climate, among other things, some would argue!
This is not a blog about Climate Change or, even, extreme weather…enduring it is quite enough!
This is about an extraordinary human being, who, 400 years before James Lovelock, set out the case for our Earth being alive…as I know her to be today!
For this and other beliefs, Giordano was burned at the stake in the year 1600.
Giordano Bruno, born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and astrologer.
He is remembered for his cosmological theories, which conceptually extended the then novel Copernican model.
He proposed that the stars were just distant suns surrounded by their own exoplanets and raised the possibility that these planets could even foster life of their own (a philosophical position known as cosmic pluralism).
He also insisted that the universe is in fact infinite and could have no celestial body at its “centre”.
Beginning in 1593, Bruno was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition on charges including denial of several core Catholic doctrines (including Eternal Damnation, the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the virginity of Mary, and Transubstantiation).
So, you can begin to see why I have warmed to this rather extraordinary and brave human being!
Not, as some would imagine, for having strong views…but for daring to question!
Bruno’s pantheism was also a matter of grave concern.
The Inquisition found him guilty, and he was burned at the stake in Rome’s Campo de’ Fiori in 1600.
In short, Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake just over 400 years ago for maintaining that the Earth was alive!
After many years of isolation in the science community, James Lovelock was acknowledged as the bearer of truth, sometimes a painful burden to carry in a society fixated with staying well inside the box!
I know from my intimate work with Mother Earth, that she is indeed alive.
I open myself to her communication.
Her voice grows louder with each passing day…indeed, many of you hear or feel her communication.
The change in acceptance of James Lovelock’s Gaia theory was summed up in a declaration published by scientists from the four international research programmes in 2001 which said…
“The Earth system behaves as a single, self-regulating system,comprised of physical, chemical, biological and human components. The interactions and feedbacks between the component parts are complex and exhibit multi-scale temporal and spatial variability.” 
We need to make peace with Her…and to do that we need to listen!
Thank you for supporting Bealtaine Cottage…there is a link at the top of this page where you may choose to purchase a book, calendar or map. Blessings X Colette
You may remember that last week I visited the Atlantic shoreline to harvest some seaweed to use on the garden. 
The strands to the south of Sligo town have piles of loose seaweed here and there along the beaches.
Always only ever take the loose stuff…don’t pull seaweed from stones as these form habitats and are essential to the ecology of the seashore!
In the end I managed about three big bags of seaweed and headed home with my foraged booty!
The first thing I do is to spread it on the gravel around the cottage and allow the rain to wash out excess salt.
After about a week, I start to spread the seaweed around established plants in the garden and tunnel.
The seaweed acts as a wonderful feed and a weed-suppressing mulch!
One of the best things about growing food in the garden is the opportunity to use local and near resources that are free to be foraged or collected…seaweed is an organic fertiliser! 
Seaweed is washed in by the tide, so is easy to forage!
Only ever take what you need!
For the 99 percent of the time we’ve been on Earth, we were hunter and gatherers, our lives dependent on knowing the fine, small details of our world. Deep inside, we still have a longing to be reconnected with the nature that shaped our imagination, our language, our song and dance, our sense of the divine. 
As an integral part of the global awakening that is happening, humankind are being called back to the earth, to reconnect with Gaia. 
Not everyone is feeling this at the same time…as each one of us on our own sacred journey comes to experience in own time. 
This morning, awakening around six thirty, I ventured out into the gardens to experience the early morning mist, which, as I type at almost 11am, prevails.
Ireland has been experiencing some incredibly good weather in recent weeks and so it goes on. 
In other parts of the world, devastating storms have wreaked havoc! 
Yet, in all of this uncertainty and upset, the advance of those seeking to connect with Mother Earth increases. 
We are like lost children in need of the comfort of a parent.
And perhaps this is a good thing, for to be like children on this Sacred Earth will connect us much easier than any other way. 
So what is it about children that gives them the advantage in understanding their place in the Universe? 
Could it be that they are naturally curious? 
Have we allowed our lives to become subsumed in the detritus of the material world? 
I often pass gardens where all is so perfectly straight and neat that I actively squint in attempting to see Mother Nature…and often I do not see Her at all!
Yet I know that control of Nature brings unhappiness and discontent…the sort of feeling where frustration begins to eat at one’s very soul! 
So what are the tools we need to enable us to reconnect with Mother Earth.
I have the privilege to be able to observe small children when they visit Bealtaine with their parents and it is nothing less than a joy to behold! 
What a joy it is to feel the soft, springy earth under my feet once more,
I have snapped these minutes ago and come straight in to upload and write this blog…taking time en route to give Jack a cracker treat. 
Thanks and blessings to my dear friends and supporters of the Bealtaine Cottage project.
There was enough rain overnight to half-fill the water barrels and all is looking lush this morning! 
Aquilegia is in full bloom and has grown well from an extra scattering of seeds I did last Autumn. 
Here is the perennial Yellow Poppy. 
I’ve moved potted seedlings and more robust plants out of the tunnel. 
The symbolism of the Goddess is not a parallel structure to the symbolism of God the Father.
The Permaculture design and planting at Bealtaine is not just inspired by the Goddess, but is the Goddess manifest…as natural and intuitive as the energy that flows from Mother Earth herself. 
This is the difference between Permaculture and Goddess-inspired Permaculture. 
Hawthorn has opened…
Garden paths become enclosed, dark, shady places…
The Spindle bush sits covered with blossom yet to open…
“I walk without flinching through the burning cathedral of the summer. My bank of wild grass is majestic
To meet it — nameless as it is —
Lilac is open…
“That beautiful season the Summer!
“Dirty hands, iced tea, garden fragrances thick in the air and a blanket of color before me,
“Summer afternoon – summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most
But, it’s not…instead it boasts food for all and more to come. 
These are the gardens of the goddess, Mother Earth in all her splendour and abundance! 
