First things first…this is an important message!
I’m receiving all your messages, including those from Paypal, but, am unable to respond…so here’s what I would like you to do…
Please send me a direct email whenever you send donations or purchase books or seeds, so as I can respond directly to YOUR email address to both acknowledge and thank you!
I am more than happy to reply to you ASAP and respond to ANY queries you may have! 
Now, that being said, I can get on with sharing images captured this morning as I walked the gardens.
If you would like to support the work of Bealtaine Cottage, completely dependent on people who value what I do, here’s how…
Here is the link to my new Patreon page
https://www.patreon.com/BealtaineCottage
Here is where you can send a donation via PayPal:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BealtaineCottage
Some links for you to use should you wish to comment on any of the videos on the Bealtaine Cottage YouTube channel…
The Website… https://bealtainecottage.com/
The Goddess Gardens…
https://www.facebook.com/GoddessGardens/
Twitter… https://twitter.com/PermaGoddess
The Book… https://bealtainecottage.com/a-cottage-and-three-acres-the-bealtaine-story/
Each morning I arise and embark on a series of rituals, that culminate with a hot cup of tea in one hand, my camera in the other and faithful Jack by my side. 
It is then that I step out… 
This has been my ritual, though not always with Jack, for the past twelve years. 
And so it continues… 
What has manifested here on this little piece of sacred Earth still takes my breath away! 
I touch base with it as many times a day as I can! 
I take thousands of photographs every year, for the sheer beauty of what Mother Earth can do on three acres of “poor land,” is beyond incredible! 
And this has manifested in one of the last remaining countries on Earth that continues to refer to itself as “Mother.”
“Mother Ireland”
The Great Mother, Mother Earth, Goddess, Creatrix! 
The Celts were one of the last remaining tribes of the Goddess…in that they recognised the spirit of the Earth as female. 
There lies a message in that…
I believe it to be simply this…”I am alive and filled with joy and waiting…” 
And earlier today…
This portal to the Otherworld: a place of being for the Celts, where life existed, but not as we know it!
The portal is the Old Fairy House, which was once the gateway to Kilronan castle. 
This ethereal looking gatehouse was created many years ago, when only horses and carriages travelled the roads of the west of Ireland. 
It was built in the vernacular tradition, using water worn limestone hewn from the surrounding earth. 
Many years have passed since a horse or carriage passed by… 
The entrance is no longer a part of the old estate. 
Here it stands, watching the centuries pass by, unimpressed by progress…and perhaps, if stones could talk… 
I have a notion to bring my video camera with me next time…would you like a video of this enchanting place?
Here’s just a brief note to let you all know that there is now a new page here on the website!
Have a look at the top of the site and you’ll see listed at the very end: Cottage Journal. Click on and read the introduction.
A daily insight, as promised to all my supporters from FaceBook missing my daily postings!
You will find musings, news, garden updates and lots more each day!
The recipes are all simple and easy…like this Sweet Potato and Caramelised Red Onion Pate!
Green Salad with Olive Oil and Basil dressing; 
Spicy Roasted Veg., 
Bulgar Wheat and 
Ginger sauce…all home made in a short space of time…a delicious lunch!
I hosted a dinner party on Sunday, 
for my grandson who is off to Canada tomorrow, (Tuesday). 
And baked some very easy bread! 
Then baked the same recipe again today!
I also made a lunch for family today.
The original being Bealtaine Cottage and this website. 
The publication had been taken over and new management did not even give contributors like myself time to download and save our work. 
From that low point came the birth of this website…a place where I could share, in trust, the magic of this sacred little piece of Ireland. 
Recently I have found myself stretched beyond capacity, as I attempted to share more and more on Social Media.
This will not alter my natural capacity to want to share, but sharing will, from now on, be concentrated back where I started from…Bealtaine Cottage website.
A special visitor to Bealtaine Cottage today, Gian Castello, dropped by and played some haunting airs and a lively Hornpipe in the cottage kitchen…what an absolute delight!
Gian and his partner, Kitia, will be playing music and recitations around the magical gardens as the season of Lughnasadh progresses towards Samhain.
Each one will be recorded for the Bealtaine Cottage YouTube channel.
I treasure them as the words therein inspire me to keep on this busy path of sharing Bealtaine and caring for the Earth. 
This evening I have taken more photographs to share with you, as I share the words penned by Christine, who visited Bealtaine some days ago.
“Thank you dear Colette for the wonderful time with you in Bealtaine Cottage yesterday. 
We felt so nourished and inspired, your inspirational company, wise words and delightful home so full of beauty, vitality, and a healing presence. 
Almost like a dream for me waking this morning and feeling – wow – I was actually sitting with you yesterday in your garden, stroking Jack, enjoying our conversation, my eyes feasting on the plants, flowers and trees, the sounds of the light rain, the chimes, the birds and your soothing voice…a real treat. (Of course eating your gorgeous vegan brownies too).
We all feel very grateful to you. 
It’s a total inspiration having you create and share Bealtaine Cottage and being not far from us here, a ‘wake-up’ and an eye opener! 
We each felt so comfortable, at ease and at home…of course many questions bubble this morn inspired from our visit. 
And also some grief…some of what you shared about deep sadness for how we are living as a civilisation, how we have lived with such lack of respect for the earth, the animals and plant kingdoms and also each other. 
Such disconnection…and some of that being reflected in the challenges we have to face…
We went up to the Queen Maeve Cairn at Knocknarea after leaving you…such breathtaking views…
I felt very grateful and blessed for good souls like yourself, living from the heart, soulfully, passionately, the warrior energy to follow one’s own heart-calling and live it, a real warrior path…takes courage tuning into one’s own heart, not that of the tribe or the need to be accepted and fit-in.
So thanks again dear Colette. Much love to you, to Jack and Sammy Bear and of course your beautiful space and it’s healing spirit. 
On this night of the first new moon of Lughnasadh, I am content to be compared to a warrior. 
For, in so many ways, my journey to this point has been a battle at times…not with Mother Earth, but over the twelve past years, on my own, when I have had to motivate myself to stay with the project. 
There have been times along the way, when I have felt nurtured by others, the kindness of strangers on the internet who have supported me when I have needed it most. 
Serendipity has played a huge part in the Bealtaine Project!
This year has witnessed a beautiful maturity in all I have planted and continue to love. I, in turn, feel nurtured by Mother Earth… There is a lot still to be done as we move into uncertain times. 
There are important messages to share that empower us to act in support of Mother Earth, such as I share on my Twitter and FaceBook accounts…
Digging Mother Earth releases 
Likewise…
We are putting out double the amount of 
Carbon is a gaseous food absorbed by plants…so let’s plant more! 
Social Media is a powerful tool and can be used for great good in getting simple messages like these out there!
And, like all old warriors, I’ll just keep on keeping on!
It’s always a strange time when the moon is full. 
This May moon has cast it’s brightness over Ireland, presiding over an extraordinary time of growth.
All around the cottage there are flowers opening, plants growing, seemingly overnight and trees now heavy with leaf and blossom. 
Where would an Irish cottage garden be without the beautiful and traditional Perlagonium?
And, of course, every cottage garden has a little spot for Succulents…I plant these in terracotta pots and here in this old planter. 
Always lots of tasks to complete as in painting the old Buddha, so he may survive another winter!
As in all cottage gardens, famous for their mish-mash of flowers, vegetables fruit and just about everything else, edibles share potager beds with their close relations!
I have had to move many plants from pots and plant them in spaces wherever I can find them. 
The nursery bed, essential to a cottage garden, is being cleared fast, with plants going into the long beds down by the road. 
Pieris and Poppies…as always, flowers are squashed in beside the most unsuitable bed mates…the Poppy is planted in with Flowering Currant! 
And sitting in my chair on the veranda, looking up…the classic cottage garden rose. 
The all-forgiving Cottage Garden will tolerate just about everything one wants to “throw out!” Except, of course, I throw little away, favouring a good old re-purpose, as in this old, but very comfy, fireside chair! 
And…the beautiful Wisteria…tougher than it looks and essential “cottage garden!” 
Nothing pristine here! 
Even Jack…unlike Sammy-Bear! 
Oh Jack, you are a little beaut! 
Opening my backdoor this morning I see the Fairies have tidied up again!
I travelled to Sligo, passing along the shores of Lough Gill, to collect a very special ring, that was made for me by gifted Silversmith, Mirjam Schiller at 
Birthdays come and go and I have enjoyed sixty of them, all in the month of October, near Samhain…so this, along with a second ring as yet unfinished, marked my sixty Summers on this precious, beautiful Earth. 
I had deliberated for some time over what I should spend my birthday money on…have always loved silver and, very importantly, dearly wanted to place a much maligned symbol of the Goddess where I would always see it! 
The Great Goddess often had snakes as her symbol—sometimes twining around her sacred staff, as in ancient Crete—and they were worshiped as guardians of her mysteries of birth and regeneration. 
Bealtaine Cottage encapsulates those two energies…birth and regeneration…of Mother Earth herself, in all her wild, unstoppable beauty. 
Wildheart was the place I had to go… 
The journey back was auspicious, in that we got lost. 
And so, driving along a quiet road, we were led to an ancient Holy Well…much older than any religion…
Tobernalt Holy Well is a place of reflection and nurturing serenity. 
It predates the advent of Christianity to Ireland in the fifth century. 
Its importance as a meeting place and a sustainer of life predates even our Celtic ancestors.
Tobernalt is a natural spring well that established itself in a primeval forest. 
This was where I blessed my ring, submerging it in the Spring Water that flowed from the hill, away into the mystical depths of Lough Gill and the Lake Isle of Inishfree. 
