Rain fell last night and continues this morning.
There will be no lack of water in the well for the next few weeks!
I have finally given away my hens…as I no longer eat eggs and there was a lovely home ready and waiting for them where they would be more useful, as they are good layers and their eggs will be anticipated and appreciated where there is a family of people to eat them.
I shall miss them, but as with life at Bealtaine Cottage, the void is quickly filled and the hen-house will be re-purposed and appreciated further.
In the past, their manure was a part of developing the fertility of the land at Bealtaine, but this is no longer needed.
The compoost system is now working very well and far exceeds what any animal manure could bring to three acres.
Seed production is well under way, with some of the harvest already collected and much more coming to fruition.
We are now one week away from Midsummer, as evidenced in the lush growth seen here!
We inter-breath with the rain forests, we drink from the oceans. They are part of our own body. ~Thich Nhat Hanh
The fruit trees and bushes were pruned back quite hard over the course of last Autumn and Winter and they are happily producing yet another bumper harvest.
…no matter how complex or affluent, human societies are nothing but subsystems of the biosphere, the Earth’s thin veneer of life, which is ultimately run by bacteria, fungi and green plants.
~Vaclav Smil
Your deepest roots are in nature. No matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of life you lead, you remain irrevocably linked with the rest of creation.
~Charles Cook
“If we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we fear guilt or retribution.”
― J.M. Coetzee
This notion that man can, and should, have absolute dominion over the “chaotic” powers of nature and woman…is what ultimately lies behind man’s famous “conquest of nature” – a conquest that is today puncturing holes in the earth’s ozone layer, destroying our forests, polluting our air and water, and increasingly threatening the welfare, and even survival, of thousands of living species, including our own.
Even the metaphor we use for our planet, ‘Mother Earth’, for instance…our nurturing Earth!
I have lived through the greatest exploitation and destruction of ‘virgin forests’, ever seen.
It is something I would love to be able to wish away and part of the reason I have grown and planted over one thousand trees to co-create Bealtaine Cottage, with, Mother Earth.
Apart from the violence of war and the destruction of the planet, women have been associated with the physical side of life.
Even in biblical terms, women are ‘closer to nature’, and so to be kept controlled.
Nature is more powerful than human life.
The control over Nature allows a fleeting feeling of control and empowerment…but, never for long, as we all know.
So, in my own small way, recognising these truths, I embarked on a journey of making peace…with Her.
The ultimate and final Peace Initiative.
I come from one of the most devastated towns in Northern Ireland…Omagh.
A town that endured such violence and suffering in the worst bombing witnessed on a quiet day in August of 1998.
I mention this as it helps to contextualize my own life and motives for what I do…a complex study in itself!
The only end to violence comes when people make peace with each other, or a situation.
Peace and happiness is never birthed from subjugation and control.
As a society that has both witnessed and endured these past two world wars, we should be in full receipt of that information!
For twelve years now I have striven to make peace with Mother Earth. 
The results are here for all to see.
She is not to be feared.
She is not to be controlled.
She is who we live WITH!
I learned, to my shock, the other day, that Ireland relied heavily on the importation of Chemical Fertilizer from America during the years of World war Two!
That was over sixty years ago, so one must assume that grass has only grown green from chemicals ever since!
One must further conclude that alongside this continued abomination has come the loss of topsoil, for one goes hand-in-hand with the other!
The ultimate Peace Initiative is working with Mother Earth to create topsoil, as evidenced here.
Peace is to be nurtured and worked through.
Peace comes with levels of compromise and sacrifice.
Peace in our own life comes with persistence and negotiation and keeping the vision with us.
Peace comes from the refusal to abuse, the refusal to not live ON Her, but WITH Her!
The greatest war of all time is being fought in every garden, allotment, field, woodland, forest, river, ocean and all that makes up Mother Earth.
The clock moves to just after 4pm and the sky outside is darkening fast. 
I rejoice in days like these, for one feels alive and adrenaline pumps to the surface, as the full force of Mother Nature moves across the sky and the trees tremble. 
There is a conference in Paris today…on Climate Change. 
War and militarism are the key components of what fuels Climate Change! 
Everything, yes everything is connected! 
Jack worries not…there are times I envy him!
