The first week of July and there’s a feint scent of Autumn in the air this morning.
The morning brings a quiet and gentle beginning to the day, untouched by the continuing perplexities of man.
“Man has drawn artificial lines on the chest of the Mother Earth, which have no significance, except for the sake of war and clashes between countries. The soil seems to be the same, the trees the same, the grass the same, and the fragrance of the air, the smell of the earth the same.”
~ Girdhar Joshi
Yes it is…all the same…at most times hard to believe when one watches the circus of life on MSM.
Bread and circuses, but we all know and recognise real life.
It has a colour and fragrance all of its own.
“The earth is a mosaic, and most fail to notice the gossamer tesserae floating down from the realm of the mind that form its images of beauty and horror.”
~ Lawren Leo
If you would like to support the work of Bealtaine Cottage, completely dependent on people who value what I do, here’s how…
The Book… https://bealtainecottage.com/a-cottage-and-three-acres-the-bealtaine-story/
Envisioning the end is enough to put the means in motion. ~Dorothea Brande
Many people ask me, time and again,
The answer is simple, as is much of what I do and how I live my life…no plans, just a vision!
The power of envisioning is just beginning to be understood.
Much has been said about this process and, as yet, we have only a small level of understanding how it works, but the process of manifestation is a powerful one indeed. 
Dreaming is the first step to becoming. 
At a time when hope seems to be marginalized, almost cast aside, as the grim reality of the world today pervades our lives, creating a vision of a better world can be a powerful beginning.
I don’t have a television in my home…that leaves a wonderful void to be filled, and I fill it with imagination and creativity. 
Simply unleashing our imaginations can be empowering. 
We really have such little understanding of the power of our imaginations.
Yet most of us are aware of the ways in which a troubled mind can manifest and create chaos and unhappiness!
If one, then the other (opposite), is equally possible! 
If we cannot envision the world we would like to live in, we cannot work towards its creation. If we cannot place ourselves in it in our imagination, we will not believe it is possible. 
My vision was always one of co-creating with the Goddess, a Garden of Eden.
One of abundance and beauty.
A tribute to Mother Earth.
I veered away from straight lines, squares, harshness that implied dominance.
I wanted to coax Her into life, reassure Her that this would be Her garden.
Everything seems to indicate that we must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality. 
And so it is…
Half light and shadows as the morning comes into view. 
Reflections and sunlight as the day rises. 
The silent beauty of the morning is a template for us all to follow into day…quiet simplicity. 
Gazing around the cottage as I follow through on early morning rituals. 
Checking where Sammy-Bear spent the night, opening the door for Jack to go out… 
Lighting the stove to boil the kettle…
Looking for where I put my camera last evening, for I should record this ethereal beauty of the early morning… 
Finally, making my pot of coffee and stepping out to embrace the day… 
The morning, the blessed morning…where all is possible. 
May the Goddess of the morning touch your heart with delight. 
May you be released into day, free from negativity and matters you do not control. 
Embrace your day…it’s a blessing! 
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. 
Most of the energy we use at home comes from burning fossil fuels. 
Using less energy means burning fewer fossil fuels and putting less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 
When first planting the forest gardens it was important to keep the paths open, so mowing once a week during the growing season was a huge task! 
That issue is now almost resolves as the trees have shaded the paths…
and dropped lots of leaves to create quite a dense mulch. 
I am now tackling the long grass area that is the frontage of the gardens onto the road. 
Planting is diverse and from my own Nursery where I grow trees, flowers, shrubs, herbs and vegetables. 
It has always been important to me to keep this neat and attractive as it is an encouragement to passers-by to consider Goddess-Inspired Permaculture in a positive light! 
This is the stage I am at today. I simply strip back some grass and turn the sod upside down behind the strip…then plant! 
The end result will be that there is about half the amount of grass to mow…so half the amount of fossil fuel used! 
That’s what I call a result!
For the past year or so it’s been utterly frustrating not being able to share on this website.
Restrictions were placed upon me in relation to upload space for photographs, as I had used up virtually all of the allocated space of 13GB, which is that allowed on the Premium Plan from WordPress.
Well, today I paid for an upgrade which allows me unlimited upload space…a treat for myself and, I’m hoping one for you too!
As I type there is a lovely soft rain falling outside, refreshing and renewing the earth.
The same has happened here for me on the website…I feel a sense of renewal and excitement!
To be honest, writing and photographing Bealtaine Cottage and Mother Earth constitutes my first love!
Much as I love the interaction on social media, it can be very time-consuming and ultimately takes away from the work I do here!
The payment of an extra 200 Euros was necessary for the extended plan, but this liberates me from the strictures of what I can put out there for everyone to enjoy.
I will continue with the Bealtaine Cottage Good Life website and am working on a plan to do a sort of “joined-up”daily blog…watch this space! 
And so the story of Bealtaine Cottage continues, moving onwards and upwards!
“Country things are the necessary root of our life – and that remains true even of a rootless and tragically urban civilization. To live permanently away from the country is a form of slow death.”
And so I hope to continue bringing the country to you!
Sharing this little sacred space in the west of Ireland, with the world…
The seasonal changes, garden, wildlife and Mother Earth…
The song of the Goddess and her inspired Permaculture…
Thanks for staying with Bealtaine Cottage…
The greatest concern of our times is happening on a daily basis and affecting every one of us.
The gabbling media assault our senses with celebrity highs and lows, sport and highly edited titbits of what is happening internationally…all the while keeping away from any real conversation about the chaos that is the weather all around us and those dreaded words: Climate Change.
I would like to offer words of comfort and reassurance, but that’s not possible, for I live in the real world and events are happening too fast for me to be able to offer predictions that will reassure!
So, let me tell you about the people I hope to reach with this news…
If there is a Universal Consciousness…give it the name Goddess, God, Divine, Mother Earth…whatever you know it by…then that consciousness must surely want us to care as deeply for our planet as we care for ourselves.
“The symbol of Goddess gives us permission. She teaches us to embrace the holiness of every natural, ordinary, sensual dying moment. Patriarchy may try to negate body and flee earth with its constant heartbeat of death, but Goddess forces us back to embrace them, to take our human life in our arms and clasp it for the divine life it is – the nice, sanitary, harmonious moment as well as the painful, dark, splintered ones.
