photography | Bealtaine Cottage, Ireland

Every now and then I feel the need to recharge my batteries.

This is one of those times.

I have, once again, over-stretched myself across social media platforms, as well as working every day in the gardens and continuing to refresh and update the interior of Bealtaine Cottage…and all my own work, unaided.

My main work should be focused on writing, as this is my income, but, more often than not, I allow my energies to flow in too many directions.

So, for the next month, I am away from social media, concentrating my efforts on this website and YouTube channel instead.

All the little finishing tasks that are outstanding in the cottage will, hopefully, get finished!

I managed to finally hand-sew the curtain for underneath the worktop in the kitchen and hang it.

This week has been spent working in the Lughnasadh Garden and tidying up around the upper woodland.

I even managed a trip into town and to the market…not often enough I think, for I do need to get out more as I am becoming too much of a recluse!

Of course it is hard to leave Bealtaine Cottage at present as the colours of Autumn are simply divine!

Often times I feel there is a constant pull from FaceBook and Twitter, but then this is the clever way both are set up…to keep drawing one back!

This website is my first love and will remain so, above all other aspects of the internet, for it is where so many discovered Bealtaine Cottage and fell in love with this land as I have done.

It is where I found community and support. It is also a safe place to post all my photographic work, on this website which hosts thousands of images of Bealtaine Cottage and Woodland Sanctuary.

It is a labour of love and devotion to Mother Earth, for sometimes I am at the computer for over an hour just uploading the images to the website…I don’t have internet, just a hotspot on my phone!

Much of social media is so fast-flowing that images get drowned in the tide of ‘stuff!’

All of the images I capture on camera add up to a tiny fraction of what I want to photograph.

These are then sifted down to what I upload onto this website.

I am on a daily quest to present the beauty of Mother Earth here at Bealtaine Cottage to the world.

So, for the next twenty eight days or so, a lunar month, I shall be posting here on my website and YouTube.

Touching base can be such a relief!

Much of the day has been spent in the garden, working, head down, cutting back and meditating as I chop and drop. It’s been a long day and tiredness has forced me indoors. This is the first day of a seven day Juice Fast and, as always, my energy levels are high. Working hard enables me to sleep deeply and restoratively.

There is something incredibly magical about working in the garden during Autumn. It is the scents arising from the earth that trigger memories and feelings. Then the hot tea, so well earned after hours of work.

There is also the light that seeps into the trees and plants during Autumn. I stood outside last night and watched the full moon shine like a bright lamp onto the trees. This was a Mabon Moon, special, magical, conjuring otherworldliness among the woods that now surround the cottage.

And the colours…oh, the colours!

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The Stone Circle seemed a fitting place to sit and drink my tea…there is an enchantment within…

…and without.

Indoors there are some of the most magical photographs I have ever seen, framed and ready to hang on the walls. I am pondering the best way to exhibit them. This is all the work of Beth Trepper. I made a video of her work at the Clifden Arts Festival…you may have seen it on the Bealtaine Cottage YouTube channel…