From a little cutting you have dug your roots deep down into Mother Earth and she has sustained you as your tendrils reached out and climbed ever upward toward the sun.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw your first fruits as they formed their first tiny bunch.
Your vine has woven magic around the door to my cottage.
The tiny Sedums that played dead for so long have flowered in the rain and sun.
Vibrant greens cast their spell of Midsummer towards Lughnasadh and the promise of richer colours to come.
Flowers appear and seeds follow as Mother Earth gives, gives, gives!
Summer dances into July…
What man has pronounced to be barren has defied all Science and understanding. Arrogance cannot define her, this great mystery that is the Great Mother!
Those who deny the spirit of Mother Earth are doomed to a life less lived.
There are many sad and disconnected souls whose voids are partially sated with all the material world has to sell…yet still they feel the emptiness of loss and disconnect, from a force they mostly do not understand.
I’m delighted to announce that my friend Terri Conroy, from Connemara, will be leading a special workshop, “The Goddess Within,” here at Bealtaine Cottage on Saturday 19th of August.
The purpose of this unique workshop is to discover the Goddess within and reconnect through that Goddess to the Divine Feminine.
The day begins at 10:30 and finishes at 5pm.
Includes Morning /Afternoon tea and Vegan cakes, as well as a full Vegetarian/Vegan lunch.
Cost: 75 euros
Please email Colette to confirm your place before payment … coletteoneill2010@hotmail.com
Outside the birdsong carries vibrant energy over the land.
On this, the longest day of the year, the Earth in the northern hemisphere basks in the glow of seemingly eternal light.
The shades of green seem endless, a patchwork of effervescence with splashes of outrageous colour.
As fast as flowers open they turn to seed and the future summers to come.
The hard work of the winter, creating the Lughnasadh Garden, has paid such rewards as could only have been imagined.
Midsummer marks the year in glorious technicolour and song, as befits Mother Earth. It’s like a birthday for her!
I have run out of space on this land…there is little room for more…yet more grows and arrives as gifts.
The workshop on July 1st covers aspects of co-creating a garden with Mother Earth, creating micro-climates, incorporating fruit and vegetables and the no-dig method of establishing, building and maintaining a regenerative Eden.
Aspects of seed saving will be part of the day.
A full walk and talk of the gardens will also be included.
You are welcome to take photographs and ask all the questions you may want.
Please allow for the weather in your outdoor clothing considerations…and footwear.
The day begins at 11am and finishes at 5pm.
Morning and afternoon tea and vegan cakes are included.
A vegan lunch, also included, is served at 1.30pm.
As of this posting there are two spaces left.
Those who attended yesterday’s workshop attested to this simple fact, as they explored the paths and gardens that link, one to another, in a seemingly endless journey through Nature.
Rachel Carson wrote this over fifty years ago…
I am on the road less travelled.
Something of a hermit in a world besieged by those who are driven by acquisition and spiralling discontent.
Bealtaine Cottage now exists as a Ark for Nature. 
That which has brought humanity to this point of peril, exists outside of Bealtaine.
I continue to tend and stand guard on what, to me, represents the sacred, while churches, temples and shrines gather people to them, looking ever skyward for the meaning of life…yet life clings around their feet, plundered and stamped to dust.
And so I continue on the road less travelled…happy and blessed to be so.
