Samhain is past but the energy lingers… it’s cold and very damp now… autumn leaves fall to become a luscious mat, allowing fungi spoors to multiply and also food for worms to create more, rich loamy, soil.
Although extremely toxic, there are local creatures who nibble on these colourful fly agaric, (Amanita muscaria), perhaps the toxins in tiny amounts, are beneficial for them… I noticed the resident Wallaby, nibbling on the very edge of one while holding a pawful of other varieties that it loves to stuff its chops with.
Meanwhile, nature slows down… harvest time may still be busy and there’s never really a time of year when we have nothing to do but it’s as if our consciousness begins to slow in sync with the season. We are as always active but we become more mellow in our approach to life… honouring the land and the nature of our existance.
Thoughts of a warm, glowing hearth fire, become reality, daily… mist-enshrouded mornings are the norm and tiny birds, visiting for the autumn/winter seasons are like leaves blowing across the fields.
Robins are visiting now… (my photo wouldn’t upload, sadly), a precursor to frost and snow… their cheerful, full-throated song is as bright as their darting colour… they have long been known as messengers from the otherworld as the veil thins and the gates beyond, open.
It’s a particularly busy time for us as we continue to build and develop our home… a laundry, an extra bedroom and bathroom and a studio pod for me, to be followed by another for a wee gallery. Eventually, there’ll be a little shop to sell my organic inks and paint pigments… farm surplus, such as eggs but also candles, herbal tinctures and teas etc. It’s never say never, even as we age!
…and so the wheel turns on… food is grown, processed and preserved for winter… art is produced… words fly onto paper and a winter hush falls across the land…
Warm wishes and blessings… Awen… Penny
You can find out more about me, my lifestyle and work at…
http://www.facebook.com/pennyreillybeyondthegatestudio
http://www.instagram.com/pennyreillyartistbeyondthegate
Very soon, there will be a portfolio and shop to browse for my creations… prints, cards, art originals and more to follow.
Penny Reilly Artist Beyond the Gate 