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A series of recent dreams
For this new moon post i have decided to string together 5 dreams i have had recently…
it all starts with climbing in a tree house……
I feel left out… they are all up at the top of the tree house having a festival… i wander off, on a path of my own, along which i meet a group of people trying to get the the festival at the top of the tree house. They have got stuck at this trick place, which is quite dangerous to navigate. I help them get across, since i have climbed across this one before….
I am on Simon’s course and we are walking along a cliff top. James and Joe are with me. In the distance we can see the beach, lit up by a dying sun, as it sinks its way into the sea. Just out from shore there is an island and on the island there is a big old abandoned warehouse, which looks very spooky surrounded by the waves crashing on the shore of the little island. This is where we are heading. Its a spirit place; the isle of spirits.
We enter the warehouse, and there is nothing that interesting here. totally empty. All the family are here, and then simon starts to call in the spirits and the place comes alive…. pictures from the ancestors appear on the wall… the walls fall down and we are in a different place… its like my grannies house…. just outside a festival is going on. everyone is wearing old fashioned clothes. I see someone sitting on an enormous pig, which must be about 3 meters long. He slaughters the pig, and then starts to skin it, but it has not fully died. The skin seems to be coming off the pig like a carpet. He unrolls the skin and it makes the most enormous carpet. The pig was an ill pig and had a disease which was going to kill it anyway, and the pig, despite still being alive, was glad that it was being made good use of. It didn’t seem to be bothered by the way the man was treating it.
I wander back to the house. i find myself doing book case iching – randomly selecting a book of the shelf, from which i get a book all about Houseleeks! i must tell Rosa! I phone her up, and tell her all about it. “i’ve got a book all about houseleeks” i tell her…
I hear her voice coming from the radio… She is being interviewed on Radio 4…. she is a famous musician, and she is telling them about her latest song. The song come on. Its on the piano mostly, with electronic sounds, and nursery rhyme style lyrics that make it sound like a blend of Frank Zappa and Humpty Dumpty! “I am playing the Piano, It makes me free high, its makes me feel low” i hear her sing, all the accompaniment orchestrating the lyrics…
I’m in a field of Deer. They are all female deer, other than one male deer. Its mating season. The male deer has noticed that we are here, and he starts to get agitated…. he begins running in circles round the edge of the field… we wonder what he is doing… the circles begin to close in, he is spiralling in towards us…. we start to run to get to safety but we cannot make it in time. He comes charging at us and corners us at the edge of the field. I don’t know what to do and so I surrender my self to the situation. The huge male deer walks slowly up to me and breathes this special energy into the crown of my head. This was certainly not what i was expecting…I feel like the deer is honoring me, for some reason i know not.
Im now with Alec, and we are looking at one of his bee hives…. Its i different design. Its a round hive and the entrance is at the top. The hive looks like a big jug. The bees are behaving strangely, he tells me. We watch. Thousands of the bees are flying out of the top of the hive…. Perhaps its time for them to swarm, i wonder….
I’m staying with a family who look after sheep. It feels like somewhere in the peak district. The father of the family is showing me how to look after sheep. He tells me that this is the traditional way that it has been done for thousands of years. This is a very remote place. They have also heard about forest gardening and have planted one, which they want me to give my advice on. It looks great, and i am particularly impressed by there rhubarb.
I’m in a funny kind of church, and the mass is going on, and two priests are giving the mass. Behind one of the alters is one of the alter boys, but at the time the alter boy is meant to come out from behind the alter, it turns out not to be an alter boy but instead its a girl with bright read hair wearing a swimming costume, which is also bright read. Everyone is surprised to see her. Its as if she has been hiding there for a very long time, and that the priest, only now, has let her come out of her hiding place. The priest now lounges in a chair as if hes going to smoke a cigar, and starts trying to justify why hes had a red haired girl hiding behind the alter all this time, using his spiritual language. People listen. I have my doubts…
I am at a workshop, and we are trying to contact the ancestor spirits, those who have lived before us. The journey begins and the instructions are clear – we must merge with the spirits that we contact. I twice feel something come into me, both times expressing its self through sounds, in my voice. The first is a strong clear sound and the second is a falsetto singing voice. Hillary and Steve are both on the course and they also contact ancestor spirits of theirs. After we have all fully merged, we are asked by Simon to express to the group the way that spirit wants to be heard.
During all this we have an apple crisis situation. Surprise surprise, there are too many apples and we don’t know what to do with them! They are piled up in boxes in the kitchen area. Within the community there is an old guy who is on his last legs, and he suddenly falls off his chair and dies. It was expected to happen at some point soon. Now the chef sparks up his voice and says “this solves our apple problem, now we can use the old guys room to store the fruit, and hes got an old press that we can use”
We all feel relieved.
I’m still coming down after an amazing course at braziers… What a wonderful group of people to share food with and learn together.
I am going through a phase of dreaming – almost every night i have lots of dreams and most of the time i remember them. I’ve been trying to note them down onto by dream blog, but if my dreams get any more, im going to have to let go of some! ill end up spending my whole time in dream world!
I’m in wellow now, awaiting the arrival of my brother and his girlfriends baby – any day now…. granny is feeling a bit old and grotty – theres nothing she can do about that. If it was a nice day today, she says, she would like to go for a walk, but today is a raining day she says, (thank god ! ) so she is quite happy listening to music. She keeps asking if anyone is coming…
Its clear to me that her dementure has gone quite a few extra steps since i was last down. She rarely remembers where she is or even who she is, first thing in the morning, though usually by luch time she has got more of her wits about her. She still enjoys things, but in many ways, her mind is dying every day…. if you cant remember anything, who are you? you have no identity. It still troubles her a little, because somewhere in the back of her mind she knows she is a person, with an identity , but as soon as i tell her, your Granny Watts, living in the Maltings, Wellow, near Bath, and you have lived here for 50 yrs, she has soon forgotten. I only hope now to treasure the last moments that we have to be with her….. she is very child like now, and she refers her strongest memories to her childhood and still thinks that she lives in london….
Now the light is decreasing every day… i’m planing ahead to next year… and looking forward to the sleep and dreamy winter… i predict another propa cold one!
I’m in anticipation of the Summer Solstice on around the 17th -21st June during this time the sun reaches its zenith and the day length is at its greatest. From then on the day length and consequentially the amount of light will decrease continuously until about the 19th of December.
And throughout that whole process there is loads to harvest!
As much as i find solstice a happy time, with it being sunny and comfortable, i also feel a sadness in the awareness that it wont last, that the dark has to come too. Yet if i look deeper, i see that its just two sides of the same coin; you cant have one without the other.
I find summer solstice a time for slowing down, almost hybernating, from the sun at its hottest point. I enjoy taking this time out to rest and reassess where im going, what im doing, and take a few long deep breaths, the premeditation of a deep sea diver, before tumbling down squirrel style into the chaos of reds, golden yellows, and browns, and ulimately the white snow death of winter…
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And oh! The rhythms and music!, the celebration, the place where markets happen, the joy and exchange of goods, gifts, information, food, and the freedom and ease that this brings. The whole process of storing away until next year: all these things are premeditated at this point in my life. And as i meditate on these things, I also find my self looking ahead to next spring, making vague projections in the dark.
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Where would I like to be after the winter, and what plans can be made for next sowing cycle now at this time?
For more specifics about this course please go to Growing at the top of the page and then go to Workshops and Courses - braziers park food culture week.
New moon post
I’m sitting on the train to derby, munching on wild garlic at 8 in the morning…. I’ve been foraging in a park in Nottingham; I spent last night at a friend of a friends… I bet I stink of this stuff!
I’m on my way to help design and plant a forest garden in Silverhill primary school. Its a beautiful sunny day, what joy!
Foraging is always an eye opener… I always find something new, something I didn’t know before… This morning it was finding a large patch of Stitchwort.
I have never found this plant in the Sheffield area, though it may be there… I have seen it most commonly in the south east. My only explanation of this would be that its a soil thing.. Preferring alkaline soils… Which suggests to me that Nottingham is a more alkaline soil than is Sheffields… Ill have to go back to my geology maps to check.
Stitchwort has a medicinal taste. What I mean is that it has a bitter taste- you wouldn’t want to eat lots of it, but a little bit is quite pleasant.
I researched Stitchwort on the internet when I got back and found it quite overwhelming – this wood variety is part of the family Stellaria, of which there are over 80 different species within, including the well known stellaria media – chic weed. I never found my exact match, though I didn’t look that hard.. Often medicinal properties and uses are banded within the family, though some species will surely be more so than others…. This stitchwort didn’t taste much like chic weed, but I can see the similarity, come to think of it.
What this little example highlights is the chalenge of identification. You want to get the right plant but there are so many! Yet if we could train our tastes to identify medicinal properties in plants then we could use this as our main guide.
Can we rely on our tastes as a guide to show us a plants medicinal use? Well I did an experiment.
I came across 2 very important new plants today, firstly Anise Hyssop, and secondly Betony.
Here’s a bit about Betony – The name Betony is alleged to derive from the Celtic word bewton (”good for the head”). The first reference to it occurs in a work by the Roman physician Antonius Musa, who claimed it as effective against sorcery. Later it was claimed to be effective against snake and dog bites, and against drunkenness. It was planted in churchyards to prevent activity by ghosts.
Modern herbalists prescribe betony to treat anxiety, gallstones, heartburn, high blood pressure, Migraine and Neuralgia, and to prevent sweating. It can also be used as an ointment for cuts and sores. Not all of these uses are supported by scientific evidence.
Now, when I tasted Betony it reminded me very distinctly of a plant I have come to know as ground ivy. So, I want to experiment:
Does ground ivy have the same medicinal qualities as betony?
Well, here’s the basics- Medicinal and edible, a light taste very agreeable in salads. Ground ivy is used in alternative medicine and is an excellent spring tonic, it is an appetite stimulant. It contains a volatile oil which aids in relieving congestion and inflammation of mucous membranes associated with colds, flu, and sinusitis. It is Anti-allergenic, Antibacterial, Anti-flu, Antihistaminic, Anti-inflammatory, Antioxidant, Antiseptic, Antispasmodic, Antiviral, Cancer-Preventive, Expectorant, Immuno-stimulant, and Sedative. Ground ivy tea or juice is well tolerated and can be given to small children. Some of the most valuable plant constituents are 1,8-cineole, alpha-pinene, apigenin, beta-sitosterol, borneol, caffeic-acid, ferulic-acid, hyperoside, iodine, luteolin, menthol, oleanolic-acid, rosmarinic-acid, rutin, ursolic-acid. Ground-Ivy is being studied for use in preventing Leukemia, Bronchitis, Hepatitis, many kinds of cancer, and HIV. The fresh juice or a medicinal tea is used to treat digestive disorders, gastritis, acid indigestion, and diarrhea. It is also beneficial for liver and kidney function, said to relieve gravel and stones. Although results are not conclusive it is being used as an antidote for lead poisoning. Added to bath as an emollient to soften skin and has a sedative effect.
So, conclusion: it has little in common with betony: I can’t trust my tastes! Though, the seditative effect is shared, and it may well be that betony and ground ivy have other effects behind the more obvious ones…Yet worth bearing in mind – How much can we trust internet research? as far as i know this could all be made up, and the challenge for me is – how would i know? all these long scientific words would take me so long to research…… yet for all its potential errors i do trust scientific research on the whole, but i don’t think it covers everything.
A question to research: how much is our taste of things in our head?
This kind of research just goes to show that potenially quite a lot lies in the head; in fact our tastes are so affected by what we are familiar that they are not going to tell us scientific details. However, plants do have multiple uses, and it just may be that ground ivy was doing a similar thing to me as betony and that Wikipedia (it don’t know everything!) Is missing vital information. And after all, what works for one may be different to another:
everyones different.
>
Yes that is true, but I think on the whole we share more similarities than differences when it comes to medicines. We know foxglove will effect the heart, we know dandelions will make us wee, we know psychedelics will make us trip…. The subtleties of the effects regarding differences in character and person are often much smaller than we would like to admit…
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The hawthorn flowers are just coming out: snow white with a blush of pink filling the may tree.
Most of the tree leaves are out now, and all since last new moon.
Sitting on the train I get a different perspective of the landscape: allotments, buildings, factories, then lakes, reservoirs, and fields, all in a matter of minutes…. Its a nice way to travel…
Edible and Medicinal plants in the local environment
DATES – MAY – sat 22nd, sun 23rd, sat 29th
Time – 12 noon – 5pm, each day.
COST – £5 waged. £3 unwaged.
Location – New Roots Shop, 374 Glossop Rd. (near university www.newroots.org.uk)
Bring – bags to pick things in. Something to drink and eat on the walk. suitable clothes.
We will learn about what to pick, what not to pick, how to use each thing, how not to use each thing. We will practically engage in foraging, eating, cooking, preparing plant foods from around the local area.
Wild foods have an awesome capacity to not only survive, but to heal and bring good health for all people. Most of our medicines still derive from plant extracts. Plants can be powerful healers. They can also be very dangerous, but the real question about safety is one of quantity. These walks will show you what is the safe quantities of plants to consume. We will also look into specific medicinal properties of plants to heal certain ailments. If you would like to chat further about the walks do ring me on
07507578885
happy foraging!
Starting on the beginning of May I will be running a repeat of the same course outlined in the food growing course running in April, with one change in that these sessions will run as purely practical sessions.
starting each day at 11 am, running till 4pm in the afternoon,
Venue to meet at – 226 Greystones Rd, sheffield (tel, 2679394)
(up eccy rd, right oppostite somerfield!)
Monday 3rd May – Wild Food
Tuesday 4th May – Organic Horticulture
Wednesday 5th May – Soil
Thursday 6th May – Spatial Awareness
Friday 7th May – Seasonal Awareness plus feedback session.
Each day cost – £10 – £5 concessions. for the whole course £40, £20 concessions.
REMEMBER TO BRING
- lunch and a drink with you.
- pen a paper if you wish to make notes
- suitable clothing – we cant rely on the weather being nice!
So sudden!
This moon occurred at a point of shifting my location, from Meersbrook to Walkley. It also seemed to signal the shift from hybernatory winter mode of having one base, to a more nomadic traveling around existence.
I really feeling in full swing of spring planting with this moon. Yes it has come late. And i can allready feel the tips of autumn round the corner, sensing what its gona be like for harvest; you assess what the possibilities are and project ahead from there…. what plants where, what blossom where…. Its gona be a bumper apple year this year, that’s for sure.
Im hoping that we will find a place for abundance to run smoothly from this year, and also hoping to really develop my musical side this year. As much as i love growing, this year seems to be about music; songs keep popping into my head and i just gota get em down! I hope to be able to communicate something of the message of growing through singing songs.
Next post – 14th May.
For more info download this document: -
STEPHEN COURSES2010 full doc
These courses focus on
Foraging for wild food
Growing your own
Understanding how to design a growing space
Developing seasonal awareness
i am running a repeat of this entire course in May yet as purely practical, without the theoretical sessions tagged on. See blog post - Food Growing Week Intensive.
A dream I had on new moon evening of 15th march.
I was at a large gathering of tribes from all round the world. many nations were gathered in this place; a large open field with a mansion building in the middle, which was also a little like a cinema or a shopping mall.
There were lots of talks going on, and people were presenting talks about their tribe or nation to the other groups, and there was also performance going on. it was like a festival vibe, but also more political; big decisions were being made, and we were in waiting for something, or some bit of news to come which would effect us all.
One of my friends was presenting something to a big crowd of people. it was a music performance but also contained an important message. He said “all of us are free to think and do as we choose”. And then a fire swept throughout the place; the pine trees outside flamed up and it was like a wild forest fire. The destruction caused by the fire cut off the buildings electricity and it had to rely on its own resources to power it. there was no satellite connection. It became an off grid unit and could show what ever it liked to who ever it liked.
Revolution spread like wild fire throughout the nations. Confusion and chaos reigned. At first the people tried to gather around a leader. They asked my friend if he was a leader. He said “of a sorts”.
Each group tried to find their collective identity, so that they could unite. Some groups created giant totem poles with animal faces like lions on, to march behind; others created flags, with all sorts of colours and symbols, and while this was happening there was an ever growing awareness of consciously uniting forces with one another to steer this new tribe – the tribe of tribes, into the future, within the transformed building. The building had broken free from outside control and through hacking the computer systems we were able to take it where we wanted.
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