Category: nature

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NEW BROOMS & MAY GIFTS

May – Hawthorn Flowers

Its bad luck to buy, make or use a new broom in May.

Sweep with a broom that is cut in May
You’ll sweep the head of the house away.

To give good luck to a friend leaving a branch of hawthorn flowers on the doorstep. Other woody messages were not so friendly according to traditional verses.

Alder for a scrowler; pear for the fair

Nut for a Slut; plum for the glum
Bramble if she ramble; gorse for the whores

Not sure quite how some of the rhymes work, and it does seem rather at the expense of women.

I’m taking groups around Britain for much of the summer, and separated from my books will not be posting so frequently, which you might already have noticed.

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MARCH 13TH – TIME FOR NETTLE SOUP

Nettles Photo by Les Argonautes on Unsplash

Now is the time to make that Nettle Soup. According to William Coles in Adam in Eden (1657) it will ‘consume the Phlegmatic superfluities in the body of man, that the coldness and moistness of the winter have left behind.’ He also suggest that it is said that the juice of the roots mixed with ale and beer and given to one who is suspected of losing her maidenhead ‘if it remain with her she is a maid, but if she spew it forth she is not’.

The Egyptians used them to treat lower back pain, the hardy Romans used it to keep themselves warm. Some suggest it is useful for treating enlarged prostate, and for lowing blood pressure and generally very rich in all things good for you. Just don’t eat them raw! The suggested benefits of eating Nettles are listed on this web site. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/stinging-nettle

Druids at All Hallows, by the Tower

My next walks – virtual and guided are here:

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MARCH 2ND – KALENDAR OF SHEPHERDS

. Nicholas Breton’s ” Fantasticks ” (1626) in Kalendar of Shepherds

The text from the Kalendar gives a great description of the nature of March as seen in the Jacobean era. We are still in Pisces

Attributes of Pisceans selfless, mystical compassionate imaginative sensitive
pisces from the zodiac from kalendar of shepherds
From the zodiac from kalendar of shepherds

The next section of the Kalendar gives a comparison between the ages of man and the months of the year. Twelve months in a year, Twelve ages of man in six year blocks. So March represents ages twelve to eighteen, as it says time to learn doctrine and science.

Kalendar of Shepherds (translation from French 15th Century original)

I introduce the Kalendar of Shepherds on this page.

Druids at All Hallows, by the Tower

My next walks – virtual and guided are here:

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