BACK ON THE MOOR

So here I am living on the moor again, in a little house in Haworth and the scent in the air could only be Haworth Moor. I have lived in a few different places now and only this land has this scent.

There are lots of bilberries on the moor at the moment, wild, and delicious! and it's a good time to be climbing a hill to pick them with Lammas/ Lughnasadh upon us...

Bilberry bushes on Penistone Hill

I look out my door and see the sky, no matter where you are in Haworth, you are on a hill, it is like living in the sky, wonderful!
Walking on the moor everyday is always very inspiring, surrounded by Heather and Rowan trees, it's really good to have so much Rowan around, good for the magic and  the charm making.
There is much folklore and tradition of Witchcraft on the moors of England: this is a poem by John Keats on a postcard from the Witchcraft Museum....

Where I live has many associations with Witchcraft. Haworth is famous as being the home of the Bronte sisters and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is very pagan and full of faerie and Witchcraft folklore. And I am fortunate that Pendle Hill and the area around it known as Pendle Witch country is just over the moor from where I live. It's one of my favourite areas and loving the area so much I decided that would be the place to go last week for my Birthday, and of course climb the wonderful Pendle Hill.

On Pendle Hill

One of my original paintings of Haworth Moor

http://morgaineart.blogspot.co.uk/

The first harvest is here, Happy Lammas/ Lughnasadh!

SUMMER MAGIC, AND MOVING ON...

The feel of the land where I am living has changed so much this last few weeks, I don't think I have seen so much green all around me, ever, I am enclosed in what feels like a secret, hidden, magical world.
I walk out of my door and within a few yards I am in dense woodland and forest.

 My village is surrounded by meadows and trees, the nearest neighbouring small villages are three miles away and the closest small town is six miles from here. So each day when I am not indoors working on my art I am out walking along the lanes and paths surrounded by hedgerow and ancient trees.

  

This has been a very inspiring, special time, that I will never forget, my weird ,wonderful Weardale will always be in my heart...
But now it is time to move on, back to my moors. At the end of the week I will be moving back to Haworth in Yorkshire, to my windswept moors of  heather and the Rowan  and Kestrels flying overhead...