LIVING BY THE SEA...

I have moved again!
We have moved to the coast, to a lovely cottage by the sea, just a short walk to Port Mulgrave, Staithes, and a twenty mins drive to Whitby...
So much inspiration all around, Sea, moors and woodland, something that I am loving is the beechcombing for the Whitby Jet and fossils, jet is so beautiful and  also very magical,  used for protection and makes a good talisman, this whole area is called the Jurassic coast because of the very large amount of fossils all around..

everywhere I walk around Port Mulgrave there is the presence of ancient times...

I was very thankful that just before moving I had managed to finish my rune set I had been working on, made from Rowan...

These Late Days Of Summer On The Moor...

The shadows sweeping across the moor, like dark phantoms chasing the light.. the scent of the earth, the purple heather and bilberries eaten straight from the bush: bite the sweet flesh, lick the wild juice, Rowan trees look on, their branches heavy with berries blowing in the wind.. these late days of Summer on the moor...

AND THE SEASONS TURN...

and so the turning of the seasons goes on.. and as they turn my thoughts and feelings turn with them, the circle/spiral of life continues... its been months since my last post when I had been diagnosed with the breast cancer, the seasons have changed and so have I , I had to be away from the wild for a time and be with the sterile,  place of hospitals, tests, operation, and the bleep bleep of the radiotherapy department, but the wild was always with me inside, treatment goes on in the form of Tamoxifen tablets, which has me feeling  tired more quickly than I once did, as well as lots of side effects...so I sleep a lot, and much time has been spent on the land in Pendle... including making art in the form of tiny rock paintings of which I use non toxic pigment that will be gone with the wind and rain in a short time, so I capture the image with photograph...

'And We Dance' and we clap our hands to the beat of the earth, to the song of nature...

and a wonderful day was had on the 1st of August celebrating Lammas in a beautiful, hidden, grove of trees we know, this is hill country so what we did was walk up the hill to pick the bilberries, which were then used in our celebration of the first harvest, the smell of the wood smoke from our bonfire was on our skin, our bare feet on the earth, feeling the mud and leaves under out toes, the trees whispered in the breeze, and the sound of the water from the beck all around, even the juice from the bilberries that looks so like blood on the skin seemed apt indeed as a symbol of death and rebirth...
and a new painting was finished at Lammas 'The Witch Hare'  more details and info can be seen on my art blog  http://morgaineart.blogspot.co.uk/

SEA WITCH

It's been a while since my last post: lots happening and also I've been struggling with the autoimmune health problem I have. Then, just this last couple of days, I found out I have breast cancer.
Its a shock of course, but yet I knew something serious was developing.
I have always been an inlander, even when I once lived beside the Sea I  loved to go beachcombing and so on - but always felt more comfortable when I could get inland
Then just recently, before I knew I was ill, I found myself yearning, hearing the call of the sea, wishing I could be further North to hear again the Seals singing on the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne.
I've been feeling that I needed to submerge myself in the sea water and remembering the times I have picked up precious offerings of nature to be used in magic from the beach and sea,
So a day in Whitby, one of my favourite places, was decided on for a visit, a wonderful day indeed ...

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...

THE BONES, THE FEATHERS AND A HARE

There is often a need to go out collecting specific plants , twigs and roots and other things for different purposes, but when it comes to bones and feathers its such a joy when they just seem to appear for you.

As was the case with a lovely rams skull that seemed to be waiting for us as we walked back to the car after walking over Dartmoor, right next to the car..

Picking up a mermaids purse for spirit work on a beach in Dorset when it was the only one there amongst hundreds of pebbles.

The Owl feathers that I found a few weeks ago, literally waving at me to notice them as they were caught on a piece of driftwood along by the river here and blowing in the breeze...

The Crow skull was found on the path we were walking on that leads to what is known as the hidden village of Wycoller in Pendle, one of my most loved areas...

Of course just coming across them out there in the wild means they arent always in perfect shape, other animals and birds have often damaged them , but its good to know there is something of these birds and animals left for us too, to work with , and as something beautiful to have around.

So, with our love of bones and feathers, you can imagine our curiosity when on our walk today we saw a Hare, a dead Hare in a Hawthorn Tree, up on one of the high branches. We walked up to the Hawthorn and wondered if it would be ok to take the Hare back with us, but before we could do anything some sheep in the field that are normally perfectly ok with us, even when their lambs were first born, started racing towards us and definitely chasing us away, they were behaving and sounding totally different to how they usually are, and certainly standing their ground, even the young ones were acting the same. They all stood around the Hawthorn , it was quite clear they were making sure that the Hare stayed there and the Hawthorn and the Hare were protected.
You are always told whether its ok to take anything from nature, or whether you are welcome in certain places, sometimes its just not the right time, or its something that must stay with the land, and its always wise to take heed of the warning...

THE VEIL IS THIN

Just a few days until Beltaine, the veil is thin, how I love this time of year. I dont think there will be any garlands of May blossom this year though, the Hawthorn is only just leafing up, it's still cold and wet a lot of the time here in Weardale. But who knows, the Hawthorn has surprised us before and blossomed right in time for the May with her wonderful sensual scent.
I have always loved the Hawthorn. I remember when I was out walking the fields and lanes when I was a child with my father. He would pick a leaf from the Hawthorn for me to nibble , he told me it was known as the bread and cheese tree and would keep people going on a long walk, and my mother would tell of washing in the May dew.
There are a lot of Hawthorn trees where I live and lots of them grow next to one of the sacred healing wells in the village. Above the well on a hillside is a field leading up to a grove of ancient trees, this field is very active with spirit, the first time I walked past this field after moving here I saw the spirit of a woman running down the field.

The Ancient Trees On The Hillside

One of the healing wells in the village, the christians have enclosed it and put their Saints there, it must surely have been a very powerful spot before christianity for them to do that..

Dancing In the May, on Giants Hill at Cerne Abbas  in Dorset, taken about three years ago..

My painting 'Beltaine'