Hello Wild Soul.
As we move towards Ostara; the Spring Equinox this Friday, we look set for a beautiful couple of days here in the East. I hope they will be reaching you too! As I walked into the workshop this morning, I was greeted by a newly opened Crocus. I had planted them in pots outside the door back at the Winter Solstice.
Last week, we took a trip to Stowe Gardens and met so many beautiful Alder trees, and as a tree associated with the Spring Equinox, I wanted to share more about them in today’s post.
Walking with Alder
Alder is often described as the tree of the Spring Equinox and according to the Celtic Tree Calendar is assigned to the period of time between March 18th and April 14th. It is a fascinating tree that thrives in damp places and can often be found growing beside rivers, lakes and ponds where its roots will be submerged beneath the water.
It is a relatively short lived tree, with a lifespan of around 60 years but within that time, it can transform its surroundings, much like close family member, the Birch tree. Alders form an association with a nitrogen fixing bacteria, which allows the tree to grow in nutritionally poor soils, and improves the soil around them so that other trees such as Oaks can grow there. This earns them the title of a ‘nurse’ tree.
The wood of the Alder tree is relatively soft, but when submerged beneath the water, it becomes as hard as stone. For this reason, it is a wood favoured for building bridges. In fact, Venice is built on top of millions of Alder timbers that were submerged into the clay for structure as early as the 5th century. Quite impressive for such a short lived tree!
Along with its obvious connection to the water element, it is also believed to embody the energy of fire. In early Spring, the Alder tree can be seen ‘glowing’ red with catkins and if the tree is cut down, its pale wood reacts quickly with oxygen, turning the wood a rich, deep orange colour. This association with both fire and water is one of reasons that the Alder tree is believed to represent ‘balance.’
Alder is monoecious, meaning that both male and female flowers are found on the same tree. Male catkins, measure up to 6cm, and turn from red to yellow as they open. Female catkins are much small, starting out as red, oval-shaped cones before growing and turning green and eventually brown after pollination. They can be seen growing on the tree all at the same time.
Ostara and the New Moon
Ostara, is the celebration of the Spring Equinox, the midpoint between the shortest day of the year (Yule, the Winter Solstice) and the longest day of the year (Litha, the Summer Solstice). This year, Ostara falls on Friday 20th March here in the UK. As the land around us is unfurling, this time of the year is associated with renewal and new beginnings and feels to me like a big stretch after Winter’s slumber.
This year, Ostara coincides with a New Moon that falls the day before and this beginning of a new lunar cycle makes it an especially potent time for sowing seeds, both literally and metaphorically!
An Apology from us!
Whilst on the topic of the New Moon, we wanted to send out an apology for an error that we made on this year’s Lunar Calendar. We were upset to discover that we had marked the upcoming New Moon (Thursday 19th March) to be in Aries, instead of Pisces, while April’s New Moon on the 17th is marked in Pisces rather than Aries.
We have been creating our Lunar Calendars for 6 years now, and spend days of work putting them together so we were shocked to discover our mistake. We really hope that this doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of your calendar but please do reach out if you would like to discuss this further.
Wild Fen Updates
In celebration of Ostara, there is 20% off everything in store from now until Sunday 22nd March! Here are just a few things available.
We will be celebrating the Alder tree all this week over on Instagram and we are working on a couple of very special pieces of Wild Jewellery. You can follow along there for daily updates. These unique Alder pieces will be in store at 7pm on Sunday 22nd March.
For more on Ostara, the Spring Equinox, do check out the posts below,
Wishing you all some fresh energy this week!
Nic x
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