Hello Wild Soul,
As July comes to a close, we reach the festival of Lammas, celebrated at the beginning of August. This is the time of the year when the seeds are ripening and the first harvests of grain take place.
It is now high Summer, the golden time of the year, where combine harvesters work late into the evening gathering in the year’s bounty.
The light still stretches out long into the evenings, but this is no longer a time of active green growth, it is one of ripening, of gathering in the harvest and sensing the edges of Autumn on the horizon. Can you feel its call?
Last week over on Instagram we shared a photo of some wood that we have been working with over the past couple of weeks.
We had some very good guesses as to what it might be, from Heather to Rosemary to Buddleia.
I will be telling you all about it in today’s post. Let’s dive in…
What is home?
Since leaving the land last month, I have been thinking about what ‘home’ means to me. How it varies from person to person but also how it has varied in the different phases of my own life too.
I have had chapters of rooting down in a physical place, interspersed with chapters of exploring, of expanding outwards again. I have noticed how quickly I can feel ‘at home’ these days too. Most often in the wild places, with trees, plants and wildlife that feel so familiar to me.
‘Home’ for me, has been less about a physical place, and more about connection to the things that hold memory, story and meaning. (And yes, this is bringing me on to what that wood is, I promise!)
Lavender, a legacy
Many years, ago, I planted a Lavender in the front garden of my parents home. I was around 6 or 7 at the time. I remember talking to my Dad about all of the insects that it would attract. We watched it grow and enjoyed seeing all the butterflies that visited.
In those early Summers, I would make ‘perfume’ by picking some fresh Lavender heads and mixing them with water.
Over the years, the Lavender plant grew and grew. Some years it was well tended. Others it was left to fend for itself, missing its annual pruning and becoming a little more woody. It was always a constant in my life.
On the mornings before sitting my GCSEs, I would pick some Lavender and smell it all the way to school. I gathered little bunches for friends, and learned about different ways to dry it, adding it to my baths or hanging it beside my bed when I struggled to sleep.
For almost 3 decades, that same Lavender plant grew in my parents front garden and it undoubtably shaped my life and journey.
Whenever I would return ‘home’ from wherever I had been, it was still there. Drawing in insects from far and wide.
Over the years, I found new ways to enjoy the harvest. One year, I combined it with other herbs from the garden to make smoulder sticks that I gifted to family for Christmas.
With a few left over, I decided to list them on Etsy to see if anyone would like one. They sold quickly, and became the beginnings of our Wild Fen shop!
The plant has travelled with me too, from cuttings grown and nurtured in my own gardens and shared with loved ones, to plant in theirs.
Last year, after almost 3 decades, the now very woody stems of the Lavender that I had planted as a kid split.
I knew then and there that we would gather and dry the wood, to see if we could turn them into pendants.
And so, this week we have been on a journey, experimenting with a plant so well known to us and yet a wood unfamiliar to many and I can’t wait to share the results with you very soon!
Watch this space!
Full Moon blessings,
Nic x
Wild Fen 