Category Archives: Gardening

Hollyhock

Like a soft lemon splash on an artist’s palette,

You are painted on the summers bluest sky.

You stand with royalty, regally with your majesty,

Stretching skyward, reaching for the sun so high.

You sway gently, back and forth on the breeze,

Your large citron flowers, ever so soft, to the eye.

Filled with fun, as you dance both joy and romance,

Stealing my heart, intoxicating my spirit, it’s no lie.

Suffused deeply with the richest shaded fertility,

Deeply into your petals I longingly scry.

Ancient hollyhock rose mallow, dear friend of mine,

Journey me keenly, to your myth and wizardry.

©Astarté Earthwise

Morning Gift

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Native Callistemon – Bottlebrush – belonging to the Myrtaceae family.

Morning light captures the beauty of the callistemon flower needles with dew drops. These flowers when added to water mildly sweeten the water, and are a lovely natural energy boost from Nature, good simple bush tucker. You can also simply suck on the flowers as well. Commonly known as the bottlebrush plant as the flowers resemble the brushes used to clean out baby bottles and other bottles. These native shrubs come in a variety of colours and sizes and are closely related to paperbark melaleucas, which also have ‘bottlebrush’ shaped flower spikes. Often used throughout Australia as plantings on nature strips in suburban streetscapes as this plant is hardy, drought tolerant, and produces a wonderful show of flowers  in Summer and Autumn, so two shows of flowers a year. This is a species that also survives fire and puts out even a more vigorous growth, after fires and heavy pruning. A favourite with many gardeners

© Astarté Earthwise

Dedicated to a special Man who has bought much sweetness to my life 🙂

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Opening Up

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Nature teaches us the power and beauty of opening up, if we stay closed we cannot share our unique perfume with the world, we cannot attract the bees and other insects to pollinate our center. Nor can we experience the joy of letting go, and transforming from bud to seed. Thank you Goddess for this beautiful teaching place here on earth with your gifts that surround us in lessons for life. Today I am so grateful for the lessons from a beautiful red rose, and the exhilarating scent that opens my heart. Deep happiness on your day  

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Friday’s Garden Capture

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Out of your shell and eating again….

Snail munching on a Gazinia Flower…..

Just like a very dear friend who has been very ill, candle lit, ancestors called in, magic done,  healing sent…and this afternoon they are feeling better and have had something to eat, and this girl is very much relieved, smiles at Her special  Man.

Surrender

Pulling out weeds, gathering the last of the harvest, digging in the vegetable and herb gardens, cutting out what is no longer needed there and in myself…detoxing, taking time to be alone, to be centred, to consider this upcoming descent into the underworld as the cycle continues, to the void, within and without.

The calling is louder, the spirits and the ancestors ever so closer, as my bones dig in deep to the earth the connection is so very deep, so very grounded.

As I approach the peripheral of my second Saturn return, ever mindful of the greatness of this time, if used to discipline one’s self it can be hugely rewarding. I am not fighting against Saturn’s energy but asking him to step right on in and assist me to get on track.

As I harvest the fennel I cut back what is now in seed, yet at the base the new growth emerges, reminding me that what Saturn takes away allows for the new growth, and I am open and willing for his lessons.

Its time again to stand before Hekate the primal source, at the veiled crossroads and she hands out the destiny key, I bow my head in submission with the deepest respect as the love for her swells in my heart, I offer myself, I surrender once again, to the divine will.

~  © Astarté Earthwise

Turning Inward…Gathering Seeds…Autumn in the Air

Went for a walk around the house to stretch my neck and check out my herbs and veggies, as the turning in starts, today I felt and saw the first signs of Autumn on and in the land, dancing the inward road, a road to self, as all the seeds shine in their glory, popping out in their abundance for the chance to fall where their heritage continues. Here too at this crossroads is the chance for us to gather the healthy seeds of thought and action, to hold, to contemplate, to nurture, and take deeply into the souls of our wisdom to lay dormant till, the sun is born at Midwinter, and we stir again to the outward spiral knowing our seeds to will be returned to the fertile grounds we have created within, deep blessings on you day, and the gathering of your seeds.

Preparing for Winter Solstice

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I went for a small ramble this afternoon with the intention of eventually going to the elderly old pine tree on this property.

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I wanted to remove some pinion resin from its generous trunk for my midwinter observance, I was thankful to find just enough.

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The scent filled my senses with all things of Yule inhaling it profoundly connected me to the deepest earth, to roots, dampness, darkness, family and the underworld.

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Inhaling pinion is to me is a natural part of experiencing Winter, I have always associated pine with this time on the sacred round. I cannot wait to burn this at the Solstice and have Natures sweet perfume waft around my altar, honouring this time, the ancients, the bones, the flesh, the sinew, and the veins of rebirth.

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I took a baby pine surrounded by its needles after a prayer to the beautiful tree for my altar.

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My focus turned to the ground where I was grateful to find just one small cone that lay there not too far from my feet, I swept down to pick it up with both care and caution, as they can be so sharp. What a precious little cone for my offering to Pan.

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These Nature takings connect me to my Scottish ancestry and the Caledonian forest of the British Isle.

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Though less than one per cent of this original forest survives today in scattered remnants, maybe it has because of its names sake. The forest takes its name from the Romans who referred to Scotland as Caledonia, which derives from the early Celtic word ‘caleto’ which meant strong.

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Here once again we stand at the strong and stable part of the round, in the Earth Quarter, as we await for the sun to be reborn.

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Now I turn my direction towards this unique land and move on after stopping to greet some cows whose curiosity has drawn them in my direction. I now need some Australian Casuarina Pine to balance my altar offering, I desire pines from my past and my present, I wish to honour the ancestors of this land and this nation where I stand as well,  on the bend of the William’s river, and I walk towards a Casuarina and reach up high for just the right piece I give thanks and remove this small branch.

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With pinion cupped in the palm of my right hand, a pine cone held carefully between my index finger and thumb, I also manage to put my other digits to use holding the pine needles from both trees. With a feeling of satisfaction I head for home.

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On the journey I remember that my new friend Mario who is a hunter and taxidermist has sent me a couple of skulls that I hadn’t opened, that are the skulls of hares, one of these is for me, and I get excited knowing this will complete my altar offering here today.

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When I return I find my beautiful hand carved pentacle, that a Piscean carpenter and High Priest called Brian made, I bought it from him when I lived in the USA over a decade ago now. I smile because the men that are both a part of this offering both earn a living working as carpenters, and here I am sharing my stories of trees.

This pentacle was made with such love and it once had an emerald placed in its centre, till my cockatiel bird was wandering on my altar one day and decided to eat it, and I watched in both horror and humour as the emerald disappeared into his beak, and was gone forever, he is a true gem!!

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I’ve now put everything together on the pentacle and placed this on my altar for reflection and focus as the week ahead winds towards Mid Winter and the rebirth of the sun yet again, a time for celebration as the days will once again become longer though colder and I will have the time to once again tend to my gardens and restore the damage done.

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Yuletide Blessings to all.

Bones, Stones & Fog

Just 12 days out from the longest night and the shortest day, Mid-Winter, Yule approaches.

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Waves roll in of fog, faerie webs, and dew drops.

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It’s the weaving time, before the sun is born again.

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I just visited one of the lower paddocks since the Autumn Equinox Floods that came here twice this year, and found so many gifts, thank you Mother Nature.

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I now have a bone garden full of herbs and scattered with bones that the floods never took from this land, where a mother cow lost her fight for life after the birth of her child, she still lays here in this place, born here, lived and died here like her ancestors before her.

I honour her, the land honours her and this is now a sacred place, her resting place where the silt from the rivers floor has now cemented her place and her bones securely in the land.

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As the Mid-Winter approaches I focus on the bones and stones that sit here that hold this place and the memories of thousands of years.

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The sun is trying to penetrate the land but the fog is winning this morning, patience before another day in winter’s deep hold.

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