Nests In The Mind

i sought sanctuary in nature....took it a step further than a park bench and created a little hideaway in a never frequented location not far from where i live.it is betwixt a golf course and a railway line, surrounded by undergrowth a nd woods, i am alone with the foxes. My structure in the clearing is half done, i did a bit more today, and my ultimate vision for the place is a round teepee sort of thing, weaved with willow, and covered with mud and straw, which i believed used to be called wattle and daub! as i say, it is about half done, and the straw and mud has now solidified into a strong and weatherproof covering. Now, when finished it is going to have a chiminea installed, made safe with a build up of mud, packed around it...and at the chimney exit too.imagine how cosy it will be when done. I will be able to sit in my firelit little space out in nature, snug amongst the elements...to me this is far out, right on and totally up my street!i can burn sage and other sacred herbs and meditate and dream out in this magical little space. a space is as sacred as u make it...and this is coming along nicely, it is linked to my own psyche now, a sort of nest of safety, where i can be even when not there...as i said sacred! blessed be:) and peace to all!

i saw it from space

not been there for a while....but its good to leave it to the elements once in a while. it keeps it fresh, it keeps it in nature...i sometimes wonder what the nature of the area thinks of the fact that a mad dreaming human decided to create a shrine in the middle of it!anyway, earlier i decided to take a look on google earth...and had a nice surprise. Google must have refreshed their sattelite imagery, because when i zoomed in..down to the golf course, the river...i found my wood and meadow, beyond the ring of dense undergrowth and trees.....and there it was! my little path weaving thru the grassland:) ha ha!...along and round...up and into the clearing... and i can see the clearing too!!!! with a tiny blob for my structure...so glad it wasn't taken when i was having a fire! or any local inhabitants may have checked it out! so, i can see it from space, i look forward to the next google earth update, when my structure is larger, and finished!

Its Out there now

In the dark of the October night, it is out there now... In the cooler rain of the fall it is out there now... Evening winds tug at the leaves, they fall to the mulch... all is quiet save the wind, which moves at will under the cloud scudded moon. I am not there today, some days i stay in in the warmth of the house, leaving my nature shrine to the elements and the energies , till i return once more. Strange toadstools have appeared, twilight prevails as the year moves on. I am here, in the light, yet i can picture the place, as clear in my mind as a lucid dream. I have magicked and mythed the place, my psyche mixes and melds with the dreams of the fox. This is what happens, when we plug into the realms' of the natural world.

tiny door and wood burning stove

I went there briefly today and always get a buzz when I alight in my little area and find it has not been discovered! didn't do much really just sat on the plantpot and daydreamed. I was looking at the structure I have built and deciding on the next course of action. I think I will complete the full circular 'teepee' around the central goat willow, so that is a bit of work to do...i am halfway round now..if i do decide to complete the circle then the structure will be quite spacious...I will leave a gap for a door and i have just the thing in mind. Our old garden shed is being replaced shortly, so i could trim down the door from that to make a custom fit 'little door' to my mud/straw/lean to teepee thing! i am also going to use the thinnish shed wood to create an internal cover all around, so when i am in there i am not looking at wood poles and straw but neater shed wood, carefully tacked in all around the inside..the floor will be a wood base on runners...so the finished structure will be a mix of mud/straw/pollarded willow poles (some of which have taken root), grass, plants, shed wood...and the creme de la crem..the best of all, a wood burning stove, with a chimney i can detach when i am not on site . I can really picture how cosy and sacred this will be when finished...but there is no hurry, i like the slow way the site has evolved...it looks natural and organic, its not been drastic, but rather dreamed out and co-operated with the nature all around me. Maybe in a year i will be sitting in the structure and meditating, basking in the glow of a fire:)

Place as a reflection of the soul

I used to take with a pinch of salt new age talk of the outer being but a reflection of the inner, but as the years have gone by i now believe this to be the case..I don't think i gave enough credit or trust in the magic of it all before, but now i see bits of this brilliance and utter magic of it all...i have realised lately more than ever the sheer beauty of the river and the meadows and the area i have created in nature in my locality. Every night subtle changes are shown to me, i see the 'jewels'..and it is amazing! The walk really can reflect the soul within or even how the spirit is at that particular time and place. Now i think as i am seeing so much beauty, then i must have stumbled upon inner beauty too! this is a welcome revelation for me...and i am not giving it too much analysis rather basking in its subtle hues...i had a brief visit to the shrine, it is looking more magical than ever, i saw the mouse again, walking into my shelter, seemingly oblivious to the giant humanoid looking at it.The foliage is still remarkably full and green, even though the brown of autumn is making an appearance..the air is still warm, in fact it was perfect this evening, fresh yet warm too, i was in a t-shirt!! i felt energised after my sojourn, the artificiality of the workday gone in a flash. Believe in the power of nature, it can clear the badness very swiftly from the aura and the psyche, it is waiting for us to believe in its magic...and feel the force and the wonder of it all. blessed be:)

'Daddy, you've got a leaf in your hair'

On the way back from the nature place tonight i picked up my daughter from brownies, i was standing in the waiting area with all the other parents and was thinking how 'tired' they all looked, i felt totally exhilarated from my 'nature fix' and i sort of felt sorry for my fellow parents...STAND UP TO THE MEMES!! anyway, i digress...the moment came when the pack of laughing brownies came out into the waiting area...my daughter was first out and she said out really loud...'daddy. u have got a leaf in your hair! ha ha! well girl...your dad likes his little wanders into the wilds! not too keen on the soap operas and the like..ha ha ha:)

Discerning Trespass

I reackon that almost all of us have fallen foul of the trespass laws at some point in our lives, as the majority of the land in this country is supposedly 'owned' by someone or other...now personally, i have a lot of issues with the concept of land ownership and trespass laws but that is by the by, it is what we are dealing with in the everyday reality of life as it is in this timeframe.I guess I trespass every time i go to my secret nature place, as i have to cross parts of a golf course to get there, but i am causing no harm, and for a good 99.9% of the time i have never been spotted as I go to and fro, but i am a human, walking where i shouldn't walk..which is a laughable concept really...as i was lithely making my way across the greens before, i noticed a few squirrels darting across over to my left, now they, like me, are doing no harm...are they trespassing? there we have it...I am marked by my 'human' status as a tresspasser, and by the fact that i am 'out of place' in my roamings, i am not doing the activity 'proscribed' to the place..(in this case golf) and also i am not doing something that us 'modern' humans are 'supposed' to do , like watch tv, or go to the pub, or the gym:)Its all nonsense of course, and i don't sit around dwelling about it...so switch on my 'animal' side and flow and weave my way across, interacting with the natural environment and not caring much of the opinions of others. The other way to get to the nature place is over a railway line...this is a different animal altogether, and i am not going to go into it right now, save to say that i have always wondered why walking alongside a railway track is so 'wrong', people walk beside much busier roads everyday... i think its the whole 'nanny state' thing, where we are essentially 'not trusted' by those 'in charge'....well, discerning trespass, not much wrong with that in my eyes! before i head off i will just say, i can see why people would have a problem with finding a stranger in their backyard or something...somethings are obvious, and rules or no rules, thats just plain weird:) over and out:)

Robin Hood...next generation

I called round on my sister earlier..(her house is nearer to my shrine than my own) and her 13 yr old son was there..(my nephew) I asked if either of them fancied a stroll to the shrine and my sister said she was too tired! but my nephew was up to it...so we set off...as we walked fast down to the golf course, i started jogging...'ready for A ROUTE MARCH? I SAID...he said yes and we ran along the path, through the fence, across the course, up through the meadow, over the undergrowth and in next to no time at all we had arrived in the shrine. He was doubled over panting and wheezing...i had broken into a sweat but was ok...i am 41..he is 13!! TOO MUCH PLAYSTATION!! anyway, he quiclkly recovered and was amazed at the changes in the place..( i brought him here with my own kids about a year ago) i explained the work i had done and gave him a tour of the place, he was genuinely interested and was asking loads of questions about it...a lot of people would think my hobby odd but he has known me all his life and is used to the ways of his 'mad uncle'!! we took some photos of the place to show my sister, then headed back, jogging, as we came...he was buzzing when we got back to the house and we all looked at the pics together...when i had arrived they were just settling down to an episode of robin hood, so i said..'he has had a go at being the real robin hood this evening' we all laughed, but the robin hood myth and archetype runs right through this country, and long may it do so, we all see enough of the 'sherrif of nottingham' archetypes in government etc, so i think its important to keep the myth alive...out in the fields, the woods and the mindset, of old meerry england! blessed be!!

its amazing what u see when u are motionless!

I took a long sweeping circular route in tonight...golfers were approaching the near green when i arrived and i really didn't fancy waiting in the undergrowth for ages whilst they took their time putting and the like so I walked fast along the track and entered the golf course by the pond...i then walked in a large sweeping arch keeping trees between me and them...eventually i made my way around to the wood and feeling invigorated, ran up the slope, thru the brambles to my 'bower'...i got out the large plant pot and switched into 'nature mode'...i was soon relaxed and meditative....in my peace i watched a mouse trot out of the outer ring, across right in front of me and into an opening in the side of my shelter! it didn't even see me...but i was just 'there'...no noise...no fuss...it was the first mouse i had seen in my area...and it was good to think i blended in to the extent of allowing alert and 'human wary' animals to come in and walk right past me....maybe a fox will do it some day:) i don't mind mice living in my shelter...its not like i live in it or anything, its not even finished....(about half way there i would think)so the mice are welcome...

The great golden sun!

i haven't been there all weekend until earlier this evening....(to those of you new to this blog what i mean by 'there' is a secret nature shrine i have created in the 'edgelands' near to where i live, where i can replenish)...no one around whatsoever on the approach...maybe the x factor is on telly or something:)...anyway, the sun was big and coppery orange in the sky, heading down towards the welsh hills...the shafts of golden light illuminated dancing groups of spiralling midges and gnats...i walked across the golf course at leisure, all the golfers either gone home or getting a few drinks down them in the distant clubhouse..so i walked across their manicured lawns brazenly..HA!! i entered the darkish wood, then up to my 'escape pod', my clearing in the midst of bramble and thicket, and like a human rabbit or fox, switched on to the nature vibe...i soon realised i was being bathed in the most amazing bursts of solar light and stood transfixed, allowing the rays to wash into my psyche...nothing like a good evening sunwash to enliven the cells and colour the eyes! i examined my trees, the ones i had planted and the ones that were 'naturals' from either before i came or after..(its been some years now!) i thought of mankind and its dreams, its decisions that each led to environmental changes, i mean really i need to thank whoever decided to site the railway here so near to the golf course, thus creating a natural space that no one passes through or this land could have been lost to other visions and i may be standing in a factory or something...a lucky space this then to have escaped from the brick and the concrete...so i re-affirm my intention to honour the place, to listen to the nature around me, thus enabling my vision here to meld with that of enlightened nature, and keep the place lucky, or maybe even magick it further:) bye for now:)

Always Feeling Fantastic

I didn't get long there this evening...the time was ticking away...but after a day at the screen i HAD to get a nature fix...and boy..was it worth it!! raced over to the asda car park, then at the river in moments...the sky was all magicky and the river like some mysterious little lagoon...(its different everyday due to light, wind,tide etc)the clouds greyish white and darkening, as it does earlier at this time of year, and the air was fresh on the face...just right really. I entered the golf course through a hole in the barbed wire and scanned as i ran..(getting better at this)..more on the move, like an animal would do, relying on instinct and vision combined. speed walked over to the wood and up to the zone...bit of a potter, couple of spadefulls of moss/soil/twigs onto the roof of the teepee structure, then a sit on the flowerpot...watching the sky move by, listening to the odd rustle of trees etc...felt really alive..i always have a tendency to feel fantastic out here:0 natures medicine is WORKING! fortified, i left the place as it was darkening, moved quickly across the course, back to the river...the moon was peeping out...the last of the yellow sky was around the distant welsh hills before night took over...then back to the lights and the car park...in the car, and homeward bound

A Luminous Evening

I went via the river earlier...the sky was luminous and the river sparkling silver as was the distant sky over the mountains, the air was super fresh and breezy, which i love, as living on a plain the air can get a bit slow for my liking! So it was a case of fresh, fresh air, luminous skies and lovely natural scenery...i made my way along the riverbank swinging my arms and feeling free, then when i reached a hole in a fence darted down to the golfcourse and made my way across. The greens looked amazingly luminous and numerous seagulls were 'worming' and rooting about for grubs etc...i entered the woods in a place i found the other day which led up to the lower meadow, i am trying to alternate approaches so as not to leave too obvious a trail, then up to the upper meadow and in...back to my bower. It seemed fresh here tonight, the air was charged and colourful...i did a bit of work shifting the moss and bramble 'bits' i had scythed down the other day and added them to the 'roof' of my teepee style hut..it is looking so authentically rustic and tribal right now i love it!!! then i took a good look at the structure of it..it is basically a load of willow branches resting against a goat willow tree, however it is not fully round 'yet' but will be when completed. What i noticed tonight is that i am sure it has slightly tilted the goat willow..this is not good, as i don't want the thing to tip the willow over and collapse, not only for the sake of the shelter, but also for the sake of the tree! when i first started clearing this area many years ago the goat willow was not there...it capitalised on the cleared ground and is growing in a place of its own power (as in where the seed landed rather than being transplanted there by me)so i did it a favour in the first place in creating an area where a seed landed and had a chance to grow, but i feel i owe it one now again...i love trees and i intend to shore up and complete the teepee so as to distribute evenly the weight around it...me happy! tree happy! another thing i noticed, is that the willow branches i cut and used as supports for the straw and mud have in some cases taken root themselves..(strong trees!) so it is a sort of 'living' shelter! i looove the 'organicness' of that!...i treated myself to ten minutes on the plantpot chilling and feeling greatly at peace, then, i headed back out, a different way, back down the slopes, over the course, to the river....and home...

Its a jungle out there

we have had a few heavy 'bouts' of rain lately which has resulted in soaking undergrowth around my nature retreat...add to this the need to approach from different places to avoid creating too worn and visible paths and i have found myself up to my neck in thick, only just penetrable 'jungle' like undergrowth...weeds, brambles,rosebay willowherbs,saplings etc etc...it hads been slow going at times and when i finally get to my retreat i am in a soaked state with scratches and cuts and collapse onto my plantpot for a good few minutes...i was like this earlier today and whilst i was recovering i was smelling the damp undergrowth and looking about me at all the fading, yet still 'en masse' vegetation and thinking...this really is like a mini jungle environment at times...is this the real U.K.? is this what would happen without the cultivation and the buildings?...maybe it would be like this, until the trees grew back and once again forested the entire country! i got a sense of natures never ending growth..its cycles...its expansion and contraction...its 'breath' :)...in a couple of months the green will have totally turned brown and withered away...letting the winter sun through the spaces and the frosts in to do their work...if this was not so, then the foliage and weed layers would choke the ground...so i am glad of the turning seasons...in fact, i think i am looking forward now to the foliage to give up the ghost and return to autumn/winter and thus be refreshed in the new spring of next year. At the mo it is soggy and choking, starting to fade...i think iwill have a fire soon again..bring some cheer to the place:)did a bit of work while i was there, the expansion i did the other day, i cleared a bit more of that, and the place now seems way more spacious, and i have freed up a beautiful hawthorn tree, which for the whole time i have known it, has been half covered in brambles....it seems pleased....my expansion has brought different views too...standing at the far end i can see now, thru some trees the welsh mountains rising up in the distance...a good meditation spot! i may at some point make another structure, possibly to be used as a sweat lodge...this was the idea for my current structure, but this eventually will be for sleeping the odd night in...anyway, enough for now...love the nature, respect the nature, try to understand the nature....'cause we are PART of the nature:)

expanding out

i was sitting there yesterday, on my large plantpot, when i suddenly got impulsive! i kept glancing up to my right, where i have a large hawthorn tree, surrounded by the edge of the circle, namely brambles and rosebays etc, etc...suddenly i leapt up! grabbed my scythe and hacked out a new circle which leads on from the original and is now a sort of unfinished figure of 8...the hawthorn makes a nice buffer between the two circles..and looks a lot happier now all the tangle has gone from around it! Is it something within the nature of man/woman to expand/grow/redevelop even? i think my circle just wanted to grow a bit more, maybe the energy demanded it? anyway, i now have a larger area to tend to...new dreams? more to discover....it will take a few visits to get the ground right as it is just a mass of downed brambles and the like...but it feels like new life has been breathed into the area...it will enable a whole host of plants/insects to colonise the area rather than the victorious bramble/willowherbs that dominate this area...from the furthest reaches now, the mud hut looks brilliant...this magic garden is growing:)

A Strange Approach

Earlier this evening while the sun shone really bright after a day of intense rain showers I headed to the river. It was betwixt the high and low tides and the silky surface reflected the changing sky above...oranges/yellows/pinks/blues....vivid colours and large grey/white billowing cloud formations. The air was fresh and felt totally alive. I soon shed my manic day of work from my head and shoulders and moved swiftly yet calmly towards the golf course. Damn! 3 golfers were heading down the greens which would have meant a long wait in the shadowy paths until they had moved on, yet i wanted to keep going! so i walked further along, found a hole in the fence and entered the course a lot further along than usual....this meant a long detour through the green and bright links and trees to get to my wood, it was worth it...nature was on my side, providing invisibility from the focused golfers...i paced freely through the course, moving behind the lines of trees, past another couple of gaggles of golfers and to the line of the woods.This was not my end of the woods..it was really tangled so i fought my way through saplings,ivy,brambles, hawthorns, up down, around, thru..it was tough going..at one stage the rains came again and thru the gaps in the trees i could see torrential ran falling on the course. however, amongst the tangles, i was dry...well my clothes were in fact getting wetter by the minute, but this was from wet leaves and trees rather than the falling rain itself. I felt a bit of an intruder here...no one ever comes to these wooded slopes and i reackon if i was full of mushrooms or something similar i would probably be seeing all sorts of goblins/elves etc:)...eventually i made it to my part of the wood, and soon found myself in my clearing. i got out a plantpot and recovered from the mad little expedition. Soon i was deeply relaxed..everywhere was lurid colours, from the bright sky..magic!! i took in my 'extension'...which i will talk about in a later blog, and which i started yesterday...it is no longer just a circle though, more of a growing figure of 8. anyway, after a while i felt i had better return so left my bower, down thu the lower meadows, back to the river, then the carpark...felt totally alive ....stress at work? all gone....all GONE!!!

It Looks Soooo Crazy!?!:)

Went there again earlier on..its either something about the time of year (it feels extra magical) or because i am now back at work after 2 weeks off so need more nature time, but i can't get enough of the place at the moment! Quiet approach, no golfers again..straight to the shrine...got out the spade and did more levelling off of the circle..in doing this I uncovered a few pebbles that had been lodged in the clay since....well I don't know...since the last ice age? well, ages anyway...i held these cool to the touch smooth pebbles in my hand and marvelled at them..prob the first time they had nbeen touched by human hands...i could picture ancient times as i held them....magic stones!! anyway, rather than just cast them away i made a little circle from them at the border of a levelled area...i did a lot of mooching tonight..a slow moving meditation on the place..how it looked and seemed from different places within the circle. It suddenly struck me how it is really taking on power and energy this place..it looks like magic happens there...i think if someone found it now they would be struck by this place...depending on their own mental/spiritual outlook they could be freaked out/interested/calmed..maybe even sit down for a bit and chill...i wonder what the foxes think of it when i am not there...i feel they are aware of me..they probably think i am a strange animal.lol...i then thought..blimey! what am i doing..flattening it out and the like..well...what i am doing is making it comfortable...comfortable to meditate in..to lie in..to sit in...i think i will plant a lot of chamomile in it and have a chamomile lawn which would be pure heaven to lie down in and soak up! part of the beauty of the place is the contrast between the surrounding natural chaos..the nettles/brambles/saplings/ivy/weeds/flowers etc..all a higgeldy piggeldy jumble and then all of a sudden, a clear circle area surrounded by herbs and fruit bushes and trees...with a sort of mud/straw hut off centre...with a crystal tied into a tree...and a circle of ice age pebbles on the floor....MAGIC ON!! LOVE THIS LIFE!!

taking the spade

Hi...just back from an evening foray to the nature place..i took a spade with me tonight as i am in the process of making the earth in the circle as flat as possible for proper comfortable lying down meditations..i parked up and crossed the field carrying my spade...and ahead of me were a gang of youths standing loosely in a group...i could tell they were stoned:) they were just sort of standing there..and obviously when i came into view it interrupted their communal vibe...after all a man with a purpose..large striding it in their direction carrying a spade! i was expecting a comment such as 'where are u going with your spade' but nothing..a couple of them looked out of the corners of their eyes..but that was it..i smiled as i walked and passed them by...carrying on my mission...no golfers tonight, so a quick dash over the gate, across the manicured lawns and into the undergrowth..swiftly to the place and ahhhhhhh...tranquility. i tied a crystal to a tree, i got this crystal as a present from a friend called Ju a while ago and thought it would be a good place to energise it, so it now hangs in the tree in the centre of my clearing!i did a bit of levelling..and then slowly observed the subtleness of nature around me. The rosebay willowherbs are about 10ft tall now..half the flowers gone..plenty of fluffy seeds about, and bees, tucking into the final flush of nectar..the sun was going down over in the west and its golden globe gave a warm burst of pleasant energy over the scene...it was getting to that point where the day dies and the night begins...i breathed in some more peace, then moved stealthily back thru the undergrowth, down to the golf course and towards home, minus the spade, i have left it there well hidden, the youths had gone..i got back into my car...and drove home..

Barefoot Doctor Book

I set off in my car with a carrier bag that contained a trowel, a bottle of water, some potting compost and a new sage plant in a small pot that cost me £2.00 from a garden centre. I parked in a supermarket carpark and was heading over to the river when on impulse, I called in at the charity shop...as i was walking in I was thinking what have i come in here for, anyway, rather than just walk back out I walked over to the books, and the third book my eyes lazily scanned I saw a book by the Barefoot Doctor! as i follow him on twitter I bought the book, its called 'handbook for the urban warrior..a spiritual survival guide'. I then carried on to the river, through the undergrowth, over the railway and to my secret nature place. I did a bit of clearing yesterday, to re-affirm the circle and it was really pleasant to enter this circle again today, as the sun was shining, a new book in my bag and a healing herb to plant! happy days!! I planted the sage inbetween a blackcurrant bush and a buddleia...and aked its spirit to settle in, and that i would nurture it until it found strength to join in the party that my other plant and tree spirits are having in my hallowed nature shrine! Sitting down on an old bucket type plant pot I read bits of the book..just up my street, the energy of the bits i read suited my mood and the sunny day..energy all good and all around..i breathed it in and gave thanks...CHI!! as the brarefoot doctor would say..by the way..if u are on twitter..u can follow the doc there..at @BarefootDoctor.... and i am known as @worldtreeman...blessed be:)

Someones Found It!!!!

There has been a human visitor to my secret nature place! I went there last night for a little chillout, the evening was perfect...slightly fresher air, but a still warm sun...little fluffy clouds and everything a brilliant green after the recent heavy rains. I had to wait on the path for a few minutes as a golfer was taking his time putting, then when he had moved on to the next hole i jumped the gate and sprinted across to the woods, where i walked up the steep undergrowth bank to the lower meadow...i followed my path through the 7ft willowherb ,brambles and grass , moved through the next wave of trees, up the slope and alighted in my circle. Didn't notice anything at first but then i noticed, my saw was not where i had left it...i searched around, and sure enough, it had gone!! mmmmmm...its been discovered...i checked my blackcurrant bushes, ok..my saplings, all ok...in fact if it hadn't been for the loss of the saw i would be none the wiser that anyone had been there..the good news is that no damage has been done, the mud hut is still there, still as it was...but someone has discovered it! I will have to watch this space and see what happens, maybe nothing...but i will let my current path grow back and revert to a lesser know one..(maybe i should use stilts.lol,and not disturb the approach!! Anyway, i paid dearly for my journey last night, as i had foolishly gone out in shorts and sandals..these do not go well with brambles, nettles and the like and i was awake for a good while last night with inflamed and badly scratched feet and legs! i was even getting paranoid i had blood poisoning or something as my legs were burning hot..but i was ok in the end, i just have some deep scratches and red marks today.. so, two lessons learned, one..make sure i don't leave such obvious approach paths, and two..wear jeans and boots next time!!

De-Westernising The Head

So, I go into nature to relax, unwind..not to switch off, but rather to detune..and then to switch on to something else. I have observed the relaxation process once alone in nature, and it is quite revealing..I call it the 'de-westernisation' of the head. In the silence and embrace of nature i can observe the initial 'monkey mind'..the chattering away, the masks, the tensions, the defences..even so far as the surface 'sub personalities' which i obviously use throughout my day in the world of my work and everyday stuff such as driving and buying petrol and the like.These pop up,layer after layer..and i have learned to simply observe them, then let them go...i used to try and analyse them, understand them, but that done years ago, i bypass all that and let them go, like clouds passing across the sky..a form of meditation i guess.There comes a point, where a stillness is reached..at this stage i feel a 'blending' taking place between me and the natural world..i feel a part of the energy around me and i sit like this, in a state of 'no mind' for as long as i feel the need.There is no need for thoughts, it is a blending, a relaxing, a healing..it allows the western wires to unplug, and plug into something far greater. As i leave the place and return to the fray, i hope to take some of the natural medicine with me, in my energy, my outlook, my aura..maybe i do, maybe i don't...but whether i do or not..it is a medicine i need...

Close to its Beating Heart

It is all around us...more or less every location and zone is in sight of at least some of it..it gives us air to breathe, it contains insects that pollenise, that aerate the soil...its a web that WORKS..but we have forgotten it here in the west haven't we. We travel to work in cars, we sit in air conditioned rooms all day, we then drive home and engage in various forms of media, the television, games consoles, and computers...well a large amount of us do..many are changing, or were not wholly absorbed to begin with..and CHANGE WE MUST! I hate it when i start to feel 'preachy'..it gets boring and makes me think i am being self righteous..i will give you my position now..i have given it all one heck of a lot of thought, i have spent a lot of time in nature, and my last job (10 years) was litter picking in rural areas...BRILLIANT!! so i feel that i have one foot in the right place at least! So what have we forgotten? we have forgotten that nature deserves respect, and i don't mean dressing things up in a 'green agenda' just to make money..i believe that by now we should have moved on from that mentality.but alas we have not! all they are bothered about in power is getting powerful and/or getting rich! It stinks..their whole reality that they pump out is tainted..its not even their fault..its evolved like that over many generations..they are just simply the latest layer of the problem.So what do we do? Well....what I do is to create this nature shrine where i can sit and reflect on nature and my place in it, be close to the soil, and learn from closely observing it. It is a focal point, where i can get to know the nature in my locality..and get involved in local issues/meet up with others of a like mind..also i can write about in on here and share it with YOU..and if it strikes a cord then BRILLIANT! I want to be close to its beating heart, i want to reconfigure my psyche around it..because i see the evolved human system as deeply flawed and unworthy of our potentials and our grace as evolved humans COULD be...so i do what i do:)

Thankyou New Age Travellers

The above are photos from the avon free festival (1991, chipping sodbury) taken by Tim Aldiss. I did some reflections today about my life and the influences on it that helped nurture the path i have trodden regarding the natural world and nature reverence. In the very early 1990's my path crossed with a few people that were dubbed by the media at the time as 'new age travellers'.These were an eclectic mix of people that largely shunned mainstream society and bravely attempted to live an alternative way of life, travelling in convoys of motorhomes and other vehicles and living on the edges of cities and towns as close to nature as they could.Influenced to a large extent by the hippies of the 1960's, their ethos was freedom, freedom freedom and the right to explore alternative forms of living. it is hard and also not fair to 'lump together'or try to pigeon hole them but i discovered a fascinating mix of people who were both intelligent and dynamic, often interested in society,philosophy, ecological concerns and mind expansion. I was attracted to their stance on many issues..I was young and keen, keen to explore and keen not to be bored! conventional reality to me seemed dull and flawed, deeply so, and these people seemed to offer a beacon of hope. I started to hang around with them, i adopted their dress and expressions...i wore army boots and tie dyed tops..i grew my hair longer and dreadlocked it, i explored new mental horizons with them. To me it was an age of discovery, a renaissance where we attempted to forge new relationships with the nature around us. I sat round fires with them, got stoned with them and eventually, did acid with them. It was a unique time..the travellers had been holding summer gatherings for donkeys years..meeting up at festivals, such as the avon free festival.The year was 1991..i travelled all the way down from the North of england to find the mythic avon free festival, which was in a place called chipping sodbury. So, it seemed, had many other people...the place was packed..the dreadlocks were everywhere, the acid was everywhere and the sound systems were booming. It has gone down in history as an important cultural event that led to a meeting of the burgeoning 'rave' movement with the hippy/traveller convoys. The dreadlocks met the ravers..and got married:)..To me it was revolutionary..all these people dancing till the sunrise like our distant shamanic ancestors had done..AWESOME! there were fires..friendly faces...i danced, and i found a friendly fire to sit by, alongside wizened older travellers..i was forever changed. The movement grew until the ill fated castlemorton common festival, wher the illegal ravers met in colossal numbers and raved on big time for a few days...it was too big to be stopped!! we had won..we were drawn to this, and portals were opened. Of course, the controlling forces had to ruin the party and the convoys were banned..silly laws were brought in making illegal gatherings of more than a handful of people listening to music of a repetitive nature...they tried to stop the shamans!! but the holes had already been made in the fence..and little did they know it, but many of us forged freedom paths from out of those days, that have now become highways...WE did it!!! Anyway, this is a thankyou to all of those people i met during those important days..i see u still in my mind, and i wish you all the best of luck and love in life...u helped me forge my path, gather my intent..and maybe i would not have ever created a secret nature shrine if it hadn't been for the influences of those days!!

If I had to survive there

Theoretically speaking, if I had to survive at my secret nature shrine how would I go about it?..how would it be possible? Well, the way the need to survive came into existance would have a bearing on the outcome. If there was a sudden apocalyptic event which led to a breakdown of society then it would be a case of grab what i can and head there fast, however, if it was through choice, this would be different, it would allow more time to prepare, gather and store..it would make life a lot easier. There is one thing I would definately take with me though, and that is the amazing book 'the new complete book of self sufficiency' by john seymour. Full of hints and tips and practical advice, it is an essential part of kit for an urban dweller with very little practical experience of self sufficiency. Packets of seeds would come in handy...ok, it takes time to grow crops, but worth a start, and for fairly fast growth, vegetables like radishes are super fast! so get planting!!! i have already planted a few blackcurrant bushes which are doing well...but its early days yet, they have years before they are fully grown. I think i will plant some gooseberry bushes at the weekend. Actually, lets talk the wild stuff, thats already there...ok,,there is a wild apple tree in the lower meadow, and another down in the public area..the apples are eating apples too, a bit odd tasting compared to what u buy in the shops, but fresh and vitamin filled straight from tree...there are elderberries everywhere, as they make up one of the main 4 or 5 tree types in the area. hawthorn trees abound (leaves and berries), and birch trees do too (sap)nettles are everywhere (brilliant blood tonic and alternative vegetable)and there is wild garlic too. Ok, so we have a bit of salad, and natural growing veg..but what of meat or fish? well, the river is minutes away and is stocked with all sorts of fish. being tidal there is a mix of sea and freshwater fish. sea trout, salmon, flatfish,eels,perch, roach, rudd...and pike. plenty there. one could catch and cook them there and then, or make a rack and dry them out in the sun thus enabling supplies for the future. On the land there are rabbits...more potential food. The big problem is water! every time it rained i would have to catch as much as possible, otherwise it would involve a walk, or boiling and treating of the river water!!! the only natural stream i can think of in the area is 6 miles away...a bit of a trek, but if i had to do it, i would do it! obviously, the way water was collected would depend on what happened to bring the survival into practice..if it was a personal decision then i could easily walk into public toilets and fill my water bottles from the sink taps, but if there was a disater and there was no water from any taps, then it would be the rain and the stream option! think i'd better get in some water treatment tablets! So, survival could be achieved..food, water wise. I have my shelter, so thats ok, and if i wasn't prepared to spend ages rubbing sticks together, i would need matches for fire..but the main thing is, it could be achieved!

my fantasy of solitude

I have a growing desire...its going to be hard to pull off as i am a busy parent with a full time job, but this desire won't leave me..i don't really want it to leave me either so one day i am going to have to do it. That desire is to head to my nature place and spend a long, long time there. I want to feel the peace that comes from a long immersion in quiet nature, I want to experiment with my mind and see what happens when i do this..i want to access deeper selves, deeper rhythms..i want a total connection with the natural environment. It is impossible to say whay exactly would happen if i undertook this quest, but i can guess at some of it. I would imagine that it would be great at first..then the mind would probably chatter away and i would feel a bit unhinged maybe after a while..i imagine a coming in and out of focus and awareness, clarity and confusion, ups and downs, peaks and troughs.I imagine that deep emotions may come to the surface, tears maybe..after all, ther ewould be no distractions, no other people, no roles, no interactions...it would be me and nature and whatever spirits showed up...time would be irrelevant, it may even be quite challenging...but i want to try it...i am talking maybe three days or so...it doesn't sound much but believe me it is..after all it is only a small circle surrounded by high plants, trees and bushes....where nobody else goes....has anyone else thats reading this undertaken such a quest before?

The summer storm

i walk the green, its turning yellow grasses, straw, it s all so mellow. Up to my shoulders in the sea, waves of green are soothing me. Up above the clouds they gather, building up they're getting blacker. the air is warm, the heat it rises, it dreams my mind..it hypnotizes. The seed filled air it slowly moves, downy airborne drifting grooves. i feel my spine in tune with it, the energy of my chakras lit. Suddenly the sky it flashes, i see it even thru closed lashes. distant rumbling thunder drums, the promised storm at last it comes. An electrical pause and then the rain, pounding down upon my brain. Natures thirst at last is slaked, floods upon the land thats baked. The air cools down amidst the pounding, all the energy now is grounding. The sky is dark, the grasses wet, the summer storm today i met.

Other Edgelands People

The vicinity of my retreat is an area that is accessible to the public..there are the wild meadows, leading to the riverbanks.A public footpath leads alongside and thru the middle of the meadows and then continues on alongside the river. My place, betwixt a golf course and railway track, is not accesible in a conventional way. i.e. a footpath, so it is left to nature, and to me. Luckily for me, not many others share my desire to create a little shrine in the midst of a wild area and tend to stick to the paths..but what of the other people i see and meet on the public areas..the other people that frequent the edgelands? The area attracts some people, but in the big scheme of things not too many. It has no shops or outlets down there, no paid activities, or boats for hire, so people go there for other reasons. In the main people go there to walk their dogs, they love the place, i know many of them, and the whole attraction for them is the wildish nature of the environment, the all important 'green lung'..some of these dog walkers trespass on the golf course in the morning and evening, when the golfers are not around, and i don't blame them, for the golf course is a visually pleasing place, with plenty of trees about.A few fishermen can be spotted now and then, but fishing must be dying out, as there are no where near as many now as there were down there in the 1980's. One can catch flatfish (known locally as flukes), eels, salmon and sea trout, roach, perch, too now and then. It is tidal here, the river , so has a mix of salt and freshwater fish. I have met geocache fanatics, metal detectorists, youths by fires drinking, homeless people, i have seen all these and more over the years down there. But what of other 'edgelands people' in the same vein as I? About ten years ago i chanced upon a teepee in a reaaly hidden away area at the back of one of the wild meadows, i only found it because i explore and roam, often off the paths themselves, there it was, with an axe on a wood chopping block, the smell of firesmoke...i caught a glimpse of the fella thru the flapping entrance, and recognising him as someone to avoid..( a dangerous sort that lived right on the edge, and who i had once witnessed at an illegal rave in the early 1990's hitting someone with an axe)..so i crept away as silent as a mouse...he lived there for about 8 months and moved on. Recently i discovered a 'camp in use' and had a look around. The occupants were not there but sleeping bags were spread about, a deck of cards, a couple of pans, a few tins of sweetcorn and kidney beans, the remains of a fire and a structure made from various tents stretched over bent willow poles...home made tools had been made and attempts had been made to hide the area with high mounds of undergrowth piled up all around. i was silent, careful, had a potter, but didn't linger, the vibes didn't feel good. But i have found no 'shrine ' as such...so, we each go down there for our own reasons..some for exercise, some to be in nature, to walk dogs, to fish, or to set up a temporary home as in the case of the teepee man. We are edgelands people, we like the bits outside of the box, the plans and the concrete, we are in every town, village, city the world over...

its become a jungle!!!

Last night I packed a rucksack full of water bottles and took my kids with me to my nature place. (they are 9 and 6 and love the fact one has to evade golfers to reach the place)As soon as we were across the golf course and up the wooded slope i realised how much the foliage grows at this time of year! we had entered a jungle..the path had new bramble shoots reaching across and everywhere the rosebay willowherb had grown pink flowers, that danced in the breeze, the hort breeze, as here in the uk we are in the midst of a heatwave. (hence the water).We slowly made our way thru the barely discernable path, and each side of this narrow route 7 foot high plants, grasses and willowherb towered..it was almost a jungle to me, so to my kids it must have been weird, being down in it, unable to see above it...just endless green with a blue sky overhead.....eventually we reached the circle..nature had encroached, so i cut back a bit and we sat in the warm air, recovering from our jungle odyssey...I unpacked the water bottles and gave sustenance to my blackcurrant bushes, my buddleias, mountain ash sapling, and so on and so on...i could almost hear their delight at receiving water...We didn't stay too long, the kids were too keen to get back to evading golfers..so back thru the jungle we went...until we reached the woods, where we had to hide for a time until 3 golfers had finished their putting, and moved on to the next hole, then, with the speed of rabbits, we darted out of the undergrowth, across the green and thru the hole in the fence...we had done our mission and were all happy, me, the kids, and the few special plants that i watered:)

The Reasons why I need a Nature Retreat

I have written about my retreat in previous posts and tried to set the scene of the place, touched on meditation, relaxation and mysticism, about the need for quiet and peace..etc..etc..but having given it more thought in why i find it necessary to 'top up' in this way I came up with the following theories... Surface thoughts hold no interest for me, as i believe them to be largely unproductive..I am talking of the realms of the chattering monkey mind..the fast moving, quicksilver chatter that comes hither and thither across the surface of the mind. This mind can flit about and get pulled this way and that, distracted by tv, distracted by billboards, by adverts, by other people, distracted by the hustle and bustle..when moving thru the system it acts functionally, as in driving or operating a computer, or multi tasking (yes, men do this too!)ok, so it gets involved in things, but its never going to be a peacefull sort of mind experience, so i need to get down deeper..to achieve this i need to be outside if possible, the inside of modern houses are just too noisy, and unless one has feng shuied the area, or planned their decor in such a way as to create quiet, then its still not going to allow the immersion in the peace necessary for the source force! So, outside it is..outside and alone, and away, and hidden, where the only sounds are natural ones, and where the eyes can slowly open, past the layers of selves/thoughts..to the peace...and why? why do i want to do this. well, after about 23 years of metaphysical study and experimenting, i realise i came here to remember how to be this way..this is me, its not a fad, a craze, a fashion..i am mystically minded..and thats that:) but there is more to the story...having been working along lines of shamanism/healing..etc for so, so long i want to come from a place within that is service to others and to the planet..so i untangle my knots, downsize my fears, exploree my shadows, find my mirrors, for what service am i if i am a dirty mirror, or a full time projectionist? so i explore, clear, share, realise and evolve.I see the ultimate human as someone that can sit within the space of any other on the planet and see where they are coming from..understand them, not judge them, or shower them with projections..if we are going to evolve from this point then some of us need to be doing work like this..its not for everyone, and it doesn't have to involve everyone..as i have said before in tweets, some cross barbed wire on behalf of the collective. but, its no big deal, we don't want medals, its who we are and what we do..so peace to all....and peace be ours

The Inner Child and the Sage

I think this nature sanctuary has a lot to do with the inner child if I'm honest. Not afraid to admit it, but I believe in the inner child idea and mine is alive and well. In fact out of my own inner archetypes the inner child and the inner wise old man seem to have come through the maze and are both doing very well. Its all the other bits that went awry:) The inner young man dashed off on mad quests along the lines of the warrior and the lover and is in the process of returning in 'flashes' from the myriad worlds he found adventures/battles/lovers in. All of us that exist in the complexity of my psyche are in touch with the goddess (thank god!)and she brings solace and support to the picture. So, between them, the inner child and the sage, they sit down by the fire out in the wilds and laugh at the lunacy of the modern world whilst waiting and calling the return of the lost. We think that the hero ended up in the arthurian realms and is returning with the other blazing eyed/full hearted ancient ones to help bring sense once more to this broken world.

My impact on nature

Because I have created a shrine out in the edgelands i often pause to consider the actual impact i have had on this mini ecosystem. Before I begun my work in creating a shrine what existed at the site before. Well the actual area i cut away was a section from a huge wild stand of twisted and clogging bramble bushes. It had grown tall over the years and all the old shoots had toughened or died and created an inpenetrable mass where the new growth grew in successive layers on top and around. Very little else grew in this zone, the ground under the brambles was a thick layer of old bramble leaf litter...probably home to masses of insects/mice etc but not much sign of any other plantlife. Within weeks of clearing it the changes started to occur.nature made use of the newly created gaps..sunlight and rain and air found room to move in the space and interact with it...now, years on the changes are many and varied. many types of grasses, ferns,flowers,tiny tree seedlings from many varieties, thistles, docks, nettles, all have found space and have moved in. the rosebay willowherb have spread thickly around and up to the borders on one whole side, in fact they have taken over one area that was still bramble covered. The brambles themselves live on..but moved over to the right, in fact there is a whole new lease of life from them now. this year i will be eating loads of blackberries, as there are bramble flowers everywhere. So i have had an impact on nature in this ecosystem...i am no scientific expert but in my opinion and observation I have actually helped create the conditions for new and varied life to enter the area. As i have said before, it is not a vast area that i have altered, just a small clearing...but it proves to me that human interaction with nature can be a positive thing...i can learn many lessons from my shrine..the powers of nature are very evident here...it is an amazing force that we can learn much from.

Leaving it for Nature

I have not been there for a few days, change of scene, been to the coast of north wales...and its been fantastic..the weather was divine..i was on a beach called morfa dyffryn which is a long strip of sand backed by an extensive dune system...i walked the dunes, wathced the sun go down over the distant hills across the bay...soaked up all the solar/lunar/sea energies...and also thought..wow! wouldn't it be great to live here...i could find some brilliant places for a little shrine here...but the problem? well...the whole place is like a shrine..beauty everywhere..from chancing upon 20 or so grazing rabbits in a dune valley turned to greenery, with small trees even, to watching the sun slowly descend in glorious technicolour the whole scene awash with energy. I stood atop the highest dune looking seawards and breathed deep..and was in a zone of bliss which felt truly spiritual.A well needed break...so my local shrine? well..it is good to leave it to nature from time to time, it keeps it fresh, and makes it more interesting when i return next time...as it always subtly changes.Also, the paths i accidently make when coming and going will have become less obvious...so...until the next time....

dodging the golfers

to get to my nature place i have 2 choices....i can climb a large metal gate with spiky tops, walk up a little track and cross two sets of railway line. The other is to wait in the undergrowth till the golf course area i need to cross is free of golfers and run across a green to the safety of the woods . Each way has risks..calculated risks....to be honest, i don't see them as risks at all, but i know that in the health and safety mad world we live in now some people would cry out RISK RISK RISK!! Ha HA! Depending on my mood, i make my choice.Sundays are a good day for the railway option, as there are hardly any trains, but other days the line can get busyish so a little more care is needed to cross...(now if any railway law types are looking at this, i could be making this whole thing up!! lol..i read once of someone putting in a blog about taking LSD and was charged because they admitted it in writing! so if i choose the railway route, I look left and right! and if nothing is coming, run across like an agile rabbit...get to the long grass the other side, through a wire fence and i am home and dry...quick as a flash! the only drawback is that a dog walker may see me climbing over the sharp tipped metal gate and fence! i guess they wouldn't think twice if a kid was doing it, but i am 41..and lets be honest..in our society not many 41 year olds do this sort of thing! ha ha again!! anyway...over i go, whether seen or unseen...so that is the railway option. the golf course one can sometimes be more time consuming, but is generally more fun. If i get there and some golfers are on the green i have to wait...so i watch them from the undergrowth for the opportune moment...soon as they are finished and move on i am over the gate and running...(the jackrabbit again)..and u know what,,they never look back! (too busy keeping an eye on where they have slogged their ball....and the ground is super quiet soft! anyway, i hit the tree line, and i am in my paradise...

If Martial Law Had Come About

Amongst the numerous trails of thought and philosophy that pre-occupied me in the lead up to creating a nature refuge was what would I do if it all went pear shaped?...when I say pear shaped I mean some sort of crisis scenario that led up to the bringing in of martial law or other control methods of the population. This was a smorgasboard of conspiracy theories run wild. Doomsday scenarios, micro chipped heads...concentration camps...etc etc...ultimately a 'its all gone nuts..there is no food...come to this containment camp for bread....then 'boom! boom! boom!' sort of thing! If u are into conspiracy theories u will get my drift, if not then u will think i am a nutter...either way, its the way a part of me used to think and had a part in my desire to create a nature refuge, so its getting told the way it was:) So, I wanted to create a refuge where if the worst came to the worst I could hide in the nature place with a food stash, out of the way of the army patrols and the frenzied mobs of crazy starving, and armed nutcases!then when, if it ever did, calm down i would have survived....a partisan to be:) with my tins of beans and sliced peaches in syrup:)Ok, what happened...the food stash was begun in the garden shed...then over time it was a case of 'have u got any of those beans left, we've run out'...i think maybe a couple of tins of sardines and a cheap lentils mix lie rusting in the junk that is inside my crumbling garden shed, along with a carrier bag of knotted fishing line, floats and hooks:) i am not very organised really...if the worst came to the worst i could stuff a rucksack with a jumbled array of survival bric-a brac and leg it to my bower, but then it would be down to nettles, berries and maybe some unlucky fish plucked from the river! so doom laden martial law situation...please never happen, i would rather my secret place be used for spiritual purposes than survival ones...and we really want peace on this planet on the whole:)

A Worrying Trend

If I was writing this in the 70's or 80's then I would probably be announcing that my den had been found, trashed,burned, or taken over by kids..but it is 2013 and it is safe...why? because whereas in my childhood/youth the river,trees,meadows,scrapyard,railway areas were frequented by little bands or tribes of kids...but today they are nowhere to be seen! Good for my nature place but not good for the kids...it is a worrying trend..a combination of parental paranoia and the mass use of playstations and x boxes has ensured a whole generation of youngsters are bound in cotton wool and know very little of the real and natural world. this does not bode well for them and their health, but also it is not a good sign for the care of the ecology of the planet in the years to come,how can they protect and nurture nature if they are oblivious to it? We need the wild brought into the schools...take them out to it, teach them of it..but education, alas seems pre-occupied with ensuring the continuity of the corporate empire, teaching the kids powerpoint presentations and how to be and act in business....yawn! if i was a kid i would have been bored to tears with it! so parents! wake up! let out your kids...conquer your own fears about lettin your kids run wild and let them be healthy. I remember in my 20's i went thru a phase of nightclubbing (i was so into dancing and trance techno) and after the club i started going with a few friends into the woods where we would carry on the party by having a fire and climbing trees. word spread around and soon 30 or 40 people would attend these bacchanalian gatherings...i remember going mad at some of them as they thought the idea of collecting firewood was to break branches off living trees.!!! I pointed out all the dead wood on the ground, and explained that l;ive wood not only destroys the trees but doesn't burn well anyway...EDUCATION! we need to re-connect the kids to the great outdoors and we need to teach them how to respect it! SOON!

the origin of churches?

My nature shrine has become potent in both the inner and the outer worlds...but this is not unique, any space in nature...if nurtured and meditated in, becomes, over time a sacred place.I am not physically there right now, I am here, in my house, with a laptop on my knee..but in my mind and heart the shrine exists, as real as if I am there...it therfore exists on many (some Overlapping) layers of reality.It has become a multidimensional sacred space. It has become like a nest in my mind..where i can find safety, peace and healing. maybe the origin of churches began like this? I imagine ancient communities long long ago..within these communities some will have been touched with the desire and need to get away from the everyday and seek solace in quiet nature..maybe they spent so much time there that they built a rough shelter...then maybe they just stayed...then things happened...maybe a couple of people were guided or healed by the hermit...and before long a stronger structure was built on the place made sacred.The origin of churches? well at this present moment in time it is just me and nature...and my intent to cultivate the sacred in my beautiful little hideaway

The Day The Cameras Came By

Out of curiosity I viewed my nature place on Google Earth. I could see my city clearly as a passenger in a very high plane could see it..grey mainly..with little splashes of green, the curling band of the river..the countryside in the distance. I zoomed in..I could see the roads, the railways...aha! the golf course....i homed in a bit nearer...eventually I could see the green strip that was where my nature place was located..is that it?!? It made me realise just how near civilisation it was...yet civilisation seems so far away when I am there. For when I am meditating in my green space, surrounded by the circle of outward spanning nettles, brambles, rosebay willowherb, trees and of course the wood it seems I am in the midst of a remote nature...well in some sense I am, for it is not frequented, it is unknown, it is the edgelands...so near to civilisation, and yet so far! I guess the bird in the nest in the tree that is one of many along a busy road, or the ant in the ant nest in the centre strip of motorway feel similar..they are near in their way to the system and its movements, as I am in my relatively larger scale when I am hidden in my secret shrine..getting on with our nature bliss...its nice to know that even on Google earth I am hidden from the satellites as they orbit...as all they see is a strip of green and a few darker splodges of tree...one of many patches of green within and around the modern world...glad I didn't have a fire the day the cameras came by...or else my cover would have been blown:)

The Quest For The Perfect Place (The Evolution Began)

It was probably about a decade ago that I started casually looking around for a place where I could evolve a retreat zone within the nature places of my locality.All the wild places in my vicinity I knew well having been a wanderer and a walker for as long as I can remember. I don't own dogs, so I don't walk for that reason...I am one of those people that just enjoys being out when I can. I find it meditative, relaxing, inspiring and of course it keeps me physically fit.But a park bench isn't for me, I need somewhere where i can be alone, not even see another human being at times, and living on the edges of a city, that can be difficult.It is not antisocial, rather it is medicinal...for being a somewhat finely tuned individual regarding others, I need time and space to get to my own energies and rhythms, to totally wind down to that spot that all meditators know about. So I kept this thought in mind as i walked...the weeks and months and years passed...always in the back of my mind....i walked the river, toyed with a couple of places, but either the vibe wasn't right..(too dank and undergrowth filled) or it would be easily discovered... I walked the railway and checked out parts of the embankments...no...could be seen from houses, or one of the bridges...i looked at the potential of many trees for treehouses...none were right..well one was, and i had plans for it..but it got struck by lightning and was felled so bang went that one! Then one day out walking I remembered some of the places i played as a kid...an area between a railway and a golf course..mmmmmm...lets see...the railway zone was rampant with nature over in places quite wide and steep embankments...one raised embankment stretched out into some wild meadows, one lower and one higher...the higher one the end of a natural escarpment. beyond this were some woods which descended down onto a golf course.The woods were tangled and at the top where it adjoined the meadow full of undergrowth...the meadows had clusters of hawthorn trees some growing out of an old ditch...i lifted the boughs and entered the dry ditch...beyond was an area full of brambles...it came to me like a eureka moment...if i could clear the brambles this place would be the right one!...I got to work...and the evolution began.

The inner nature child

There is a lot of talk these days about the inner child, how we should nurture it...rescue it even...and this is GREAT! but it oft seems that its all 'gooey ickle cute babyish sort of inner child stuff...which has its place of course...but what about the other sides of the inner child...the BiGGeR inner child. the one that stayed out all day and came back smelling of firesmoke and with cuts and grazes. The tree climber, the den maker, the army strategist, the lone dreaming scout? what of them...this inner child..(if yours was ever like this) is RAGiNG or crying to be found...he/she recoils from the sterile order of the corporate life...this inner child holds the keys to your soul...it is brave, it is daring....and it wants you to see it and be it...can you hear its call? I think that my nature place is a bit of this for me...just be-ing out in the wilds...making fires and a mud hut...its not even a two fingers raised to the system sort of thing, it is a natural extension of who i am, what i want to do...and it is helping to make me whole again:)remember the old, and so valid magical saying...'an it harm none..do as thou wilt....

Desire Paths

The pavement is concrete, it runs parallel with the tarmac road, we people walk it without thought..for it is there, they have in most cases in our localities been there for our whole lives, they were dreamed up by someone, or some people, a a long time ago for convenience...the best way to string various locations together.The village grew, some turned into towns, some into super city. We each know our own network of pavements in our localities...we walk them without thought, it is virtually automatic. Now, take a turn off this grid, maybe to the river, to the fields, the woods, away to somewhere that has not paths made from concrete. we find paths still...rougher ones, but paths nontheless...a field has one across it, or alonside it..now add the weather to the picture..imagine it rains for 2 whole months, the current rough path becomes a sludgy no go zone, the dog walkers curse at their daily mucky walk, and if it is bad enough a new way through or along may develop, maybe it skirts around the muddy obstacle, but the grass gets trampled down, other walkers see that this has occured and follow suit...it may over time become a new path, a desire path, not created by a council office and diggers, but by human whims, a desire path..how many of our paths are desire pathways? I know places in my locality where council laid paths are ignored, and the locals use the way though the wwods and fields, because it is quicker, and for some people pleasanter...a desire path. i have to be careful with my desire paths when i am approaching and leaving my secret nature place...as i don't want it to be discovered, so i have three different ways...one easier (which i had used too often and now am forced to leave grow back again, and two more difficult, which involve ducking and diving under hawthorn boughs, and up sometimes slippy wooded slopes...i tread carefully, so as to disturb the undergrowth as little as possible...maybe i should use stilts:)

Meditation by Fire

I don't always have a fire when i am gaining peace at my nature spot, but when I do it is always a special occasion for me. I have loved fires since I was a child and my dad used to make them on beach holidays. Over the years I have enjoyed them on camping trips with friends, at festivals and other times such as when i spend a long time at my bower. Every part of the fire process is a ritual for me, from the collection of the wood , to the lighting itself, and then to the enjoyment of the fire in progress, and the keeping it going...until finally, the putting out of it.When i decide to have one i take my old trusty daysack with me and head into the wooded areas to the north of my bower. Here i walk and pick as I move, suitable small dry sticks and twigs which will form the base of the fire. Once the sack is full I return, drop it off and head back to the bigger pieces. I don't need too much for a few hours worth of fire, I keep them small when here, its not, after all a beach bonfire with loads of people round it, its just me, and i want to keep it safe, and not burn down my retreat area!! When I am happy with the wood, I arrange the twigs, from the smallest upwards, like a small structure,which awaits the flame. Then i offer a blessing, something along the lines of , 'May the spirits of kinship,healing and protection be with me around this fire, may this be a fire of peace, of reflection and all for the highest possible good'...i may burn a little sage if i remembered to take some with me.Then I light it, nurture it, tend to it, until i can add the bigger bits and start to relax. I read somewhere once that ancient mystics used to stare at the flames of a fire to balance the energies of their heads, and they noted how cats seem to sit close to fires in what appears a meditative state. Well, I find cats quite a wise species of animal and i find fires have a hypnotic effect, so i softly stare at it, and relax...let the natural energies work their magic on my westernized head....and feel all the better for it:)

I couldn't find any new fire pic from my bower so here is one from the coast a couple of months ago...larger this though, than the ones i have for meditation.

Solstice Poem

The sky gone all cornflower, blue as it gets. The worlds turned full circle, and magicked our heads. We've all felt it coming, we know its the time the revelry risin, the sun's done its climb. We feel the forces, we move down its path, have trust in the moment, freedom to laugh. Solstice expressions, from our eyes they shine midsummer bliss, 'cause its solstice time peace brothers and sisters, peace and love at the time of the magical solstice...

nettle flagellation

Last evenings foray resulted in a bare arm covered in nettle stings..ouch! One of the perils of having a hard to access nature shrine i'm afraid. Recently, my 6 year old son asked me, 'dad, you said nature is good for you, so is it good to be stung by nettles?' I had to smile! I went on to explain about the fact the nettle as a species, has probably been around a mighty long time and over some of this time it probably grew into having these stings as a form of protection. I mean, not many people are willingly going to walk through a large stand of nettles, so they tend to thrive once established out in the wild.It also brought to mind a programme i watched a while ago where some participants in a jungle ceremony preparing to ingest the hallucinogenic vine ayahuasca, were being flagellated with bunches of nettles to bring any resident evil spirits to the surface for purging.interesting! Well, I am not about to undertake a nettle whipping, as the two dozen little bumps on my arm were painful enough, but maybe there is something in it- and if so, then my sons logic is not too far from the truth. Actually, more or less every time i go to my sanctuary i end up with a scratch or a graze, a bite or a sting. From a nettle to a hawthorn spike, or a plain old midge bite. Just one of those things, as i said, but worth it, for the peace of the place when i get there.

Warning..contains moderate nudity:)

The foxes and birds don't mind...the trees and plants certainly don't mind...and me...well now and then i kick off my jeans and feel the elements on my skin....after all...no one can see me:)

Where I 'Plug In'

Whenever I head out and make the relatively short journey to my hidden bower I feel a growing sense of excitement. The day eases away as i tread the secret paths and enter the undergrowth.the sun dapples through gaps in the leafy ceiling of the small wood and the air cools my skin.The rhythm is different here. A 'Clap ClAp clap' of a disturbed wood pigeon penetrates the air, the rustle of twigs and leaves as a mouse rushes away. It is approaching the solstice right now, so the trees are heavy with bright and fresh green leaves. I find it energising. Eventually I alight in the clearing. Each time I am relieved to find that it has not been discovered. The mud hut in the centre is still standing. I scoutabout, looking at the changes in the trees and bushes i have planted from seedlings...doubly excited as my 2 year old blackcurrant bush has 3 berries ripening on it...its first fruit ever! I pull up a few encroaching rosebay willowherb spears. The mass of rosebays are up to my shoulders now towards the North East of the circle heading towards the treeline in a large clump a few feet wide and deep. In a month this will be a sea of bright pink flowers, and later still, a mass of fluffy cotton like seeds...The ground in the cleared centre is hard, smooth, compacted from my numerous visits, i sometimes wonder what someones reaction would be if they stumbled upon this place! It emanates magic for sure! I settle on the dry ground, feel the evening air upon my face, and breathe deeply..this is my medicine...it is where i plug in, it gives colour to my eyes and skin, and the green energies suffuse my aura. Ahhh! the magic of nature:)

my place in the edgelands

I share it with many lifeforms...foxes sunbathe in it from time to time, birds nest nearby, mice walk thru it, and of course all the myriad forms of 'bug' native to the british isles make use of it...but humans? Apart from me, no-one knows of this place. They come near, very near at times, but they know not, that beyond the tangled barricades of bramble, the thick stands of nettles and the numerous small trees and shrubs, there is a hidden magical place, where i spend some of my time, doing what i do, in a place of reverence and awe, of the rhythms and dances of nature all around me. Here i work with nature, I have an idea, plant something,trim something, and nature responds with her own magic! It was, when i found it, a thick inpenetrable mass of brambles, very little else, but now, having created a large circle within,i have the pink of rosebay willowherb, the vivid blue of forget me nots, daisies, many variants of fern,new saplings, and all around the circle, i have planted seedlings, mountain ash,silver birch, goat willow, blackcurrant bushes and buddleias...nature knows i am here to uplift and be uplifted, so she protects the place, it has not been discovered....and this blog is my effort to share this evolving magic with you, to tell the story of the creation of my 'druid bower' and to tell the stories of wonder and evolution that occur within its magical circle, so hello, enjoy, and hope u will be inspired