Crone is pagan

Charlotte of the Plant dialogues course had waved some fermenting mead at the camera - and said she'd tell us how to make it in the second session. Sod that, I thought, I'll do it myself.

I had some kefir starter that was probably four years old and out of date - not the yeast recommended on various websites. Yeast? As if I need any more of that. I found one website that said unsprayed berries would have natural yeasts and that vikings put cherry bark in their mead. Great: I have raspberries in the garden and a cherry tree. Berries and bark went in, plus honeysuckle, rose petals and rosemary. And, for good measure, the kefir. And honey.

It actually tasted nice! You can see the fizz - something happened though its alcohol content was negligible.

I took a mug of it outside on the eve of the Longest Day, with my fire kit.

It was actually rather magical... a bit.

And I did jump over the fire!

The stick with the curved end is my 'firestick' which I took to the second section when I read my poem.

The story of the poem... On my walk, I felt called by the Oak and the Elm but most strongly by the Ash - the one whose sap rising I first heard.

I sat with the tree and its bark was smooth and cool on a very hot day... I felt at home and rather tearful. Then I saw, in my mind, what Charlotte described as the Earth Cross - marking the four elements. And then I heard the phrase, 'Don't fence me in.'

Afterwards I spoke to a couple of people about my experience and that helped me to articulate what I felt: the tree as the interlocutor between earth and sky, water and fire. The need not to conceptualise rigidly, to allow ideas to expand freely.

I wrote the first draft in my head as I was driving to my father's house and have since tweaked it a little.

I will post it tomorrow!