Lammas

I had read a nice email about Lammas before heading out for my walk - you can see it here. And I had been thinking about Lammas too, before the email arrived, thinking I might celebrate. But i was too late and so this post is too late. Never mind.

Ally Stott's thoughts about this harvest festival are both melancholy and inspiring. She writes, "Through Lammas we meet the Harvest Queen and learn about true prosperity, death, endings, grief, healing, life-cycles, thanks-giving and celebration." And she goes on, "This Lammas in particular feels super-charged. We are seeing so much change, so many endings, so much falling to ground as the old stories and systems crack and crumble. Let us remember that the seeds of future harvests and generations are already present."

Ally, despite the deep grief I sense in her words, is a hopeful person. She, I think, believes that we humans are waking up... As you surely know by now, I do not share that optimism.

The plants, for their part, seem to be producing bumper crops. I have already documented the many acorns on oak trees. Beeches are covered in nuts. Ashes heavy with their keys. And, in this slideshow, the sloes seem to share the sense of needing to produce much fruit.

I have read that trees will offer up vast crops when they are threatened. It's their Hail Mary pass, as it were. I feel that all must feel threatened after the wet spring and dry summer.