Life on the Croft ~ May/June 2025
The Wild Roses in full bloom are weaving through the Willow, Forget-me-not blues peep though long grasses.
Hanging bundles of Plantain herb and Yarrow replace the earlier Nettles and Ground Elder, now seasoning my food and I’m enjoying the nurturance of freshly cooked Nettles. Clover flowers replace the bright yellow Gorse and as they turn to seed I’m reminded of hotter days when the pods burst are with a pop.
With the inclement weather here I have loved watching the trees embrace the rain. raising their branches and leaves towards the welcome moisture, they dance with the wind. Larger birds also play with the wind, performing acrobatics …
… relishing how the currents test and strengthen their wings
They are teaching me how to flow. Smaller birds nest, tuck away when the storm peaks, celebrate the calmer spells, the troughs, no matter how long they last … they really stay in the moment … knowing there are variations in all storms, always space to find a place to sing.
Living closer to the land in a more deconstructed way I need to go outside to move between rooms and spaces. Life in the Highlands means that all plans are influenced by weather and season, I’m used to that, though life not being contained by 4 walls enables deeper, richer, connection.
A water vole visitor popped out of the rocks held my gaze for a while before returning, his reminder of water consciousness and movement between the realms is most welcome.
Life is increasingly timeless and flowing like Honey …
As I write I am being serenaded by Song Thrush from the Sycamore tree overhead, there are Mistle thrushes here too. Last week they held vigil one night, all night, with the Blackbirds, spirit messengers singing candescent Hymns. And as the songscape changes with the season and weather the weave of messages does too:
Wren, master of moving through entanglements towards the rising light. Redpoll calls ‘Fire! Fire!’, a reminder to let go, burn down the ashes of the past and phoenix. Sky-Lark surprised me, an ethereal bird reaching such great heights, their sweetness is heard tho’ they are rarely seen. And as I connect into this joy … the goldfinches arrive … the geese fly over head turning ninety degrees above my van … a quarter turn … a quadrant as we shift into a new era …
We are moving past the intensity of the Karmic threshold they shared about in Triology.
And so the birds weave and mirror my time here, which thrills my inner child, who would stare out of the window with her bird book hoping to see them all one day … dreams that have come true, especially since living in the Highlands.
Owl arrives at dusk summarising the wisdom of the day.
Over recent years I have found that is it this day, the 19th June, that I feel the Solstice the most. There’s a summary shown through the preceding week with quiet reflection. The Solstice calendar days act on that reflection the turning toward what is emerging and burning what is ready to leave. This year I am holding a three day ceremony through the Dreaming Earth Poetry Portal and the Aurora Triology poems. I am leaning into this with curiosity for I am being shown the fertile grounds of creation where the Aurora’s intersect with the Nebula fields … where light and sound first came into the form of being. This feels like being within the lining of the womb as it prepares to receive the fertilised egg - the air thick and sweet like honey, waters cleanse and purify until fertility peaks and the spark of creation sinks into the deep, warm, darkness of the flesh. Like Earth preparing to embrace the seed, this is a reciprocal process.
This past week I have felt within my being this intersection, being both the ground and the seed.
Self reciprocation.
And I don’t feel ready to fully emerge just yet.
with much love
from my Heart to yours
Tania Aurora White Crow.