Samhain

 

The medieval Irish festival of Samhain marked the end of the harvest, the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half". It was celebrated over the course of several days and had some elements of a Festival of the Dead. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. People and their livestock would often walk between two bonfires as a cleansing ritual, and the bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.

This morning there was a magnificent sight in the eastern sky about 4.30am. The crescent moon was above Venus then Mars, Mercury and Jupiter all rising heliacally. The sky was crystal clear and I stood there for a long time looking at the spectacle without any movement of thought. When there is no thought then ‘what is’ is able to delight us.

This time of year the tree dahlias are starting to bloom, there is a big one in the back yard and I am using the photo as my desktop.

There are some beautiful Tibochinas in flower around the mountain, I wait for their flowering twice a year.

I haven’t spent much time in the vege garden over the past month but I did plant some red bok choy and broad beans.

 

There was a pile of weeds composting so I used them to cover some potatoes. The spuds came up in a week and look very happy.

The bok choy have just germinated

… and the broad beans are looking real good

There is going to be a big crop of jap pumpkins, this is from three plants:

If you look closely you can see some pumpkins: