weald and wold

I spent a bunch of time today gathering poplar buds for incense; when I was done gathering them and setting them to dry, my fingertips were coated with a thick, honey-coloured stickiness, and the kitchen smelled amazing.

On my way out to gather them they were putting the ferry in dry dock for the season; on the way back, the first snowflakes fell.  Definitely a changing day.

Did a spirit-walk on the land and collected some stuff.  Autumnal and liminal magic brewing; ideas for charms and for workings.  

A tiny brown snake crawled right into my hand.

Fascinated by the milkweed pods with their ridiculously abundant silky fluff.  The land here is SO abundant it feels almost profligate, in the same way that the weather often seems to me ridiculously over-the-top.  And all that luxuriant green is mulching down into the ground, making that rich giving soil to feed next year’s growth….  And the milkweed is named for Asclepius, and has so many uses from insulation to food.

Harvesting lemon verbena from the enclosed garden and hanging it to dry.  I’ve begun to set up my working space in the new house.  I ground the patchouli leaves I’d previously harvested and dried and decanted the rowan berries and leaves into containers.

My roots sink down.