Advent 2024 and the Meaning of the Evergreens

 I went all over the place to find the evergreen bits to bring in for the Winter Solstice. I wanted as many different things that it's possible to have in a Mid Suffolk winter.

Bay from my own small Bay tree in a big pot in the back garden.

 Bay was used to aid healing and protected from lightening, snakebite, disease and witchcraft. Sacred to the Romans and worn by their emperors, heroes and poets. It was planted by the house door to keep away plague.

Holly with just a few berries from a back lane near where I used to live and I also snipped a couple of bits of variegated holly from the car park of a village hall on my way home from town on Thursday.

In Roman times Holly was given as a gift during Saturnalia. A Holly tree planted near the door protects from storm, fire and the Evil Eye. A holly collar protected a horse from witchcraft and coach men preferred whips with holly wood handles. Chilblains were cured by being whipped with a holly branch.

I stopped at the churchyard in the same village in the hope that some mistletoe would have been blown down from the huge churchyard trees and got lucky as there was a branch down, including mistletoe, although it must have been down a while as  most had lost it's leaves. There was one berry! 

Mistletoe - the most mysterious and magical plant, a parasitic plant suspended between earth and sky famous since the Druids. It symbolised peace and hospitality and the berries were used in love potions and kissing under it was once a fertility rite, rather than just fun!

A piece of Yew from one of the many Yew trees over the road in the Churchyard in my village.

 Yews have been planted in churchyards for many 100 years, although exactly the reason for the connection is not known, but it is thought they were sacred to pagans who had used the site before Christianity and they were often used as the spot for village meetings. They were thought to symbolise eternal life and cutting them down would bring death.

And Ivy growing on a post also in the churchyard, although it's everywhere of course.

Sacred to the Gods of wine it would hang outside a vintners premises to show that good wine could be had there (ale houses had a bush hanging outside)There is a traditional rivalry between the holly and the ivy. The holly is masculine and the ivy is feminine. Ivy leaves soaked in vinegar are said to be a cure for corns and whooping cough in children could be cured if they drank from a ivy-wood bowl.

And finally a piece of Rosemary also from the churchyard, didn't need secateurs for this as it was half broken and hanging down so not really 'stealing', just tidying!

Rosemary was both sacred and magical. Tradition says it had white flowers until the Virgin Mary spread Christ's  clothes on it to dry during the flight into Egypt. Tudor brides always carried rosemary in their bridal wreaths. Rosemary was once put into the hands of the deceased and mourners would carry rosemary to throw into the grave.

And altogether in the living room

There were some small bits left for another jar full which is on the kitchen windowsill. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Advent Photos 2021. Dec 21st and the Winter Solstice

Thank you to everyone for comments on yesterday's Boar's Head post. It was interesting to find it was called Head Cheese in Canada. When I was a girl we often had it for tea at a weekend with salt and pepper and bread and butter and it was always tasty which is why I wanted to make it myself when we kept pigs. I'm now going to investigate the few proper butchers shops that are left around about to see if they sell it.

So.........onto today's post...............................

 

 Last year I did lots of posts about the Ogham Tree Alphabet.

The Ogham Alphabet is the only native British writing system devised over 2,000 years ago and carved using notches onto wood or stone. Although I knew of it, this book found at a boot sale 3 years ago really describes everything well.

 

 Each tree represents a letter and a month and there are also trees for the other special days in the circle of the year.

The tree for the Winter Solstice is the Yew

I've written about Yew trees before HERE so won't repeat myself but this illustration for the Yew tree representing the letter I comes from the book.

 

So with the shortest hours of daylight  today it's all is on the upwards and onwards from now. Between the 21st and the 31st daylight  over here in the East will increase by..............................6 minutes!

And once again I have to include this poem, which I love

Susan Cooper was born in the UK and emigrated to the US in 1963, she mainly wrote children's books

This poem was written for the Christmas Revels, which I looked for information about and found.........

On Christmas Eve in 1920, John Meredith Langstaff was born into a music-filled home where a rousing, wassailing carol party was the peak of his family's year. Half a century later, his inspired Christmas Revels was born, a theatrical weaving of traditional song, folkdance, and drama that has become a beloved institution across the country.

 and this

Revels is a contemporary series of American seasonal stage performances, incorporating singing, dancing, recitals, and theatrics loosely organized around a central theme or narrative. The folk-tradition-based performances started in 1957, were restarted in 1971, and now occur in multiple cities around the US. 

 Wonder why we don't have similar here or maybe we do?

Back Tomorrow

Sue

The Yew

 The Yew hedge between my front garden and next door neighbours front garden has had a trim last week. It didn't take me long to cut with the electric hedge trimmer. Much, much easier than the many metres of hawthorn and privet at the Cottage. I raked up all the biggest bits and then hoovered the rest up with the lawn mower The hedge must only be 7 years old according to neighbours but has got very wide and tall in that time. I couldn't reach some of the top middle bits but next door neighbour was able to quickly get rid of the straggle. He also volunteered to clear all the small stuff from his lawn - thank goodness. Hopefully it only needs cutting once a year - there's conflicting advice online.

I've not had much to do with Yew trees or hedges- none anywhere I've lived before but of course they are famously long lived and found in churchyards all over the country including over the road. Back in the Middle Ages they made the best longbows for archery

Here's the Yew pages from the Complete Flower Fairy Book by Cicely Mary Baker

 

Looked in my book about the Ogham Tree Alphabet and discovered it's the tree that represents the Winter Solstice so I've made a note to write a blog post about it then.

Wordsworth wrote a poem about them too but it's a bit long to include here, this is a small part.

This solitary tree! - a living thing

Produced too slowly ever to decay

Of form and aspect too magnificent

To be destroyed

and Arthur Conan Doyle wrote "The Song of the Bow" HERE

 That's enough about the Yew for now

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Big Yew and Little Yew

  Big Yew

This photo of a huge Yew tree was taken on one of my cycle rides around my previous village last Autumn.

Little Yew

The little Yew was something I picked up a couple of years ago from a stall during a village art event. The idea was to keep it in a pot until it was big enough to add to the trees on the meadow - I had no plans to move back then. It's grown quite a lot since  but still less than a foot tall and has just spent 9 weeks stored at BiL's garden before he brought it here. Now I'm not sure what to do with it. It's not really suitable for a small garden that will have children playing.  All parts of Yew trees are poisonous and the garden here is too small  for something that gets quite big and can live for 100's of years, so it will need a new home.

 

 

 

 But look what's between my front garden and next doors - a Huge thick Yew hedge. I would like to find out if it's mine, theirs or belongs to both of us. I need to get all the paperwork back from the solicitor........... as I only ever saw the downloads on emails...... to find out.

 

 

 If it's mine it may well go to be replaced by something that isn't quite so overpowering.

Back Tomorrow

Sue