21/06/2010 - Summer Solstice Itinerary

Sunrise: 4:43 am

Sunset: 9:21pm

Sunrise: Beat the boundaries of Parson's Wood and (maybe) actually see the sun! Forecast is for sunny intervals. Once we have visited the wood we will return to Johnny's for breakfast and Solomon's Seal tea (said to provide poets and painters with inspiration, as well as being the key to underground treasure chambers).

Mid morning: Start a new, collaborative project journal and make paper boats for later on in the day. Then take some new ribbons down to the Wish Tree and leave spirit cakes at the well.

Lunchtime: Picnic in the woods, followed by paddling and the creation of a Dancing Tree, reading aloud (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Moominsummer Madness and Milton's masque Comus), and a nap (because large swathes of iambic pentameter are known to be highly soporific).

Sunset: Illuminate the woodland path with tealights and burn paper boats on the hammer pond. Close the evening with a reading of Keat's Ode to a Nightingale.

Spring & the Clootie Tree

The tree is now in full leaf and looking plumply green.



It has proved popular with passers by, who have added their wishes to its boughs.









I love the silhouetted shadow of a leaf on this one:



There are wishes written on these spiralling ribbons:



Someone has also added this heart:



There's a beautiful wooden bird too, but it's hanging rather high and I'm not tall enough to get a decent photograph of it.





After a while, rain loosens the labels:







Each time I visit the tree, there's something new:







Heart-felt Four Quarterish thanks to everyone who's helped adorn the tree.