by Judith Stafford | May 18, 2020 | Into the Woods
May in the Woods May is my favourite month of the year, but this year as it has been so warm early in April some of the May flowers are already over. The weather has been amazing this spring but as we have been in lockdown here in the UK the opportunity to visit outside my local area has been restricted. The upside is that I am very familiar with my local area of Clevedon and have loved watching the seasons change. Bluebells are almost over and have put on a good show. I have been pulling them out of the garden again as they appear in the most surprising places. If you are lucky enough to have our native bluebell you can tell it from the more common and invasive Spanish variety as it is more delicate, and its bells are all on the same side making it hang over. The Spanish is more upright and its flowers larger. Most of the bluebells around here are the native ones but, in some areas, the invasive Spanish variety are trying to take over. The Hawthorn is in flower, it is also called May blossom as it always flowers in this month. You can eat the young leaves and flowers – it is known as ‘bread and cheese’. Later on, in the autumn, the berries will be food for the birds and can be made into a ketchup if you want to use them too. The elder blossom starting to open but this is more of a late May to June flower. If you go into any woodland you...
by Judith Stafford | May 15, 2020 | Becoming a Wise Woman, Featured
What is a Wise Woman and why you should want to be one. When I started writing about being in my 50s, I couldn’t find a word that I liked to describe my age. The ones I did find were not very inspiring: Middle-aged (often used as an insult for being dull and boring) Mid-life (associated with ‘crisis’) Mature (what, like a cheddar?) Menopausal or even worse Post-Menopausal (yuk, far too clinical) Crone (too old and warty) Which is when I decided on ‘wise woman’. I don’t really want to be any of the above; I quite like being a wise woman. Then as I started to look at what a wise woman was, I found that several images came to mind. A healer or midwife A shaman or medicine woman A Fairy Godmother An elder stateswoman or leader A witch or crone They all represent an older woman with a certain amount of skill and power, so I knew I was onto a winning name. So now, I want to reclaim the title Wise Woman for all women at or past menopause. Have you taken the Quiz yet? If you are curious to find your Wise Woman Archetype, take my fun quiz and find out here. Take the Quiz How you can become a wise woman If you look up the word wisdom, it means ‘someone who has the experience, knowledge and good judgement.’ But I would also include the following as traits of the wise: Being authentic and trusting your intuition Learning from your mistakes Being independent and resourceful Open to learning new things Is non-judgemental...
by Judith Stafford | Apr 20, 2020 | Into the Woods
Into the Woods April The weather this April has been amazing. Unfortunately, we are all still on lockdown in the UK so are limited in travelling so have to go into our gardens or walk locally to appreciate the warmth and the sun! Fortunately, you don’t have to go very far to see nature really waking up after the winter, and to realise spring is here. If you have a garden you will have noticed insects are around, bees, beetles and flies of all types and sizes. The birds are singing and gathering materials for their nests. Plants such as daffodils, that flower in early spring are mostly over but the tulips will be glorious for the rest of the month. In the woods spring flowers are in full bloom. Forget-me-nots, celandine, herb Robert, wood anemone and garlic mustard are out. I spotted this delicate sweet purple violet along a shady bank while out walking. If you have a local park the wild garlic will be flowering now. You will smell it before you see it and then it will carpet the woodland floor. Bluebell leaves are coming up now too, ready to start blooming at the end of the month to be in their full glory in May. Fruit trees such as cherry and apple are also coming into blossom. One of my favourite spots to walk is through this apple arch. It is especially lovely when the blossom is out and as you walk under you are snowed on by gently falling blossom petals. Beautiful! The hawthorn blossom is coming out as well and I noticed...
by Judith Stafford | Mar 18, 2020 | Into the Woods
Into the Woods March 2020 This has been a strange month. With Corvid-19 arriving in the UK and us going from a bit of extra vigilance to total lockdown. Nature doesn’t care about that though and March is the time that plants and trees really start to bloom. Spring flowers such as daffodils, celandines and primroses are all out now, it is very much the yellow season. So I have been out for my sanity walk, as I call it, keeping local and realising how lucky I am to live somewhere so green and beautiful. The blackthorn is now in blossom, it is the first of our trees to burst into flower. Its flowers looks like tiny white stars against the bark and thorns. It always reminds me that spring is now here. I went on my second foraging course this year too, at the start of the month. Don’t know when the next one will be, but I really enjoyed it despite the rain. It rained from start to finish, clearing up nicely for the afternoon! Even though it was only a few weeks after the first foraging the plants were very different. Cow slips, another striking yellow flower, were blooming. These plants have been used to make wine in the past but now it is illegal to pick them. Which is good as they brighten up bare bits of ground. We also found common sorrel which is one of my favourite plants to eat. The leaves have a fresh citrus flavour. I love it so much I bought a packet of seeds to grow it at home....
by Judith Stafford | Mar 9, 2020 | Uncategorised
Sleep – I can’t get no sleep! or Trying to come off sleeping tablets and get to sleep naturally It may officially be spring (somewhere) but it still seems like winter to me until at least the clocks go back. It is dark and dreary, and I am thinking about hibernation and sleep. This is not a coincidence. I am coming off sleeping tablets that I have been on for more years than I would like to remember. I went on them after a burglary which set of memories of being burgled a few years before 3 times in 5 weeks. I left that house but as I had bought this house that wasn’t possible. So I ended up at the doctors on sleeping pills. They were great. For the first time in my life I had no problem sleeping. I had always had a problem getting off to sleep. Not so much staying asleep but falling asleep in the first place. Sleeping tablets seemed like the answer. I knew they were addictive, but I had managed to cut down my dose by half so what was the problem? Every time I went to the doctors they told me I should come off the pills. They didn’t offer any real advice about how to do this apart from to stop taking them and suggesting an NHS leaflet. Not very helpful, especially as I had read so many books and articles about sleep, so after a couple of attempts that left me with nights of no sleep at all I gave up. But the last time I went the...
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