Ogham Tree Alphabet 7th Lunar Month June to July

The letter for the seventh Lunar month is D and the corresponding tree from the Ogham alphabet is the English Oak..... The mighty King of the Forest. Symbolising a door and connected to Thor and thunder.

Oak(Quercus ) The generic name is the Latin word for tree. The largest and longest lived of Britain's native trees. Oaks were often planted to mark the boundaries of Parishes.

Top left corner of the right hand page shows how the letter would be carved on a stick.

Below are  two more pages from the Ogham Sketch Book by Karen Cater all about famous oak trees of the past.

The fully grown oak I have here at home is a Turkey Oak which is a bit different but just down the road are many proper English Oaks, this beauty is closest to home and they line the lanes all around our little hamlet. Probably as old as the oldest houses and farms.

I had good intentions of  finding more information about Oaks but ran out of time. And I've failed on replying to comments this week or commenting elsewhere - sorry - it's been a busier week than the last 14.


Back Tomorrow
Sue

Up the Lane Then and Now

It's been a while since I took photos of the track where I live - at the end of a Suffolk lane.

Thought I'd compare to older photos

Standing on the road looking up the lane

May 2017, two months after moving in and  we'd just had the lane re-surfaced - it was in a very bad state and had had nothing done to it for several years. We shared the cost with one out of the 4 houses because one house was empty and the other people had just put their house on the market.

 Not much difference in June 2020, grass is growing up the middle - pot holes have been filled in again since that first photo, all 4 houses sharing the cost this time. It gets in pretty bad condition each winter as the trees drip, holes are formed, which fill with water, which loosens more stones. Cars go up and down through the puddles, loose stone is pushed out and Hey Presto A Pothole!

3 photos from Summer 2017 and  November 2018 the land opposite next door but one house, was covered with Golden Rod etc and Meadowsweet






The old pump base was hidden in a tangle 




  Now 2020 it's been cleared, leveled, tidied, grassed over and Rob has planted some Lime trees

(I know which I preferred!)

The bit opposite their house was cleared and newly planted by the new neighbours who moved in during 2018. She'd already reorganised all her own garden and spread out onto the lane....... this is what she started off with in 2019.




 And this year June 2020. It takes her days each spring to weed and tidy

but at least there is lots of stuff for birds, bees and butterflies - unlike Robs' plain flat grass.

Below June 2020 Opposite my house between track and ditch I've left it wild! It's only a narrow strip, can't see any point in clearing it.

June 2020 There's still water in the ditch for the Moorhens. It will all dry up before the autumn and then fill up again through the winter.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

July Country Days

The July pages  from Tasha Tudor's book 'A Time to Keep'. Being an American author and illustrator these pages celebrate the 4th July.

July 4th started off with fire crackers under tin cans. The boys loved the noise but the corgi's didn't.

We would hang the flag from the loft window and fix a huge and delicious picnic.

 July is a bit short on weather lore, maybe everyone was so busy harvesting and storing food they weren't interested in what was going to happen in the future.

July is named in honour of Julius Caesar, July usually contains some good hot days and these are sometimes referred to as Dog Days. At this time of year Sirius, the dog star, rises at the same time as the sun and was thought by the ancient Romans to give the sun extra heat. The Dog Days are from July 3rd until August 11th . Although the weatherman on Countryfile at the weekend said there will be no settled spell until around the 8th of July this year.

As the dog days commence, so they end

Anglo-Saxon names for the month are Heymonath or Meadmonath referring to haymaking and the flowering of the meadows, and the full moon in July is called the Wyrt moon or Mead moon . Wyrt is an old English name for herbs and July was the traditional time for taking the first honey from the hive and making mead.
I bought a jar of very local honey last week after seeing an ad on the local village facebook page. Someone was selling jars of their first ever honey crop - only quarter of a mile away - but it must have been very popular as he'd already sold out of the set honey.

 I've put my jar in the fridge so it's sets a little as at the moment it would just run off toast! I'll need it to use for breakfasts if I do the "one week eating local" challenge again - I'm thinking about it now that I have lots of my own food to use.

 The main date in July that people associate with weather rhymes is St Swithin's day on the 15th, although there is no record  of this day ever being followed by 40 days of rain even if it pours on the 15th, the average is 17 days with rain.

The 15th is also the day after which windfall apples were traditionally OK to pick up and use, before this they were considered too green and sour.


Back Tomorrow
Sue