Into the Dark
Every day seems shorter now, and the shops are all changing gear. Hallowe’en is a big thing here, and the houses will be decked in orange ribbons, pumpkins arranged on the doorsteps, and soon the gardens will be full of giant spider webs, crime scene tape, skeletons, ghosts, bats and witches. We have already stocked up for guisers, who come in waves from about half past five, little ones with parents or older siblings, who all have tacky songs and terrible jokes (which they can’t always remember), older ones later, who chance their arms ‘trick or treating’ and often find the sweets have gone already.
You would think it might feel like we’re slowing down, but there is a sense of urgency about everything - stocking up fuel, making sure you have light bulbs and batteries, packing away preserved food for the dangerous months. It’s the time of year for thinking about endings and death, dropping our usual denial about the subject and realising how very strange and alienating it all is. In my tradition, the week of Hallowe’en and the feasts of All Saints and All Souls gives us a space to wonder, to mourn and to celebrate the lives of those we have lost. I like this, but I have to admit that other places do it better, with picnics in cemeteries and days to clean the gravestones and leave flowers. I had a friend from Sierra Leone who would pour out a shot of whisky for his grandfather, and I thought mine wouldn’t have minded a bit of that!
Territory notes
I find this time of year the most visually appealing. Spring is lovely and the freshness is so welcome, but autumn is richer and more glorious. The strip of woodland above the park is full of gold and glitter, though the beeches lost a lot of leaves during Storm Ashley. The weather has been colder, and wetter, as if that was possible. There are no summer birds left, even the starlings went, but winter arrivals sometimes make up for it.I saw a flock of fieldfares on the waste-ground beside the school on Monday - the first I’ve seen here.
All the same, a lot of my preoccupations just now are to do with cutting down, clearing, aging, and decay.
The end of autumn was traditionally the time to kill the animals you couldn’t feed through the winter - more stocking up - to provide hearty meals for the cold weather and heavy work, and bacon to last through the hungry gap. In the kitchen, much as I am trying to cut down the amount of meat and dairy in our diet, (and to buy meat from places where there is high welfare and low environmental impact) I still feel it’s a time for hearty meals, soups and stews. I’ve boiled a bacon hough and a piece of flank of beef, to create stocks and pulled meat for chillies and pasta dishes.
Outside, the garden is fading and collapsing in on itself. It’s time for cutting down and clearing spent growth, particularly moving the elecampane and marshmallow to places where they won’t overshadow everything else next year. I harvested the elecampane roots, but the marshmallow ones were softer, and I damaged them too badly to keep them. I did discover their rather slimy mucilaginous quality that gives them their medicinal uses, soothing and calming, and I plan to try some mallowy sweets next year. I’ve noticed some unseasonal primroses and violets as I clear away, and the marigolds, which were so slow to come into flower are like a small fire among the fading leaves.
Now the soil needs my attention. Despite all my efforts, I’m still digging plenty of stones out of it which slow down drainage so much. I plan to improve the structure and fertility by incorporating as much compost as I can get in the spring. It is alkaline, so I won’t be adding lime, but I will put down bonemeal to improve the mineral content in the spring. There was so much rain over the last winter, that I think it would all be washed through if I did it now. Even in the end time of the year, I’ll be building towards new growth in the next.
Poetry
I have written a little poetry, and reviewed Helen Ivory’s new book Constructing a Witch, published by Bloodaxe last week. It’s a powerful book, with a lot to say about the misogynistic world we live in, but it isn’t a harangue. It’s scholarly and beautifully crafted, and is light enough on its feet to grab your attention.I have sent it to The Glasgow Review of Books, but don’t know when it might appear.
I’ve also been reading Ronald Hutton’s Witch, about the mentality of witch trials. His thesis is that it’s almost always about projection and politics, about gaining control in perilous times, and considering the multiple conflicts and crises we’re facing just now, it makes salutary reading.
News
My web developer daughter and I are still working on the new website, which we hope will launch on 31st October, and there will be a new email address, and the shop will be refreshed.
Because of the massive increase in postage rates, I regret that I will have to charge for p+p within the UK from the 1st November, though there will be a discount for multiple purchases. There is no change to purchases from outside the UK.