MY HAZEL & BLACKTHORN GROVE
THURSDAY 24 JANUARY 2025 -BEFORE THE STORM
Living in rural County Armagh all my life the joy of searching out remote hide away places has always been a big part of my very own adventures. Never too far away from the farm and definitely not on any other farmland but our own! Places where you could let your imagination run wild and talk out loud to the trees, water etc around you. Daydreaming on warm sunny days possibly with only the sound of running river/stream water to lull you to another place.
Later in life Jobs, responsibility eventually rob you of the time for idle daydreaming however as they say “the circle of life” eventually brought me right back to my isolated spot on our farm today. Can’t say it is a private place as it is a spot where I brought my four children to once they could walk.
We would pack a picnic, cross the road and set out on our short adventure to “the stream beside the hazel & blackthorn grove” where we would paddle in the shallow stoney stream bed sheltered from the sun by the overhanging thorn bushes. A short adventure walk around this stoney outcrop with its rambling blackthorn roots with only the sounds of the stream, gave a sense of “our space”. An adventure which was just a slow ten minute walk from our house yet it seemed to us like another world.
Children all grown up and flown the nest I now find myself and Ted the dog heading off on sunny days to “the stream” where though close to the house. still has that that draw to what is now “my space”.
January days can take a tole on your mind however as I looked around this sacred spot I noticed how the ancient Irish Hazel Tree is sprouted it’s catkins s or lambs tails as I know them, sharing the early signs of spring with me.
These long yellow “lambs tails” are the male pollinator for the small pink/red female hazel flower which in Autumn turns into the hazel nut. I have spotted nut shells around the base of the tree and suspect squirrels These tough native pioneering Hazel Trees are amazing survivors with their strong multiple stems. These tough stems once provided raw material for – spindles for cart wheels, wattle and daub houses, the frames for coracle boats, baskets, and to hold down the thatch.
I checked out the stoney outcrop and the whin/gorse is also beginning its yellow bloom and to crown it all on my back to the house the snowdrops were nodding at me. All signs that Spring is on its way. The “days are on the stretch” and before our very eyes the landscape is slowly waking up.
Mythology tells us that the Hazel tree is associated with wisdom and authority. Once nine hazel trees grew around a sacred well, dropping their nuts into the water. The waters carried them to the seven rivers of Ireland where they were eaten by a salmon thereby absorbing wisdom creating the Salmon of Knowledge – the salmon with nine bright spots – each spot indicating that it had eater a nut from each hazel around the well!
The small nearby Blackthorn grove also has its own link with mythology. Now in the winter they are simply black spiny tall twigs which blossom into clusters of white flowers in early spring followed by their green leaves and grey black clusters of sloe fruit ready for harvesting in Autumn. These sloes would have had medicinal purposes used in witchcraft but today they are well sought after for making sloe gin – something which I just haven’t mastered yet! Obviously the well known Blackthorn Shillelagh still has its origins here in Ireland. Carved into walking sticks or the shorter Shillelagh for under the arm.
As I write this blog I am aware that tomorrow our forecast is for strong gale force winds all over Ireland!
Friday 24 January 2025 – AFTER THE STORM
Oh boy what a difference a day makes! The Big Storm is upon us. All safe here at Beechlodge Farm at present including hens and sheep. These old stone/block farmhouses were certainly built to withstand the storms (I hope!). The garden shrubs and trees are getting a pretty strong “work out”. Hope the old chestnut tree with its hollow trunk stands the session!
Electricity off but farm generator has kicked in. Thank goodness for my old kitchen Aga!
When the weather turns like this it sends me back to my desk to complete that overdue website updates which I keep pushing away in the brighter days.
I have “wintered well” and extremely excited to get out and about to plan more NEW adventure trips.
Many old country folk today tell that there is always a spell of cold and angry weather just at the time the little Blackthorn tree is in bloom called the Blackthorn Winter – a while off yet!
Blackthorn is also often associated with the Cailleach, the goddess and ruler of winter. In Celtic folklore, the Cailleach emerges at Samhain to take over the year from the summer goddess Brighid.
Roll on St Brighid’s Day on 1 February!
Ta
Barbara (Biddy)
Beechlodge Farm
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