Shoots show
Life is is everywhere during April, it is gathering speed for the main event in May and June. Birds are busy with their young as are the bees and bugs that are to be found on every flower and blossom.
Every year I await the carpets of bluebells and their heady hyacinth scent, intoxicating if caught on a warm April afternoon. Often hemmed along paths by bright celandines or found entwined with frothy sweet woodruff. I enjoy them even when I can’t see them, imagining them planning their spectacular displays, snug underground. It’s a fun secret knowing which woods hold this treasure.
Folk names include Faery bells, ringing to call the fair folk to secret gatherings. But stepping into a patch or picking them was to anger the Fae, with them leading you off to be lost in the woods forever.
“All aboard the magical carpet of bluebell bliss.”
April is the month when the cuckoos arrive after their long migration from their winter quarters in the Congo. Cuckoo’s can bring good or bad luck, if you hear it from the right it’s lucky, the left not so and whatever you are doing you will be fated to do all year. Lucky for me I was out walking in a meadow this year.
Swallows, swifts and martins are also arriving after their 6-7000 mile journey across Africa. Those little birds flying at 20mph for 200 miles each day. Crossing the Sahara must be done with no stopping and is about 500 miles. Then they have to build a nest and raise their young over the summer before heading south again. But not before delighting us seeing them swoop over the fattening hay meadows.
“The cuckoo comes in April,
He sings his song in May,
In June he changes his tune,
And then he flies away.”
This is the month to throw open the windows and change the energy in your house, dust, tidy and spring clean the winter away ready to embrace the warmth to come. Engage all your senses, eat fresh food, smell essential oils, walk barefoot even if only in the house, listen to the birds with your morning coffee.
Time now to create that project you’ve been planning. It doesn’t have to be crafting related, it could be decorating the house or overhauling an area of your garden.
Getting your hands in the dirt is not only grounding but good for you. Soil naturally contains specific bacteria which when touched or inhaled stimulates the release of serotonin acting as a natural antidepressant supporting your overall well being. Maybe think about starting a herb or natural dye garden, most of which can be grown in pots if you are short on space.
Aprils moon is the pink moon or the growing moon.
Beltane is the festival that straddles April and May as the Celts believed the day started at nightfall and continued until the next, darkness before the light of the day. A fire festival, celebrating fertility which grows from the union of opposites.
