Me under a giant fallen, but yet living, willow tree!

One of my earliest memories was of three ancient black willow trees that were down by a little creek where I lived. Although we lived on a busy crossroads in town, the stream and willows in the backyard were a quiet place, guarded by those three old willows. They looked like gnarled old women, sitting by the edge of the stream, their long branches swaying gently in the wind. When the stream waters would rise, sometimes they would look like they were wading there, branches swaying in the current. The Black Willow is an incredible tree, the largest Willow native to North America, and a great tree to get to know.

The Black Willow is also known as the Swamp Willow, Sauz, Dudley Willow, or the Gulf Black Willow. It is native to all of Eastern North America, from the…

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New Moon in Leo Moonthly Report | The Lion’s Gate and a Blue Moon

Happy New Moon!

Get ready! This new moon is a powerful one as it aligns with the 8/8 Lion’s Gate Portal. There is powerful energy beaming to earth right now in order to help humanity transcend to their next phase on a personal and global level.

This is a powerful portal for activation and manifestation.

The star Sirius (known as our Spiritual Sun) rises in the eastern sky midsummer between July 28th and August 12th, but the 8th is considered the most potent day as the Sun and Sirius move closest to the earth aligning with Origin’s belt on that day.

The Lion’s Gate Portal paired with the Leo New Moon makes for a very potent time to dream big and manifest a new reality for yourself! There is a powerful surge of energy coming to earth right now bringing in huge opportunities for your growth and expansion.

This cycle also holds a Blue Moon, which can bring in more powerful opportunities for change and transformation. Blue Moons offer us a chance for a rebirth and renewal.

New beginnings are often associated with new moons, but this blue moon is giving you a chance to either find closure, or begin again with some aspect of your life. This one takes place in Aquarius helping you dream big and reach for your dreams if you can find a new way of looking at things.

Read full article at: Spirit de la Lune ~ New Moon in Leo Moonthly Report | The Lion’s Gate and A Blue Moon

Greek Myths

These Male Trees Turn Female Even If It Kills Them

What goes on in a forest might be none of our business. Curious minds, however, always want to know.

In the lower canopy layers of Appalachian forests, a particular tree known as striped maple (Acer pensylvanicum) does something that very few trees do.

It changes sex.

Males become females. Females become males.

In academic circles, this phenomenon is known as sequential hermaphroditism. Some plants do it when stakes are high. In the case of striped maple, males become females even if it kills them.

Why does this happen, and what else is known about sex changes in plants? In a brand new video, I introduce some important questions and wonder about them aloud.

If you’re interested in learning more, check out the brand new video!

This animal does not change sex but it does change the way people maneuver through the woods. I recently spotted a few timber rattlesnakes in a Pennsylvania forest. To see photographs and to read more about my encounters, check out the latest Instagram post!Click to view post

Thanks for reading and watching, and thanks for your continued support!

-Adam Haritan

Cayenne Pepper – Herb of the Month

The Herb Society of America Blog

By Maryann Readal

Hot! Hot! HOT! – but not the hottest! Cayenne pepper, Capsicum annuum, is hot, but it reaches only 30,000 – 50,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU) on the Scoville Heat Scale. For comparison, the ‘Carolina Reaper’ pepper reaches 1.4M – 2.2M SHU, and the jalapeño pepper just a meager 2,500-8,000 SHU. The Scoville Scale was developed by pharmacist Wilbur Scoville in 1912 to determine heat levels based on subjective sensitivity to capsaicinoids in peppers. Although modern lab methods are used today to determine the heat level of peppers, the Scoville Scale is still the common way to classify pepper heat intensity (Mountain Rose Herbs, 2021).

Cayenne pepper, a member of the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family, is native to tropical North and South America. The term “cayenne pepper” can generically refer to any of a number of peppers within the Capsicum annuum Cayenne Group, which is characterized by being…

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Embracing the Wilds at Lughnasadh

The Druid's Garden

Wildlife

When you think of the term “wild”, what comes to mind? Perhaps wild can be defined by that which is its opposite: civilized, tame, domesticated, and controlled. Wild, on the other hand, is free, unrestricted, unbounded, and sovereign. And while I resist binaries, there does seem to be some truth in the difference between that which is wild and that which is tame–a manicured city street vs. an old-growth forest has a world of difference: in the smell, in the biodiversity present, and in the energy of the space. A wild place is hugely biodiverse and serves the needs of a wide variety of species. A wild space is in a place of ecological balance, where all resources are cycled and used. The human-tamed spaces are most frequently designed for human needs exclusively, and in the modern age, are also prime producers of pollution and waste. There’s, of course…

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