Category: Plants
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What You Need to Know About Faerie Rings (Before Deciding to Enter One)
This last spring I spent a lot of time researching the Tylwyth Teg (the Welsh faeries). In fact, I took so many notes that I ended up with enough material for four posts! In case you’re relatively new to my blog, here are links to the first two articles I wrote on the Welsh faeries: the Tylwyth Teg and Annwn and the folklore…
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Sentiments and Poetry Found in the Language of Flowers
About a year ago, I discovered Phil Gates’ newsletter, Phil’s Substack. Gates is a botanist, a naturalist, and a Country Diarist for the Guardian. His newsletter often documents the flora and fauna that he encounters on his walks, complete with great photos. He also has a lovely collection of old books that he occasionally writes about…
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Four-Leaf Clover Uses in Faerie Folklore and Love Divination
Central to the plot of a short story that I’ve been revising is a four-leaf clover found by the main character after searching through a clover patch. I can remember sitting in the grass as a child, sifting through clover leaves and blossoms, hunting for a magical four-leaf clover with which I could make a…
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British Folklore and Customs Related to the Sycamore Tree
Are you a lover of trees, by chance? I am! Here in Southern California, where we are now fully into autumn, many trees are changing colors with the season. My favorite is the California sycamore tree (Platanus racemosa). The wilderness area near our home where I like to walk is heavily wooded with sycamore trees,…
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Apple Trees and British Folklore
When I make my grocery shopping list for holiday dinners and ask my family if they’d like a pie, their eyes grow as large as pie tins, and they answer with a resounding, “Yes!” When I ask what flavor of pie they’d like, the one flavor almost everyone agrees on in our family is apple.…