Carrowcrory Labyrinth Gardens

Next Nature Folklore Sessions Live - Sunday 25th July, at 2pm Irish Time Watch here Live! ... or watch the archive later (click pic to set reminder) Bilberry & Garland Sunday Folklore stories of engagement through berries and flowers Bilberry Sunday and Garland Sunday are celebrated in various places of Ireland, almost as if they are separate to Lunasadh. The custom of Bilberry Sunday almost vanished as the spread of sitka spruce tree plantations wiped out very abundant bilberry bush areas. Now as many of these tree plantations have been felled ,and not replaced, the bilberry bushes are naturally returning and so are the foragers. Foragers how gather for their own versions of Bilberry Sunday, usually a picnic with friends With Garland Sunday, due to how it is celebrated in some places around Ireland today, we may think of the dog shows, baby shows, and sports on this day. But during this Nature Folklore session I will share I few stories of Garland Sunday

Next Nature Folklore Sessions Live - Sunday 18th July, at 2pm Irish Time Watch here Live! ... or watch the archive later (click pic to set reminder) Discovering Aislings & The Green Man, discovering who we are in nature Applying folklore to explore deep passions that inspire our poetry, writing, music, crafts, dancing, and drama. This is very fringe folklore as it is not direct from ancient tales. Instead, this is imaginative interpretations from the Celtic Revival, and maybe from a short time before. That Celtic Rival time is also known as the Celtic Romance time. Both the images of Aislings and the Green Man  have been told of as being a profound source of deep passions that inspire our poetry, writing, music, crafts, dancing, and drama. An 'aisling' has been described as a 'dream vision' poem experienced by men. Also the 'green man' and earlier mythologies, such as those of 'fairy lovers', have been the dream visions ex

Next Nature Folklore Sessions Live - Sunday 11th July, at 2pm Irish Time Watch here Live! ... or watch the archive later (click pic to set reminder) Sacred Actions for Sustainable Practices with the Land with Dana O'Driscoll of The Druid's Garden Blog Several people are teaching the Celtic Wheel as being 8 divisions through the solar year, and each of those 8 divisions being times of observances and spiritual practice. These divisions being the two Solstices, two Equinoxes, and the four cross quarter times of Imbolc, Bealtaine, Lughnasadh and Samhain.  During this Nature Folklore session, next Sunday afternoon here, Dana will share some of her interpretations through her wonderful recently released book.  This will not be just about our rituals and ceremonies that we may do at these 8 times through any year, but very much about what we do with the land, and care for the land and it's wildlife, between each of these 8 points of what we may call t

Next Nature Folklore Sessions Live - Sunday 4th July, at 2pm Irish Time Watch here Live! ... or watch the archive later (click pic to set reminder) Create Poetry 2021 sharing our heart's voices Anyone can create and perform wonderful inspired poetry, despite many fears about not being able to. At a Bards In The Woods session one woman had left here poems at home, so I asked her, "What scraps of paper are in your purse?". She had a shopping list. I asked "Read that" ... and she did, and the passion with every item she read out expressed to us the feeling she had for each item. Beautifully done, and real poetry. Now I am not inviting everyone to submit your poetic potential shopping lists, but part of this session will be dedicated to your compilation of random thoughts about what you are feeling and sensing, and putting these together as amazing freeform or lyrical poetry. So for this 'Nature Folklore' session on Sunday I am inv

Next Nature Folklore Sessions Live - Sunday 27th June, at 2pm Irish Time Watch here Live! ... or watch the archive later (click pic to set reminder) Ogham, The Ballymote Bards Story part of my Ogham series Many scholarly references to Ogham are linked to the ancient Book Of Ballymote, and Ballymote happens to only be 10km, about 8 miles, from Carrowcrory. So this afternoon we will look at some of the Ogham related content in this late medieval book from the Scriptoreum of Ballymote plus some speculated 'bardic' connections to this. Speculated, as we only have fragments of recorded information on Ogham and how it was used.  Most of the Ogham information and practices used today have been assembled from what I now call the 'Three Ages Of Celtic Folklore Romance'  The first 'age' was when printing machines became low cost enough for new small business entrepreneurs to indulge in.  This was especially abundant from 1840, a time that was ki

Next Nature Folklore Sessions Live - Sunday 20th June, at 2pm Irish Time Watch here Live! ... or watch the archive later (click pic to set reminder) Midsummer Gathering sharing your interpretations & celebrations of this time This is a 'pot luck' gathering of your contributions through pre-recorded video clips, photograph and audio collections, and being a live guest on our show on Sunday afternoon, Irish time.  The foundation theme of this is 'What does Midsummer mean to you? How do your feel Midsummer? How do you feel it, connect to it, express it, and celebrate it?'  On the 'menu' so far are ... St. John and water & more water blessings from Women Of The Water Herbs for this time Bonfire traditions Feasting at Midsummer and some Bardic banter before and after So please message me to arrange submitting your pre-recorded video clips, photos, and audio clips. I can assemble these into short videos for broadcast. But please, p