## In this issue
– Westacre’s latest
– Spring Equinox meditation
– Karuna Insight Design
– What you can do to help Westacre
## Westacre’s latest
Dear friend,
After a long, wet Winter, we have had over a week of stunningly beautiful Spring weather. It has been a joy to be outside in the warm sunlight, getting the garden ready for the coming growing season. The veg beds are mulched and the potatoes are chitting.
With this new Spring comes a new burst of activity. I am determined to get back to more regular blog posts and Newsletters, as well as more intense work on our renovation project.
In the coming months, you can expect more seasonal mediations, suggestions for your ritual practice, and interviews with other adventurers in connected living. I hope you enjoy the meditation with the Spring Equinox sunrise in this issue.
We have been making steady progress on our renovation project. The first task of the year was to install a 125kg steel beam to replace a rather inadequate stud partition that was holding up our roof. With the help of some friends, we managed to wiggle it into place and cement it in. The roof is still there, so we’re calling it a success.
Next, we started the removal of the floor boards in the old part of the house. Underneath, we have found a puzzling spaghetti of pipes and electrical cable. We haven’t found the destination of some of those yet. All of it will be re-designed and replaced for the new hot water system and underfloor heating.
Removing all the floor boards and joists is giving us a lot of wood, which we’re processing into firewood. Adding to the glut are the three big branches of leylandii that came down in the high winds last month. We are fast running out of space to store it all, so creating more dry storage space has become a priority.
The adventure continues as the seasons turn. I hope you’ll stick with us as the project gets more involved and interesting.
Blessings of the Equinox,
Hilde
## A Meditation for the Spring Equinox
Since the Winter Solstice, the days have been lengthening. Slowly at first, but around the Equinox the days stretch fast, at a rate of more than four minutes each day. Right now, the day is as long as the night.
The Sun increases in strength and warmth, and its radiance draws life up from the Earth. New growth sprouts everywhere, and the Spring bulbs are celebrating the new vitality with vibrant colours. With the moisture of Winter and this new warmth, Nature finds its strength.
And so do we. Take some time with the Spring sunlight, and let its rising power give you strength.
This meditation is ideally done with an actual sunrise around the Equinox. Look up the time of the sunrise, and get to your spot a little before that. If you can’t go outside, or you don’t have a view of the Eastern horizon, you can do the mediation in your own time in your usual meditation space, visualising the sunrise as you go.
Sit in a comfortable position in a dry spot or on a blanket outside, or in your meditation space. Face directly East, where the Sun rises at this time of year. Settle yourself with some deep breaths, allowing your body to relax as you exhale.
Allow your breath to come to its own natural rhythm and become aware of the Earth beneath you. Feel stable and settled on the Earth. If you like, put down your roots into the soil and feel at home there while you wait for the Sun to rise.
You feel the sunrise before you see it. The Earth responds to the coming of the Sun, and you will be able to feel it. Notice your own reaction, and the reaction of the wildlife around you. Let the energy flow through you. Let it feed you.
Watch the Sun (or sense it, if the morning is cloudy) crest over the Eastern horizon. As it does, feel the golden light mirrored in your abdomen. Breathe the sunrise into your lower belly. Let it fill your lower torso and strengthen your body.
Close your eyes when the Sun becomes too bright to comfortably look at. Looking directly at the Sun can damage your eyesight. You can feel its warmth on your face and your body. As the Sun rises comfortably above the horizon, let it be mirrored in your chest, in your heart area. Let the light of the Sun fill and strengthen your heart.
When the Sun rises even further, let its pure light be mirrored by your forehead. Let your brow be filled with radiant light. Allow your mind to be strengthened by the Sun.
Now let your attention move to your whole body. Feel the sunlight spread evenly throughout your whole body, filling every cell with radiance. Know that without this light and warmth, you would not exist, and there would be no life on the Earth.
When you feel full, bring your attention back to your physical body, without letting go of the radiance inside. Gently turn around so your have your back towards the Sun. Watch the morning light on the landscape. Feel the radiance of the Sun behind you and in you and moving through you.
Use your radiance to bless the life around you. Start with the things you can see right here. When you feel ready, also bring to mind places and people that you love, and send them some of your radiance. Shine the light of the Sun into your life, the positive aspects and the dark corners. Send your radiance to relationships that aren’t smooth. Radiate light out into all corners of the world.
Send out as much of the Sun’s energy as you need until the energy inside you gets to a level that feels comfortable. Do keep some for yourself, for use later, when your life needs a ray of sunshine.
Hold your hands to the ground and let any excess energy flow into the Earth. She welcomes these blessings and will use them for the nourishment of life.
When you feel ready, give thanks to the Sun and the Earth, and return to your life. If you feel ungrounded, make sure you have something to eat.
And may your Equinox be blessed.
## Karuna Insight Design
Karuna is a young Permaculture farm near Church Stretton in Shropshire. They have planted 10,000 trees since 2006. On Sunday, Alex learned how to graft trees, and a few other very useful things, from Karuna’s Janta Wheelhouse.
A friend posted about the course on Facebook. And as we have some very ancient apple trees that are nearing the end of their lives, I thought it would be a great thing for us to go and learn. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it. So I sent Alex off to Karuna on his own.
Alex really enjoyed his day. It started with a tree planting sessions (adding apple trees to the 10,000). As the learners practised grafting scions onto rootstock and got a tour of the nascent forest garden, Janta talked about his experiences.
Coming as an outsider to a small village in the wilds of Shropshire, with ideas about farming that are out of the ordinary, he got a lot of resistance from his local colleagues. Despite opposition, though, he managed to get planning permission for his workshop and help from the Forestry Commission to plant his forest garden. Apparently they had never received an proposal that involved so many different kinds of tree.
Alex came home with two tiny grafted apple trees, which have been potted up and are waiting for the first signs of growth in the greenhouse. Fingers crossed they will survive, and then we get to do our own tree planting session.
For more information, visit Karuna’s Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/karunainsightdesign?fref=ts
## How to help Westacre
With the new Spring, our renovation project is speeding up. There is always something to do that you can join in with. From prising up floor boards to carrying bricks and processing fire wood, we welcome any practical help we can get.
If you fancy the idea, reply to this e-mail.
You can find all our contact details at http://www.westacre.org.uk/contact/
In the last six months or so, Westacre has produced rather a lot of wood. As we will be partially warming our house from a wood burning stove before long, we need to keep hold of it. So we’ve had to be creative about finding places to store it.
It all started when the old wooden windows were taken out in November. There’s nothing much you can do with used window frames, except chop it into wood burner sized pieces. So that’s what Alex did. He stacked it all in the wood store behind the garage, along with the split bits of oak that we inherited from his dad.
In the stormy weather of February, part of the huge leylandii in the back of the garden came down and landed on the roof of the shed. As we couldn’t leave the three sizeable branches up there, we had to do some rope and pulley work to both get them off and make sure they didn’t fall in an uncontrolled manner. We certainly didn’t want them landing on our heads.
Once they were safely down and detached from the tree, Alex th
Old floor boards stacked by the fire place, ready for burning.
en started processing the branches into usable firewood. He had to make a new saw horse, a sturdy one that he could use with the circle saw without sawing through it. A few happy days were spent cutting and splitting the resinous wood.
But then where to put it? It’s green wood, so it really needs seasoning in an airy space. The wood shed was already quite crowded. We considered structures and places in the garden to put this new wood store, but didn’t really come to a conclusion.
The next job in the renovation project was to take up the suspended wooden floors downstairs in the old part of the house. There isn’t much you can do with old floor boards either. So we had another marathon process of sawing them into wood burner sized pieces. Most of those are now stacked in our living room, right next to the fire place, with room for more.
The leylandii logs seasoning in the new wood store – what you can do with a dog house and floor boards.
We also had an old dog house by the back door. It was taking up a lot of space, and we don’t own a dog. Alex had the luminous idea of using its roof and its floor to make an outdoor wood store.
In about half a day, he produced a tall contraption, with floor joists at the corners and floor boards as the open walls. He and his dad manhandled it into one of the flower beds close to the house, and Hilde stacked it with the logs from the fallen Leylandii.
We’re quite proud. It looks smart, and it keeps the rain out. The wood should be able to season quite effectively in there. And it’ll smell lovely on a fire.