Recently, I was having an off day, feeling sad and anxious. My spouse and I headed out to hike in one of our favorite local parks. We both find that getting out in nature often lifts the spirits. We followed one of our usual trails winding among the valley oaks along a dry creek bed. …
Category: nature
A Writer’s Mind: Restoring Sanity among Magnificent Mushrooms, Luminous Fall Colors & the Wisdom of Mother Nature
A few days ago, I took my first fall hike into the woods to enjoy a spectacular November day in Northern California and look for signs of mushrooms. It's a little early for mushroom season, but we had a decent rain about a week ago, so I was hopeful. We found a smattering of early …
Oak Woodlands: Fairylands of Magic, Wisdom and Power (Why the woods sacred to the Celts should matter to us.)
Oak Among Basalt - Photo by D. Fritz Pliny the Elder (who lived in Gaul, 1st century CE) was the first to write about the Druids use of oak trees in their religious ceremonies. Later, Christian churches were built in oak groves (most likely because some of those locations were pagan sites of worship). Oak …
J.L. Henker, Author 