Forest Healing

04/10/2026

Wildlife find of the Day!

03/10/2026

Owl update! My owl is still enjoying the Autumn sun on a regular basis. And this owl has brought me an enormous amount of pleasure and increased sense of self-worth. The feelings I get when I reflect that I built an owl box, and an actual owl decided to make their home in it really gives me a boost when I’m feeling a little bit down, are priceless.

25/09/2026

There is something rather special about the expression holding space. It suggests that sometimes we do not need somebody to tell us what to do, give us advice, solve our problems or make our pain disappear. Sometimes what we need most is simply for somebody to remain alongside us while we experience whatever it is that we are experiencing.

But what if the holding does not always have to come from another human being? What if sometimes the thing that holds us is the woodland around us? What if a tree can provide a kind of space in which something inside us can settle, emerge, be witnessed or simply be – without the tree asking us to explain ourselves?

This is not to suggest that a tree is a therapist. It is not. Nor does it mean that walking into a forest is a substitute for appropriate professional support when that support is needed. But there may be something important happening when we experience nature not simply as a backdrop to therapy, but as a participant in our emotional lives.

There is something rather special about the expression holding space. It suggests that sometimes we do not need somebody to tell us what to do, give us advice, solve our problems or make our pain disappear. Sometimes what we need most is simply for somebody to remain alongside us while we experience

19/09/2026

There is something profoundly different about the Autumnal Equinox. In Spring, the balance between light and darkness feels like a beginning. The days are lengthening, the land is waking, buds are opening and the first signs of new life are appearing everywhere. The Spring Equinox is a moment from which the light will continue to grow. In Autumn, the same celestial balance carries a very different feeling.

Once again, day and night are approximately equal. The Sun rises in the East and sets in the West, and for a brief moment the year seems to stand between two worlds. But from this point onwards, darkness will gradually gain the upper hand. The leaves will fall, the nights will lengthen and eventually we will arrive at Samhain, traditionally associated with the ending of the harvest and the beginning of the darker half of the year.

For the peoples of Celtic-speaking Scotland and Ireland, and for the Picts who lived across much of Northern and Eastern Scotland, the changing seasons were not abstract divisions on a calendar. They were lived experiences. They affected food, livestock, travel, work, weather, community and survival. And although we should be careful about claiming that ancient Celts or Picts celebrated the Autumn Equinox in exactly the way that many modern people do today, there is abundant evidence for the importance of the seasonal transition from harvest towards Winter. There is also compelling evidence that people living in prehistoric Scotland and Ireland paid close attention to the movements of the Sun across the landscape. The Autumn Equinox therefore offers us an intriguing way of exploring an ancient relationship with the natural world — a relationship in which the changing light, the land, the harvest and the passing of time were closely intertwined.

Explore the significance of the Autumnal Equinox in Celtic and Pictish Scotland, from harvest traditions and the journey towards Samhain to ancient solar alignments and our changing relationship with the natural world.

18/09/2026

I love Sequoias AKA Giant Redwoods so much that I am involved in a project to grow them. Here are some Sequoias at different stages of growth, with approximate ages from 3 months to 300 years.

12/09/2026

As we walk through the woods at this time of year, there are few mushrooms more recognisable than the Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria. Its brilliant scarlet cap, scattered with white remnants of the veil that once enclosed the young mushroom, has become almost synonymous with the idea of the mushroom itself. It appears in fairy tales, children’s books, Christmas decorations and folklore, where it often seems to occupy a world somewhere between botany and enchantment. Yet the most fascinating thing about Fly Agaric may be considerably less visible.

Beneath that familiar red cap lies a complex organism whose principal existence takes place underground. There, microscopic fungal threads called hyphae extend through the soil and form intimate associations with the fine roots of trees. In Scotland and much of northern Europe, one of its most common partners is the Birch tree.

This relationship is an example of ectomycorrhizal symbiosis — a biological partnership in which the fungus and tree exchange resources through a specialised interface on their roots. The mushroom that catches our eye in Autumn is therefore only the temporary reproductive expression of a much larger organism, and its conspicuous presence beside a Birch is an outward sign of a relationship that may have been developing underground for months or years. The Fly Agaric is interesting not just because of its appearance and cultural history, but its relationship with the Birch invites a much deeper way of looking at woodland. It reminds us that a forest is not simply a collection of trees standing beside one another. It is a living system of relationships, exchanges and dependencies, many of which remain hidden from human eyes.

As we walk through the woods in Autumn, there are few mushrooms more recognisable than the Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria. Its brilliant scarlet cap, scattered with white remnants of the veil that once enclosed the young mushroom, has become almost synonymous with the idea of the mushroom itself. Yet

10/09/2026

Snowdonia Society is taking Snowdonia (sic) National Park to court, pass it on

Proposed energy scheme in Eryri National Park prompts first Judicial Review in Society’s 60-year history.

On 24 June, Eryri National Park Authority’s (‘ENPA’) Planning & Access Committee resolved to grant planning permission for a hydro-electric scheme at one of the National Park’s most iconic waterfalls – Rhaeadr y Cwm, above Llan Ffestiniog. The decision notice granting planning permission was issued on 15 July. This is a scheme that Cymdeithas Eryri and other like-minded organisations have consistently opposed: at times, nearly 70% of the water would be diverted away from the waterfall into a plastic pipe, threatening the sensory experience and unique environment associated with this special place.

Cymdeithas Eryri (Snowdonia Society) has applied for a Judicial Review of Eryri National Park Authority’s decision to approve a scheme campaigners argue will damage one of the National Park’s most iconic waterfalls.

03/09/2026

Waterfall of the Day. Sort of!

02/09/2026

Human structures don’t exist outside nature. Nature continually surrounds, changes and eventually absorbs them.

The ancient monuments on Orkney weren’t simply built in nature. They were built as part of a landscape that already had meaning.

01/09/2026

Standing among the ancient stones of Orkney can produce a strange sensation. For a moment, the usual measure of time seems to fall away. We are accustomed to thinking about time in terms of hours, days and years. We remember birthdays, anniversaries and seasons. We think about what happened last week, what we might do next month, perhaps what we hope to achieve over the next few years.

But standing beside a Neolithic monument can stretch the imagination in a completely different direction.

Suddenly, fifty years seems very small.

A hundred years is barely a moment.

A thousand years feels strangely close.

And then the mind begins to struggle with something much larger — the possibility of standing in a place where people were living, working, raising families, observing the seasons and looking out across the same landscape thousands of years ago.

This is one of the gifts of what we might call ‘Deep Time’.

Follow the link in the comments to read more!