A Waxing Moon

new life & spring revels

Sunrise from my bedroom window, 26 March 2022.

Hello fellow wanderers!

I’m sorry if I’ve startled you. Yes, this newsletter is coming to you not on the new or the full moon but at the first quarter. It’s an extra, mini one! There’s a reason for this, as I will explain a little later on.

It was only when I was looking up the date and time of this lunar phase that I discovered why we call the apparently semi-circular moon a ‘quarter’ moon. It’s one of those things that had floated around in the periphery of my curiosity for many years, but was never pressing enough that I thought to actually ask anyone who might know. And when you do know, it’s obvious!

What we see as a full moon is literally a half of it, since we are only seeing the half that is illuminated by the sun. So, when the moon reaches the point where it looks like a semi-circle, it is actually a quarter of it. So simple that I can’t believe I had reached this advanced age before the whole thing made sense ;)

Rowan tree in Crow Wood, 31 March 2020.

I rest my fingers on a rowan tree

for a wand and a brand to avert

evil, a tree that’s spun

full of fire, with the swelling sun

in its stubby black bud

and I’ve broken a twig clean;

inside it is sweet and green,

promising bundles, clusters of red.

Hilary Llewellyn-Williams, from Rowan, in The Tree Calendar.

Daffodils in Crow Wood, 27 March 2021.

The Quarter Days

Not only does 29 March mark the first quarter of the moon, but we have just passed Lady Day which is the first of the quarter days in British and Irish tradition. These Days have been observed since at least the Middle Ages, and they once allowed each quarter of the year to begin as a ‘clean slate’. Servants were hired or could choose to change employer, school terms started, rent was due and accounts were settled.

Each of the four quarter days fell on a major festival in the church calendar: Lady Day (Feast of the Annunciation), Midsummer Day (Feast of St John), Michaelmas Day (Feast of St Michael & All Angels) and Christmas Day (Feast of the Nativity).

I have to say I don’t really need a special way of remembering the dates, but if necessary the following method apparently works. Lady Day is in March which has five letters (25th), St John’s Day is in June which has four letters (24th) and Michaelmas is in September which has nine letters (29th). Uncanny! It’s assumed that you already remember the date of Christmas Day :)

Personally I love the feel and sound of the quarter days with their echoes of the chime hours on the clock (3, 6, 9 and 12) which I expect we will chat about another day. Admitedly, in everyday life their significance is now a pale shadow of what it must once have been. But even today we see a residue of the time before 1752 when Lady Day was the first day of the civil year in Britain (but not Scotland), in that the tax year still ends on what was once ‘Old’ Lady Day (5 April).

In Scotland, New Year’s Day was always celebrated on 1 January with Hogmanay revels (thought to be derived from Viking midwinter rituals) and the other countries simply harmonised with this practice when the Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1752.

Crow Wood boundary oak with two large mysterious holes: a home for new life? 25 March (Lady Day), 2023.

This is better than whitewashing!

… muttering to himself, ‘Up we go! Up we go!’ till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow.

‘This is fine!’ he said to himself. ‘This is better than whitewashing!’ The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow, and after the seclusion of his cellarage he had lived in so long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout. Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the delight of spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across the meadow …

Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

And now, we come to my news. Although I’m already working on my post for full moon next week, I wanted to send this separately rather than mixing it all in (I know, when has ‘mixing it all in’ ever worried me before?!). But this is a big step for me, so I think I’ll just come out and say it.

From now on, Bracken & Wrack is going to be a free AND paid resource - just for those lovely folk who have asked how they can support what I’m doing here at The Old Shop. I put loads of time into my new and full moon newsletters (and into my YouTube, which is a tiny unmonetised channel) and it’s a great joy to do so. In fact it’s what I love doing the most, and my dream is to put food onto the kitchen table through my writing and sharing. If you enjoy Bracken & Wrack or my Instagram and would like a way to help me to do exactly that, please consider a paid subscription.

I’m so grateful to ALL my readers whether or not they choose to, or are in a position to, upgrade. I’m also grateful that there’s a platform that makes it possible, just maybe, to support myself by doing what I love. While, I hope, bringing some moments of calm and wonder in our crazy world.

If you decide to become a paying subscriber, thank you. I’m incredibly touched that you are willing to contribute to my slow and simple life here between the heath & the sea. If you remain a free subscriber, thank you too! Nothing will change for you and you will continue to receive the new and full moon newsletters just as before, including the ability to comment (which I value hugely). I know the paid option is not for everyone, for myriad reasons and especially in these times. I feel blessed to have your company.

Rolling in the warm grass

From today, Bracken & Wrack will offer optional monthly, annual and founder member packages, starting simply but with lots of good things planned. Not just more of the same, but a variety of different media including podcasts, video and how-tos.

Conveniently, the moon has four major phases - new, first quarter, full, last quarter - which gives us two other opportunities for a catch up in between the main newsletters.

As a paid subscriber, you will have:

• the knowledge that you are enabling me to continue my work here, and to research and write my new-and-full-moon blogs/newsletters.

• extra offerings: varied members-only posts on the quarter moons including video, podcast and longer form writing on a single topic. Maybe a story!

• eventually, once the other things are established there will be full access to a Bracken & Wrack community and I will open up the Chat function, where we can converse in a more intimate environment than in the public comments section. A space to truly connect with like-minded souls and share experiences and recommendations.

The delight of spring without its cleaning

I am offering a limited number of special founder member subscription packages for those of you who would like to support my work at the highest level. As a founder member you will literally be one of the foundation stones under the feet of our band of travellers along the gorse track. Thanks to your generosity I will be able to keep all of our flasks topped up with rich hot chocolate.

As a token of my appreciation, in addition to the extra content I will make you one of my travelling hearths; a ceremonial cloth you can unroll anywhere, placing a candle or other focus in the central ‘full moon’ if you wish. I was making these several years ago, long before my seasonal candle project, and I’m excited to contemplate designing two new exclusive hearths for you to choose from. Bracken will be inspired by the heath, and Wrack, the seashore. All very much in the planning stages, but if you sign up as a founder member I will get in touch to make the arrangements with you.

A travelling hearth made several years ago - central sun or moon, eight oak leaves for the eight seasonal festivals, four pairs of antlers for the directions/seasons/winds, 13 deer prints for the lunar months and 28 garnets around the edge for the days in each lunar month. The Bracken & Wrack hearths will be a little like this.

The whispering voice

I wanted to end this extra newsletter with some of most thrilling and humbling words I’ve ever received in a message. Honestly, I would struggle to explain as succinctly why I absolutely love what we’re creating here. I picture it as throwing a soft and colourful patchwork blanket over the noise of the world, just for a little while, and peeping through the gaps into the layers of magic, story and wonder that were there all the time. In fact, I like to think of it as a map on which to lay out a landscape of intriguing little paths where I share my discoveries and invite conversation.

And you, dear readers, are what bring the map to life. Let’s jump into it together, and meander along the silvery threads of lane, stream, snaking hedgerow and the less tangible currents that flow through the land. Don’t forget to check your backpack for warming drinks and tasty snacks which I’ll top up for you as we go.

We’ll continue on our way along the track, past the newly-leafing birches, crunching dry bracken underfoot. You may need to bring insect repellent with you, and that’s just life - but also, surely, sun cream.

You write with such a deep rooted knowledge of the seasons …. when I read your posts, let’s say about All Hallows’ Eve, May Eve and all the other seasonal times on the calendar, a voice whispers deep inside me saying ‘yes yes yes, this is how you want to experience life, this is how life should be’. - Heather

Beach mandala for new beginnings using impromptu finds, Happisburgh, Norfolk.

Coming soon: lots more in the full moon edition of Bracken & Wrack, including

• A Romano-British Crow Cult in north-east Norfolk?

• Nana Ada’s buttons

• Easter traditions & a seasonal recipe

A few resources

Wikipedia on Quarter Days

Hilary Llewellyn-Williams, The Tree Calendar in The Little Hours, Seren Books 2022.

Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, 1908 (many editions; mine belonged to my Dad and dates from 1954).