Mabh Savage

Lammas was a two day affair this year; the first day spent in heat and happiness traipsing through the wilderness with my little boy. We found cherries, blushing in the bright sun, and berries black and glossy like tiny dark eyes. After the heavy rains of the past few days, there were a few creamy mushrooms towering over the yellowed grass, and as we stooped to admire them a tiny froglet jumped from beneath the green strands surrounding the fungus, making us laugh at the term ‘toadstool’. We snapped photos of all that we found fascinating, including this delightful contrast of the tiny black beetle on the comparatively huge bell of bindweed.We saw parents and grandparents and aunts and bought shoes and made bread and cakes and sighed in the sun at the contentment that coiled in our full tummies.

The second day I joined with close friends and remembered Lugh, balance, the turning of the wheel, power, divination, the different realms and the unseen amongst us. But still, we shared bread and food and laughter, and above all showed gratitude for our harvest; not just of fabulous food and drink, but of love, joy, friends, family, and the completion of our own goals and ambitions. Merry Lughnasagh! Merry Lammas! And may we remember that as with all things, we only reap what we sow… Which is an agricultural way of saying you only get out what you put in!