Beltane is the joyous time of leafing and blossoming. This festival celebrates sex and the transformation that comes when we open ourselves to another at the deepest level. This alchemy can also happen when we allow ourselves to be profoundly touched by nature. When we open to and merge with our environment, we can discover sacred union with the world itself.
~ Maria Ede-Weaving
(The Essential Book of Druidry: Connect with the Spirit of Nature)
Joyous Beltane to you!
Thank you, Eliza! I hope yours was full of joy, too! 🍃
Not that this has a thing to do with Beltane, but you show me a Chestnut Tree and I begin reciting from memory a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem: “Under a spreading chestnut-tree, the village smithy stands…” Miss Gillan, my 7th grade English teacher, would be so proud.
I didn’t know that poem, Ally, but looked it up. Do you have the whole poem memorized? Wow! I’m impressed. You made me think of my father in his later years, he could still recite from memory parts of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner that he learned in school. It might be a lost art, memorizing poetry.
I don’t know if kids memorize poetry anymore, but they know lyrics to songs, kind of poetry. I only know parts of the poem, but the parts I do know I say with gusto! 🤓
Good for you! It is amazing how well song lyrics can stick in our heads, too, even after many years of not hearing them every day. ♫♫♫
I didn’t know van Gogh painted a chestnut tree. This is probably the first time I’ve seen this painting. Thank you, Barbara.
You’re welcome, Debbie. It was new to me, too. I find so many interesting paintings while browsing through the collections at WikiArt.
That’s a new van Gogh to me. I like it … and it’s very much in his story. Beltane blessings to you.
Thank you, Frank. It amazes me how many paintings he produced in his 37 short years, and that he only sold one of them in his lifetime.
Well I was five days behind in Reader and slowly catching up (thanks to a pause in this stormy weather). I think van Gogh was inspired by a very beautiful Chestnut tree to paint this one. Happy Beltane to you as well Barbara.
Thank you, Linda! I try to imagine what the landscape looked like in the 1800s with big beautiful chestnut trees, before the chestnut blight decimated their numbers. Imagine coming across trees like this one, although I think European chestnuts are slightly different than American ones.
It seems there is always a terrible blight killing off these beautiful trees. Here in Michigan, it is still birch borer disease and it is suggested you don’t carry wood from one area to another to start a campfire at the risk of spreading disease. I was trying to remember if it was a chestnut tree at the Ford Estate that was so large and very old. I searched in my blog, but couldn’t pinpoint it – it was such a beautiful and majestic tree.