Longest day
Today marks the Summer Solstice, the longest day. Although being a person with no fixed religious beliefs, I can, however, understand and identify with the 'spirit' of the wild - the power of the sun, the moon, the weather, the seasons - and have almost adopted the longest and shortest days as a sacred time. Maybe it's my Wessex roots bubbling to the surface, even after a 120-year absence (my Great Grandfather left the Vale of Pewsey at the end of the 19th Century and headed to London). I've been to visit that part of Wiltshire many times and it does exert a hold on me. It just feels special. It was a medieval custom to collect flowers on the longest day, which was considered to bestow upon them additional healing properties, thus apothecaries would make special efforts to gather such herbs on this very day, including (so the historical record states) St John's Wort, Chamomile, geraniums, Thyme, and Penny-royal. This year the St.John's Wort is hardly in ...