Oak and Ash and Thorn: The Ancient Woods and New Forests of Britain

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It's the kind of book that makes me want to go outside and try to notice and take care of every little thing surrounding me. The ancients used ash leaves to make a tea as a diuretic and as a laxative, as well as infusions to treat gout, jaundice and other ailments. Despite a few very dark moments, this was such a sweet story. I love a good animal adventure story, because it's usually got a lot of brilliant nature writing, strange but lovable characters and some form of ecological disaster looming. Obviously I don't love the last part, I just like reading about it and how the characters try to help. Friendship between species is also a recurring thing in these kinds of stories. By Ash, Oak and Thorn has all of this, in addition to a few inventive scenes straight out of The Wind in the Willows.

Massachusetts has its share of ash trees. We had a row of ash trees on the road to our house in Heath. We saw lightning scars on their bark, proving their power to attract lightning. As a practical note, both ash and thorn, make good, hot, burning firewood. Hawthorn at Energy Park in Greenfield However, I also will definitely be buying a physical copy to read to my children, and forsee it being a story we will revisit time and time again. All in all, I think the simple lessons and childlike nature of this book is not only relevant in our busy world, but are also extremely valuable lessons for all of humanity, if we only take the time to listen to them openly and non-judgementally. It feels smug; not inviting readers in to wonder and understand and empathise with this new knowledge.Finally, the third of the sacred circle, the thorn. We use the full name, hawthorn. This tree, Crategeus, is known for its large sharp thorns. However, C. viridis, Green Hawthorn, has few thorns. You can see these thornless trees locally at the Energy Park. The Greeks and Romans associated the hawthorn with weddings and babies. Brides and their attendants carried hawthorn blossoms. These trees were often planted by holy and healing wells in England. Homeopaths consider the hawthorn a powerful medicine and use it for heart tonics.

The description in this book, the turn of phrase and the language are just exemplary. It would be perfect for reading aloud to a class, or sharing together before bedtime. There are wonderful little vignettes and moments of pause, where the character reflect on a theme or emotion, such as fear or friendship, and discuss it. But these moments don't seem forced, the characters often talk together to find a solution and a way forward. These moments of pause and reflect are perfect for opening discussions with children and young people around emotions and wellbeing. With the simplistic eco-ism, babyish emotional lessons and mild peril it feels like much younger fare than the novel-length it’s stretched to here. The song puts forward that the oldest and most reliable trees in England are oak, ash, and hawthorn. Wow. Wow. Wow. What a beautiful, profound, and hilarious story! It made me so nostalgic of my childhood, which I often spent collecting frogspawn, birdwatching and climbing trees like a feral cat… Oak and Ash and Thorn is a song released by The Longest Johns on June 10th, 2020 along with 11 other songs on their “Cure What Ails Ya” Album.In ancient times, when people depended on agriculture and the forests for sustenance and shelter, they knew the names of the different trees. They created relationships between trees. The Celts considered that the oak, ash and thorn made up a sacred trio with powers to heal. We follow Moss, Burnet and Cumulus, three little creatures known as Hidden Folk, who have started to become invisible. They decide to search for an answer to what's happening to them, while also looking for other Hidden Folk, as they haven't seen any in a long time. The Wands (foxes) represent creativity, inspiration, and passion. They resemble a bold and adventurous spirit. Humanity’s baleful influence is constantly bemoaned but not really dramatised: it’s not human action that destroys the protagonists’ ash-tree home or imperils Moss at the end that, or really constitutes any of the obstacles. The ash tree is the second in the sacred trio. In Norse mythology the Tree of Life, Yggdrasil, which held the nine elements of the cosmos, is referred to as an ash. This tree supports all creatures and represents the cycle of birth, growth, death and rebirth, the forces that make up life’s journey.

Along their journey, they meet lots of animals and other creatures, but also notice how much change there has been in the countryside.Our reality is already challenging, complex, and dark. The older I get the more I realize, that simple lessons are valuable at all ages, perhaps even most valuable as we get older and are more likely to brush them aside.