Transcript
Karen Seinor: Hello, Karen here from Southland Wild. And again, I'm talking about permaculture. This is some I think this is... part four on this. And the focus here today is the turning wheel, seasons, cycles and the self.
Karen Seinor: So bear with me, hang out. I hope you've got a cuppa. Or maybe you are walking. outside or in the gym or something and just tuning in. ah Any of those things are good. So... What we've done so far is we've talked about permaculture generally. And I think I've shared some links with you to blog posts. um We've talked about walking the land, the zones. What else? walking through time.
Karen Seinor: And what I thought I'd do is I'd just speak about what's happening in the garden now. Like we we're about to hit Beltane. We're moving towards high spring right now.
Karen Seinor: And as I sit here, I'm on my back veranda, you can see my favourite um implement of in the culture. which I don't actually get into that often. I wish I did. It's it's a plan. and The hammock.
Karen Seinor: Yeah. I've moved it around the back so that I actually see it all the time so I get into it, you know, with a book or something. Yeah. Making a system work should give us rest time. That's the plan.
Karen Seinor: Yeah. So what's happening in the garden at the moment? The lavender is in flower. Everything's taken off. I've got... I don't know if you can see it.
Karen Seinor: see the grapevine there that died all the way down over the winter and I had great intentions of setting up a trellis to go up that um post and across the top of the veranda to...
Karen Seinor: do the process of transfusion to drop the temperature when the sun hits it. of course i got sidetracked and it didn't happen so it's all just going bananas at the moment so that's having a major.
Karen Seinor: outgrow spit. you'll be able to see if you're watching the video the bottle brush I had these trees trimmed down. ah not all that long ago. And the bottle brush has just gone bananas. It's flowering, the calistogons.
Karen Seinor: What that means is that the bees are busy there. but the birds also. They are dancing around in the trees, all different sizes, the little baby ones. and um It's so fun to see them. you know, sticking their beaks into.
Karen Seinor: Sip the. the yumminess out of the flowers. So there's a lot of bird activity here at the moment. The parsley has... um um What do they call that now I've forgotten?
Karen Seinor: It's bolted. it's bolted so I've actually had to plant some new seeds because it's not much. youth once it bolts. I don't know if you can... See it there.
Karen Seinor: uh no wrong way Yes, it's just there behind the back of that chair. it It gets all stringy and not that useful for cooking and and teas and things.
Karen Seinor: Yeah. What else? I've got Queen Anne's lace. That's... just shot up it's because it's naturalized in the bee garden that shot up and the flowers are starting to come out and i've got white ones and also chocolate ones It's a white and sort of a browny colour. it It's really nice.
Karen Seinor: Brings in lots of insects, lots of pollinators. And the borage, of course, is... off the charts and the bees are insanely happy about that.
Karen Seinor: Now, I've actually lost a couple of my hives due to Varroa. That's been very sad. but I am intent on maintaining the garden. because we know that even if you know they get really knocked out.
Karen Seinor: they will come back because we've got a lot of wild bees in the bush and we'll get more resistant ones. Might take three years, but it will it will happen. So in that time frame, I'll just keep working on the garden because when they've got good quality food all year round, that supports their immune system. That's really part of the plan here.
Karen Seinor: Yeah. What else have I got out there? I've got um cornflowers. I've got strawberries growing everywhere and they're flowering and they're fruiting. I collected a beautiful um big bowl of strawberries. yesterday or the day before and they're sitting in the fridge. I haven't processed them so I might have to eat them today.
Karen Seinor: Put a little bit of cream on them. Yum yum. And. the alfalfa. which the us people in the US call it something different, which sounds a lot fancier.
Karen Seinor: and One of the wonderful things about that is it is so good for blood sugar levels. It's it's really good. It's high protein and it balances the blood sugar. That's my understanding.
Karen Seinor: I've got mint that's gone off the charts, lemon balm. um The rhubarbs come up. Tomatoes are happening. i've I've also put in that really old school um corn.
Karen Seinor: I've. Some of those are really going well. I planted some old seeds. a couple of weeks ago some are doing okay some not so much so I'm waiting to see how that pans out I might have to plant some more and the potato plants are coming up which is kind of cool I kept some from last year and I just popped them in. And they're doing beautifully. So that's good.
Karen Seinor: Um... Now... Whoops! And of course the Manchurian pears, which I use as... um protection from the western sun.
Karen Seinor: and to drop the temperature in the summer. they are in full leaf. So you'll be able to see the ones behind me have been trimmed right back. That's so that I could keep the...
Karen Seinor: keep the um the view of the mountains to be honest, so that's a That's a bit of like, we'll see how that goes in the summer. I may have made a boo -boo hit there. but The ones up the...
Karen Seinor: northern side. northeastern side are very high because they sort of give a tiny bit of privacy and noise reduction with my neighbour who's got teenage kids who play loud music that i actually don't like that much so um And, you know, it's nice for them too to have a bit of a sense of privacy as well.
Karen Seinor: The chickens are laying full tilt, that's also going on. The bees are on the move. There's been a lot of swarms this season so far. some of that's Varroa related but I also think that excuse me I'm just grabbing my cuppa I think that's also a built -in...
Karen Seinor: Mechanism. to ensure that they survive because they know they're under the pump big time. So what else is going on in the garden? Just a lot of growth, a lot of life. You can feel it. and I've got a lot of natives out the on the front bank, on the Hodge Street side, in flower. I've got waratah in flower. There's three beautiful...
Karen Seinor: um water flowers there and it's on the most um terrible position, very steep bank, yucky soil. and it's doing beautifully my mum gave me that one so um Yeah.
Karen Seinor: Happy about that. There was a white one but that one didn't make it unfortunately. What else have I got? um Hmm. os What else is flowering?
Karen Seinor: Oh, the sage is flowering. I've got sage out the front. and All sorts of things. calendulas, nasturtiums, they are spreading their wings and going wild and what I'm doing I've got calendulas near the front gate and whenever I go up to the letterbox which is what it grows quite close to, on pig faces, beautiful pink pig faces they're flowering too. I grab the old seed heads from the calendula flowers.
Karen Seinor: pull them off and I throw them onto the nature strip so that they can naturally reseed and expand their beauty there. I've been planting out this nature strip since Christmas last year.
Karen Seinor: just slowly doing a bit of work and and expanding it one two minimize the amount of mowing. We do not need another monoculture.
Karen Seinor: And two, It's for food. for the bees and to create that connection. up into zone. four and five.
Karen Seinor: ultimately up into the bush bush to create a and ah natural corridor. We'll see how that goes. so We know that
Karen Seinor: Here in Australia, if you look at how... the Aboriginal people look at seasons. They don't follow the... English Four seasons.
Karen Seinor: They have six seasons. And some other places, for example, in ah Hawaii. They tend more to have two seasons.
Karen Seinor: And... Perhaps. Perhaps that might be a little similar in the Territory. monsoon places. But here for me in...
Karen Seinor: where I'm located, definitely six seasons. So... What you need to look for... is when do the seasons change? where you live.
Karen Seinor: Now, in terms of the seasons... well Sorry had to do a bit of a... a regroup move inside there was a bit of not only just the mower turned up but The dogs had a bark at the neighbours and I thought, let's just go inside. People are getting active. It's that time of day. So let's keep going in regard to the seasons. So, you know, we are taught to look at the four seasons being you know.
Karen Seinor: Summer, autumn. winter and spring. And that works in countries like England, but here in Australia, and Here where I live, the Wiradjuri people's land, um And my line too, because I live here. and
Karen Seinor: There's six seasons. That's traditionally what it's considered is to be six seasons. And on Green Gate Farm, where I did my training, I'll tell you how they are named. Let me just get that. I just noted these down here. Cooling Dry. cool damp, cold wet.
Karen Seinor: warming wet. early summer and bushfire summer. And so... On Greengate Farm. Because Rob... Fenton had been there for 30 years, he had developed an awareness of the signs.
Karen Seinor: that would indicate the shift from one season to the other. And he encouraged all of us to begin to look. for those signs. in our own homes and our own land that we were residing on so things like you know when the olive trees are flowering that's an indication of summer. certain birds coming into the garden, that kind of thing. So you can start to look for those things yourself.
Karen Seinor: Now, in terms of the growing season, Here in Albury the serious growing season is winter because we've got plenty of rain. And we can.
Karen Seinor: and And food's more expensive then. So... we can grow those nice hearty foods. that. you know are going to keep body and soul together so that's a good thing have a look at your area and what's going to work for you you know we want we definitely want to have those things like we want to have pumpkins we want to have potatoes we want to have onions these are things that will keep your Body and bones together.
Karen Seinor: Should they be... A need. for a full reliance on that, you know, and also those foods will last. They can store quite well. That's a good thing, you know. A thing of letters, they don't get to last too long.
Karen Seinor: If you want things like that, you need to look at... you know, hothouses and things like that. And in this region where I am, we need to look at how do we manage that in the hot summer months because it will become a...
Karen Seinor: a raging hell in there with with too much sun so yeah it's all balancing uh what else um Now.
Karen Seinor: My tarot timing cards. and the seasonal self so the things that I do I actually really looked at the tarot cards for the different seasons and i've shared that and and the specific times on that presentation that i've mentioned you'll find it on my website i'll pop a link to it in the descriptor of this sum.
Karen Seinor: episode. if you If you're interested, you can check it out. Um...
Karen Seinor: And it's also... my own behaviors the activities that i do within those seasons so i'll just share those with you so
Karen Seinor: Spring I use the suit of cups. all right And so what's going on then? Emotions are waking up. I'm reconnecting with the community. My cup is beginning to fill. The bees get active in the garden. And I start doing checks on the hives in the springtime. you know i need it to be you know 16 degrees really that's that's traditionally that's been the the correct number ah In the summer, it's the suit of wands, so fire. Right, makes sense, hot.
Karen Seinor: um Life. energy, the life force energy, right? that like like sap in the trees. It starts to move with the heat. and um You know, I do.
Karen Seinor: Open house then, like i'll I'll have more visitors. I invite more people for dinner. Sometimes I'll do rituals. you know Sometimes I'll have a party at the summer solstice.
Karen Seinor: That sort of stuff. I'll often do tarot practice days. in the summer because especially early summer and late summer because it's not too extreme weather -wise and we can access the garden.
Karen Seinor: Otherwise I have to adjust the time of day so it's not too warm, yeah. All depends, all depends. you know eating cool foods So things that, you know... um red cabbage that sort of stuff that's been... um Hmm.
Karen Seinor: in a cool... Mint tea. with lemon in it things like that So accessing. things from the garden that are going to be cooling because mint is very cooling as an example often like now i'm getting lots of lemons and friends dropping limes in when she has excess. So what I'll often do is I will juice those and I'll freeze them in an ice block.
Karen Seinor: you know ice cube trays and then i'll Once they're frozen, I'll pop them into a plastic container or a container. and put it in the freezer. so that they're available and I can just drop one or two of those into a jug of water.
Karen Seinor: Some of you may have experienced that if you've come for a reading. Um. Or you'll find cucumber floating in your water. It just... they have those things have a cooling effect on us and that's very good for us energetically as well as physically.
Karen Seinor: Yeah. Never underestimate a herb. or a bit of cucumber in your border. And what else? There's some busy time in the garden. autumn of course is pentacles this is a time of harvest and we can see that I mean. Autumn's are beautiful, isn't it?
Karen Seinor: you kind of get this second harvest in autumn. Often that's when we will get that last um harvest of honey from the hives. We will get... some Some autumns seem to extend and extend and extend. For example, I have a beautiful plant out there, amaranth, which is still...
Karen Seinor: upright now in the bee garden and it's been there for an entire 12 month time frame. Just incredible. Incredible. Um, Yeah, so...
Karen Seinor: Autumn we are harvesting from that second harvest. We're preserving our food. So even things like if you've got your garlic and you've got an... um an extra harvest of honey, you might do up some...
Karen Seinor: honey garlic so you know peel all your garlic cloves put them into a jar and then pour honey over the top If you want to make um really good cough medicine, you'll also add lemon.
Karen Seinor: um ginger turmeric And they leave. There might be something I'm forgetting here. and put honey in it now the honey will go like water So it becomes a liquid.
Karen Seinor: now you can you can use it and that's my puppy making a little snort there she's so cute um You can eat the garlic, just drop it like a little tablet.
Karen Seinor: But you can sift out you know you can sift out the other stuff. And you've basically got a cough. um Medicine there, completely natural.
Karen Seinor: So full of good things for you. So you can do that in your... um preserving aspect. Yeah. Even eggs, you know, like this is a good time of the year right now with the with the eggs coming in hot and fast. Like I'm...
Karen Seinor: I'll often put a little... carton of six or four eggs. out on the table if i've got excess and my clients if they want them they'll take them when they come i just put them on the little table or a um bundle of herbs or some extra silver bead things like that.
Karen Seinor: But you can preserve your eggs so that you've got they'll last for up to a year. And that's really... a really great thing to preserve because it's pure protein. you know.
Karen Seinor: What else? um Autumn, we're cleansing the body. at that time. So we're also It's a great time to do a cleanse.
Karen Seinor: In the autumn and the spring are really the best times to do that. And gentle yoga, very gentle. that that transition from summer to autumn. is an important time and and lots of people tend to get sick in those transitional periods so it's a very good time to make sure you get enough rest.
Karen Seinor: uh enough sun and really good nutritious food but gentle movement don't be too harsh on yourself yeah Now winter of course is swords. Those grey skies, the rain coming in.
Karen Seinor: and it's all about clarity and stillness. So this is a good time for meditation. for study. for really dropping into a place of reflection.
Karen Seinor: about your life. It's a time in the winter where we can... Actually... Hello? The seeds for spring in terms of our lives to begin to gather energy in the darkness of winter deep inside us.
Karen Seinor: It's a very, very important time. Those people who rush... from summer to summer. miss out on that opportunity stillness is important for our for our growth and our our soul advancement if you will because we all need to Slow down.
Karen Seinor: every now and then Yeah. and seasonally. we are offered that opportunity when we live in a space like... The ones that most of us do.
Karen Seinor: What else? um So warm soups, meditation and building the inner fire. So there's a great yoga sequence. um And I think it is actually called The Inner Fire Sequence. And that's a lovely one to do.
Karen Seinor: triangles. triangle pose is used in that a lot and it does build the inner fire and our strength which is very good So...
Karen Seinor: You know, in terms of you know what I tend to do, that's a time when I like to do a book club. you know invite people to come. once a week or whatever. Um,
Karen Seinor: to discuss. And I like them to come to my place. ah Sometimes I do them online because it allows people to stay in the warmth of their home but to still to connect.
Karen Seinor: and to explore something that has meaning and value. for us so we can but we can in a way, we can use that opportunity. to go deep within the self.
Karen Seinor: in the safety of our own home so i haven't decided whether i'm going to do one next winter. We shall see. what January brings.
Karen Seinor: um I'll see what Spirit says. and then I'll have to choose the right book. So. I'm sure I'll get told which one to use. But if you have any suggestions, feel free to send them through to me by email or something. You can go to the website and there's a contact.
Karen Seinor: contact Karen sort of button so you can Suggest a way if you'd like to. um What else? um okay so ritual in the garden let's just speak about that for a moment
Karen Seinor: Just gardening itself is a ritual. that whole Observation. the Weeding, for example. Whenever I start weeding i'm like oh what am i getting rid of here what am i clearing out what am i cleaning out of my life and making space for.
Karen Seinor: It's very cathartic. It's very good physically. upper body strength. It's fantastic. um Yeah, so... the actual process of gardening the planting of seeds we do these in the different seasons right especially around those four or five festivals.
Karen Seinor: Um... I have a...
Karen Seinor: I have a... Fire. Lovely round. metal. Fin. My son bought it actually when I went away and he he come and stayed and went fishing and looked after the the dogs for me. It was really great. I think he needed a rest. And it was fantastic for me.
Karen Seinor: um He got my dogs to be much better behaved actually. um So he got me that. Lovely new. fire pit.
Karen Seinor: and I like to use it. with others, but I also So for example at the winter solstice I will I will burn that fire for 24 hours and I'll go and sit under the cold.
Karen Seinor: Under the cold, dark night sky. and just be with the fire. Yeah. So. And I'll do a ritual for myself at that time.
Karen Seinor: A lot of those I do in a solitary way. Some things, of course, the five festivals I do with community. but um Can you hear the wind?
Karen Seinor: The charms. I hope so. just gorgeous i'm sitting here in my um office space and the um The curtains are blowing from the wind and I can see the leaves and the trees blowing and the dogs have come in. They're a bit nervous. They're like, whoa, they've come close to mum.
Karen Seinor: That's fantastic. all right so Yeah, building the unifier winter, we're talking about rituals in the garden. I mean garden is a beautiful place to do ritual.
Karen Seinor: Even You know, my goddess Nook's in... i've got a buddha by the front door for example that in itself is a ritual i have crystals there um I've had some people be so very generous with me and give me beautiful crystals and over time I've collected a few along the way. whammo gorgeous one a double header
Karen Seinor: It was a dark smoky quartz when I got it. And it over time, it's got clearer and clearer. And I always felt it was um symbolic of my daughter and myself. and um We are the last of our matriarchal line she and I.
Karen Seinor: and It's joined. What? significantly. And so I have a sense that the two of us. have And we've still got my mum.
Karen Seinor: um I have a sense that the two of us it's kind of up to us to complete something. for our matriarchal line. because it's not going to continue because she's had two boys.
Karen Seinor: Yeah, interesting. Anyway, crystals are beautiful. so um Even I've got some gorgeous crystals. in various places in the garden to amplify the energy and I've done things like gotten copper wire and wound it around branches.
Karen Seinor: And... place that. into garden beds to bring energy into the garden bed and that's been very interesting you might like to play with that there's quite a few people on youtube and stuff who who share in detail about about how to do that and and how it works.
Karen Seinor: For me, I don't know about the um scientific aspect but I've I've been playing with this from a person you know totally subjective. subjective perspective just to see how it is. yeah Now...
Karen Seinor: Now my goddesses And my main goddess at the bottom of the garden.
Karen Seinor: that. Energy. One of the things i'm very ah I wanted to mention about the um crystal grids. Like I've... I've had certain crystals placed with the um beehives to connect them in. All sorts of things I've done at different times if I'm doing some work with...
Karen Seinor: Um, the area that i work in i'll sometimes create crystal grids in the garden because this is from what i understand a point in a triangle this particular block which is sort of shaped like a triangle is one.
Karen Seinor: Point. in a triangle That's... holds a particular energy. Sounds a bit woo woo, but that's my understanding. Don't get into that too much.
Karen Seinor: um Yeah. Now, the other thing, like I love to create specialties for my clients.
Karen Seinor: and I've got a few. weird containers of different herbs and things like that and I'll in just the same way that I Choose a deck.
Karen Seinor: often i'll choose a deck for the client who's coming or i'll get two and a la and they'll always choose the one that spirit tells me but i still give them the choice um Likewise.
Karen Seinor: uh certain herbs are going to be supportive to them so i make a pot of tea that's going to nourish and support them and that's a lovely thing we don't go into a conversation about that but it's just something that I do behind the scenes and it's very much about the permaculture aspect and there are a couple of clients who've left with a jar of tea to use and even a few who've gone away with a little sample jar of honey so that they can have a teaspoon of honey a day to support their feminine energy and to build their inner strength, their confidence.
Karen Seinor: in their inner knowing. This is the beauty of permaculture because you can easily without any extra effort really. have enough.
Karen Seinor: for yourself. plus more. That means that you can share with others and that gift giving and that sharing is very much a part of permaculture.
Karen Seinor: Use what you need and share the rest. When we do that... We start to change the frequency of what's happening in the world. You know, we don't want to live dog eat dog. We want to actually be the change. Yes.
Karen Seinor: All right. So... Hmm.
Karen Seinor: I think that's probably all I really need to talk about.
Karen Seinor: I mean one of the things
Karen Seinor: In terms of ritual. I mean, originally when I started doing the half -day retreats, I was doing them here at the cottage, but I discovered that it was better.
Karen Seinor: to Do them elsewhere. because it helps me to tap into my community. So for example, Um, Oh. I now use Cindy's Yoga Studio in Wodonga for this. Now, I live in Albury. Do I need to do that? No. But... it's lovely for people to tap in i can make what I'm doing. um more.
Karen Seinor: Available. because I've got a bigger space. if it's needed. um They know, they get to know about Cindy's work and the fact that her studio is there and like we can share.
Karen Seinor: we can all share. That's the thing. That's what I love about permaculture is that fundamentally there's this... radical idea.
Karen Seinor: of having enough and of sharing with others and giving. without any requirement to get back. It's actually very refreshing. And...
Karen Seinor: I would love to see. more people. tapping in. together. where you know i'll go all of these pumpkins and you live 10 k's away you're going to grow all of those pumpkins and you live a further 10k away so you can grow those pumpkins and then we all share so we've all got different varieties you know what i mean like that kind of principle Okay, so...
Karen Seinor: You probably know I've got the Beltane Retreat coming up on the 8th of November. It is actually 31st of October, 1st of November um specifically, but I'm having it.
Karen Seinor: um on the 8th of November. ah mostly because I will. Well, actually, I was just given that was the date to do it when I set. with spirit to work out the dates.
Karen Seinor: That's what was given. So I just went with it and as it turns out I have the incredible pleasure of attending something that is going to be so special.
Karen Seinor: the weekend of the 31st of October and the 1st of November, which I'll share with you. later so yeah so the Beltane retreats on Sunday the 8th of November I'll put a link somewhere so if that's something that you want to come to you certainly can you're very welcome um Yeah.
Karen Seinor: What else? No. What I would invite you to do This week... is to just notice. Something.
Karen Seinor: around you. that indicates to you The season that you are currently in. Either... Physically. or personally.
Karen Seinor: Make sense? Yeah. um
Karen Seinor: It's interesting. One of the things... that I'm... looking at. is how we move through the different seasons in our life.
Karen Seinor: you know as maidens, mothers. and normally they would say crone but a beautiful lady spoke to me at length last Summer solstice, actually.
Karen Seinor: Is it last summer solstice or the one before? Anyway. She's beautiful. It's a friend of a friend. and I admire her enormously.
Karen Seinor: She's... been doing a lot of work in the feminine area. And she said to me, oh. When you walked in, us I went, there she is, the autumn harvest queen. And so she talked to me about that and put me on to, um oh gosh, I can't remember her name right now.
Karen Seinor: If I do, I'll share it. and And I ended up doing a little online training about this autumn harvest queen. And I thought, yeah, there actually is now a step before crone.
Karen Seinor: But I'm definitely going in that direction. The color of the hair tells you that. But. I'm welcoming it, I'm open to it and I have no fear. around getting older.
Karen Seinor: I do know. that um it's important for us to maintain our health. our strength, things like that. as we change so what i'm really getting at here I've wandered off a little bit, is that
Karen Seinor: Look not only at the physical season around you on planet Earth, but also the season within. the season that you are in right now. Are you the maiden?
Karen Seinor: Are you the young woman seeking her lover? Are you the daughter? No. Or are you in your mother? aspect. where you are creating beautiful art or writing stories or nurturing your clients or babies. For example,
Karen Seinor: finding your lover. Yeah. Okay. That's probably all I've got for today. I've talked a little bit longer than I expected and I've probably wandered off here and there ah do forgive me if you would it's lovely to connect and to explore these concepts around permaculture It's more than what we think. It's not just growing veggies. Although that is very important. And from my perspective.
Karen Seinor: Growing a garden. that nourishes yourself, your body. your neighbours, your family, your friends is an act. of Radical.
Karen Seinor: Self. Realisation. You know, like you cannot be controlled when you can feed yourself. Important thing to remember. Okay. All the best!
