Bards From The Woods

What do you think of adding Plant and Herb Walks in the forests to Bards In The Woods Events? Despite my lifelong interest in plants and herbs, and even qualifications in souch things, I'm currently a sieve in knowledge of such things right now. If I had kept up gathering more plants and making preparations like I once did, then it would all still be familiar to me today. That aside, I think Plant and Herb Walks would be wonderful, but the first thing is to have some of you with plants knowledge and experience to volunteer to facilitate these walks in Ireland? For some people the obstacle may be getting paid for services. A herbalist or botanist holding a workshop in a house or meeting room does command between €50 and up to €200 for a day's workshop. Taking this out to a Public Forest a facilitator would expect to charge and earn similar fees per person. Unfortunately, this does get into the attention of Coillte who have their own scale of permit and licence fees plus extra i

Through our 2014 season of Bards In The Woods, our third season,  where have the Bards and Poets gone? Through 2nd season, 2013, we explored some different things, went to new places and attempting to work out some kind of identity about what we are doing. Our first season through 2012 was seemingly more straightforward. As I look back, it was an adventure of taking favourite poems and stories into the forests and reciting them to other people there. They were always a good listening audience. Some of the people present, listening to these poems, were also itching to do some tree, shrub, plant and flower identification, and why not, because being in a forest encourages that. Some people thought we were too slow and ambling. They preferred using the forest as ways for keeping fit and encouraging better health though power walking, jogging, and intense hiking. Public forests are a very good, safe and un-intrusive places for doing these assertive pumping up ventures.

Well, I will have to kick this off with a pic of one of my favourite spots in Glenfarne. Seat seems to have becomes a bit mossy since last time we were here. Yes, this is where we were ... A few pics around the car park before anyone arrives. A previous rough area replaced with this quite attractive wall ... and a hideous perspex and rusted metal sculpture replaced with this ... Three people turned up, through wonderful women, Tina, her sister Claire and Suzanne. foraging from the moment they turned up :- ) Then the Bardic moments commenced. ... Then admiring the wood anemonies Not used in herbal medicine much these days. Was once regarded as good for getting rid of headaches by creating a decoction and then snorting it up the nose. A myth is that when the wood anemonies come out, the swallows are about. We did not see any. Also admiring the marsh marigolds ... Not really to be used in any home remedy. Experienced herba

After a Bards In The Woods meet up in Glenfarne, I decided to have a peek into Cavan Burren on the way home. Work is currently happening at Cavan Burren, said to be costing in the region of € 900,000. This is to pay for the construction of an unmanned interpretative centre, toilet block, picnic area, bus car park, access road and upgraded walkways to cater for people with limited mobility. Cavan Burren, you may ask? A few km from Blacklion village on the Republic-Northern Ireland border, Cavan Burren is a 124 hectare forest site planted with conifers by Coillte back in the early 1950's, but it has a magical secret until recently. Within this forested land is a complex of varied ancient megalithic sites that local researcher, historian and now Geopark Guide, Jim Nolan refers to as the finest relict landscape in Ireland. Jim says that Cavan Burren probably has the highest concentration of archaeological features in a small area anywhere in Ireland. The information Jim