First off a very Happy New Year to ALL !
I do hope that 2023 is going to be a really good one for all of us!
According to the ‘Tree Calendar’ we are still in the month of Birch or Beith as it is called in Old Irish Gaelic.
Beith is all about new beginnings – the first tree of the Ogham – so very appropriate for this time of year. You can read about Beith on my page ‘The Trees’ but here are a few more interesting facts and tidbits about Birch ..
Scottish place names such as Cowdenbeath, Dunbeath, Glen an Beithe and Cnoc Beithe are all associated with birch trees – Dunbeath in Caithness for example translates as ‘fort near the birch trees’ and is the birthplace of the much celebrated writer Neil Gunn.
“Time became a stilled heart-beat. Stealthy, climbing sounds. Finn’s body drew taught, heaved up onto supporting palms. Whisperings, the movement of the top of a small birch-tree here and there whose trunk was invisible hands gripped. The hunters in their primordial humour were closing in. Life had come for him.”
Neil Gunn – The Silver Darlings
For more information about Neil Gunn visit http://www.neilgunn.org.uk/ or watch the film ‘A Light in the North’ here Other place names associated with birch trees are those with the more Scandinavian influenced ‘birk’ or ‘berk’ in their composition – so Birkenhead, Birkhall and Berkhampstead for example.
The name of singer/songwriter Bjork also translates as ‘Birch’ in Icelandic 😉
‘The Birks of Aberfeldy’ is a song written by Robert Burns. Burns was inspired to pen this work after a visit to the then ‘Den of Moness’ in Perthshire which was subsequently renamed after the song and is just one of the many beautiful places you can visit in ‘The Big Tree Country’
‘Burns Night’ is celebrated on the 25th of this month 🙂
Once again a Very Happy New Year to you ALL!
Divine Ogham 