Autumn Equinox on Dartmoor
I awoke this morning to a stunning cloud inversion undulating through the valleys followed by warm sunshine spreading its golden arms throughout the day to create long shadows across the dying moorland grasses.
We experienced the first frosts up here on the moor a couple of weeks ago. Rowan berries, sloes, crabapples, and fungi are abundant. And the evenings quicken into cool, star-studded, dark skies. The autumn equinox is arriving and, as always, I don’t quite feel ready for summer to end...and yet there is some relief in the inevitable turning of the wheel of the year, the first lighting of the fire in my wood burner, and the slowing down that comes with the autumn and winter months. A time for reflection and dreaming into plans for next year.
Summer has been busy with walks, talks, tours, nature-connection experiences, interviews and articles. I have also had to make much more time for rest as I navigate peri-menopause on top of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia - no mean feat for someone that loves to be outdoors and active! You may have noticed a reduced public walks schedule this year - this is also due to the high cancellation rate which has been an issue since Covid-related lockdowns. There are always good reasons why people can’t attend of course but the associated admin increase for a tiny organisation like ours was untenable so 1-2 Public Walks & Talks per month is currently much more manageable. There are still some annual favourites such as fungi walks, navigation training, stone circles, mindfulness, witches, dowsing, etc along with new and hopefully inspiring invitations such as the Ancient Stones & Afternoon Tea Walk, and the upcoming Hound of the Baskervilles online talk in November.
Dartmoor’s Daughter has also been invited to lead funded walks so there are more opportunities than ever for everyone to participate even if there are barriers to attending such as transport, mobility, income, etc. The annual Dartmoor Walking Festival is a great example of this where 40+ walks were offered in September and payment was by donation, raising funds for Devon Air Ambulance (my ‘Mariners Way Walk’ raised a fantastic £200+, thank you everyone that joined us!). The ‘Hello Bovey’ funded walk for local families and community was great fun too.
