Samhain in the Blue Ridge Mountains arrives as a stark, hauntingly beautiful threshold where the veil between worlds feels thin, and the morning mountain mist looks thick.
 

Some mornings we wake to tall grassy fields covered with a gorgeous frost. This is the season of the "Final Harvest" and the true witch's new year.

 

It is a solemn yet cozy time of deep ancestral connection and reflection, where we honor the cycle of death and rebirth.

 

As the vibrant autumn colors fade, the energy in the mountains shifts from leaf season to a quiet, hallowed stillness where we settle in a little deeper to the dark half of the year.

The great leaf droppings make it incredibly hard to find things on the forest floor and it becomes harder to see acorn caps hiding underneath. The brilliant canopy of October is stripped bare by late Autumn winds leaving a thick, heavy blanket of leaves that will
compost and nourish the soil. It is a gentle reminder to everyone to compost what we are done with.

 

I remain in the process of gathering vines and mullein stalks that have now finished flowering.

 

I harvest some witch hazel blooms this time of year and am reminded it's time to make the salve and cut the oranges to dry. I put on a simmer pot blend to add a wonderful fall aroma to our space.