Filtering by Author: Karen Quinn

All Creatures Great and Small: Winter Coop Wonderland

As the evenings grow colder and the nights get longer, I find myself looking for signs of Jack Frost on the windows and a small dusting of snow on the pines. As the season progresses, I make treks down to the river to see if the edges have started to form their delicate lace of ice and wake up each morning hoping to see a snow-covered wonderland. The kind of snow that brings silence and a deep, peaceful calm to the landscape where, when the sun hits it just right, the world glitters like diamonds.

Posted on January 1, 2025 and filed under Animals, Columns, creativity, Issue #88, Pets.

Autumn Foraging

There is something romantic and melancholy about the Earth Mother closing out the heat of summer and preparing herself for the cold winter’s embrace. We instinctively feel the shift and are compelled to engage with the natural world, seeking to bask in the cascades of warm yellows, reds, and oranges in the trees and almost methodically find our way to apple orchards, pumpkin patches, and forests to take in the beauty and bounty of the season.

Posted on September 1, 2024 and filed under Education, Environment, Food & Nutrition, Issue #87, Nature.

Handcrafting~ Autumn Wild Crafting

Autumn is the season of bounty, and it’s so easy to end up coming home after a wander into the natural spaces around us with pocket loads of natural treasures. Why not engage in some creative crafting with your harvest? Here are a few of my favorite autumn wild crafts to make the most of your gathering.

Stories from the Farm— Sheep: Our Sweet Wooly Babies

For as long as I can remember, February has always been synonymous with sheep. This comes from my lifetime on farms and from stories passed down by ancestors that I’ve never met, yet whose tales live on through the generations of Celtic folklore. One of my favorite folktales is of Cailleach, the divine winter hag of the Isles. Cailleach created the landscape using her basket of stones and her hammer. She would clash and fight for control of the seasons with Brìghde, the goddess of summer.

Posted on May 1, 2024 and filed under Animals, Columns, Farms, Issue #86.