Taken from August 2022 Kitchen Witch Newsletter
As we approach the month of August, here in the UK, we are having hot, sunny days with temperatures not felt here before - up into the mid to high 30's.
We have had many dry days and the grasses and the earth is parched.
Flowers are in abundance now - the bees and butterflies and other insects are busy from first light to dusk and we finally feel that we are in the middle of our summer. In the fields, the grains are ripening fast, just last month they were still green and were starting to show tinges of yellowing with the warm sunny days. But today as I look out across the fields where I live, they are beautiful and golden and thoughts turn to Lughnasadh and the first harvest. In the hedgerows, blackberries are formed and some are starting to ripen. The long grasses are also yellowing with the lack of rain and the heat from the summer sun. Burdock is starting to flower now along with thistles - which the bees and butterflies just love!
The elderflowers of June are now small elderberries, and just starting to ripen to a beautiful shiny black.
Apples, crabapples and cherries are ripe now, although the apples need to grow for another month or so before they are ready to harvest.
As all of nature is in abundance now, it is the perfect time to forage in nature for some flowers and plants for your magical workings. Be sure to ask the plant or flower before taking just enough for what you need and give thanks to the plant and an offering to Mother Nature - water the plants (they will be most grateful at this time of year) and perhaps leave some food out for the birds.