You know things are bad when even Reginald Montgomery “Chuckie” Hogbottom, Order of the Woodchuck, Recipient of the medal of honor “Marmota Monax” September 2019, Groundhog Knight of the Realm, May 2022, and Recipient of the Order of the Garter July 2023 is MIFFED.

To explain Chuckie’s distress, let us recap this season in our vegetable garden. Despite an 8 foot fence circling the perimeter, deer and groundhogs have frollicked so thoroughly in the inner sanctum of this garden that little is left but Hollyhocks and Nasturtiums (well sprayed with garlic spray) and an onion crop. There might be more if us humans liked garlic sprayed vegetables, but we don’t.

Any time a grandchild visits the first thing we do is go down and fill in the groundhog hole in the CENTER of the vegetable garden. Several hours later, it is a sure bet we can go fill it in again. The groundhogs shamelessly redig the hole as often as we fill it in. It is fair to say that until last night Chuckie and co. were getting the last laugh about everything to do with the vegetable garden.

However, this morning when I went down to begin to mulch over sections of the “garden” with mulch hay, it was hard to miss that the damage had escalated. In fact, the eight foot fence had been destroyed on three sides of the garden. Lizzie was with me as we surveyed the scene. There were metal fence posts bent to the ground as well as sections of heavy duty fencing droooping on the ground. This seemed a little much for a Groundhog celebration or for that matter a gala event with the Deer community. Even the deer prefer sailing over the fence versus destroying it.

This week Lizzie has run into so many bears on her early morning woods walks that the whole office crew has been reading the bear section in Animal Speak while simultaneously scratching our heads in wonder. So it was only right that Lizzie found the smoking gun, I mean steaming bear poop left as a memento to commemorate whatever bear activity occurred last night in the vegetable garden.

While this intruder has Chuckie and co. annoyed, I really feel the most sorry for the bear which must have found NOTHING tasty in the garden. As in truly NOTHING! Chuckie and co. are not known for their sharing skills, and they have truly left nothing for anyone or anything else to nibble on.

Needless to say we await the arrival of the man we have hired to build us a serious garden fence with bated breath. Good news for him is that now there is virtually nothing for him to dismantle and no planmts for him to worry about damaging as he sets to work to build what we now hope will be a Groundhog, Deer and Bear proof fence!

All I can say as I close this post is THANK GOODNESS FOR THE LOCAL FARM STAND! Oh and the picture I took of the poop? I will spare you the photo but may share it with the under seven set of grandchildren who do like a bit of poop talk.

I abandoned our FB back before COVID. There was so much going on in my life that something had to give, and it was FB. The decision seemed set in stone when I lost my passwords. Yes, passwords because FB made me have to have two accounts to have a GHF account. Lasy week, upon hearing ( yet again) my pathetic story of not being tech savvy enough to figure out how to revive our connection to FB, techno wizard and staff Goddess Jen got us back in. So here we go, giving FB a whirl again.

My first post back into the fray was a photo of a new Rose, Lady of Shalott part of the Lady Rose trio ( and eventually to be given its own tab).

Wow! The sweet messages from you dear GHF beloveds from the 35 years we’ve been here just melted my heart, and most certainly brought tears to my eyes. To say I was really touched by your messages just doesn’t begin to suggest how I felt. Thank you all for your love!

PS As if! I haven’t posted the photo because FB won’t let me post anything. I guess I need to await the return of our techno wizard and staff goddess Jen to sort this out!

Ireland calls to many of us. We recognize its ancient magic as offering true healing, its rocky shores and green hills to be just the place our spirit craves. On trips to Ireland, I found even the most prosaic activity (such as hanging laundry out to “dry,” in the steady drizzle) to be exhilarating and soul satisfying. The green fed my soul. The wind and rain fed my soul. The lovely people fed my soul. And of course the FLOWERS fed my soul.

But sometimes even when a place calls to us, we are not meant to go there or can’t go there because we must stay put in the place we live. This is one of the great consolation of Flower Essences. I may never get back to some of the places where we have made Flower Essences, and some of the places like Taiwan and the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, I have not visited in this life. Yet the Flower Essences from these places bring the vibrations of these places to us. I feel a deep connection to Sicily from having worked with its Essences, even as it was Emily Sheehan who travelled in Sicily to make these Flower Essences, not me.

We can balance ourselves as global citizens with Flower Essences even when traveling to these places is not in the cards for us right now.

Take for instance precious Ireland. My husband is watching the Open golf tournament today. It is taking place in Portrush in the north of Ireland. I overheard an announcer mention the vast numbers of visitors returning to Ireland after the quiet of the covid years.

If you find yourself craving Ireland but grounded here in your current place on the planet, look to our Irish Flower Essences made on many a heartfelt journey to the west of Ireland. I look to them myself in these times for the way they show us how to endure what has to be endured, and how to keep the flame of our eternal spirit blazing despite depredations and challenges.

To mention but one Irish Essence offering pertinent, consoling wisdom for these times, let’s consider Omey Island. Made from all the Flowers blooming on this tidal island on a lovely July afternoon, the Omey mix restores us when we feel our lives have been pared down or nipped in the bud with our dreams perhaps also pruned unexpectedly.

When the worldly world has trounced us and left us battle weary, the Omey mix helps us anchor in our true eternal self which is unlimited and free. Yes, we may be in this world but we are not of this world, and this Essence reminds us of this truth.

Existing as it does in a place where its shifting definition as an island is regulated by tides, Omey and its Essence turns our focus to aligning with our own natural, inner rhythms and to a reality more true than surface events.

As we come in touch with what is eternal and internal within us, we can come to terms with what is happening in this passing show of daily life. So our daily life may be a shit show and so too the worldly news. When we anchor in the eternal beyond this temporary drama, we find the steady beat of belonging to an other enduring reality of goodness and light. And this consoles us.

Right now, the Angels say I must stay at the farm and not travel to Ireland or anywhere else. Most days I am at peace with this, grounded in my life with all its beauty and complexities, but sometimes, when I feel restless even homesick for Ireland, Omey and its Essence helps me trust the flow of my life. Omey whispers, “This path you walk, even when it seems to go no place right now but the compost heap, is for the good of your eternal soul. No matter how unexpected or strange or confusing in its twists and turns, hold on. Trust the tides. Trust the inner voyage. Trust that you are loved and that light prevails.”

Once again the talk in the office has centered on the movement of Uranus, one of the outer planets, into a new sign. Uranus moved into the sign of Gemini on July 7th. As one person described it, Uranus moving into Gemini takes aim at technology, communication, our relationship to facts and truth, and the exchange of information.

While many seem to feel this transit will be all about AI, I would like to go in a different direction with my thoughts. If we have spent the last thousand years working on our reasoning skills, now we must turn to the skill of intuition. This becomes a most pressing task for all of us, because we are assaulted night and day by information all of which cannot be true.

Our technology has brought us a deluge of data, yet how to sort out fact from fiction?

This (mis)information deluge calls us to focus on discernment and going deep within ourselves to accurately measure and sort this data with our. own intuition.

According to author Don Stevens, intuition comes from three places. It comes from ancient wisdom held in our genetic make-up. Intuition comes from wisdom gathered over our life experiences, including past lives. Finally intuition comes from a direct experience of our Divinity.

This crucible of ancient wisdom, knowledge gained from our own experiences and the still small voice of the Divinity within us is a crucible capable of handling this toxic deluge of information and misinformation.

HOWEVER, we have to slow down and use these intuitive gifts. We have to be in the quiet to hear the still small voice within us. We have to find a way to recall what we know and weigh it against this insane onslaught of confusing (mis)information. We have to put down our phones and listen to our own hearts.

My mother discovered that if she made up a statistic people would believe whatever she said. As a child I saw her win arguments with this method. I found it very unsettling, yet it was probably good training for me to not believe everything I heard even when it was given in the format of factual numbers by an authority figure.

Now we have an epidemic of people pushing and twisting data to prove things.

Here is one small example from the farm. This spring as we experienced another season of very strange weather, someone showed us a compilation of local weather statistics that “proved” the weather was just the same as it had always been. This was a moment when we looked at those “hard facts” and saw how they didn’t hold the truth. For example, even though the same amount of rain fell in April of 2025 as April of 1975, our rain fell in storms of six inches not in gentle rains spread out over many days as in the 70’s. By grounding in our intuition, we pulled apart the numbers and figured out why they were misleading. We recognized this assault of numbers was just another use of facts to mislead us. After we laid to rest this data, I gave a little thanks to my mother who taught me not to believe number facts without using my intuition to double check.

A few FLOWER ESSENCES for Intuition

As you read these suggestions, trust your own intuition about whether these feel like they would serve you!

To Hear the Angels Sing– a combination remedy to support you to hear the still small voice of Divinity within you. Here gathered are many Flower beloveds who will help you hear this voice. You are not separate from Divinity and the flow of connection is meant to be crystal clear and pure. This one helps restore, revivify, and illuminate our oneness with our true self and source.

The Sacred Feminine– Our aim is a balance of Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine energies. The Sacred Feminine is the source of life giving creative energy and wisdom. This Essences supports us to reclaim and contain our sacred wisdom.

The Sacred Masculine– This mix supports us to protect our Sacred Feminine wisdom from violation. This is a right use of masculine energy. If we are to know, nourish and support our sacred wisdom to prevail in this discordant time, we must protect her with great love and care.

Spiderwort- Discernment. This Flower is sometimes grown outside nuclear power plants as it changes color when there is a release of radiation. As a Flower Essence it has a no bullshit quality that cuts to the chase. Is this true? Is this a manipulation of fact? We need to hone our ability to know truth and recognize lies. It’s affirmation says it so well, “I AM the clear voice of truth in the wilderness.”

When asking the Angels if they wanted any other Flower Essence added at this time, they said Maple. Noting that it helps us find balance and the middle way in the face of this wild swing of ‘facts’, the Angels also said, “Maple supports you to step away from the chaos of (mis)information to feel deeply rooted in your own truth and confident in your own connection to source. Maple brings a sweet anchoring in the truth of who you are and clarity about what is true and not true out there in the world.”

In June the Roses are so abundant that it’s hard for staff goddesses to get in the door of the office or for me to leave the gardens willingly. Even the enthusiastic deer, partial to fresh Rose foliage, can’t inhibit the display the Roses put on.

People have strong feelings about Roses, surprisingly often of dislike or boredom. Roses have been trivialized and sentimentalized in our culture until we experience them as trite with nothing to offer us. The pendulum of disinterest has swung so far that the Roses in the Rose Garden at the White House have been dug up and replaced with pavement and white limestone chips. Did anyone else grieve this? I certainly did.

Why has this happened? Long stemmed red Roses from fields in South America have become our idea of Roses. Roses are associated with men who didn’t remember Valentine’s Day or lavish billionaires in rom-coms who send sixty dozen long stemmed red Roses to their latest love interest while she is at work. It’s tiresome to have Roses pigeonholed like this because this is a family of plants to be reckoned with.

Roses have been in existence for 35 million years. If you have an old Rose cultivar in your garden you may well have a plant that has been alive for thousands of years. Roses are cultivated from cuttings so the original plant becomes a new plant yet is still also the original plant. I find this astounding to go out and visit my Roses and think these very plants were in Shakespeare’s garden, literally. Rosa Mundi, for example, is more than 600 years old and grew in England during Shakespeare’s life.

The Angels tell me that Roses are pure Divinity. In a plant of duality where we suffer the potato beetles as well as savor the Roses, this family of plants can be counted on to hold the light. They are the highest vibration family of plants with only Lotus vying for an equal position. Their Flower Essences are profound gifts to us all.

Here are some of the Roses blooming in the garden today.

Ancient and wise La Belle Sultane was the Rose which we used as our logo for many years. Velvety La Belle feels like it was here 35 million years ago, yet it is still fresh as a Daisy.

I like the photo of Goldfinch better in its description tab, but this is what it looks like today. It is a wonderful one for those of us on computers a lot.

Charles de Mills graces our home page. This Rose is stunning beyond belief. All the Roses are. They look so unassuming when not in Flower then Shazam! Their abundant beauty, fragrance and vibrational energy is miraculous.

Here is a little bit more Rose history before I show two more Roses.

The War of the Roses in 15th century England involved two branches of the Platagenet family, the House of York and the House of Lancaster. The Lancasters represented themselves with Rosa Gallica or what they called the Red Rose of Lancaster and the Yorks represented themselves with the White Rose of York which is Rosa Alba Semi-Plena.

The Angels want to bring the White Rose of York forward this season so I will be working with them to get a description. Rosa Gallica is already on the main line up.

After thirty years of the War of the Roses, Henry VII ended the war by marrying into the rival family and beginning the Tudor dynasty which would include Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

There are dozens of Roses blooming here right now. I could post a very, very long post of photos. I will spare you and stop with just two more.

Perhaps in counterpoint to the destruction of the Rose Garden at the White House, the Angels are focusing attention on Roses, including new Rose Essences and Rose Essences that have stayed out of the spotlight on our Additional Essence list until now. Agathe Incarnata Rose is one of those Roses that has long been quietly offering her vibrational gifts from the Additional Flower Essence list,

The Angels feel so strongly about directing our attention to Roses that they had me put Agathe Incarnata Rose, an old friend from the Additional Flower Essence list, onto the main line up TODAY versus waiting until the fall equinox when new additions are usually offered up.

Another one that came forward today per the Angels is Sissinghurst Castle Rose.

I have found it hard to capture the quality of this Rose in a photo. Here is one of my attempts. I love how she describes herself:

“I am a much older Rose than the famous gardens at Sissinghurst. My name is surprisingly appropriate for I am about fortification . I support you to feel strong from within and without, resilient and fortified in the face of significant changes in the world. I do this by helping you KNOW your own strength and also helping you feel more aware of the spiritual beings that buttress you so that you can experience yourself as the eternal and imperishable spiritual being that you are.”

We are all being given so much encouragement to relax into our true, loving selves to live our purpose as Roses do i.e. as Divine beings having a physical experience not visa versa.

Sending you all much Rose Love from ALL of us here.