https://youtu.be/I9Z8vA-7B3Q The asters are now in full bloom and the bees are loving them! However the mosquitoes are still quite the nuisance and we are going to need to cancel our meet up for this weekend again. 🥺 In the meantime though, I have been continuing to put together plans for ways to have meaningful connection with the land and each other when we are able to meet again… so that we can keep creating ...
Though we have not used any of the nonprofit funds directly for this, I wanted to share with you that your support does indirectly provide assistance for the many cats that are regularly dropped off at the farm. We have a steady stream of them that we feed, and we find homes for as many as possible, because our local shelters are all full. Last night we found a mother cat and her kitten sheltering ...
Hi Everyone, Last night we had the biggest flood event we've had here to date. Most of the land is flooded, including our chicken coops, hoop house, sheds, and some of our garage. But thankfully NOT our house or basement. We spent a good part of the day getting our chickens situated as best we could, by adding tables into the coops (with their food and water on them), for them to stand on, along with their ...
Sunday, August 27th, 10 AM to 1 PMOur topic will be AIR IS MEDICINE. 🌬*Designing permaculture zone 1 (our homes) for healthy air, and the impacts of clean air both inside and outside.*How our thoughts affect our health.*We will go for a walk through the woods to soak up the fresh forest air and write love notes to the trees.*We will meander through the meadow and notice all the "air creatures" - bees, butterflies, flying insects, dragonflies, ...
This Sunday, we had a great discussion of the energy of Fire and how it is at work both within ourselves and on the land. For our activity, we made corn husk dolls to keep in our homes to remind us over the winter of the powerful energies of sunshine, sexuality, and creativity found in the spirit of grain. They will be a reminder of the capacity we all hold within ourselves for inspiration and flow in ...
High summer is presently in full swing everywhere at the Sanctuary. These are a few of today's sightings.For those of you who are members, we welcome you to set up a visit, or plan an event with other members to meet up together and share in the joy. The Sanctuary awaits you.
Hello friends. Just a couple of pictures taken today to show you some of the beauty and sacredness that you are supporting. Thank you. 💕(Swamp milkweed)Bright Blessings,Jean
August 20th from 10 AM to 1 PMOur first meet-up was a lovely, intimate gathering and I am so excited to continue to offer these times of connecting with each other. The next Circle Meet-up topic will be, Fire is Medicine, with a celebration of our life force energy, sunshine, sexuality, and the Sun God Lugh / Lughnasadh. Our activity for this session will be to make Corn Husk Dolls together. Corn husk dollies are meant to ...
By Brennah Cavanaugh, Board Member of Crossing Hedgerows Sanctuary Buttonbush is a bush with very unique looking flower clusters that are almost perfectly spherical. Its flowers are adored by pollinators of all sorts, but due to the long tube-like shape of the individual flowers in the cluster they are especially attractive to pollinators with longer tongues, like butterflies, bumble bees, and hummingbirds. (The unusual shape of the flowers make them attractive to humans, too!) It is ...
How can we take small steps together in community to shift our lives towards healing on all levels? Integrating spirituality and ecology to heal our lives and create deep friendships will be the purpose of this group. 🌀Facilitated by Jean Cavanaugh, in each session we will dive into a topic, sample food using our farm fresh ingredients, and experience the healing of earth, water, air, and fire on the land of Crossing Hedgerows. 🌀There will be a variety ...
Hi Everyone! I apologize for the delay in posting. I have been working on a project needed by EGLE for getting our permits to do the permaculture landscaping for the pond and gathering areas that we've been working on these last several years. After going through an engineering company for our first meeting with EGLE earlier this spring, Dan and I were given a quote by the engineer for $11,000 to do a "forensic wetland analysis" to ...
Today I took a short video so you can see what the woods are looking like right now. At the end you can hear a plane flying low overhead, as the Sanctuary is not too far from Detroit Metro airport. https://youtu.be/y7gwtDCswo4 Our world is constantly becoming more and more developed even in areas that are zoned for agriculture. Farm fields across the road from the Sanctuary are currently being partitioned off and sold for ...
Sunrise - July 1st, 2023: A distinctive purple glow over the stone circleAs we head into July, I want to thank you all for your continued support of Crossing Hedgerows Sanctuary. Though we haven't been having as many events this year, the land continues to heal and is teaming with ever more life. Sometimes the bird song is almost deafening around here, and the varieties of insects, and animals passing through are too many to list. Yet ...
Hello everyone! These are some photos that one of our members wanted to share with us. She took them at the Sanctuary during our May Walk and Bonfire. Thank you Marie for sharing your interaction with the land spirits! 🦋 mushrooms on a log trees and wild geraniums trillium and lily of the valley flowers trillium jack in the pulpit I ...
Last week's gathering was a magical time coming together with old friends and new. We didn't have a chance to take pictures during the event, but wanted to share a few of the photos that Brennah has taken this spring in the woods, as well as photos that I took of the stones that were collected and placed into the stone circle as offerings. Trilliums with mossy log Wild Geraniums (also known ...
Sunday, May 21st at 3pmEntering the sanctuary woods right now is like stepping into a fairyland. The forest floor is carpeted with purple and white spring ephemerals. Timing a walk to catch this at the optimal time is hard to do very far in advance, so we wanted to put out the call just at the right time (which is now!) before they all disappear. We invite you to join us for a guided walk by Jean and ...
A new native plant that has appeared at the Sanctuary this year is the Blue Flag Iris. It grows in wet areas, often along the edges of water. So unsurprisingly it has begun growing along the edge of the creek bed, not far from the beautiful buttonbush, another amazing plant which I will highlight in a later post.Blue Flag Iris provides nectar for native pollinators, and is also forage for muskrats. It likewise attracts hummingbirds, which we already ...
As noted in the last post, we had a bit of a hiccup at the beginning of the Maypole Dance, which we did manage to work out. We hope you enjoy this little snippet of gaiety! https://youtube.com/shorts/B1FF7jU4F7M?feature=share
By Jean Cavanaugh, President, Crossing Hedgerows Sanctuary Photos by Douglas S. Pierce, Board Member of Crossing Hedgerows Sanctuary Doug, the photographer We had a wonderful Beltane celebration again this year, with the Maypole once again being a big highlight. There is always so much laughter and fun as we dance! A comment from one of the young adults in the group was something along the lines of... "I would've thought it was ...
For our work day last week, we did some clean-up in an area of the woods where the previous owners seemed to have had a dump. Though the Cavanaughs have been pulling trash out of that area continuously since moving to the property, it has been a huge project. And it mainly needs to be done in the early spring, after the snow melts, but before everything gets covered by the understory plant growth. So it was ...