Celebrating Midsummer

Midsummer foraging + a membership discount

Hello Wild Ones, old and new! If you’ve been receiving my emails for a while, or you’ve just arrived, you are so welcome here. I love to guide you through the seasons by introducing you to wild plants, encouraging you to get outside and to forage, interact with and respond to Nature. In this special post I’ve got some ideas for Solstice rituals for the excessively exhausted, and some inspiration for Midsummer foraging.

Incase you haven’t met me yet - I’m Jo, I live on the coast in Northumberland, UK, and I’m a seasoned (and seasonal) forager. I’m also a herbalist, gardener, artist, a mother and a spiritual being, and I weave all these things into Wild Revival.

Summer with Wild revival

It is Midsummer today, the Summer Solstice, and I wanted to just check in with you all…

How are you feeling today?

The Solstice marks the midpoint in the year, and I find it a potent invitation to reflect back on the last 6 months. I journalled today about what I’m proud of myself for since January, what I’m grateful for, what I’ve been through and how far I’ve come. You might like to do this too! Perhaps you are feeling like celebrating, perhaps you are in the thick of hard times and celebrating is the last thing you feel like doing - I’m a bit of both! My Instagram feed is full of magical-looking Solstice posts, but my calendar is full of commitments, parenting, work, and the dishes are piling up…

Can you relate? Life moves on with incredible speed, and it is all too easy to intend to spend more time outside this year, to intend to live seasonally and not let seasons pass you by…but it is harder to actually do it.

I want to reassure you - you don’t need to gather at sunrise with a large group of women. You don’t need to wild swim. You don’t need to craft a crown from wildflowers. You don’t need to attend a Solstice ceremony on the beach with a fire (although that’s what I did yesterday and it was fantastic!)…You don’t have to do these things in order to mark the season, be connected, or live in-tune with the Earth. You can do it your way.

Simple (I mean simple!) Summer Solstice rituals

Rituals are wonderful ways to find meaning in our lives, but doing something special doesn’t have to mean complicated. Whatever you do to notice the Solstice will be perfect and enough. Here are some ideas for those of us who are exhausted, burnt out, busy, working, parenting…

• Write a line in a journal or on a piece of paper, and slip it into a book to find in the future. “It’s the Summer Solstice 2025 and I am grateful for…”

• Pick a posy of flowers from the garden, or wherever is nearest to you - a park, a field, a verge - perhaps it’s a few grasses, a daisy and a clover - perfect! Stick them in a jam jar of water, or gift them to a tree.

• Sit down and look out of the window. Write down 3 things you see.

• If you’ve got a few more minutes, make a foot bath. A washing-up bowl or a big saucepan will do; half fill it with warm water and some bath salts or soap. Pop in a couple of flowers if you have them nearby, and sit with your feet soaking, imagining what they’ve carried you through since the last Solstice and giving them thanks. You could do this in the bath too!

Midsummer Foraging

Here are the plants that have been most catching my eye in the last week, and all to be found around the Solstice, but many of them for weeks to come too, so don’t feel you are ‘too late’. Get inspired by one or two of these plants and start to look out for them.

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Go deeper with these plants…

If you’d like to learn more about these wild plants, join the Wild Revival membership and come on the journey with us! This month we are looking at Mugwort in detail, and as the wheel of the year turns, we gather to us skills of noticing, foraging, herbalism and slowing down. I love sharing about plants, the more-than-human world and seasonal living with you all in our wild community.

And to celebrate the Solstice I’m offering you a FREE MONTH in the Wild Revival membership!

Come and see what it’s all about, and head to the Membership library to read my previous members-only posts, which are usually only unlocked for paying subscriptions. The price is £5 a month/£50 a year but the following link will give you a month’s subscription totally free! There’s no requirement that you continue paying afterwards - just have a look around, you’re most welcome!

It’s my absolute pleasure to share this guidance with you all; from someone who’s just a little way ahead on my path back to my wild self. I’m here to show you how.

The path to your wild self awaits…

What you get when you sign up for the FREE month:

• Instant access to my whole archive of posts - all the paid posts too!

• Access to all the monthly downloadable pdfs I’ve created in the last year-and-a-bit

• This month’s 2 deep-dive posts on Mugwort when they land - straight in your inbox!

• A pdf to download for this month on our Mugwort theme

• Access to the Wild Revival chat (if using the Substack app or website) where you can ask me your foraging questions, send me plant photos to ID, and share with the rest of the community about your rewilding journey

And if you continue on to pay monthly or annually, you’ll get these benefits ongoing too! Plus you’ll feature (as a little pebble) in my special jar on my altar. I cherish each of my subscribers and am so grateful that I get to write about what I am most passionate about.

My jar of awesome paid subscribers

See you outside soon,

Jo xxx