Awaken Nature Healing

17/03/2026

Some of the beautiful trees who live at Colby Gardens in Pembrokeshire, where I will be this Saturday holding a Spring Equinox Gathering, celebrating the arrival of Spring and all that she brings.

The weather is looking stunning for this, and I’m so looking forward to sharing the healing wisdom of the plants and trees we’ll be meeting as we connect with the energies of this particular time of year.

The morning will essentially be a time to synergise with the energies of the season, connecting with each other, and with our own roots through grounding, meditation, visualisation and sensory work.

If you would like to be part of this beautiful celebration, further information can be found in the link below, or feel free to message me here or email me at max.allinson@live.co.uk.

https://www.awakennaturehealing.com/workshop/spring-equinox/

Spring blessings

Maxine 🌸

15/03/2026

To walk through the woods in Spring is to listen to many layered bird song, the notes of which carried through the air seem to be calling the plants into life. For with every step you may come across the colour of a new flower, nestled within fresh green leaves upon the woodland floor.
In amongst them, Prima Rosa, ‘first rose’, shows her face to the sky. She is said to protect you from harm, and bring blessings to your home.
To eat one of her delicate yellow petaled flowers may grant you the ability to see the faerie folk, and maybe they will bid you to stay awhile.
A gentle tea from the leaves can calm, bringing you down from the thinking mind back into the place of your heart. For who could not love the flowers of Spring. For all that they bring.
For each day that they are here, they seem to make it a little bit brighter.

14/03/2026

Beautiful ❤️

13/03/2026

Hawthorn leaves and Blackthorn flowers.
Now it really feels like Spring…🤍
You’re probably always going to see the Hawthorn leaves opening before their flowers appear, while the Blackthorn flowers appear before the leaves, although I did see a few little leaves today emerging alongside the flowers.

Both Hawthorn and Blackthorn are considered faerie trees, and it’s bad luck to cut them down, especially so the Hawthorn whose wood is often used for making magical wands.
Therefore, it’s wise to ask permission from the tree for anything you might wish to take.

The leaves are edible and it’s best to pick them when they are freshly new and green. However, I rarely take them, because I always feel the tree needs them more than I do.

One lovely thing to do with the flowers of the Hawthorn is to make a flower essence, for the energy of the Hawthorn is all about love and the heart. The flowers when they come out will have an almost intoxicating scent, and working with the essence will bring you back into a grounding sense of love for the self and for others. 

12/03/2026

Spotted this beautiful Purple Cherry Plum tree blossom 🤍

11/03/2026

My first Wood Anemone flowers seen this year. They are also known as windflowers, the genus Anemone originating from the Greek word anemos, that means wind, but also relating to that it was felt that the flowers would only open when the wind blew.
It is said that fairies like to hide within the petals when it is raining, and it is to some a symbol of good luck and protection.
Ancient Romans sometimes used to wear the flowers around their necks as a charm to ward off illness.

However, the wood anemone is a toxic plant, and in past times people were known to walk past holding their breath for fear of catching some kind of illness.

Maybe this also leads to the plants other name, ‘Smell Fox’, as apparently the leaves and stem emit a slightly acrid musty smell.

I have never noticed, but this is one of my favourite woodland flowers. It feels otherworldly, like I have happened upon a place of time gone by. Mixed with the celandine and the primroses growing wild within the ancient oaks and ash and hazel, one can almost feel the presence of faerie folk dancing and playing when we aren’t looking.

08/03/2026

The amount of times I’ve seen a beautiful tree in an urban setting where somebody has come along and done this to it. The tree then rapidly produces thin branches coming out from the trunk in a vain attempt to try and produce leaves to photosynthesise. Then about three years later somebody from the council comes along and chops all those branches off. We can only guess how a tree feels or lives, and may pull on biological and chemical facts to justify our actions, but to me, it has always felt extremely cruel as a practice. A tree is a highly sensitive living being that senses its environment and the others who live in close proximity to it. And while people may state that they are doing what’s best, it will never seem right. 

The Hidden Trauma of the "Topped" Tree
The architectural silhouette of a tree is not merely an aesthetic choice; it is a precision-engineered solar array. When we prune trees into tight, geometric "lollipops" or "balls," we aren't just tidying the garden—we are dismantling a biological engine.

The Myth of "Managing" Growth
A common misunderstanding is that cutting a tree back hard makes it "safer" or easier to manage. In reality, severe pruning triggers a "panic response." The tree produces epicormic shoots (water sprouts)—long, thin branches that grow rapidly to replace lost foliage. These shoots are weakly attached to the outer bark rather than the structural wood, making them more likely to fail in high winds than the original canopy.

The Scientific Reality
According to research supported by the Woodland Trust and the Arboricultural Association, removing more than 25% of a mature tree's canopy in one season can be catastrophic.

Photosynthetic Deficit: As the image suggests, losing 40% of the canopy removes the tree’s ability to feed itself.

Bark Scorch: Thick canopies protect the trunk's sensitive cambium layer. Sudden exposure to direct UV rays can lead to "sunscald," causing the bark to crack and inviting fungal pathogens like Ganoderma.

Energy Depletion: A tree uses 100% of its stored starch to heal these massive wounds, leaving nothing for its natural defense against pests or the UK’s increasingly frequent spring droughts.

Happening Now: The March Transition
Right now, UK trees are exiting dormancy. The sap is rising. If a tree is topped this week, it will bleed nutrients. As the soil warms, the tree needs its full "leaf area index" to pump water and produce the sugars required for the year. A severely pruned tree will instead spend its entire spring in a state of emergency repair, failing to develop a robust root system before the summer heat arrives.

Why it Matters
Urban trees are our primary defense against "Urban Heat Islands." A natural, spreading canopy can lower local temperatures by up to 5°C through transpirational cooling. By "topping" them, we reduce their cooling capacity and shorten their lifespan, turning a 200-year-old asset into a 50-year-old liability.

Practical Actions Today
Choose "Crown Thinning" over "Topping": If a tree is too large, ask a professional for a crown reduction that maintains the tree’s natural shape and leave at least 70% of the foliage intact.

Check for Buds: If you see "fat" buds or early leaves (common in Elder or Hawthorn right now), stop pruning immediately.

Mulch the Base: Help a stressed tree by applying organic mulch around the root zone to retain moisture before the spring dry spells.

The beauty of a tree lies in its resilience, but even the strongest oak has a breaking point. We must stop asking trees to look like furniture and start allowing them to function like forests.

Scientific References & Evidence
The Arboricultural Association: Guidance on "Why Topping Hurts Trees," detailing the structural instability of epicormic growth.

Forestry Commission (UK): Research on urban tree health and the impacts of canopy loss on carbon sequestration.

Mattheck, C. (Body Language of Trees): Mechanical studies showing how severe pruning disrupts the distribution of "mechanical stress" within the trunk.

07/03/2026

Alder and Hazel… if you come across the former this Spring, you might at first think it is Hazel, for like it’s relative, because they do both belong to the same family, the Alder tree bears male pendulous catkins and small red female flowers.
Within their family, Betulaceae, you will also find the Birch, who also bears catkins.
Irrespective of all this though, they are both very beautiful, and interesting to think that the small female flowers of the Alder become woody cones, unique for a deciduous tree. And that the Hazel’s red flowers, become the familiar nuts that we like to gather come Autumn.

05/03/2026

Standing on a little wooden bridge, looking down into reflections of trees, ready for Spring

03/03/2026

A rare cobalt blue piece of sea glass found amongst the stones today. Since I was a child, I’ve loved combing the beach for what has been washed up or uncovered by the sand. Pretty stones, unusual shells, bits of coloured glass, or pottery, and I always wonder how long they’ve been in the sea, and whether maybe they come from some long lost shipwreck down within the watery depths.
Each find can be like holding a piece of history, but really it is like holding a piece of magic ✨

01/03/2026

Happy 1st of March🌼 A wonderful time now to think about having a Spring cleanse after the long days of winter.
Three of the plants that will help you do this are cleavers, dandelions, and nettles, all of which this week have been becoming more and more noticeable in my garden.

Dandelions let’s face it are brilliant. They pop up everywhere, their bright yellow flowers lifting us up and reminding us of sunny days to come. Like the Daisy, they follow the Sun, and close their petals up at night, opening them up again if it is dry.
You can eat all of the dandelion plant, and can add the leaves and flowers to a salad. They are full of vitamins A, C and K, and are mineral rich and full of antioxidants. You can take the flowers and the leaves and make them into a herbal infusion, tincture them, or even make an oil.
A tea from dandelions will help to cleanse the blood and urinary systems as the plant is known for its diuretic abilities, which in turn helps to promote kidney health.
They are also amazing for digestion, and help the gallbladder and liver remove toxins from the body. An oil made from dandelion flowers can aid in reducing inflammation in your joints if you apply it to them.

Nettles are also incredibly good for the blood, and are mineral and nutrient rich. You can eat them, however they are also great to tincture and put into a tea. They are good for adrenal fatigue, and I often find that if I’m going to drink nettle tea, I do so in the morning rather than the evening. They help us fight off allergies by their antihistamine content, and are known for helping to cleanse and remove stagnation from the blood. They can also help to eliminate access uric acid which can cause inflammation in the joints. All around, they help us to remove the old, and strengthen us from within, bringing new vitality and energy, and I would say having a patch in your garden can only be seen as a blessing.

Cleavers, also commonly known as sticky w**d, for it’s ability to stick to just about anything, can be picked fresh and put into a hot or cold infusion. Drinking this can help to clear out any toxic buildup in the blood and the lymphatic systems. The plant is generally good for the waterways in your body, and being a cleanser also of the urinary system, can help with UTIs and kidney infections. Cleavers are also a liver restorative helping build the liver back up in times of jaundice and hepatitis.
They are anti-inflammatory, but also just generally calm things down in the body.
Drinking cleavers regularly throughout the Spring will also help the health of the skin as you remove toxins from your body.
Another benefit is that the juice from the stems of cleavers can be rubbed onto the skin to help insect bites and stings, and skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis.

As would make sense, if you’re going to work with any of these, which can all be combined together as well, make sure they work for you personally. Only pick plants that haven’t been potentially exposed to pesticides or are growing at the side of the road.

I always find that when you notice a positive benefit from working with a plant directly, it changes you, and that plant becomes your friend. And these three make for very good friends indeed.