It is almost Lammas

Here are Klimt's beautiful sunflowers, and Terry has been bringing us the bounty of the Earth, it is not hard to feel the gratitude of the season! Here is Starhawk's explanation of the holiday. Her words seem especially meaningful this year.

Lammas
Lammas is the ancient Celtic festival at the beginning of harvest time. "Lughnasad" is the Irish name for this festival; it was a time of fairs, trading and celebration.
Now, when the days grow visibly shorter and the sun seems to decline, the crops ripen. So too, when we work for justice, when we have expended huge energies to bring about change, the results often come only when the tides of enthusiasm and urgency seem to be ebbing. When the marching and the shouting die away, public opinion quietly shifts.
Lammas means 'loaf-mass', the festival where we honor and celebrate the grain and the food that sustains our life. In a just world, no one would go hungry. All people would have access to good quality food - organic, fresh, local, and truly nourishing.
The grain stands golden in the fields, but has not yet been gathered in. We stand poised between hope and fear. Lammas is a time of consequence, when we reap what we have sown. Globally, we are now reaping the consequences of decades of injustice, of neglect, and exploitation of the earth. Will we make the change, in time to avert disaster? Will we reap destruction, or harvest a new world based on harmony, balance and love? Our choices and actions will tip the scales.
- Starhawk 2007