For those of us in the northern hemisphere, we feel the growing of darkness as we travel towards the Winter Solstice in December.

As the days grow shorter and the darkness stretches its cool air around us, we are invited to descend deeper into the darkness.

The healing journey is not easy - not if you are a human being reading this that is.

The first of the swallows (Hirundo rustica) have returned to my back garden in Oxfordshire today, welcoming in May and the blossoming Spring.

Making their courageous journey from the south of Africa, they travel 200 miles per day facing exhaustion, starvation and adverse weather conditions.