Today is Imbolg, or St Brigid’s Day, and I’d like to wish you all health, protection and abundance as winter recedes and spring starts to wake.

St Brigid is very clearly an old spiritual presence in Ireland, far older than the arrival of Christianity. Her cross is a distinctive and beautiful thing, made with rushes each year in many Irish households. Is this form of cross a pre-Christian symbol? I don’t know, but it is lovely.

I make a St Brigid’s Cross each year with my daughter and leave it up on the threshold for protection. As she is still so little, our efforts tend to be a little wobbly. We haven’t made this year’s yet, but here is the last one, looking a little worse for wear.