Spring renewal

Now that the ground is clear (at least on one half of my property, the other half still being somewhat of a pond due to living in a swamp-adjacent low area), I have been hard at work preparing for the growing season, and continuing my ongoing project of responding to the inherent spirit of the land in various artistic, spiritual and practical ways.

Yesterday I put out a little locally-made spirit-house (or some might say birdhouse) on the back porch:

And created a new base for a portable fire bowl, out of pavers I was gifted:

I deconstructed my original fire pit, which I had made with some old concrete blocks I’d found lying around the yard when I moved in. I used a few of the blocks to create a little pedestal where I will place a dish to use as a birdbath soon, but many of them had broken into various pieces. As I was moving those off to the side, I noticed that one kind of looked like a bull’s head. Then I got an idea…

These are modeled on the bucrania called “horns of consecration” at the temple of Knossos (see below photo). Though bucrania are a recurring decorative theme going all the way back to Çatalhöyük.

It immediately felt like the right thing to place there. That platform will likely be a deer feeding station in winter (when I’ll remove the “horns” so that they won’t break further during the freeze/thaw cycle) but in the summer it can be a sort of forecourt to the temenos of Dionysos that lies within the swamp behind it.

As I collapsed in the evening, exhausted from all the work I’d done, I said to the land something along the lines of I hope these things I am doing and making please you and properly honor you. I am very careful, after all, to work with the existing character of this place and not try to impose ill-fitting ideas on it. I’m mostly keeping it wild and simple.

Anyway, that night I feel I got a nice confirmation, as I was delighted to witness something I had long thought might happen someday – when two different animal species arrived to scavenge for treats at the same time. I was watching an enormous raccoon munching away when he suddenly looked apprehensively down the driveway and I saw a petite gray fox come into view. They stared each other down for awhile, the raccoon making some intimidating movements towards the fox, the fox looking a bit nervous but ducking around him to steal food anyway before eventually running off, after which the raccoon finished eating everything in sight. It was fascinating to observe, and it felt like a gift.

I am very much looking forward to spending more time outside enjoying the land now that I don’t have to don several layers of gear just to get around through the snow! Watching the swamp come back to life – tall blue-green grasses emerging, crickets and frogs singing all night, small points of red dotting the trees where maple leaves are budding – is quickly making this my second favorite season here (after autumn, of course, which is always the best wherever I’ve lived). Having survived another winter just makes the joy of spring even more intense and personal.

~ by Dver on April 18, 2024.