Hedges and Boundaries

Since the turning of the season, and the recent "super" moon, my thoughts have been directed to creating boundaries....

... a concept of creating a line over which we will not step or tolerate others stepping over....

... lately, popular labels of "hedgewitch", "hedgewizard", "hedgedruid" etc indicate a new fascination with boundaries and containment, or lack thereof....the excitement, perhaps, of going beyond what is known, or socially acceptable, is attractive to some people...

I like boundaries... around a home a hedge delineates private property from public space...

... around a vegetable garden, it protects food plants from marauding wildlife....

....locked doors require people without a key to be invited in....

.... and within a home, doors on the various rooms facilitate privacy and containment...

.... I suppose I could speak to you about these doors being metaphorical symbols for what's within the psyche... but you can draw your own conclusions, and make your own associations, so I don't need to...

Boundaries though, do more than simply mark out a physical space....

Gardens planted within a fence grow better... I don't know why...it's not simply a matter of shelter, or micro-climates.... the plants seem to feel the boundary, and actually enjoy its containment...

Draw a line around an image, for instance, using a border, then notice how it strengthens a design... picture framers know this well - the choice of a mount for framing is crucial ...

Creating a fancy seam or border on a piece of cloth makes it look complete, or "finished"... I don't know why...

.....and on it goes...

Ritualists will often create a boundary around a ceremonial site by casting a circle, or making a sacred sign around the area to separate it from the mundane world ....

 

.....it seams to me that people enjoy boundaries as much as plants do, whether emotional, social, physical, or energetic...
.....because they can choose to stay within them, or leap over .... and like plants, people thrive when empowered to choose the situation that best suits them....

.....sometimes, the prettiest blooms are those that bravely poke through a fence to reach more sunshine...

Solstice greetings

Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice....

Two very different nests grace the table this year, and I decided to decorate with eucalyptus, gathered locally from the forest floor.....

This year, I celebrate the light of home, connection, and belonging...

I couldn't resist turning this little fellow I made years ago into an English Faery sort of Green Man... He lives on the

art room wall, offering wisdom and encouragement... ivy is abundant in the garden, and although it is a weed, is beautiful....

At this solstice time, I wish you the deep peace of perfect balance...



With the returning light in the South of our Planet, may your inspiration flourish....

and in the North, where the daylight will begin to lessen, may your harvest be abundant....

Wherever you are, I wish you exactly the sort of nest you need in which to rest comfortably....

Gardening as art and natural environments

 As we move into the darkest day of the year this week, I am thinking of the wild animals who must make their living in difficult winter conditions...

Creating beautiful gardens is a tradition here, & it is an enchanting place...

People visit from all over the world because it is so unique. However, the art of gardening is not something that sits well with the delicate environment of an ancient temperate rainforest...




I wonder how to have as little impact upon natural habitat as possible....

I wonder how to find the balance between wildness & domesticity...intellect & instinct...

Is this the distinction between gardening as art & gardening as agriculture?

Reflections

A sunny morning this week provided an opportunity to catch some pretty reflections for you between bouts of wild weather....

I was thinking about the ways in which an earnest heart seeking the truth will often find it,

but that it is the way in which a question is asked that influences the way in which an answer manifests...

Sometimes, it's impossible to know exactly what motivates the question, because the reflective waters are stirred up & muddied by emotion.....

But the truth often flies straight as an arrow to pierce heart of the matter, & what the querant thought

they were seeking is revealed as illusion .....

This is sometimes the way of reflection....

Slainte!

Winter announced itself with a flash and a flood this week, as a month's worth of rain fell in a night, and a spectacular show of lightning lit the sky accompanied by crashing thunder that rolled and rolled around the summit of the Mountain for hours...

Last month's glorious copper beech shed its leaves to reveal its supple silver skin, whilst the rough and ancient wattle giant opposite dropped a few brittle old limbs, and struggled to remain upright throughout the violent storm...

Tucking into my lunch today, I thought about light, & heat, and the way the human animal instinctively seeks warmth in the cold weather for comfort and survival. As I considered my steaming bowl of fragrant soup, I was reminded that all of these vegetables had absorbed the sun's warmth in order to grow, & now it was my turn to absorb this stored heat, by consuming them so my body can convert light into energy...
...... And then I remembered warm sun on my skin, & the light of a sunny day... of how I loved the sunshine so much one day that I took a photo of the sun directly with my phone, just to see what it would look like... And here is the result...

....I think it looks like the iris of an eye...

A Druid summer solstice ceremony I love, says:"as I stand in the eye of the sun"... it is about making vows, & being open to scrutiny... the sun burns away dross as well as giving life...

Our ancestors held a great & simple wisdom: without the sun, without its light, without its eye of fire, even now, in 2013, with technological sophistication the ancients may not have believed possible, we would still cease to be. How did they know it looks like an eye?

The wheel of the year turns, & winter solstice will soon be here, on June 21st,.

I shall be giving thanks this year, for the light stored inside food..........

Seems rather magical to me to eat light....

Slainte!