How many times have I passed this old oak, caressed its craggy bark and velvet moss, wondered what it would feel like – to be this tree. For a day, a year, a century. From fragile young shoot vulnerable to pests, to struggling sapling prey to deer, to vigorous adolescent invincible and insouciant, to robust young adult casting the next generation, to wise old one, to ancient one… To be inside and feel my feet become roots and explore the soil, to feel my arms become branches, leaves, limbs, a crown. To feel my bark develop armour […]
The Rocklings
3 posts
Every land needs a protective spirit. But where do they come from? Are they settled in a place depuis la nuit des temps? Do they migrate in search of suitable territory, like pollinators looking for a place where they can thrive? A few years ago we found our protective spirit hovering near the grotto in the woods. The place was wild, hidden by thorn bushes, inaccessible except to forest animals, asleep for decades. Here the water flows right out of the rock cliff wall, filtered by fronds and moss and ferns, sweet and delicious. Our spirit is an adolescent […]
The forested north and east perimeters of the vineyard have always been something of a no mans’ land. Long ago a mass of thorny briars took root below the cliff and created a minefield of rusty barbed wire tangled up in the dumping ground of previous residents. It would take years to clear out the broken glass, tin cans, tires and tossed-out tools by dragging the detritus up the stone ridge, one bucket at a time. Everyone knows that the inaccessible woods rising near the briars are a haven for owls, hawks, deer… But recently, someone began to suspect that […]