Growing Guardians

Small Things for a Change

I have discovered why some people spring clean once the sun shines. Bright light through the windows shows up every speck of dust and each muddy paw print. I’m considered to be pretty clean by friends and neighbours and especially the manager of the cleaning company I use, who claims my home is “immaculate”. However, when those sunbeams streamed through the windows on Monday morning, David escaped to the garden to mow the lawn, whilst I blitzed the house with lemon scented products.

Spring is a good time of year to sort out boundaries, whether that is in relationships or work-life balance or anywhere it feels there needs to be a bit of a tweak. I’m looking at the physical boundary of my front door, as I want to introduce some protection to negate any bad energy seeping in from the chaos of the world. The easiest way to achieve results quickly is to introduce a few pots of herbs, such as rosemary and sage or, alternatively, place thorny plants near the entrance. Aloe Vera gets good reviews, because it is a healer, as well as a protector.

Witches place a hag stone in a plant pot near their external threshold and also add eggs shells. The latter is also used by organic gardeners to create an abrasive barrier to deter slugs and snails from eating their plants. I believe that the difference lies in the amount of eggshell considered to be sufficient. Some witches place a rowan tree twig or a thorny branch over their front door and sprinkle salt across the threshold. I won’t be sprinkling salt anywhere, since it is abrasive and might cause scratches in the floorboards. I have an idea to buy a couple of cute, little dishes and put salt in them both and place them either side of the door step.

David and I had our front porch enclosed with double glazing in January, so I’m going to buy a couple of rosemary shrubs that I will place on sentry duty, each side of the front door. Then I will tuck a hag stone in each pot. We already have one house guardian, called Qi Ling, which we bought on a trip to Singapore many years ago. He sits on a window sill and looks out over the driveway. He did the same in our house in Bath and both places where we lived in Australia.

Qi Ling is a mythical chimera from ancient China that provides protection. Our one has the head of a dragon, the tail of a cow, a body covered in scales and shells and the hooves of a wolf. He stands on a serpent. He is one of the Five Auspicious Beasts of Feng Shui. The others being Dragon (power), Phoenix (harmony), Pixiu (wealth) and Turtle (longevity). A Pixiu is another chimera. It resembles a winged lion with the head of a dragon and a wide mouth, which signifies his appetite for precious metals and gemstones.

Ruby the Beagle is neither a mythical beast nor a chimera and the thing she has an appetite for is animal dung. Usually, she is a little restrained and smears herself with a dab or two of pheasant poo, but on Sunday, she managed to find sufficient fox faeces to make her stink like a skunk. On our first attempt to clean her up, we used “no-wet” foaming shampoo, which was okay, but it didn’t do a thorough job. So David took her into the boot room and gave her a proper wash in the ‘dog bath’. She was very good and seemed to enjoy the experience. Her coat looks soft, if a little fluffy, and she smells sweeter, so we consider it a job well done.

Something I do during the winter is quilting. Somehow, I’ve managed to find myself with three separate ones on the go, all at the same time. I have a plan! I’m going to finish the cot quilt first, because it is time specific with the baby due in early April. Then I will sew together the plain blocks that make the back of the quilt that already has a front and then put that together. After that, I shall tackle the third project and then sigh with relief and be outdoors more.

In the better weather I potter around the garden, weeding flower beds, dead-heading roses and geraniums and generally tidying up. David does the ‘blue task’ of growing fruit and vegetables. He won’t prune any of the trees we re-planted in our orchard, after they were moved from their original site last year, since the apples, pears and plums need time to become established again.

We don’t grow vegetables from seed, because it hasn’t proved to be successful for us. We find it easier to buy little plug plants that we can put in the earth in the fruit cage (peas, runner beans and raspberries), poly tunnel (lettuce and spring onions) or greenhouse (tomatoes and strawberries). We also buy seed potatoes and sets of onions that we dig directly into the ground of the vegetable beds. One year we were very successful at growing butternut squashes, but they take up a lot of space and need watering frequently.

My poem this week ‘surfaced’ after I had done a lunar eclipse blood moon meditation from YouTube. The meditation begun by suggesting an intention be chosen to add significance to the experience, so my stated intention was to find a suitable poem to include this week. I hope you can find the links between both pieces of writing. This poem comes from my ninth collection called Song of Stones, a book which is yet to be edited.

ANOTHER CROSSROADS
The path of all humanity 
is towards
forever
another crossroads.

Seeking and searching
for
home, hearth and harvest,
seed, spice and solace.

The path of all humanity is
going forwards
with steps heavy or light,
dancing with destiny.