Moss Whispers

More towards Hillock Middle, on a mound facing the Castle of the Heart a new kitchen has appeared . The name, CLARA, is molded on the big oven door. It’s open as if someone has been working on the cook fire. Sofar, the only clue about this kitchen is that there is a trail (or is it a fence?) of stone hearts growing from one side of the Two Stone Pillars and heading westward up the hillside toward what I’ll call for now, The Kitchen of Clara. Hmmm…again I wonder about the chef? who eats food from this kitchen? and what gourmet surprises come from here? Just as the watercolors are still coming together, so will the whole puzzle need to arrange itself together over time…we’ll see…or maybe you already know how it comes together? Let me know if you discover any new pieces.

Kitchens seem to be emerging more rapidly than any other outdoor ‘rooms’ around the Hillock! Sofar, I’ve spotted two! no, three! a tiny one just popped up!

This is the first kitchen I noticed on a walk one day a few years ago. This one must be The Queen’s Kitchen? Interesting that it has stone steps leading up to an iron stove at the base of another large tree on a central western knoll. Similarly, the Stone Door with the sculpted Queen is atop another set of stone steps climbing to the base of the largest tree and both are facing eastward. Not shown in this painting, but present in real form are the kitchen tools hanging above on the tree. Little is known yet about who actually cooks here except the chef must add a musical touch to his concoctions, based on ‘a hint of musical spices’ on the stovetop. Attached as a stovepipe is some part of a horn, not sure if it’s a french horn or from some other country? And atop the stove is a whistling kettle with a heart on the front….hmmm… a heart?
For now, we’ll have to settle for such clues to give us a taste of who cooks here? what delectables? what ingredients? and who partakes of such symphonious scrumptiuals?

At the centermost peak of The Hillock, just past the Two Stone Pillars, ramble stone steps climbing to the base of the Wise Old Tree. On the North Side of the tree at the top of the steps is a stone door gathering moss. What’s behind it or how to open it are not common knowledge. Those that make it through the Valley of Ashes and past Char, the guardian of the gates, are greeted by this series of stone steps held together with mossy mortar. With each step towards the ancient arch, wrinkled feelings forged by life, slowly smooth… leaving one’s whole being open to a willing wonder that’s been waiting to surface. As eyes and hearts refocus, clearly appears on the stone’s surface, a statue of Queen, herself, sculpted in detail on the front of the door. Nevermind a door knob or hinges. This door doesn’t function as we know doors to do. To hillock inhabitants, save only a few of the wisely intuitive, this central stone remains a mysterious monument to some primal presence on this hillock. And even for them, each is privy to only one piece of such knowledge. Perhaps a better use of ones time when near these beautiful steps, is to savor their natural beauty, their combinations of colors and shapes, and the views from such a high vantage point, rather than spending one’s time and energy trying to figure out how to open the door. From the top step, eyes can practically view a 360, except for directly behind the tree where The Artist paints the western sunsets. Still it’s hard to keep imaginations from climbing higher and delving deeper into the Mystery of the Stone Door in the Wise Old Tree. Questions and ponderings are best solved on this mossy hillock by not ‘trying to figure it out.’

Slab is busily firing his kiln for the last time before he makes his big delivery trek to the eastern slope of  Middle Hillock. He must time it just right. For to get to “The Castle of the Heart” he must pass through the Valley of  Ashes and the lair of Char, the last dragon to guard the the Stone Gateway to the Wise Old Tree….

Just as the Valley of Ashes is made of layers of dragon bones from Char’s ancestors, and fallen trees blackened by snores of ancestral dragons’ ancient slumbers.  … The Castle of the Heart, is made of layers… layers of castles whose heartbeats have moved on, making room for quicker pulses to thrive. and if  Slab were to have a sense  that he was being watched even on his hidden days and nights, he is right. For far in the distance stands the silhouette of a one-winged bird, glancing longingly towards the castle. Never once does he turn his eye from the direction his wing points. Never once does he rest from his vigil.

…For Slab, this trek is easy since he has the fortunate design of a day in between everyone else’s’. So as easy as Slab’s clay forms into pots, Slab easily slips through space and time as he rolls his heavy load of pottery up to the castle doors.

Over the last 3 years, some new dwellings have begun to appear at The Hillock in the Meadow. They are amazing to watch evolve over the seasons. Recently, I’ve been working on watercolors of them, and slowly stories of each of the dwellings are whispering through my mind on my walks. This watercolor is outer evidence of Slab, the Potter. Slab spends a lot of his time underground searching for clay and minerals for his work. In the picture you can see some of his work, and off to the right peeks remnants of his outdoor kiln. He’s an industrious little fellow and hard to catch in action with the human eye!

As Moss quickens its growth along the Meadow floor and the Hillock transforms into a Magical Miniature Moss Mountain Community, Ann, the MeadowWalker and MossTender is creeping to catch up with all the creating that’s been going on. It’s been only two plus years! since I recorded any MossWhispers.
My heart continues to listen though my fingers have been learning, tending and typing textures of mosses rather than typing texts into my computer.
Even with dirt under my nails, I RE-COMMIT to posting MossWhispers!
so…
LOOK for upcoming announcements:
•Spring Workshops for Adults and Children
•MossMakings for Sale
•Services offered by the MossTender
and…
LOOK for articles and photos that describe many of the happenings and learnings going on around the Studio, Hillocks and Elsewhere!

I also ASK from you:
•to keep ME posted with comments about what you see & other MossWhisperings that might interest you!
•share my blog with others that might be interested
Your feedback and connections will be very nurturing and energizing for me! Thank you! Aciu! (a’choo is the name of my Studio and my favorite word! It means Thank You in Lithuanian)

June 20, 2009

Sophie, our 14 year old nearly blind and nearly deaf heartdog, renders her plaintiff bark over and over until I finally take her out for the fourth time this morning! We head down the meadow toward the hillocks. With curious caution we peer through the mother lavender plants to look for Footloose II, the 10 foot long black snake that suns on the dryrock wall, primed for any lizards or frogs that happen by. Breathing resumes as we only see dragonflies and bees drinking the calm lavenderade.

I follow the path and Sophie swishes through the meadowgrass after plopping down and rolling in the freshly cut yardgrass. We meet further down the path and greet as if we’re just now ‘seeing’ long lost friends.

Then off to the Fairie Hillock to look for any new signs of activity. This hillock is my ‘special baby’. I proudly peruse the dirt to look for any new signs of moss spreading to new places. It has so changed from when I first pulled the bramble of vines and raked the leavings from the trees to discover little magical patches of moss here and there. Where once there were a few patches, it has spread to form connecting mossmountain ranges that go from one end of the hillock to the other! I puzzle as to what has made it spread so. I know I did my part, but so did the natural world. Is it science or spirit or attention or the natural order of things? or the chaos of deer and animals stirring up the moss that is there and spreading it around? I guess I’ll never know about this or any other great creation of life! It’s such a mysterious menagerie!

Was it my buttermilk and moss concoctions in the blender, my misting, my forever collecting of pieces of moss here and there to carefully add to the menagerie? There was all the sulfur I sprinkled to make the soil acidic, and my sporadic weeding of grass and other limblike invaders that tried to hide the beauty of the green cushiony blankets underneath.

As I ponder and play with all these thoughts, Sophie goes straight for the half dug pond that has filled with leaves and muck from the umteeenth rainshower. She paws at the leaves, looking for something…either the mud underneath that she likes to chomp and chew or fresh water to cool her scorched tongue, or some toad to muse upon?

Then off we go to check out the newly blooming thistles I’ve been eyeing further down the path. As we closen, a large deer startles the nearby grasses. I look for a little spotted one to scramble after her, yet none appears. The thistle flowers are so purple! so brilliant! I don’t want to miss a single one! I’m so thrilled that we saved them from the crazy tractor woman who mows the meadowpaths! (that woman is me! creating paths in the meadow is another passion of mine.) There are a few ‘flower families’ throughout the meadow that need protecting from me, myself, and I, so they, myself, and others can enjoy them in their moments of brilliance.

Further on we head for the bigger mucking pond in the woods. Sophie has discovered it with all her senses as she wades through the tall pondgrasses to enjoy the coolness of the shade and slimy water with all the other creatures. I leave her there as I explore the other family of thistles that are more on a lane than in a garden grouping. Even the round unopened buds are so full of possibility and beauty.

I can’t help dreaming about pruning this limb, or clearing this little shady nook. I want to hold the beauty, the smells, the sounds, the pulse of it all in my breath and being forever. And I do!

May!
Hi, if you’re still there. This blog was of course to be a daily blog, yet in the beginning it is starting out g r a d u a l l y as a quartly blog. Moss grows slowly, yet it is a ‘forever’ sort of kind of matter.

Today started with mowing paths through the meadow until the tractor sputtered to a halt by Hillock Number 2. This is a hillock with great potential and a character all its own that has not yet been discovered.

As I walked the paths up towards the house, there was G. my beautiful friend, who was stooped over taking a photograph of the brilliant yellow flowers above the stone garden wall with the intense purple flowers behind it. She was preparing to teach her Color class out in our garden. I was thrilled to see her and showed her how the bumblebee cliffdwellers were doing with their ‘condo-construction’ under the cantilevered part of our house. I could spend hours with her, and as it usually turns out, I only have brief moments to soak her all in.

What makes G so wonderful? Hmmm…she has such a positive buzzz or vibration about her. She loves life, loves beauty, loves kids, and looovves gardening! She’s helping me think in steps about how to make some of my million garden dreams come true.

Do you ever carry so many ideas in your head and heart, and they all connect? and then they connect with more and more…? And then it’s hard to unconnect them from the whole painting long enough to make one stroke at a time towards the total? Well, that’s me!…and moss…
Sometimes I think my mind just mosses up into these beautiful visions of what’s possible, that then I have trouble “making it so” as my friend B says. (She’s a mutual friend of mine and of G’s.) See how even people moss together?

Well, G understands that, and how dirt, plants, bees, people, dogs, all moss together, and thus she understands Me! And that is so grateful, isn’t it! To be understood by someone. She gets that my mind is very web-like (I mean like a spider’s web), and she just crawls right into it, delights along with me, and lives comfortably there. So even though I only have brief moments with her, they are precious gold.

Then the ‘artists’ arrived. Four very alive women with sketchbooks in hand. We all met on the deck and G talked with us about ‘color’. Spectrums, light, intensity, …the words mossed around in my head. What really took hold for me was that light was what brought the colors to us.

Years ago, I was in California, at a MoreToLife Workshop, called
‘On a Sacred Path.’ I took this quick photo of the cabins where we stayed, and my favorite stump, right as we were leaving for the airport.

It was only months later, when a friend asked me if I ever saw any fairies. From that followed a great discussion about photographing special places and looking for ‘the unseen’.
Here is the first ‘aha!’ I had.

I zoomed in on the sunlit parts , and ‘there she was!’

The sun’s out! Amazing what light does!
Colors come out to play with it. Blue sky becomes the gameboard. Upon it, the steadfast family of evergreen peers from it’s hidden castle of mistyfog. Sillouettes slip off their meshes of blackened hose, and pull up nature’s herringboned hues. The wildwind has blown to darker lands leaving stillsilentspace for gratitude to grow.

Gratitude is so great! All it needs is a teenytiny crevice to peek through and remind us of everything good! I think it grows more than exponentially! It grows beyond all directions and turns time back into what it iswasandwillalwaysbe! A sphere of oneness! And spheres? Well spheres need space and silence to hold them! And sometimes I guess since our minds think we can only access things we can see, we somehow need a little light on the subject to remind us what was there all along!