Tag Archives: dolphins of taiji cove

Taiji Cove Complete–Making room for garden thoughts

3 Feb

For the Dolphins of Taiji Cove

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It seems a few weeks early for robins–but I heard one last Thursday and saw two in the back yard yesterday. Garden thoughts now. Actually, last summer’s garden took the wind out of my sail. From July on it was a disaster–constant heavy unseasonable rain–blight, mildew, rot–no yield whatsoever after the initial bounty. But the ancient stirring begins. A need. An itch almost. And Grace has excited me with her postings on permaculture–hugelkultur specifically. I looked into it. It makes sense. Use everything. I do that for the most part, but I’m thinking that hugelkultur mounds just might drain better–give the plant roots a break if we have the same kind of wet season this year. I looked into it–mound building –layers upon layers–starting with logs, branches and twigs layered with a variety of organic matter.

The neighbors behind me were cutting down trees and I sat here dumbfounded, watching as the backyard view changed. Watched until the space opened enough so that I could see their house. Watched while the sky opened up. Watched the tree cutters jumping over the fence to remove everything that fell into this yard. Then found myself running out–running up the hill–stop, wait, please–and they were stunned. Quizzical. “Leave the huge branches? Leave the small limbs? Leave everything?” Yes. Leave it all. Please.

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The long big branches are too heavy. Will  be cut into manageable pieces after I get the chain saw fixed. And this one with the hole–locust–not good for hugelkultur as locust takes FOR EVER to rot. We used locust for fence posts in WV. They will be in the ground long after everything else decays–but good for critter habitats.hole in locust

And on Sunday, Imbolc and the Chinese New Year–I started one trial huglekultur mound. It’s for gourds–it’s outside the garden proper and it will be vulnerable to the neighbor groundhogs. But I’ll fence it off before then. Circle it with netting. The mound is about 4′ in diameter–dug 6″ into the ground and sits up about 6″ in its unfinished state.   Because it needs to be watered. I read each successive layer should be watered. Not thinking I dragged out the hose and turned on the spigot. Nothing. Then the sound of water. In the basement. The hose was frozen and the pressure blew out the inside water line–into the basement. Hose is thawing. Keeping an eye on the basement. And last night it rained like crazy.

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Leaves
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Greens
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More leaves then sod turned dirt side up–waiting for more—straw, compost, topsoil…DSC00649

and worm’s eye view of a humble beginning:
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Heading to Sow True Seeds on Wednesday–Asheville’s own wonderful GMO-free/heritage seed company DSC00642

That’s enough for now–except to say “thank you, Grace”– and to also share this hugelkultur link:

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For the Dolphins of Taiji Cove

23 Jan

This cloth is moving along on its own volition. It calls to me when I’m doing other things. Insistent. And each time I return to it, I’m glad that I listened–not to my mind–but to the cloth’s voice. This morning I was looking at trees from a vantage point on the floor. Squinting. Making a peep hole with my fist–a tiny viewing mechanism. I scanned the branches, limbs, spaces in-between. Noticed things. Shapes, curves, lines. Some of the branches had that beautiful curve–the dolphin’s-back curve. But the spaces in-between are what really captured my attention–and I started seeing constellation diagrams.cropped

Which of course led me to wonder–is there a dolphin constellation? And yes, there is. And it’s called Delphinius. There are several legends from Greek Mythology that explain how this constellation came about–and in each case, Dolphin was a helper to humans. A helper. I’m thinking about that now.

The red on the cloth represents two things. First, it’s arranged in the general shape of Delphinius. And it’s red–it’s red because blood is red.  And that seems to be what we do to beings that come to help us.
And again, as with Starfish, a portal exists. A departure point. The point where two spheres touch , creating an opening.  Portal to another realm.  And I left the twigs with the shell center.  It reminds me of how we stick symbols in the ground to remind each other that something BIG happened here.DSC00612

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