Posts Tagged ‘balancing stones’
Little Touches
Today is our last day to prepare for the guests we are expecting for World Labyrinth Day tomorrow. Cyndie and I put in some extra hours yesterday, primping the nooks and crannies around the rocks lining the circuitous pathway to the center of our labyrinth.
When we got to the boulders in the middle, I wanted to figure out a way to make it look more intentional and less like a hodgepodge of incidental boulders.
What better way than stacking a few balanced rocks on top?
There is no way those rounded stones will stay balanced against the frequent pressure of visiting birds, but I hope to have them reset before people show up to walk tomorrow.
There are still so many plants that haven’t sprouted leaves yet; it looks like they might be dead compared to the ones that have already greened up. Not that I blame them for being slow. Cyndie has been covering her sensitive flowering plants the last few nights to protect them from frost.
I’ve been keeping an eye out for evidence of trillium making an appearance. We have several spots where it has shown up organically, and one area where Cyndie and I have planted some we brought back from her family’s lake home. Yesterday, I found that the ones we transplanted are already about to flower.
We are still a loooong way from a virtual carpet of trillium flowers like happens up in the woods at the lake, but even the few spots where we have it showing up at home bring us joy every time we see it.
Just like our sprucing up the grounds and area around the labyrinth, it’s the little touches, like a trillium blossom in the woods, that set a tone that defines the specialness of our Wintervale paradise.
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Impermanent Art
The many random balanced rock sculptures I create around our property are impermanent by design. I expect them to tumble back to earth, sometimes within mere minutes. Other times, they can last more than a year. I have an affection for placing balanced stones atop the stumps of trees.
Somewhere in the archive of past posts (Previous Somethings) there are photos of me using the loader to raise rocks too heavy for me to lift so I could balance them on a tall stump. The upper rocks fell rather quickly but the last one sat on that stump looking rather phallic for far longer than it should.
Eventually, the lopped tree trunks rot to the point of not adequately supporting large stones. I think that is my favorite end to these installations. Once the trunk is no longer standing, the piece cannot be recreated. Sometimes the rocks get repurposed into the labyrinth.
Earlier this fall, Cyndie and I dug up a rock along one of our trails that was too big to lift so I just leaned it up against a stump where two rocks balanced above.
The stump for this artistic masterpiece didn’t get a chance to rot to tumble the stones. I can’t be sure whether the rocks fell before some woodland critter in search of insects attacked the stump or not.
I admit to cruelly imagining the stones tumbled while the animal was within range of being superbly startled. It would be really sad if one got hurt by them, but I suspect wildlife is quick enough to dodge more than a bump from the collapse of one of my creations.
Hopefully, the scavenger got a good snack from the stump shredding. Think of the poor insect victims!
Nature can be harsh. But it’s beautiful to observe!
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Relative Something 