Tomorrow is the arrival day for BelSummer. It is supposed to do some raining but I am hoping it won't be too much of a problem for setting up tents. The porta-a-loo arrived a little bit ago and is now set up in the back of the orchard nearer the camping area than last year, under a tree to provide shade to keep it cooler. Today has been a bit odd as I woke up with another headache, but have been trying to get some things done anyway. Tom and I bickered about getting some of the things done. We still haven't gone up to check out the cave for animals this spring. And the path probably needs trimming again. It looks like we will be doing that first thing tomorrow morning.
I am losing track of what really needs to be done and what it might be nice to have done. We went out to get a straight branch to hang the birch bark mask on for the ancestral altar. The first one Tom cut for me just wasn't straight enough. When I held the mask up to the hanging point it just didn't look right so we went back out and found a branch on a tree that went down a couple of weeks ago. He used a handsaw meant for moldings to cut off the branch and all the smaller branches. It is just right, I think, already covered with some lichen. The mask looks right at home there. The ancestral altar won't be done for BelSummer since I decided that I also wanted the mini masks to hang from the pole too. I am hoping to get it done by Summer Solstice. But I am thinking of actually consecrating the altar at Samhain. That just seems appropriate to me for an ancestral altar.
Copyright © 2001 Kyril Oakwind