Bringing Home the Grove:
As a child I loved making moss gardens, usually with a mirror for a pond and a few weeds as trees and a stone path, toy animals strategically placed. I still love the idea of moss gardens, so I have created one to keep as part of my druid space.
The components are all significant. Maidenhair ferns are something I have always loved. I relish seeing indigenous ferns growing wildly and abundantly near our local streams and in the wooded areas.It is a plant of my grove wherever and whenever I do get out among the trees.
The wood that looks like drift wood actually isn't. It's a piece of pinetree root, collected years ago in the land of my birth, South Africa. I sanded and varnished it and brought it here when we moved to Australia.
The echidna is an icon for the animals of Australia, so many of which are threatened by logging and mining.
The glass at the back holds shells that have been collected along the beach here as well as a few tiny crumbs of black tourmaline collected at our 2011 Assembly. There are enough to make it easy to use the glass to hold a tealight candle.These bring the elements of water and fire, while I take the living, breathing fern and moss and aspects of air as well as earth.
The medallion(Wheel of Progress) is a blessing on all my undertakings - a gift from Wyeuro at our 2011 Assembly (my first), made most magically by her Wyverne self with clay from her magical home.
The stone in the right hand corner was waiting for me in the curve of the root of a redgum as I was walking in the wild. It sparkled in the sunlight and became my rock for Earth meditation, as per the Bardic Grade. It manages to be simultaneously a rock, sand and crystal as it is a conglomerate of tiny quartz crystals. it looks realitvely dull unless ones knows and recognises it what what it is.
Altogether, I am able to adjust what is present according to the season or intentional focus, or what seems right.