Flood

We got 7 inches of rain Friday night.  When we arrived at the wall, the path and the boat landing were still a foot deep in floodwater.

We could see from where we stood that our trio of figurines from last week had vanished.  But not having had the foresight to bring our galoshes, we just took photos, watched a big snapping turtle swim leisurely over the boat landing (neither of us were quick enough with our cameras to get a photo of that), communed with Nature, and left. 

From the traces of mud left on the tall wildflowers, it appeared that the canal had risen an incredible 4 or 5 feet over its usual level.  It was down quite a bit from the high-water mark by the time we got there Sunday morning, but you can see from the line of driftwood across the path how high the water had risen.

It was amazing!

Three

This week we went on Monday instead of Sunday due to scheduling conflicts.  The Queen Anne's Lace is blooming everywhere.

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The Guardian Angel figurine from last week was gone, and once again the wall was bare.  We put up three little blessing figures today.

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The elephant is a little worse for wear, but aren't we all?  He's there in memory of my dear aunt who passed away last month.  She collected elephants. 

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The turtle is in thought of the marine life affected by the Gulf oil spill. 

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And the angel is an angel.

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I don't know what these purple flowers are, but they weren't in bloom last week.  I'm calling them "Rocket Flowers" until I find out otherwise.

Peace, love, light and blessings to all.

Welcome

This is a lovely quiet spot by a small man-made canal.

Lots of wildflowers, insects, birds and small wildlife.

One day my friend and I came by for our weekly visit and found that the retaining wall had been defaced by a silly-loooking blotch of graffiti.

 

We decided to bless the wall.

We've been doing this for weeks now.  Every week we bring a new symbol of our blessing spirits.  Sometimes we find that last week's offering is still there.  A few times people have made their own additions:  an empty beer bottle, a symmetrical arrangement of sparkly crushed beer cans, once even a trio of burned-out votive candles. 

Other times we find the wall bare except for the graffiti.  We don't know where the figures disappear to.  Maybe they went off to a good home.  Maybe they lie in peace at the bottom of the canal.  A few times we found last week's symbol shattered in pieces on the ground.  We took the tiny shards of glass and porcelain, put them back on the wall again, and placed a new figure to stand in blessing over the broken pieces.   The city hasn't painted out the graffiti, so we decorate it.

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As for the broken or vanished symbols - well, there's lots more where those came from.