The Sanctuary

I was chatting to the guy, Steve, who created and maintains/extends what I've previously called Burley Old Clearing, and I asked him what he calls his creation, he replied...The Sanctuary.  So, the Sanctuary it is. More apt than the 'clearing' anyway.

Burley Old clearing

The clearing in Burly Old has continued to slowly develop through the year, I think consolidated and expanded would be apt. It's rustic palisade has been substantially reinforced and strengthened, it's now quite impressive, the entrances have been barred to keep out ponies and it's regularly maintained, the floor's always swept clean and there's food for the myriad birds who frequent it's bounds. It's a lovely spot, clearly made and kept with love and attention to detail. In my opinion it's functional woodland art, and recently the artist as expanded their canvas. The environs beyond the central enclosed area have been tidied up, the whole project's coming on nicely. We stayed a while and watched the birds come and go, today it was mainly Robins.

Spring cleaned

The enclosed clearing in Burley Old has been cleaned and the boundary barricade strengthened. Whether used for ritual or not, the site has an evolving magic about it.

A mystery resolved

I've long wondered about the creators of Burley Old's man-made oddities, what are their creations about...if anything more than follies, and non more so that the bounded clearing, which I've hypothesized about. Well, today I met the guy who created it and it wasn't created for any of the reasons I'd hypothesized. I thought there was something pagan about it, what with the 'offerings' which appeared to be left at points in the wheel, I was wrong, the offering/date relationship was purely coincidental. The clearing had developed over several years, and had begun by clearing debris which had fallen from the giant Douglas Fir into a subordinate Beech, and evolved over the years via a series of whims and observational changes to the well defined feature you'd see today. He asked if I was the person who'd left the Beltane blessing in the clearing, ''yes'' I said, he thanked me and we shook hands. He was a nice guy, friendly, he'd been walking these stands for 60 years (25 years longer than I), he had all sorts of knowledge, and you can never learn enough. We chatted about the changes we'd seen over the years, of the structures we'd seen raised and fall, both enthusiastic about the wood we frequented. Earlier in the year we'd both seen the Fox cub in the huge hollowed Beech, the guy had been feeding it, thinking is was going hungry, I told him I'd seen a freshly killed Woodpecker in there, he laughed. It was nice to meet someone who clearly loved this tract of land as I did, and I wondered how many more of us there are. Which put me in mind of an old Freak Brothers strip.