The Bonfire

It’s been a busy week, a transitional week and the first week of Summer. The festival of Beltane was a week ago (on 5 May), the halfway point between the Spring and Summer Equinoxes that marks the beginning of Summer. On this day I saw my first swallow of the year, soaring and diving for insects after its 6000 mile return flight from Africa. And on this day the warm weather arrived, building in heat day upon day to reach the dizzy heights of 25 degrees Celsius (according to the thermometer in the shade in my porch on Monday).

Sustaining us through the bleak, damp and relatively colourless Winter is the promise of return. That warmth will return, that migratory birds will return, that deciduous trees will again come into leaf, that blossom will again flourish and bumblebees will pollinate it to bring forth fruit.  These natural cycles persist despite how we feel. We may be fearful and down but the blackthorn will still be the first tree hereabouts to spring into delicate white blossom. And fear and depression are in themselves phases that also pass, despite how pervasive and unchanging they seem when in their midst.

After making the bee garden I embarked on a sustained bout of catch-up gardening. Since last Summer there had been plenty of work not done due to the return of my cancer. First I pruned the natural hedge at the side of the house and stripped out all the briars that were choking its growth. Then I cut the back hedge, a row of Castlewellan Gold’s that have grown together and need to be pruned regularly to keep them to a manageable height: they are about six feet high and almost as wide as they are tall. After all this the lawn became piled with cuttings and briars.

T and I dragged the piles to the back of the garden shed, but found the dump there already full with branches and sticks collected from the lawn after a succession of storms and two seasons of prunings from my apple tree. We needed to have a bonfire. We then hauled all the debris across the stile into the corner of the next field. A couple of scrunched up newspapers, some dry sticks and the bonfire was soon alight. T was delighted to be in charge of feeding the flames. I had to withdraw due to my asthma which is irritated by smoke. From the safety of the lawn I watched the flames and smoke rise into the bright sky. In a couple of hours we had burnt all the debris accumulated from the garden over the past year or so.

Beltane is traditionally celebrated by a bonfire. The flames, smoke and ashes were thought to have protective powers. People and their animals would circle the fire or jump over it. All the fires in the house would be doused and then relit from the Beltane fire. Although a few days late, we circled the bonfire and made wishes.