The Storm, The Snakes and Dionysus

A storm has come upon the Valley.  The air has been thick all day.  By four o'clock the thunder started, echoing from far off.  Just after five the lightening began, and still it built and built until finally the rains burst forth.  The relief of the earth is palpable.  We've all sighed in ecstasy over the moisture.

Life in the southern end of the Valley is a strange mix of lush lakes and desert.  The settlers here used the lakes to keep their crops alive in the hot summer months when rainfall was (and still is) practically non-existent.  Crops quickly turned to orchards, which are now falling to acres of vine-land to feed the growing winery population.  One cannot help but think that Dionysus has had a hand in the re-commitment of the land.

The grape harvest is still a while off, but the wineries are doing a bustling business with the summer tourists and getting ready for the local fall wine festivals.  At the winery where my brother creates amazing things in oak barrels, they have been on rattlesnake watch for the last month after an employee was bit while out in the vines.  I have heard that the snakes climb the vines (and sometimes small trees) and wait for birds, but I can't say if that is factual.  All I know is, in the summer months, you look where you step and where your reach your hand.

I only have a passing interest in Dionysus and so have only heard the most loose connection between him and snakes. It is said that the wild women or maenads that followed him were often depicted carrying snakes or wearing snakes in their hair.  Another connection is made by the simple way that the grape vines grow, snake-like along whatever is holding them up.  The snake seems to be a fitting symbol for Dionysus.  The skin-shedding "rebirth" of a snake fits in with Dionysus' lore of being twice-born.  The snake is chthonic in several myths, which also works with the tale of Dionysus' journey to the underworld to fetch his mother.

Also of interest to me today, is the folk connection between snakes and storms.  In North American folklore, some believed that if you hung a rattlesnake (presumably dead) with its belly toward the sun, it would bring a storm.  In Indian folklore, Nagas were considered snakes or serpent-like beings often living in the ocean.  Varuna, the king of the Nagas, is the Vedic god of storms.  Slavic folklore has several stories about beings who influence the weather and appear in myriad shapes, of which a snake is almost always one.

Gary R. Varner states: "Snakes have also contributed to weather folklore around the world associated with rain. Nineteenth century folklorist Richard Inwards noted, “the chief characteristic of the serpents throughout the East in all ages seems to have been their power over the wind and rain, which they gave or withheld, according to their good or ill will towards man."

Whether tonight's storm has been caused by the unfortunate hanging of a snake, a pissed-off sea spirit, or the mad, whirling debauchery of Dionysus' maenads and their snake-accessories, I couldn't tell you.  All I know is that the garden and I are breathing a bit easier, and the wine in my glass, for some reason, tastes much sweeter.

Cheers!

Following The Fungus

Yesterday, on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, while the rains had broken for a short time and the sun had finally appeared, I ventured up into the hills.  I pulled over at a place that had been calling me for a while, but where I had never stopped.   Wandering along, I found a trail of mushrooms.

With all the rains this week, mushrooms popping up everywhere is not a surprise.  But finding a ring of mushrooms around a small stand of trees was a pleasant discovery.

"For centuries, the sudden and rapid eruption of circles of mushrooms from the soil led people to believe that dark or terrible forces were at work. Lightning strikes, meteorites, shooting stars, earthly vapours, and witches have all been proposed as agents of their origin. 

In France fairy rings were called sorcerers' rings and in Austria, witches' rings. A Tyrolean legend claims that the rings were burned into the ground by the fiery tail of a dragon. In Holland they were said to be the marks where the Devil rested his milk churn. In Europe, the belief that fungi were the work of evil spirits or witches persisted well into the 19th century. 

In England, as their name suggests, they were places where fairies come to dance. The mushrooms around the perimeter were seats where the sprites could rest after their exertions. People in rural England claimed to have seen fairies dancing at fairy rings as recently as the start of the twentieth century."

I stopped and pondered the mushrooms for a short time and walked into the shade of the encircled trees.  I swear I had only been there for fifteen minutes, but when I finally went back to my car, I noticed that an hour had passed.  Time is different in the hills.  I get distracted by the birds and the creak of the trees swaying with the wind.  I'm sure it had nothing to do with my standing in the middle of a ring of mushrooms...

"Fungi have been the focus of many other superstitious beliefs and traditions. In New England folklore, a fungus called the "death baby" growing in the yard is a harbinger of imminent death in the family. In the district of Norrland in Sweden there is a tradition of throwing toadstools into bonfires on midsummer's eve (June 23) to ward off evil spirits. Look into the folklore of any culture and you're almost sure to find other examples. 

Even Santa Claus has been linked to fungi. One anthropologist has suggested that his red and white outfit symbolize Fly Agaric. Siberian shamans were known to consume this mushroom, and Santa's use of the chimney is similar to a shaman custom of leaving a dwelling through its smoke hole during a festival."

Whether there were faeries around, I could not say, but I was buzzed by hummingbirds, chattered at by chipmunks and the wind whispered secrets in my ear.  Not a bad reward for following a trail of fungus.

Quotes from:   The Fungus Among Us  (A fascinating site with all kinds of mushroom lore & facts.)

This Week In The Garden & Beyond

Sunshine, heat and Spring rains have all contributed to a happy garden.  The new black violets above are perfectly pouty.  I adore them!

My very favourite thing about lady's mantle is the way it cradles water droplets and makes them look like gems.

The columbine below is about to open any minute...

I'm so in love with this massive tuft of chives I have.  I can never use them all though.  I carve out a hunk every year to gift to someone and they just keep expanding.

The peas will bloom very soon.  And then, those sweet little pods will appear!

My new garden friend.  Look closely - although it looks, from this angle, like he has huge ears - it is actually his wings that are the ribbed stone in the background.

The clouds this week have made for some nice pictures of the valley.  There are two lakes in this shot.  The one beneath the trees and another one that is showing just a sliver beneath the dark hill in the background.  The strip of land between the two lakes is home to one of our valley's cities.

There are 300-400 "countable" lakes in British Columbia, but the number of small lakes and waterways in our province are too numerous to catalogue.  We have so many lakes in the valley that you cannot travel far without passing one.  I never get tired of looking at them.

 "Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books."  John Lubbock