Isabella's Journal part 4 The Giant Returns for a Short Visit, Cherry Whips and Snow

Hi Deb,

Just a short note to say that this morning I had to go out and I had headed to the Village to mail Christmas packages in time for the Xmas post. When I returned, to my surprise there were a couple of whip-ends of cherry branches laid against the front door. They were very delicate fronds with a few dried leaves still attached to them.



I had done a clear-up on the weekend to take up the last of the Autumn rubble and leaves, so I knew it was all neat and tidy out there meaning these whip ends stood out plainly as having been placed on the door sill. In fact, there are no cherry trees about and these had to have been "imported." I am unsure where they came from.






Inside the cottage, my dog was going berserk. Although there's a heavy drape covering the front door he was aware of the visit and wanted me to know it. He was excitable and running in circles and making a racket.  It took him a while to settle down.

So i think our forest friend is still in the vicinity and hasn't forgotten me. I'm amazed at the brashness of him though, turning up in broad daylight! The whips ends were not there when i left the house so it would have to be while i had been out in the Village





If you remember I left some shiny stones out for him as a thank you for my stone gift and when I checked the wall where I'd put the shiny stones in a circle things were different there also. The stones were all on the ground and none had been taken, it seems they had apparently been moved and left there on the floor. I wonder if they're too small and slippery as they now they are covered in frost, and impossible to pick up with large hands and/or long nails? I'm thinking of something more manageable that I can put there for them. Maybe bunches of herbs. I still have sage surviving in the garden.
Anyway, I was thinking of you when I saw that and wanted you to know.

Isabella

I think wild herbs would be a wonderful gift and one he may be very grateful to receive, over the years as I have talked to the people living quite happily along side our wild folks it seems one or two things seem to be happily taken if left as a gift, from leather lashings all the way to cloves, natural useful things like bees wax or honey comb, wooden implements and sack cloth have been taken when the gifter had returned to the gifting area, sometimes with other things like feathers, glass or eggs left in return?


I too have had some luck with the gifting technique when using natural gifts after all the food we eat today would be full of unnatural ingredients and chemicals no doubt, and we should not encourage the feeding of food stuffs unless organic. So i would avoid food stuff and concentrate on other things, after all it is not the gift that is of importance but the act of gifting itself, a simple line of pebbles or sticks left in a row or pattern can say a whole lot more than the odd snickers or mars bar left on a log.




D. L. Hatswell 10/12/17 

Comments