May Eve in the Dandenong Ranges

[sunrise on May Eve]

I had an email from someone in Sweden this morning who was about to head out to celebrate Walpurgis Night, or Valborg as it is called there. As it happens, we celebrated Walpurgis Night too, with a bonfire, some cider, baked vegies and apples. But, while it is May-eve here in Melbourne, as it is in Sweden, seasonally it is southern-Samhain, All Hallows Eve, or Halloween, thus the late-season vegies etc. We save the plastic pumpkins and glow-in-the dark skeletons for 31 October!

The bonfire was both utile and dulci: we had a tree-lopper in on Friday to fell the dead tree over-hanging the drive at the front and to clear the dead limbs out of the monster gum behind the house. We now have a winter's worth of firewood, no matter how cold it gets!

[NB: the tree was felled perfectly, at 90 degrees to the angle it was leaning, within a 3m gap between trees, and slightly up-hill so it wouldn't roll. And it was all done with one rope and in about five minutes!]

While he was working on the gum in the back he stripped out of it all the dead ivy that was beyond our reach, so we had a vast pile of tinder-dry kindling littered all over the place, and assorted lengths of well-and-truly rotten limbs. (Full of ants and other goodies that the magpies loved, they spent most of Friday snapping up any insect that moved!)

I broke up two bins full of the ivy for the Canara, but the rest, well the rest was appropriate only for either:

burning off for legitimate fire reduction purposes and burning off to reduce the level of fuel that would feed bushfires.

And, since we are in a "Residential Bushland" zone, it was the right day of the week, and the weather was perfect for it, we had a bonfire in accordance with The Shire of Yarra Ranges Open Air Burning Local Law of 2008. (I.e., all very utile and legitimate.)

Of course, the purpose of The Shire of Yarra Ranges Open Air Burning Local Law of 2008 is to remove any suggestion of dulci, but it was fun. We resisted the urge to set fire to our or any nearby houses and run naked around the flames, but we fed as much ivy and dead wood into the flames as we safely could by 6PM (in accordance with the aforesaid law).

The upshot is that the gum looks lovely—like somebody cares for it (and for their own safety)—and the back garden is ready for the new witchy year, which starts today. I have about six months to build, fill and fill with plants three or four vegie boxes and a herb garden: I am ready to start, I have the plans and most of the equipment to get started, and I am looking forward to it.

M. has already started on her part of the garden, but she has a bit of deck, duck-boards and a path to construct over winter, as well as remove the last of the weeds and more planting to do, so she will be busy too. And, of course, Ted is always busy.