The Water of Life

My world is greening as I watch. I can see, and smell, and hear it, and I can feel the earth's life force in my blood. On the farm where the ponies live, water bubbles forth from the earth in a dozen magical ways. Some springs are strong, and flow all year, and others come and go. These two are my favourites - both have sprung to life as if drawn by the sun over the last couple of weeks. The top picture shows where the water wells up through a tree root, and trickles down through a channel into a mossy pool beneath.
And then there is the fountain, sometimes so strong that it spouts up three or four inches above ground. It flows straight out of the ground and washes down across the turf, and though it has been there for as long as I can remember ( 20 years or so) it has never carved a channel for itself. The horses always choose to drink from this spring in preference to anything else.
Springs have held a special place in folklore since the beginning of time, as a source of life, and a place of magic and healing. Terri Windling has an excellent essay on Sacred Springs here, which explains it so much better than I can!

Birds, large and small, are busying themselves, crafting nests in every conceivable shape and size. The rookery behind my house expands slowly and noisily, mishapen bundles of sticks in the still bare topmost branches of the wood. The hedgerow hawthorn and hazel hums with small wings, and the swallows have been swooping between the barns for the last week. Austin's shaggy foal coat is coming out in large clumps, and the Jackdaws are quick to take advantage of this! Austin seems quite content to be followed around all day by this chattering flock.

And I took an opportunity to spend some time with Red, who has had to take rather a back seat lately, with so much else going on. He is 20 this year, but still 5 in his heart.