Gone

Last month I wrote about a new spot we'd found, a beautiful wooded area with a burn running through it -- lots of waterfalls here and there, big and small, and lots of moss clinging to just about everything:

And where Rosie had been building wee houses for the spirits to live in:

And she wrote a beautiful poem about the place. We'd been visiting the place regularly, to give the dogs a good run around and enjoy the place, to make some offerings and tend to the houses, but we hadn't been able to get there for the last week or so. Yesterday, we took a long walk and happened to end up nearby so we decided to stop by and see how Rosie's wee houses were doing. She wanted to make sure everything was OK.

We were greeted by this scene:

It's all gone. Completely cut down.

I'm guessing it's been cleared to sell the timber, which has been piled up next to a caravan that's situated nearby. The entrance to the place has been semi-blocked by a huge pile of mud and rubble, so I didn't explore too far, and besides, Rosie was distraught. The waterfall you can see in the distance is the one in the first picture above. There's no more moss, no more spirit houses. It's just completely gone. There was no warning it was going to happen.

I'm absolutely gutted. Rosie cried all the way home and I have to admit I shed a tear or two as well. I suggested that maybe we could build some new houses somewhere else, maybe we could have a "funeral" of sorts. I suggested that Rosie could draw a picture, or maybe write down her poem or compose a new one, and we could go and bury it to let the place know how sorry we are. Rosie was too upset, though. She couldn't even bring herself to climb the mud and take a look at the scene. She tried to console herself that at least the birds could fly away. At least the animals could run off and find somewhere else to live. But all the nests are gone. Any eggs or babies won't have survived. I suggested that they might replant some new trees, but that was a small consolation. It will take years to get back to anything like it had been before.

I said to Rosie that maybe she could think about what she wanted to do and let me know, I didn't want to push it, but maybe doing something will help her feel a bit better about it. If she doesn't want to come with me, then I'll go myself and leave some offerings to the place. Assuming there's anything still around.