BUCCA BOO

 The work continues in the now water/pond garden. We had put a head called Dark Pan on one side of the entrance to the lychgate.

Here he is.

so, he needed a friend to balance him on the other side. Paul went back to look at the Tudor Gate heads available and picked Bucca Boo.

He arrived today and is now in place. Bucca Boo is an ancient English pagan god, one of the oldest and mysterious of our Cornish gods.

The Bucca spirit as manifested in different ways to different peoples at different times as he was a guardian and protector for harvesters and tin miners, a storm god to fisherman.

The Rev, Lach-Szrma (1841 to 1915) of St. Peters Newlyn considered the Bucca to be a remnant of an ancient pagan fertility or sea god, a view shared by others. Right up until 1850 it was a usual practice with Newlyn and Mousehole fishermen to leave on the sand at night a small offering from the days catch to Bucca as a thank you for a safe trip.

I think he has a look of the Greenman about him, which would tie in with being a god the harvesters worshipped.

 We had to lower Dark Pan to match Bucca Boo's new position.

Seen together. Bucca Boo already as honeysuckle growing on the trellis around him whereas Dark Pan's trellis is clear at present. But we have planted a Virginia Creeper below him, so hopefully he will soon be surrounded by greenery.

Some will find them a little on the scary side but when you see them daily, they do become more natural.

The liner and pump have arrived for the pond, so once it cools down, Paul will get the liner in and fill the pond.

It's all starting to come together!

BUILDING A POND

 the quick and easy way.

Yesterday the 6th, the wooden sleepers arrived to make up the pond. We used these to make our last pond up by the house and they lasted a good ten years or more and it was only because we put up the gazebo and one of the legs would have had to go in pond, that we removed it.

So, we ordered 6 8ft by 10 in by 5 in sleepers. making sure the wooden had been treated to preserve it for outside use.  Two of the sleepers were cut in half to form the ends as shown above.

from the ends

Then the other four sleepers were cut down to seven ft as that is the size we had decided on for the pond and that base had been built to.

The sleepers are held in place with metal brackets which you can see above.

With two straight metal fixings in the center of the long sides. Then weed suppressant was laid down on concrete base and a layer of soft sand added above.

We tried out a left-over piece from the folly shelf, to see if it would be a good size for the capping but decided it was not overhanging enough.

view from lychgate.

Today, 7th, Paul has routed out a space around the inside edge, so that the pond lining will sit nicely under the capping.

the view of the corner.

So now we are just waiting on the pond liner that should be delivered tomorrow, then the pond can be lined and filled and finally have capping added.