Daily Archives: May 13, 2013

May 13, 2013 · 4:55 am

Sharieland 03

Heading toward Herman’s Mansion from the ridge discussed in “Sharieland 02”.

Reaching the mansion. Herman often made jokes about his home being “behind the eight ball” when things went afowl there, like with the Termite Terror of 1902.

Path on Eight Ball Ridge.

While starting up the path, I was rather startled to see what appeared to be a fairy home at the base of a tree to my right. Very unambiguous!

Forks in the trail. This is where the central “eight” can be entered. Alternately you can just walk in a big loop (straighter path to left), bypassing the very top of the ridge. Being quite superstitious, Herman always walked the “eight”, and in a clockwise direction according to legend. He felt this helped keep bad luck away from the house. Herman accomplished the ritual almost daily, more often than not accompanied by his loyal wife Ethel.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/behind-the-eight-ball.html

One could possibly even make an argument that Herman originated the phrase, “behind the eight ball”, meaning to be in a sticky situation. I’ll have to look up if croquet was played on the grounds per reference to “Eight Ball Croquet” in the above article. A ridge just north of the house, a kind of direct continuation of The Eight Ball (but with a distinct, separate peak) has since been nicknamed Cue Ball, but there’s no record of Herman’s family coming up with this appellation.

And now we return to what appears to be the meat of Sharieland just downhill from the mansion. This interesting cement container seems to mark a northern boundary. Did something like “Welcome to Sharieland!” use to be scrawled upon its front?

Eye Rock (my name) a little above the container.

More photos and text concerning Sharieland soon enough! It seems to be a big, big topic.

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May 13, 2013 · 4:50 am

Sharieland 02

(continued from Sharieland 01)

Still on the as yet unnamed ridge just a bit south of Herman’s Mansion, we have faint paths through cryptic trees.

A main road of the area is not far away from the ridge top.

A rock seeming to mark the end of the ridge in this direction.

Another one of those birthday balloons I find with some frequency around Herman and Frank Parks. Do they all possibly originate from the same huge birthday extravaganza? Still a mystery as to why they’re around for me.

Another enchanting ridge scene.

Perhaps another fairy hole, this time in a pine and filled with water.

There’s a nice creek with several feeder springs to the north of the ridge, another place I can’t remember exploring in the past.

Another possible fairy home near this creek.

(continued in Sharieland 03)

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May 13, 2013 · 4:47 am

Sharieland 01

Before getting to Sharieland, I thought I’d begin with this interesting shot from Whitehead Crossing of a single leafed plant with 3 symmetrically arranged flower petals atop it. I’m trying to pay attention to such things — this would be beside No Title Rock, I believe, and taken about 2 weeks prior to posting it here.

To the main subject of the day now: This weekend I was fortunate enough to accomplish hikes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday all. Friday and Sunday sent me to what I’m, as of yesterday, calling Sharieland. “Sharie” is a portmandeu of words “fairy” and “share”. It is literally a fairy that likes to share, at least with other fairies of its type. The theory goes that the land immediately below and around Herman’s Mansion in Herman Park was riddled with the creatures, and perhaps they even use to interact with the humans who lived and worked there, perhaps even Herman himself or at least one or several of his family. In this way, they may be akin to the borrowers made famous by English author Mary Norton.

I first found clear evidence of a fairy culture in the vicinity of the mansion through this more elaborate rock cairn, extending itself beyond a mere single line stack of rocks. Is there a message within the multi-layered arrangement?

These pictures comes not downhill from Herman’s Mansion, as the above ones do, but from the ridge immediately to its west that, at its peak, rises a bit beyond the mansion’s rooftops. Herman himself named this low ridge The Eight Ball, and the path encircling and also penetrating its summit was a favorite of he and his wife.

Squarish rock on the ridge.

We’ll return to The Eight Ball in a moment, but let’s shift to yet another location near the mansion: a flatter ridge not known about or explored before Friday atall, and just a stone’s throw south of the former. Actually, I first began to think about fairies in the area when finding this remarkably flat area and variously holed trees and stones within. A large-ish garter snake (below) pointed me towards the wilder interior of the ridge as I was walking past it on a carriage road, but I didn’t understand its message until later…

… after spotting this nice rock a bit off and above the road, about a football field’s length down from the snake. Its presence immediately lured me back into the woods, and soon I was exploring the whole extent of the flat top of the ridge it perched on the edge of. I’ll come up with a name for this rock soon; it’s similar in size, say, to Grey Rock of Whitehead Crossing, but without a topping stone (Seal Stone) in this case.

What might be the heart of the forest on the ridge, with a peculiar and admittedly a bit disturbing gash in the tree to the right here. Two holes, actually, but the lower and larger one seems quite like a wound, so much so that I found I didn’t want to put a close up of it in this blog. What is the story behind this? Is it really a “wound”, perhaps one that can’t heal? Does it tell something about the fairies of the area?