The Bottle Tree

Mashing her thoughts together
like last nights potatoes
She stays too long in the past again
Staring at nothing and seeing everything
Analyzing her own weak condition
Bottles whistle and shine on the tree
Cobalt instruments of the wind
Keeping away the troubled spirits

by Tina Trivett

I'm planning on making a bottle tree and while researching online I found Tina's blog and the above poem referencing the same. Check it out - I like her style...

http://tinatrivett.blogspot.com/

I first saw a bottle tree a few years ago, when I noticed that a large live tree in the middle of the circle drive at Rock City Park in Olean NY had colored bottles hanging from all the lower branches. I was intrigued, and upon asking the proprietor I was told that it was a spirit bottle tree.

I researched it online when I returned home, and have wanted to make one ever since. The tradition is thought to have begun as a way to trap roaming spirits which would become mesmerized with the flickering colors of the glass in the setting sun, then be lured into them and trapped there until the morning light destroyed them. Placed near a building, they are meant to protect it from wandering spirits. It is said that if you listen closely, you can hear the moans of the trapped spirits in the bottles when the wind blows. Regardless of whether or not they truly protect from the spirit world, they are interesting, pretty and creative!

I don't know if there is still a bottle tree at Rock City, but it is a beautiful place to visit. I have included the link below:

http://www.rockcitypark.com/index.htm

Any comments are more than welcome, please feel free to express any thoughts by clicking on the small purple comments link below ;)