Beltane is in a couple days, time to prepare! For me, this means constructing a maypole. This year, because of all the snow and ice storms, there are plenty of fallen trees and branches to use. Some years, the ground is still frozen and I can't dig a hole for it, so I use a tall box filled with sand. One year I used packed snow. This year, the ground is thawed but might be too sodden to actually hold it up. These kinds of observations of the soil are all part of the observence of the holiday itself. I leave my maypole up outside until the summer solstice or later, as decoration. I make sure to use cotton ribbon, not plastic, and the birds have sometimes taken bits for their nests. Once the season is done, the whole thing can be chopped up for firewood. It's almost always too cold to go out at night for a bonfire on Beltane, so my "balefire" is usually postponed this way until the weather improves. #Beltane #Witch