I found it very ironic when I read in the paper this morning about coyote-killing contests being held (and its attempted ban) in New Mexico, because just yesterday some bosque coyotes had done me the favor of leading me and my trail-mates (Slavic Steve and Beagle Ruby) to one more amazing Bosque treasure, which like its others, lifted my spirits, piqued my curiosity, and fueled my love of the Bosque.
We were on our way back home on a main trail heading south when we all heard the tantalizing sound of a pack of excited coyotes singing their beautiful and enchanting songs. We immediately wanted to go off-trail to get closer to the pack. We headed towards the rio while our guides made a left north. Then we came upon the most astonishing thing I have ever come upon in the Bosque. Our mouths hung open as we closed in to a man-made serpentine-shaped enclosure about 25 feet long, 15 feet wide and eight feet tall made of intertwined cottonwood branches and limbs.
We entered it and were amazed by seeing that whoever created this structure had created what can best be described as an art installation not unlike the many “land/art installations” throughout the Bosque that were created in 2009 by a group of New Mexico artists “exploring the relationships between land, art, and community.” What made this land installation “art” were the hundreds of bottles of differing colors, shapes, and sizes that were hung by string or attached to the structure in various ways throughout the space.
According to a sign above one of its entrances, the installation was called “Enchanted Glass Garden” by its creator. We explored the space, were surprised that we had never seen or heard of it before, wondered who Was making it5, and wanted to thank the coyotes for bringing us there, but they were gone.
Afterwards, as usual I went to the Internet to research information to help me understand and contemplate the complexities and magic of this treasure. First, I found out that the concept of “glass gardens” exists in the art world: the Enchanted Glass Garden showcases the glass art of Max Wilde; Enchanted Glass is a “magically chaotic” work of children’s fiction; and I found a video about a weird museum with exhibits that include “hacked heads, enchanted glass, and rare maps.”
Then I went on to explore the notion of “secret or private gardens,” which this treasure certainly was in its creator’s mind, I discovered a recent film entitled In a Private Garden; the beloved Victorian-era children’s novel, The Secret Garden (that has recently been adapted into a Broadway musical); and an Albuquerque florist with the name Enchanted Garden.
Factoids
· Coyotes (canis latrans) are found in almost every urban, rural and wild habitat in North America.
· Coyote is a Spanish word borrowed from the Aztec (Nahuatl) name coyōtl.
· Other names for the coyote: prairie wolf, brush wolf, cased wolf, little wolf, and American jackal.
· They eat small rodents, rabbits, fish and frogs, deer, snakes, insects, fruit and grass.
· Coyote populations that are not exploited (hunted) form stable “extended families.”
· The idea that coyote populations can be reduced by contest hunts is not supported by science.
Seedpods to carry about:
· The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway. (Michael Pollan)
· Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and numbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me - I am happy. (Hamlin Garland)
· Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. (Chief Seattle, Duwamish)
· Why do we profess to so love and adore and worship and seek closeness to the wolf, the supposed poster child for all that's remote, wild and free, the mournful soul-searching stuff of poetry and song, not to mention fawning documentaries and movies, while at the same time we're taught to despise and persecute by any means bullet, trap, wire, poison its close cousin and equally beautiful and rightful occupant of the wild, the Coyote? (John Harrigan)
· In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful. (Abram L. Urban)
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