It is Easter 2012, and it has been almost a year since I last made a post.
I turned 40 and my little one, the light of my life, turned 5 this year.
Also, I have been going through a somewhat negative transition, so my apologies.
But at Winston Churchill said,
As a point of fact, through this transition I have had to relocate to another part of town. It is a more
affluent area, with a nice big park great for kite-flying right across the street, and a good-sized lake 3 blocks away, and a major
creek 6 blocks away. So nature is abound, but I am new to the area and do not know
the neighborhood flora or fauna yet.
At the time, with Easter being around the corner, I decided that it was time to make a new
basket. One of the easiest ones I have found to make is the
Egg or Melon basket. But I was not
sure of the bounty of the resources to make it. Although I am surrounded by nature, it is somewhat
gentrified and I am reluctant to harvest from it.
But I did a little anyways, around the nearby lake the shore area frequently floods during the Winter thaw. And one can
tell of the stress that creates on the plants near the shoreline. So there is not a lot of new growth to harvest
from, and the older growth my not recover from the stress of even modest collection from the ecosystem.
To make my basket, I needed ribs, and weavers. The ribs are the sturdier parts of the basket that
make up the frame, the weavers are the flexible, but strong parts of the basket the make up body of it.
I generally use elm, although willow will work as well and is usually the preferred basketry material, and for the weavers I use elm bark. There were not enough
saplings of elm available so I had to be creative and extend my thoughts to what other materials might work.
The area is draped with grape vines...and the city recently did some cutting of the area and there were
plenty of cut and mangled but still pliable vines available. So using some of the more sturdier pieces of vine, about
thumb width. I was able to construct a pretty sturdy frame for my basket. Now for the weavers.
I initially tried to use smaller vines but they were not alive enough to be pliable for the stresses of weaving, even
after soaking them in water. I wanted to finish the basket in time for Easter, so I fell to my old stand-by instead of
taking time to experiment with alternative materials for weavers...that stand-by being elm bark. I was able to harvest
strips of bark mainly from young trees that were growing to close to an older tree or had been bent and misshapen by
hazardous cutting and fallen tries from prior storms.
I also was careful to take only what I needed and to harvest the bark
from strips going length-wise not width-wise which would band the tree and eventually kill it. Bark is used as the tree's circulatory system carrying sap and other nutrients to the branches and leaves. If you band a tree of bark you effectively have killed it, by
cutting off its circulatory system.
With just enough bark and none to spare I was able to complete a fairly good sized, strong, and sturdy basket for both Easter and
for harvesting and collecting this year.
Creek Hike
The other day my daughter and I took a walk along a local creek. It has been a very, very
mild Winter this year, and Spring has come really early this year. The cattail shoots are
starting to pop up, the red-wing black birds and cardinals are really singing away and heralding
an early break to the drabness of Winter. So she, my daughter, and I went on walk-about to see what we could see.
We gandered lots of mallards along our little hike, and the nettles were just coming out. I harvested a few,
just trimming off the tops, and being careful not to take to many or cut too low. It is a good
idea to have a nice pair of kitchen-shears or small hand pruners so it is easier and less traumatizing
to the plant to make clean cuts. Yuki, my daughter was fascinated by the Weeping Willow trees, and was just
moved by the name and appearance of this majestic tree.
Underneath remarkably we found a nice fresh patch of Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata). Yum! So of course we picked a few, to add to our basket.
I was also delighted to find some yarrow growing nearby. It was a good outing and it was important for me
to get to know the plant-people in my new surroundings.
(__/)
(='.'=) Happy Easter or Ostara, 2012!
(")_(")
Of the Sacred Three (Shelter > Fire > Water), shelter in most cases is the most important.
It is especially most important in extreme weather especially in Winter. Without protection
from the elements we humans devoid of a thick coat of fur to cover our bodies can suffer from
3 major conditions:
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Of the Sacred Three (Shelter > Fire > Water), shelter in most cases is the most important.
It is especially most important in extreme weather especially in Winter. Without protection
from the elements we humans devoid of a thick coat of fur to cover our bodies can suffer from
3 major conditions:
