Magic

Oh, when you come right down to it, I make magic every day. We all do. The difference for me, as I see it, is that I am aware of it. Today, I spun together three strands of cotton floss with a silver star encased by a circle. The strands of floss chosen compliment the colors and verve of a certain trilogy. Three rich fantasy novels by Annie Kelleher, titled, Silver's Edge, Silver's Lure and Silver Bane, which will be bound together by this cord and placed for auction at the Forest Folk Festival.

This simple act of creation reminds me of how easy manifestation can be.  Ashe. Ashe.

Progress

A number of small events of my making added up today. They added to the sum of what many call "progress," so I'll go with that: Today, I made progress.

The rain continues to fall and my little world continues to green and Green and GREEN. The transformation has been truly awesome today. That's progress!

I refreshed my batch of kombucha, offered a couple over-developed mothers to the compost, bottled up this week's batch and then admired the love of a new mother and her baby . . . 

So . . . it seemed only fitting that I would tend to my garden (my baby) to harvest chinese leeks, chives and oregano to add to the garden pizza I am making for supper. A pizza that will, in part, find its way to my mother's freezer when I visit her for Mother's Day.

Ashe.

Cookies!

Who doesn't love cookies?

Peanut butter . . . 

Cornmeal raisin . . . 

Plus a nice tomato sauce for a pasta supper tonight, made with last year's tomato harvest, a harvest that is dwindling in the pantry. Dwindling as this season's seedlings gain strength and make a stand.

Plarn

My participation in earthstock last Sunday afforded me with plastic bags of plastic bags in one very large plastic bag. They had more to offer me, but I took only one. Which was a lot! You see, every earthstock attendee who turned in 10 plastic bags received a reusable, washable, Gaia-friendly, cloth shopping bag. Nice!

Today I finally spent time with these plastic bags and my trusty scissors and began creating balls of plarn - plastic yarn. The day was sunny, so I enjoyed this task in fresh air and sunshine, amid the smiling gratitude of Mama Earth.

This small gesture of up-cycling combined with the blossoming of the violets, not to mention the birth-and-death date of The Bard this past week, was honored with a home-brewed libation . . . a proper Elizabethan Violet Flower Wine.

Cheers!

Sarsaparilla in the Moonlight

A nine pack of Sarsaparilla Ale bottled and ready for aging and mellowing for a few weeks. This is decidedly a warming, medicinal ale of sarsaparilla, licorice, ginger roots, cardamom seeds and cloves.

Wild greens for a Wild Freya's Day supper salad. Do you recognize them?

Liquid Love, Bottled

I guess it just the season of liquid love. After all, sap is rising and flowing virtually everywhere in Nature. I feel the flow of motivation in me, just as the maple feels the sap of life flowing back to her fingertips. Oh . . . what she longs to touch . . .

Today I bottled five more bottles of rhubarb mead from the 2006 harvest. That's the last of the 2006 liquid preparations. I must say that it's delicious now, yet with other meads and wines and ales already well aged in the bottles, I'll be able to let this mellow out the full month before popping the corks.

Or will I?

This and more garden plantings: Asian greens, leeks, carrots and more beets. Plus I posted three new listings on my Etsy shop. Now . . . onions, red potatoes and red meat on the grill with fresh wild greens and cooked ones too!

A Six-n-Then-Some Pack

Maple, maple, sweet maple! Oh how I love you, my humble green ancestor!

The Maple Ale that I started on April 14th was bottled today. Each bottle primed with a bit more maple syrup from Handsome Paul the Farmer at Schrieber's Farm in Oxford, CT (the loving home of Forest Folk Festival). I suppose it would hardly stand as confession to share that one of the best parts to bottling such goodness is that the bottler gets to sample that last bit that won't completely fill that last bottle (or so the bottler secretly hopes!). So, this bottler says that this ale, ready to drink in another few weeks, is already remarkably fabulous.

In the next few days the Cardamom Ale and the Sarsaparilla Ale should be ready, though they are both still quite active. Patience. Patience.

My Way to the Connecticut Shore . .

. . . and back again.

The forecast called for "mostly cloudy" and even as I read those words this morning I could feel how wrong they were and wondered if they - those weather forecasters - ever actually step outdoors to experience their environment, the elements, their claimed world of weather?

"A Lovely Supper"

I asked the boy, "What did I make today?"

He said, "Well, you made a lovely supper."

And so it is.

I found myself mixing oils and sugars at around midnight last night. This, in response to some odd dream that came to me somewhere between the place of waking and sleeping. As such, I was not surprised to realize this morning that the gentle scrub needed more work. Though I must add that I am thoroughly enjoying the process of its creation.

The precious seedlings are honoring me as I honor them.

And another tray of seeds were started today as anticipation of the last frost rises. A few more weeks. A few more weeks . . . 

Ale for happy hour on the deck with a quickie dip of mashed azuki beans with fresh garden chives and Chinese leeks, chopped with a touch of sea salt. 

Not the prettiest dip, but it sure is good. Good for you too.

Oh, there's more . . . but being even less photogenic than the bean dip, I'll leave it here.

Tax Free Hopes & Dreams

The day began with another one-gallon batch of ale. This time, a sarsaparilla blend that I suspect already I'll be repeating. I needed to tag my brews, so in honor of tax day and the good that might brew from such a convoluted government effort, I cut up the "first class" envelope in which the CPA returned the bureaucratic remnants that must be retained for seven years. First class brew labels and a nice little upcycling effort. In any event, there are three gallons of cranberry wine, three separate gallons of various ales and a five gallon batch of a porter variation all bubbling away, effortlessly, carefree, first class and tax free.

I strung the prayer flags that I made yesterday and hung them on the deck wall in the bright sunshine.

Then . . . I created a tribute to a favored saying.

A saying I would love to hear make a comeback.

Then, the day came full circle, so to speak, in more ways than might be immediately obvious. 2006, a fine year for rhubarb. Nothing taxing about that!

The evening topped off with a sweet little bat that somehow got in the house. We gently captured it in a towel and with equal gentleness and a prayer set it free in the cool night air of spring's hopes and dreams.

Ashe.

Investments

Rack cranberry wine into secondary fermentation container.

Check.

Observe the happiness.

Sweet bubbling goodness!

Start Maple Ale.

.

Oooo-ooooh-ohhh. And there's a shot of Florence - poor old dear is being replaced this week, but a 60-70-year run is pretty good for the old girl. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Eat breakfast. Finally.

Charge re-chargables. Yep.

Put out meat scraps for neighborhood crows. Happy harbingers.

Start Cardamom Ale. Done - looks much like the Maple Ale, only darker.

Draft events flyer. Yeah.

Print labels. Yeah.

Sip tea. Ahhh.

Prep Hawthorne tincture & dried berries for pick up. Done.

Sticker business cards. Yeah.

Make lip balm.

.

Yeah! Well begun, half done. :)

Make garden salve. Yep - looks a lot like the balms, only in a little glass pot.

Make prayer flags.

THIS was fun!

Sip Porter. Mmmm.

Smash garlic for vinegar infusion.

That's gonna be good and good for ya.

Make dinner. Yummeeeee.

Make love. What else is there, really?

and some other stuff.

A day well invested.

Shopping Fun

I say: If you're gonna shop without wasting paper, killing trees, or piling the landfills with poisoned plastics, why not have a little fun?

After all, Gaia wants us to have fun!

Curtains

Simple tab curtains for my slider.

Free salvaged fabric too. Good deal.

Tablecloth Apron . . .

You may, or may not, be aware that I am making standard herbal and Nature-related products for sale for the first time in many years. In fact, I will be vending at earthstock in Plainville, CT as well as offering my ever-popular weedwalks and doing some recycle/upcycle demonstrations. I have a cash box from the old days, but decided I would prefer a light-duty utility apron with multi-pockets to manage any dollars and other handy items.

As I considered what salvaged or scrap fabric to use I remembered the little card-table sized tablecloth that I got from my mom with the matching napkins. It had small holes and rust stains where the napkins had been pinned to it for probably some 30-years or more. I can't remember the last time my mom played bridge, and I'm certain this was its purpose.

In that little faded-drab-pink tablecloth I saw my apron.

A few cuts . . .

Some piecing and stitching . . . and I had my new little four-pocket apron.

Plus, with the small pieces that remained I created two more bookmarks.

And what is old is made new again!

Peace

Today I made peace.

I made peace with myself.

I worked in the front yard garden, prepping it with springtime mulch to protect and nourish the little greenies as they return from the Underworld. Chives, thyme, lemon balm, sedum, daisies, horehound, bee balm, chinese leeks, iris, primrose, lambs ears, they all return for their visit to this realm. And they are oh so very welcome. They offered me a nourishment that strengthens.

I put my seedlings out for a spell. Brave little new ones, just making their tender way in this world of light and air, of sun and breeze. They offered me nourishment that yields courage.

I spoke candid words to my mother. I'm not sure that she fully heard them all. But the words I spoke, the feelings I expressed are likely hard for her to hear and digest, so we'll check in tomorrow to see how it all assimilated. For this conversation, I offered gratitude to the guidance and nourishment that I received this day.

I honored the gratitude in expressing enjoyment for another day of first harvests, young chinese leeks and sweet cicely to add to dinner's fresh and vibrant flavors. Nourishment again.

And I feel a sense of peace. It may only linger for this moment, but for this moment I am grateful.

Peace.

Scent & Vibration

I love these sprays. For me they are a perfect blend of energy and fragrance. Simple essential oil combined with handcrafted flower essence in a brandy base creates a medium that seems to channel a perfectly designed verve. A verve shared between the physical energies of the plants involved and the intentions of those using the spray.

The essential oil of clary sage and the flower essence of Artemisia vulgaris, the weedy herb that you might know better as mugwort meld in ways that continue to delight me. Whether I am seeking clarity, pursuing dreams, enhancing journey work or meditation, communicating with Nature, and then some, a single spritz combined with my intention ignites the flame of purpose. This is the verve of my Clary Insight spray. For me anyway.

Lavender Bouquet melds a combination of lavender essential oils with the flower essence of lady's mantle to offer a cleansing and clearing vibe that nurtures and just feels safe. Uplifting Rosewood combines the essential oil of--you guessed it--rosewood with the flower essence of wild white rose to raise the verve of Love within while grounding the intention of the heart. I know that to some this sounds corny, but these are my experiences with this sprays.

I used to offer them for sale at The Purple Rose before it transformed from a retail healing center to a dedicated healing center, offering just that - services dedicated to loving healing. I miss that retail piece. So this morning as I made up some clary spray for myself, I made a small batch. And while I was in the place of intention, I made a small batch of each. They will find their way back now, to those who seek them.

Ashe. Ashe.

Craftastic this Sunday in Hamden, CT

Don't Forget Craftastic at The Space this Sunday! 4/13/08

Just thought a reminder would be nice. For me as well as for you.

White Sage & Sweet Grass

While my intended making for the day is still in process, I did prepare, package and label five bottles each of my lovely liquid smudges.

Five each of the very popular white sage . . .

and five of the divine sweet grass, made from our very own vernal sweet grass which will be gracing our local landscape very soon . . .

Not only that, but I've made them available for general sale at my Etsy Shop. That's what I made today.

Scraps of Inspiration

What to do with the leftover strips and scraps of fabric from those other projects I've been playing with? What to do . . ?

I sat with this query a bit and then went on to one my other many, many interests. As I closed that tiny fraction of a chapter in my life, there it was - the inspiration I had asked for. What was that other interest, you ask? What was the inspiration? Well, consider what was made manifest and then you tell me . . .

Craft & Whimsey

This morning I was inspired to mesh craft with craft and craft. This inspiration led me to make Dream Pillows. The creation of dream pillows combined the craft of sewing with the craft of herbalism and the craft of, well--the craft. Seven 7x7"-ish pillow covers came into being, each filled with a 5x5-ish soft pink pillow stuffed with .75 ounce of a dream pillow herb blend. The blend includes hops, lavender, pink rose petals, chamomile, scullcap, lemon verbena, rosemary and a touch of white sage.

All seven little pillows are made from salvaged and scrap fabric. Waste turned to healing loveliness.

Then I paused to sit with all the scrap and salvaged fabric and was moved to make a bag, this time something akin to a shopping bag. As it came together I felt the spirit Dr. Suess had guided a fair portion of my piecing and stitching, for the result is truly more whimsical than functional. And that pleases me.

Even as I type these words, I see and feel more pieces of those scraps joining and forming more craft with craft and craft . . .

I was in the garden today. I mulch heavily, so there usually isn't a great deal of weeding to do, but I did a little today. And the weeds that I picked were washed, rinsed and mixed with some store bought romaine, celery and green onion . . .

Do you recognize the weed? A lovely, delicious, nutritious, delightful bitter, perfect in the springtime salad . . .

That's what I made today. And it was soooooooo good!