Herbal Morning

Today, was misty-rainy outside, was slightly humid, was a day for taking a long walk to see what's growing now. I woke up in a sort of herbal trance.  Herbs and wild plants were on my mind big time and so remained there all day.  I took a long walk, just a tad short of two hours, around our farm.  I was looking for new blossoms, edible plants, Elder flowers, and sweet blackberries. 

Before I even left out in my rain boots, my journal entry for today went like this. 

I have the desire, and have maintained the desire for three years, to make oils, tinctures and teas from herbs that I grow and find in our fields and woods. 

Wild Bergamont - I feel extremely lucky to have a wild growing patch right behind the house and down a bit.  I want to collect Sorrel Dock as I have read that it helps psoriasis, of which I am a candidate.

I am hesitant to get in to it because I don't want to waste. I don't wish to make, dry and do and not have the interest to use what I make.  So I find these plants and maybe I will study each one and figure out how each plant could benefit me and uses, I will do it in time. 

I truly wish there would be an old wise woman come in to my life that knows all of the wild plants by name and their uses and would show me how to do this stuff. 

Maybe I am that old woman, in the making.

I had a similar conversation with Shaun after my walk and he said "maybe she is you." 

My walk included a walking stick, rain boots, camera, waterproof shoulder bag, scissors, herb book, journal, pencil and my phone... on vibrate. 

This is the Wild Bergamont patch. 

The leaves as well as the blooms are edible.



 I learned today that honey bees are unable to reach the nectar,

but bumble bees don't have that problem.

 Butterfly weed.

I picked some of this for the tables at our wedding.

 From this spot in the woods. 

I probably stood in this spot for twenty minutes, listening and looking.

I saw two different woodpeckers. 

A small bird was very interested in me and kept flying from branch to branch in front of me.

Mint was in the air.

Sweet blackberries were my snack.

 This one was soft and tall and had the most wonderful scent.

 This, what I called onion top, came home with me and is in my window vase.

They are everywhere in the field.

 I take pictures of plants that I find so when I see them in a book I can identify them.



Nature Boxes

I have to admit, I have been wanting to make a 3d nature box for a while now.  But it takes a certain age kid, other than myself, to have the attention and want to learn.  Learn a little about habitat and environment and landscape.  Then put it together in a small world view. 

We found up one shoe box and split it between two kiddos and I got a smaller box.  While the rain dried off outside, we decided to decorate the inside of our nature scenes.  We used construction paper to line our boxes with blue skies, snow capped mountains and green hillsides.  Each one of us used our imaginations big time! 

Then after the day warmed up a bit, we each grabbed a paper bag and headed out to collect bits of nature for our shadow boxes.  We didn't have to go far at all.  We found small rocks, moss, flowers, tree bark, twigs, and grasses.  When we all felt we had enough, we headed back in.

We glued trees in moss to make it stand up.  We made ponds and glued rocks and pebbles all around.  All in all we probably spent three hours making our shadow boxes, maybe more.  We wound up having lunch right after we finished.  Everyone was very pleased with their creations.  Even this big kid.

A trip down the creek and back

My Saturday afternoon left me deciding against going to the grocery store and instead, heading to the creek.  Dottie and I had such a good walk and discovered a few things I had never seen before, which my creek walks always seem to do. 

Wild Bergamont is blooming.

 I have had my eye on these leaves wondering what it would produce.

Today.. I found out.

These tiny blooms are not bigger than a piece of indian money.

Iddy biddy toadstool.

 I added a couple of wishes to my rock stack.

This stack has been here for over a year.

 Peeking out.

 My pal.

We Love Tractors!

I have been thinking about tractor themed crafts, since I have all boys at the DC and Lord knows boys love tractors!  That's why God made them. :)  I came up with a few things to do and a few pages to color and hang on our wall of fame.  Sometimes I think the kids like hanging their works of art more than they like making them!  They love to see them displayed. 

Yesterday, we colored tractor pages, did a little cut and paste tractor, then dug in the dirt outside with sticks and tractors.  One thing we have around here... tractors!  Next week, time permitting for the farmer, Shaun is going to bring a tractor down to the DC to let the guys crawl all over it!  Kinda like Firemen bring the Firetruck.  I think it'll tickle them.

This is a simple cut, paste and color tractor that hangs on your refrigerator. 

I cut a template out of a piece of card stock because it is easier to trace around. 

We picked two circles to trace, one smaller than the other for the front tire.

 Cut out our tractor frames.

 And tires.

Don't forget the window! 

We used glue sticks to put them together. 

 I got these magnetic strips at WM.  They break apart easily and you can cut them to any length that you need for all kinds of projects.

 And here's our tractor!  The younger kids colored on them and pasted them together.

The bigger kids did the cutting out parts.

 Stick on the magnet and they are ready to display!