windthread

down the slope of the Hill,  across the creek,  across the access road,  over there,   the Spanish Broom is beginning to bloom.  You can smell it before you see it.  

Because it went     on      ,   the winter of Rain had seemed so impossible to bear.    It's gone now.   There's  this.   I look at what is happening.    my small pixelness  looks…..

the leaves of the Plantain,  each leaf,    the rosette and cluster,    these,  inches from the tracks of tires,   even more than those that made their way UP  the road to B Garden,  the "garden" of the homosapien….or ….not,  why say…..more…..

Do they?   Do they call out…SEE US….Know who we are,  know what we can do?    Do they??????

these light green leaves are the new growth of Valley Oak that grows primarily along CareFree Way,  around the canal/creek,  the Rooster Swamp.   This time around,  of the now 5th Spring of my having come here,   it is phenomenal.  Beauty Full and lush.  And i think how this is the direct result of the Winter that was so difficult ……..for me………….the winter of all the Rain that followed the years of drought.   I think about the words of the weather guy i read about how most likely,  there WILL be winters like that,  that ,   to use his words,   that  "punctuate" years of drought.     

it continues to be Different,   last Friday and Saturday,   90 degrees and now today,   55.    

i am feeling very uhhhhh,  vulnerable.   Emotionally vulnerable.   i don't know what i mean,  but they are the words that come and they  feel correct.  

along Carefree,  by the convergence of the seasonal stream and the canal/creek.   Too many to count.   Then none for the strip of the Rooster Swamp but again at the turn in from Old Olive…both sides of the road.   Ahead of those at B Garden…already full blooming.   I wonder if there is an awareness of finally being SEEN  in the full meaning of the word….literally seen and acknowledged.   Needed.   Understood to be Needed.    ?   All the while,  just  Be ing.       

Jenny and her man brought their dogs today.  Jo and Daisy.   who had come all along in the beginning here when they worked weekends to fence the 6 acre perimeter.   and then,   when we came,  Tay and i,  no more.   There was once and it was fraught with tension.   a lot could be said about this but that time has passed and today was today.    

When they were just at the beginning of the walk up from the Big Gate where they parked,   Goats ran to meet them,  then saw the dogs and made a  b line for me here…i knew they'd arrived….Goats gathered tight,  their eyes rivited on the road up   

i walked to meet them and we sat,   just waiting and in short time Goats came to look.   Wary,  but really unafraid because we were all here,  just sitting,  just talking.   Jenny's man uses electric collar and verbal command,  but there was next to no need for either….they all regarded Each Other ….and soon,  Goats went about their day.   Could not have been better.   Meeting up with Talkie will be a different thing.   

was on phone with Alyssia LATE into the night,  last,  and i heard a rustling outside …jumped up to get the FatMax spotlight while yelling WHO IS THERE….i scared Alyssia….i actually thought it was the cats that come,   there was a large trash bag and an empty feed bag….fumbling with the phone  on camera   and the light,  i saw  there….standing and staring up at me…

a possum.    a just Fine possum  that,  as i tried to figure out how to take a pic,   just ambled away into the night.     it's going to be an interesting summer.

blooms forming

Soap root.   soon,   they will be ready and  bloom,  in late evening and on through the night.  Moths will come.   Closing with morning light.

Amidst an ecstatic rush of all manner of Grasses.    As if all and any seed had waited,  dormant,  sleeping  through the drought years for just this moment in time to burst and grow and MAKE SEED.   It's Glorious,  i sit and just watch them move in response to the slightest breeze,   i don't know how to tell of the FeltSense of this,  what it does for and in my human body,  my human heart

for months of the Other Way,  the RAIN way….when we all disappeared from EachOther,  but now…these few days in the  90's even….the 90's!    Hose water in a plate…Safe drinking for Lizards.   

am learning to 

notice    and then

wonder.

It could have …spread.   as in more space.   It is clear that the WET winter was Good and well received,  but   not by uhhhh,   extending out.   But rather by  strengthening,   multiplying  Close.   a thicket of Yarrow.   What does this tell me?????

so.  i just  now chewed two Plantain leaves.   into a pulp.   it has an interesting taste.   that i can't say is "liKe" …anything,  is    Well, just is.   Once it was all softened,   i propped my foot up on the table and rubbed it over    "those toes".    

my questioning came from one of the first sites i found that said ….leaves,  3 ribbed.    these are 5.   ?   but all further,  with many pics,   reassure me…Narrow Leaf Plantain.   and reassure me too that the Narrow Leaf is equally beneficial as Broad.  

it's just here.   These,  on the outer edge of this growing place…spreading into the walkway.   Flattened by feet,  but  undaunted.  i watered them and set these things from the garden altar around them to alert our travel through… not sure what to do next

and in the comments yesterday…Beverly,   who  linked Us to the article about Erica Heilman a while back…Beverly,   gives two links to Youtubes…of   She Is of the Woods….Plantain infusion .   Who is a vast resource of plant medicine….BeautyFull woman, and there is Every Thing there…that i never imagined would be.   i have no vocabulary for this,  so until i learn it,   i will just make things up…like….Earth Witch….

and to give context,    i have developed a Thing over the last two years…the toes of my left foot and won't put the gory details here but it is a huge hinderance to me.  I thought it was gone last summer,  but not,  returned again with the cold and wet winter.  At a point in maybe late January,  out of complete helplessness,   i began applying a salve that Cynthia had sent a couple of years ago from an herbal healer at her Farmer's Market .   Cynthia of  "Gentle Day"      Made by Lani of Taking Root  VT.com.  There wasn't much left,  we had used it for Everything  but i just began using it on the toes and  LO and BEHOLD,  they began to heal.  But Lani and Taking Root were no longer available.   Cynthia ,  because of being the loving being she is,  sent another salve which is good,  but not Lani's…not what my toes need/want.   From Lani's jar of Heal All Salve:    "the herbal neosporin is great for cuts, scrapes, burns, bruising,  sprains, bug bites, dry skin, rashes, cracked hands,  blisters and any other topical ailment that needs healing".

contents:   oil infusion of Calendula,  Comfrey,  Plantain,  Arnica,  Yarrow,  Saint John's Wort,  Beeswax,  Olive Oil, Extract of Propolis

i will continue my search to contact Lani.   But in the meantime….because there is this undaunted Plant,   this insistant Plantain,  i will try to learn.   My hope is that the Plant People are forgiving.    I am SURE that it is the hand and heart of the Plant Witch that knows,  from their loving relationship with the Plants,  the balance and Needs of these ingredients…to create the Salve that does In Fact,  Heal All.   But i will begin to learn.   I now have:  plantain,  yarrow, calendula.  So,   to begin.  With Gratitude and Love.  

another 5 hour day…but this time completely…no  Child Gardening.   just steady.   There's not much to show for it,  ie: pics,  nothing you don't see in your own gardens.   plants are plants.    But,  either in the ground or in pots:  tomatoes   squashes,straight and crook neck     zucchini   egg plant .   Tomatoe cages tied in place.    cucumber seedlings planted  (in case my seeds fail.    Looking as i type this…doesn't seem like much…   

and then,  am keeping notes this time (?) ,  other years i've begun then don't ,   this time….we'll see.   Even small growing details.

Does anyone know things about Plantain?    All along i have been sure that i know this plant,  that it's growing randomly,  the narrow leaf….one time   a broad leaf,  but not in last 2 years… i'm pretty sure there's still broad leaf down in the rooster swamp…  but i looked it up today and now i'm not sure this is it.   Pics tomorrow.  Does anyone make their own medicinals?  ie salves?   I have always thought you have to be a Magic Person for that…but?,  ?,  maybe things like i need,    are  forgiving?????    i could  LEARN?

that little vase,   to show Alyssia….it's Miner's Lettuce.  Why Goats do not eat it is our Mystery,   but i'd been watching a small

cluster as i sit in the Resting Chair by Nogal's forest.   Watching…not really,  but just it's There and i am resting and breathing and just looking at nothing on purpose…i watch the tiny ants there,  but i noticed recently that it creates these very beauty Full litte kind of seed pouches,  heart shaped,  toward the end of it's seasonal Time    and this is an example of the surprise that all of a sudden,   at this point in its lifetime/seasonal time  the Goats DO eat it!   ! 

and the Robins continue.   almost ever present,  just outside the door…?     Robinda and her manRobin.   

I might leave the door open tonight.   57 degrees.