Sparkling Lotus Ink

national dandelion appreciation day

our first afternoon at home following closing mid-May '10.  Imagine how happy I was to learn that our farming neighbors kept beehives.

Today is a long way from dandelion flowers at least here in the great Northeast.  but I did snap a very healthy crown at the eastern edge of the field garden. 

I know about the plant's special day via Kitchen Garden seeds.  They're stepping up their usual twice a week growing season email blitz to every other day.  I read an article Thursday or Friday about the seed market going through the roof in the wake of the pandemic.  Kitchen Garden was one of the companies featured with quotes from a representative. 

Today's email spotlight featured dandelion seeds from two German varieties that are highly prized for their leaves.  Sometime in the next little while I'm planning to write a post about dandelion medicine making.  Ditto violet flowers and leaves.  But today my mind is on J's accomplishment of the day.  He broke out the rototiller and created a lovely equilateral triangle bed for the tomatoes. We figure it will take a week of lunch hours or so to have the soil fluffed up, amended as best we can, and ready for deep mulching until it's time to plant the seedlings and sow some giant leaf basil seeds. If you look at the pink flower pot then just beyond it you'll see the straw covered plot I've begun pitchforking for calendula and borage seeding to be sown around one of the garden's lemon balm patches. Behind that is one of the "walls" of the four foot square Sunflower House IF there's time and ability to pull off this hazy dream I've never actively pursued.  There always seemed like there'd be plenty of time to do it later - when I was old enough to sit still and enjoy it from time to time.

 Today's overcast sky was perfect for working without getting over-heated or parched.  The ground was damp and friable.  Earlier in the day we also walked through the woods while I darted around clearing the path behind the utility and potting sheds.  There's a path?  J. had been astonished.  I explained the cat and I used it all the time - that it was actually Mama's path that I was gradually clearing of fallen branches.  I showed him how I'd been widening the trail with an additional 'walking lane" so that I could wander more comfortably along with her.  He rejoiced in the improvement and together we cleared the latest fallen branches from yesterday's high wind.

eta - regarding nuts & bolts . 2

I really need to apologize for a HUGE oversight in part 2 of this information sharing.  Have added a cleaned-up version of the following guidance to the text but thought to post this separately for those who've already read that post. 

During the organizational prep - right before or after you label your mother stock jar - you need to add your stabilizer of choice to that jar.  I like a 30-60 ratio : stabilizer to mother stock.     For my smaller bowls that works out to roughly a finger's worth of stabilizer in the bottom of a half-pint canning jar.   Large bowls need two fingers.  My six inch bowls settle nicely with one and a half.

Some people bring a jar with brandy into the field with them.  That way they aren't ball parking.  They can see exactly how much mother stock liquid is in the first straining bottle and add a precise proportional amount of stabilizer to the mother stock bottle.

I don't do this simply because it would be one more physical object for me to keep track of, potentially drop multiple times, and just generally serve to lessen the buzz of co-creative thrall I feel when I prep as much as I possibly can in advance.

Note:  If I get outside and find a bowl's evaporation rate is greater than I expected I pour the surplus brandy into the ground or distribute it among other mother stock bottles-in-waiting. 

Essence Coalescence - nuts & bolts part 2

Bronze Fennel bowl from '06 just prior to straining.  Notice the water is filmy with a layer of flower pollen.  This illustrates why I advise triple straining prior to adding this liquid to its brandy stabilizer.  Any trace of pollen or other organic matter will hasten spoilage - sometimes within a matter of just a few months.

 I left out an important detail in part one of this mini-series:

 after you've filled the bowl with flowers and adjusted the water level set it in a place where you know it will get four hours of uninterrupted sunlight.  If you're taking your best guess - make time to check your hunch every 45 minutes to an hour and adjust the bowl's placement if necessary.  If you need to do this keep the bowl in sunlight as you move it if you possibly can.  If you can't then just hustle the bowl right along to its next resting spot.  Explain you're new at this.  Flowers are endlessly compassionate and capable of adjustments we can barely fathom.  Add to which you're doing this for you and those in your circle - not to mass produce the most assiduously pristine essence in order to keep the product radiant and maximize each drop of every mother stock.  So far as I know there are no free-range flower essence police who make surprise inspections in the average person's dooryard. 

do your best and let nature intelligence do the rest!

AND NOW IT'S THREE HOURS LATER

Harvesting & Stabilizing Mother Stocks

I advise beginning to organize yourself at the hour 3 mark especially if you've never done this before.  The more organically you connect to the flower medicine spirit(s) involved, solar energy in a lesser-explored dimension, or the simple beauty of dropping out of NOW in order to go deeper into timelessness - the more spaced out you are in the linear sense.  This is true, objectively, even though you're also quite likely feeling as grounded as you ever have.   You may have powered through your time of doing whatever you've been doing with electrified focus and heightened consideration. Even if you perceive nothing at all happening you will still embody your own elastic potential to be both totally present and totally cosmic right at the same time.  That's why you need some lead time to keep your body and brain in strong linear balance with your heightened experiential awareness.

Ground & Stabilize - specifically by eating something.  Innumerable energetic healers and flower alchemists advise choosing solid nutrient dense food that is literally OF the ground.  During parts of the summer when weather forecasts suggest I'll be preparing multiple essences for a few days running - I prepare a platter of chilled steamed carrots dressed very simply with tarragon, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.   These are easy to grab as finger food right before I head out the door with my collection materials.  If I've allotted more than 15 minutes to eat something I'll heat up and mash part of a yam with some freshly grated ginger root.

important:  don't have any honey, fruit, or fruit juice!!  This will lead to your central and sympathetic nervous system vibrating extra fast due to the higher frequency range it's accessing via your part in the alchemy process.  Super-quick response time is wonderful to watch in a hummingbird but not so kind to your jacked-up neurology.

Prepare Your Materials

 I advise assembling everything you'll need on an easy to carry tray or within a small cardboard box.  I usually do this about halfway into the fusing process just in case I misjudged available supplies and have to make creative adjustments.   Once you've assembled the material supplies listed in Part 1:

Prepare a label for the container that will hold the stabilized mother stock.  Include the name of the flower.  Indicate it's a mother stock and when you've prepared it.  I also include solar and lunar astrological information:

The jar above contains a blend with 11 different flowers.  On the other side of the bottle I've attached an additional label with everything named.

Attach your label(s) to the jar.  I use standard issue Avery labels which often resist strong adherence to the glass jar so I also use washi tape to keep the label in place without being time-consuming to remove when need be.  

After you label your mother stock jar add your stabilizer of choice. I like a 30-60 ratio : stabilizer to mother stock.     For my smaller bowls that works out to roughly a finger's worth of stabilizer in the bottom of a half-pint canning jar.   Large bowls need two fingers.  My six inch bowls settle nicely with one and a half.

Some people bring a jar of their chosen stabilizer into the field with them.  That way they aren't ball parking.  They can see exactly how much mother stock liquid is in the first straining bottle and add a precise proportional amount of stabilizer to the mother stock bottle.

I don't do this simply because it would be one more physical object for me to keep track of, potentially drop multiple times, and just generally serve to lessen the buzz of co-creative thrall I feel when I prep as much as I possibly can in advance.

Note:  If you get outside and find a bowl's evaporation rate is greater than expected - pour the surplus brandy into the ground or distribute it among other mother stock bottles-in-waiting. 

 *******

Your bowl's remaining liquid will be strained 3 times.  That's why you have 3 containers and 3 sets of double layered coffee filters per essence.  The same funnel will be used for all three strainings.

This part of the process will be a different kind of mindful work from what you experienced in the preparation phase.  You're excited and involved in something you couldn't have done by yourself. And on the other extreme - the more you've done this and progressively learned how to self-calibrate the more you're also testing your edges each and every time just as you would with yoga, lucid dreaming, or any other mind-body-earth-cosmos activity.  Your consciousness is expanding and WANTS to grow farther and farther.  This ephemeral imperative is under-storied with internalized experiences that quite often defy words or even inner categories you can recognize.

***

practical insight:  If they've been well-strained and are lovingly maintained mother stocks that are stabilized with unflavored oak barrel aged brandy can last for years.  Vinegar and red shiso stabilized mother stocks will need replacing on a very regular basis.  

Everyone finds their own way with this part of it but let me spare you one particular intuitively based heartbreak: I began my alchemy adventures stabilizing everything with Grand Marnier.  I thought it would be a lovely experience for the flowers' vibrations and also human recipients of the essences.  Each and every one of those mother stocks spoiled in record time.  In a few unwelcome cases - in just a matter of weeks!

***

As you head outside make sure you bring with you: 

*a hat to protect both your crown chakra and your central nervous system - especially if you weren't wearing a hat when you prepared your bowl.  Your crown center needs protection because it's open and actively receiving light-filled energetic information of a very powerful wattage.   The sheer quantum mechanics can be too much for your subtle bodies' electrical circuitry in many of the same ways that time spent hat-less in full sun may overload your cardio-vascular system.

a hat.

A HAT.

*Water for yourself to drink as you work unless you're very well hydrated in advance.

***

If you have the luxury of time prior to collection - plan to sit with your essence bowl for just a little while.  Leave your imprint on the landscape which is leaving its imprint within your collection bottle.  be as one with all.  center in that oneness.

when you're ready to break that perceptual flow

sit on the ground or a low stool with back facing a north or east orientation from the bowl.  This insures your shadow won't fall on it during the straining process.  I pick it up in both hands unless it's very small.  Hold it up towards the sun and say Thank You before beginning the straining process.  This is what feels right to me although prior to moving here I didn't have the privacy to always feel comfortable doing it.  Do what feels right to YOU within the process of disconnecting the bowl from the path of the sun's light

Work slowly and carefully.  Place a pair of coffee filters in the funnel and slowly pour the bowl liquid into the funnel.  Try to get as much of the liquid into the funnel and fully strained into the first designated container before tipping-in the flowers and remaining liquid.  Let all of the plant matter strain for a moment.   As you watch the remaining drips of liquid fall in the glass shift your eyes to the general landscape.  Notice tiny sparkling ways you may feel a part of it more completely. 

Once I feel confident most of the liquid has strained into the container I gently place the first set of filters into the emptied bowl.  I then strain the liquid two more times.  At the point of the third straining I'm moving liquid into my labeled mother stock. 

I hold the bottle up towards the sun and say a second thanks.  Then I shake the bottle with a vigorous yet respectful motion for a count of 77.   Once I'm back in the house and better grounded I will continue to shake the bottle for another ten reps of 77 shakes - plus 7 additional shakes.  This means the mother stock has been blended and called into activation by YOU with a total of 777 shakes. 

This is the point, out in the field, where people want it to be a joke or something they can bargain past.  Some protest with a lot of conviction and swear they could never.  Nonetheless.  It's how I learned, it's what I swear by, and it's also why I think hypersensitive alchemists pick up a bottle of Sparkling Lotus essences, widen their eyes and exclaim WOW.  It's exquisite numerology and is worth the repetitive motion unless your shoulder/something else is damaged in ways that would prohibit it.

that said ...

If the mere idea is just too much of too much for you - consider using a rule of thumb I've been seeing online within newer alchemist's tip sheets.  Shake the bottle until it begins to feel heavier and more substantial.  Put the mother stock in a safe and special place out of direct light.  Make sure the bottle isn't making direct contact with other bottles and won't be handled vicariously.   I usually wait about 72 hours before preparing a greatly diluted stock bottle from the mother stock.  So I'll cover those instructions in a separate post sometime next week.

evening primrose bowl from '18 simply because it's bright and beautiful.  Plus a lady bug do you see it?

 a crucial part of this entire process is the final action of reciprocity.  Return the flowers from the bowl to the base of the plant(s) where you collected them. Take all the coffee filters and squeeze their remaining liquid directly onto the plant.  I sing at this point.  Usually in spontaneous sustained tones but once in a memorable highlight of deviation I was returning California Poppy flowers to their patch at SL2 when I suddenly heard myself chanting we're going going / back to Cali Cali.  

That was a very fun day and now I chant at length to each season's Cali Pops as they love to be called.  I have re-worded a lot of the GBTC verse lyrics so they apply and actually want to come out of my mouth.  Flower medicine spirits and attendant nature devas are inherently very playful.  When they get a bead on who you are they may entice you to come out of yourself and be joyous with them in all sorts of unexpected ways.

This is the SL2 colony of California Poppies that pulled a song out of me I didn't even realize I'd absorbed.

***

additional details

*I love to take what remains of the wet coffee filters and wipe them on the back of my neck, pulse points, the palms of my hands, or soles of my feet.  Then I like to go back to the house and paint with watercolor for an hour or so.  To record my initial impressions of flower wisdom and personal insight in this form without words.  They come later.  First comes drippy and ever-eloquent color in its most flower-like form.

*Because you've spent a chunk of time actively or passively moving energy in a way that involves several forms of Other intelligence and multiple vibrational frequencies you may ping pong between feeling like you're mainlining coffee to feeling like you could remain motionless forever.  Both extremes will temper themselves within a few hours of grounded activity.   

pro-tip: sometimes your physical reaction will depend on the specific flower medicine and its strongest range of influence on the human form.

*I've observed at a strictly anecdotal level that those of us with muscular pain often hurt a lot more prior to sleeping.   After that there's often a blessed dip in pain level that lasts for a number of days.   Sometimes far longer for those with a diligent yoga/body-working routine. 

*Keep a small jotter notebook or a few folded scraps of paper and a writing/drawing implement close at hand.   You may have sudden flashes that you want to record before they flash right out of your memory's reach.

essence preparation - nuts & bolts .1

  The picture above shows an essence bowl set upon a battered wooden TV tray.  It's sitting within the midst of our evolving sanctuary garden and the bowl is full of Bottle Gentian flowers.   Took the pic just before harvesting and processing the mother stock there in the later summer of '18. 

To successfully make a flower essence you need the following atmospheric elements:

* A sunny day with no/virtually no clouds.  

* Temps somewhere between 60 and 80 degrees.  You can push it to 85 degrees if you have to but setting out bowls in downright HOT weather insures your flowers will fry rather than fuse.  Remember the sun heated glass will in turn heat the water.  It's always going to be significantly warmer for the flowers in the bowl than the air temperature feels against your skin.

* Time in which to keep track of time:  4 hours worth.  You don't have to stay right there, obviously, but you do have to remain aware of the ongoing project (I set both my stove and phone timers) - keeping special track of any sudden/cloudy shifts in weather. 

6 inch bowl of coltsfoot flowers nestled into a stone wall adjacent to the site of the colony where the flowers were harvested. '07

on the material plane you need:

*A pair of small sewing or herb-cutting scissors/snips that remains dedicated solely for harvesting essence preparation flowers.

*Unflavored brandy* to stabilize the harvested mother stock.  I use E&J specifically because Matthew Wood favors it.  Equally specific: he does as much due to the brandy being aged in oak barrels.

* you can also use brown rice vinegar or a red shiso decoction

*THREE size-proportionate glass containers (I use half pint canning jars) per essence preparation. 

*SIX coffee filters - unbleached preferred but we're all pinch-hitting these days - per essence bowl.  You can use paper towels in a pinch although many shed pulp that defeats the purpose of straining.  I've had better luck layering two or three pieces of white tissue paper.

*ONE funnel (large enough to accommodate a coffee filter containing liquid and soaking wet flowers) per essence.

* simple CLEAR glass bowls dedicated to essence preparation and nothing else*.  no pyrex.   I have fairly shallow bowls that are 3, 4, and 6 inches in diameter.  I also have the 12 inch diameter version of the same bowl.  All were purchased at a dollar store 18 years ago after an essence making friend grasped how perfect they'd be for our purposes and tried out the smallest bowl size by preparing an amethyst elixir.  We had the type of friendship that involved excited phone calls when great bargains of vast consequence were discovered.  In short order she'd picked me up and we were on the way to the store so I could purchase a set of my own. 

*if you don't immediately know that you have a bowl or bowls that might work - consider what you're currently unable to recycle due to the pandemic.  Look for short glass jars with wide mouths such as small spice/herb jars or clear glass containers from non-toxic beauty products.  Wash and clean these jars thoroughly.  I like to leave them to dry in the sun.

4 inch blend bowl set upon the breastplate of our natural stone fire pit on the summer solstice '15

[I removed the ant drawn to the meadowsweet in the bowl - and swiftly transported it to a shaded recuperation site - after noticing it through the camera lens]

Additionally - many no-pick flower alchemists work with taller wide mouthed jars that allow for submerging full-peak flowers still attached to the plant or bush.  Have done it sporadically with larger plants bearing flexible flower stalks - mints, bergamots, comfrey, a white lilac flower branch, a spray of flowering quince, etc.

re-imagining tip - I have made an emergency-status essence with just two key lime flowers* and spring water placed in the hole of a plain glass candle holder.

*lime flowers have a special affinity for cleansing the auras and emotional/psychic bodies of healers/teachers/leaders/activists.  At the time of my emergency improvisation I was working between 5 and 10 hours a week with a group of self-described 'disaffected yet enraged' teenagers.  Although I could say tons more I don't think I really have to ...

3 inch verbascum essence.  Two 4 inch blend bowls in the southern bed of my former garden '07.  Note that rather than removing each motherwort and yarrow flower individually, I plunged the flower heads upside down into the bowl's water.  Never did it that way before but I'd observed a friend embrace the method to great success and was glad to try.

and of course you also need

appropriate water.  Avoid tap water that is highly -inated with much of anything.  Some people boil such water if it's their only option then set it in the sun for an hour or so to regain vibrancy.  I don't use our well water because it's very hard and overly endowed with mineral deposits.  This messes with the fusion process and tends to produce mother stocks that spoil in relatively short order or simply feel heavy rather than sparkle-bright.  I collect water especially for this work from a friend's wellspring and when that's gone I break out my yearly purchase of two 12 ounce water bottle six packs from a local source.  Each bottle is enough to fill a few essence bowls at one time. 

How to Proceed:

for Phase One of this process you'll need your bowl,  an easy-pour container of appropriate water, your designated scissors/snips and a well-balanced softly focused mind.

Your intention and practical goals will be centered on preparing the bowl for its four hour sun and water fusion process.  This involves filling the bowl with enough water to hold the flowers you'll collect and then gently adding enough water to allow turning some flowers upside down.

[note:  if you select a large tree flower or something huge like a peony, artichoke, lotus, or dahlia you may need to raid your pantry for a relatively shallow clear glass prep bowl. If you don't have one  - or something else that feels like a strong choice - you'll have to deconstruct the bloom a bit in order to get all of it submerged in the watery bowl.]

GROUND AND CENTER 

breathe deeply a few times. 

If everything within your experience falls into place super easily you may get very spaced out and not realize it until you move back into more normalized and familiar activities. 

Approach your chosen plant.  Ideally you'll already have some type of personal alliance with your first few choices for essence preparation.  This intuitive self/flower guided selection method will make the experience more meaningful in ways that are both universally profound and intimately unique to any given individual.  The experiential commonality is one of cosmic union and coalescence.  It's a lofty plane to seek on any given sunny day in today's world but it starts very simply with cellular connection. 

Notice where the sun is in relation to your chosen plant.  How is the light falling, specifically, on the flowers you'll harvest for your essence bowl?  Make sure that you approach the plant and position your body so that you're not blocking the sunlight's passage.  Throughout the rest of the harvesting and setting in place process you want to keep from blocking the sunlight's path to the bowl and flowers within it.

Above I'm harvesting blueberry flowers so they fall into a six inch bowl.  My left/receptive hand cradles the bottom of the bowl and I'm careful to keep my fingers free of casting shadows on the water's surface.  what's not completely clear in this picture is that I've pivoted my entire right/dominant arm from the shoulder through to finger tips in order to avoid casting any shadows. But look directly below this sentence:

You'll most likely be standing up to harvest tree and bush blossoms.  For lower plants or ground creepers you'll be crouched/squatting, on a gardening stool, or sitting on ground.  You aren't 'supposed' to touch the flowers.  Snip the blooms with just a bit of stem left attached to the throat/base of the petals.

Old schoolers such as myself will recommend making any necessary adjustments or retrieving flowers that miss the bowl by using a leaf pinched between thumb and forefinger to shield the petals from touching your fingers.

If the flowers are large enough to consciously manipulate in a timely way make sure some blooms are face down in the bowl while others face upwards.  I push things around with the tips of the scissors - really saturating the flowers so they'll settle into the water for the 4 hour fusion process.

tip:  It can be surprisingly hard not to reflexively 'arrange' the bowl as if it were a flower vase.  In my teaching and mentoring experience there's nearly always relatively adamant in-person resistance to turning flowers upside down at first because the results aren't as visually pleasing.  What the bowl looks like is immaterial to how it feels vibrationally once the entire process is complete.  To that end it's worth the time and suspended judgement to patiently saturate each flower enough to make them heavier and harder to disturb.

note:  sometimes flowers will not cooperate with being saturated to the point of heaviness.  They sometimes won't seem to  stay right side down, either - as was my experience with the cherry blossoms below.  Do the best you can to inter-mix their orientation.  speak to them if you sense it might help.

If the flowers are small, like blueberries, you either want a proportionally smaller bowl OR the time and patience to fill a larger bowl's surface.  I went with the latter choice because my inner sense was that I might not have another opportunity to work with blueberry flowers in this way.  So far that instinct has proven itself correct.

six inch bowl of weeping cherry blossoms in the southern garden bed at the old place '06

If you have a very large flower such as a Lily you can cut it apart right there at the bowl while it's submerged in water.  This structural mangling is hard to do - at least for me.  But I did put that aside last summer in order to work with a Mona Lisa Lily.  The medicine spirit urged me forward and as I did what needed doing I reflected on several well-known flower alchemists who routinely shred all the flowers before placing them in sunlit water. 

note:  according to Richard Katz & Patricia Kaminsky's remarkably gifted updating of the Doctrine of Signatures applied to flower reading rules of thumb - bell shaped/nodding flowers speak to the mind and soul needs of those who tend to be introverted in life and work practice.  People who are not selfish or socially unskilled but almost supernaturally wise in honoring their need for isolated space and distance in which to do their intentional/healing/creative work.   Blueberry flower essence relates specifically to the needs of those who are undergoing a sense of internal transformation that demands Cathedrals of One's Own even if that sense of inviolate sanctuary is largely metaphorical given our collective experiences of the moment.

3 inch bowl of cardinal flowers elevated on a wooden tray placed beside the bed where the cardinal flowers were harvested

This seems like a good place to push the pause button on an info dump point of view.  If you've already co-created essences and would like to talk about it please comment or email if you're so inclined.  

*****

Consider your options for making a flower essence.  What plants/trees/bushes do you live with that have flowers which evoke something soothing or cleansing for you?  What is coming into flower (looking at jude...) that calls to your soul and heart in an overwhelming sort of way?

  You might also consider what plants/trees/bushes you live with that consistently evoke a sense of balance, unique familiarity, comfort or insight.   Read something about their flowers even/especially if you believe you're too familiar to need this step.

3 inch birthday bowl 2015 composed of offerings from the tiny strips of garden space lining a short brick walkway beside our porch.

as you think about this endeavor and look around your landscape's options for working with specific plants - remember that sometimes it's the in-person flowers that are magnetizing and sometimes it's the energetic vibration of the overall plant that leads to exploration/examination of the flowers it makes.

~~alternatively you can research flower essences more generally here online and match your intentions to the healing and illumination properties of a particular flower~~

I'll write the concluding portion of this how-to post on Wednesday or Thursday and schedule post it for Friday.  Part two of the flowers' transformation process covers the nuts & bolts of how to turn the alchemized bowl's contents into a mother stock.

  3 inch bowl of blended flowers spontaneously collected on the morning of my birthday in '11.  It's a particularly lovely remedy that I still work with off and on.

If such an inspirational self-care endeavor is viable for the place where you live consider preparing a bowl of whatever's freshly bloomed and feels beckoning on your solar return day.   I've been doing this off and on (it often rains that day) during the decade we've lived here. I find it a wonderful way of celebrating both my life force and the landscape's floral bounty just south of mid-summer.  These gifts often serve as constitutional remedies that last all year and well beyond.  The birthday bowl essences nourish and soothe me as time passes in a way that always prompts deeply layered gratitude and respect for the healing properties - and extraordinary sentient intelligence - of flowers and all they hold.

shake rattles & sing .3

April '07 - rattling the south-facing garden beds awake at our former home.  

eta:  a very different Molly's word tincture: Molly Sheehan of Green Hope Farm Essences.

Yesterday in the later afternoon I got a text from J. who was elsewhere in the house or yard.  He said it was going to start raining in about an hour and a half and was predicted to keep going for four days.  That's how I wound up in the way-back machine of my searching for the specific lede pic today.  Am glad for the rain since we had so little snow.  The more rain inches we can soak into the ground the better it will be once micro-droughts define themselves.   But perpetual low-light will not make for compelling blog documentation.

***

Am currently putting together a super concrete - you need these things and then you do these specific steps - type of How to Make a Flower Essence post.  Once it's published this will link back to all the posts that are previously filed under that category.   The pragmatic how-to post is meant to be amplified by all those other posts in both direct content and more deep-reading between the lines.  So far as I can tell, anyone who openly shares something authentic about themselves in relation to this blog has quite an adept feeling for their organic landscape and its specific spirit(s) of place.  Not to mention a special affinity for many of the plants and trees that grow there.

All such affinity is, in effect, an integral part of how-to make/co-create an essence.  This type of high-crisis moment - at a nuts and bolts level - is an awesome time for anyone who wants to participate in healing themselves, their environments, and their own growing spaces to actively do something that crystallizes the spark in their heart's dreams and healing wishes for All That Is on our beautiful and increasingly broken-apart home here on earth.

Above is a blended-flower bowl that yielded a wonderfully comprehensive remedy called Mellow Yellow.   The essence came to life on the hillside where I kept a plot specifically devoted to raising flowers I wished to prepare as flower essence mother stocks.  If you follow the link you'll land on one of the first posts I made here. You'll see a picture of me from '05 looking equally content and determined.  Same pitchfork  but now I wear shoes with hard shells like a sensible person.  Or wait to do whatever until I am wearing them.

for the curious and knowledgeable alike - here's a thumbnail synopsis of the bowl's contents. 

Broccoli - Scours the psyche in a way that allows us to see how/when/why we interpret the actions of others as personalized victimization.  Offers psychic and emotional fortitude to deal with that skew IF we've a mind to.

Marigold - Very supportive of neural circuitry and its vibrancy level.  This essence - in whatever form of flower variety and color - has been indispensable in essence combinations that are geared to supporting integration with the larger/higher/faster frequency that so many of us tend to 'catch' even if we keep our awareness of it deliberately small or convince ourselves it's merely wish fulfillment or Nothing At All.

Nasturtium - boosts the circuitry of the electrical body.  A boon for those who tend to fade somewhere between the 6th and 8th inning stretch of any given day.

Pumpkin -  Helps support our subtle and physical bodies' need to galvanize under duress/situations focused on The Choice of No Choice.  Helps you locate whatever you need energetically to do whatever it takes mentally & physically in order to bring a necessary project to a timely conclusion.

Snapdragon - to smooth the bite in your communicative style if you've normally got one.  To help you keep from developing such bite under duress - especially when thrown into a situation where you personally have little to no control and it angers you.

Vatican Tomato -  Tomato's healing signature addresses situations in which we've actively allowed patterns of self-sabotage to become normalized behavior to you. 

Moon and Stars Watermelon - psychic birthing & midwifery to support life's expansive changes and creative hot streaks.  Times two thanks to the above contributor.

Yellow Wood Sorrel - hydrates physical and emotional burnout associated with hypersensitivity. 

Zucchini - supports kinder & gentler self-care initiation than we generally allow ourselves.

The above packets hold the remainder of the other seeds I've started under lights in the basement - rattling all the way.  Lincoln leeks and basket flowers are regular must-grows for me.  African foxgloves are fairly well known to me in their purple form.  They've grown with a gorgeously prolific branching pattern on various parts of the property but never taller than 3 - 3.5 feet. Am trying the white variety because they reach 5 -6 feet when they're happy.  Was thinking I'd inter-plant with Indigo Spires salvia here and there within the Evolving Sanctuary bed.   I really love gracefully architectural combos that intermix white and blue flowering plants - arranged in a visual chain that stays embedded in the mind's eye most vividly right before dusk.   This I learned from a wonderful garden design book called Color Echoes in the Garden.

  One day about a month ago an early morning dream spirit advised I grow Sweet Thai basil rather than my favored cinnamon variety.  The latter has been indispensable for decades as our family dinner iced beverage of choice during the summer months.  Couldn't find any on offer at any of my preferred seed sources when I finally ordered.  So that turned out to be an on-point lucid swerve from the Beyond.  Never heard of this bergamot variety before.  It's capable of reaching maturity in a single season in this hardiness zone range.  If it doesn't then I won't see what the flowers are like in relation to our bee, butterfly, hawkmoth and hummingbird contingents.  Not unless I can figure out how to successfully winter it over somewhere in the garage ...

this day as twilight nears

Around noon Mama and I went out J's office door and took a little walk.  She sat at the top of the slope down to the water and observed my ongoing process of being there on the center of the bridge.   She used to feel like she had to be with me - trying to understand.  Think she concluded she preferred to keep my bridge-standing on her radar from a distance.

I take in the water's energy and let it nourish my own.  Sometimes I get an impression that starts an internal dialogue I wasn't expecting or resolves something that felt too messy to untangle so I hadn't tried.  Sometimes - like today - I simply stand and let my mind go blank.  It was a little too chilly to stand there until every muscle let itself go to the sound-healing of water music but long enough to leave the bridge with a sincere smile.

Those soapy looking bubbles come every spring.  It lasts for a while and then stops.  I have a couple different theories about the bubbles but today I thought for the first time to address them.  To ask where they come from - what makes them?

I will admit I did not wake up in a state of open-hearted YES-ness this a.m.  But once I was out and about as part of the landscape I began to get some semblance of a groove back.   Below I avoided cropping for composition's sake in order to show ALL of the frog eggs in the little pond.  And yes I know it's dirty as well as what that 'means'.  But I also know there has been virtually no time since the ice melted when the frogs haven't been going at it.   J. feels it's inhumane to interrupt them when they've just re-animated, etc.  They need to make a lot of eggs to get a few surviving frogs because there's a troupe of sparrows that dine on the pollywogs.  Last year there was a young snapping turtle as well but this surprise addition seemingly disappeared at a certain point in very late summer. 

Once it's clear the frogs' egg laying cycle is complete we'll start gently extracting leaves with the pitchfork from side angles.  We get a bit more skillful and non-invasive each year.

The trees are waking up more and more.  It's a subtle form of springtime vibrancy but very powerful because of its slow rise.  The cat and I stood taking stock of the day's silent messages.  Mama turned with abrupt certainty and led us back to the front of the house.

This volunteer foxglove is so ready to get things going!

PLUS ...
My basement seed starting operation is in use as of this morning!  T. donated his college daze computer table as an adjacent work station.  For me that's an improvement over schlepping the full flats twice a day across the room to the long work bench where I used to do it.  T.'s commandeered that section of the basement at my invitation.  I'd planned to use the top of the freezer but that was far from ideal and a different directional schlep.  Was touched by the contribution.  This is perfect for conserving core energy for me.  Also nice to be working directly beside the plants' heat and light sources once they're growing and I need to water them beyond surface misting.

So far I've planted some of all the seeds pictured above plus dark opal basil.  Used the green and dark opal seedling to help me know the difference between tomato plants from different packets.  Did four of the Blush cherries and eight of the Gourmet slicing mixture.  Also grow a six pack of the San Marzanos.  I also have five more types of seeds to plant in part of another flat.  Yesterday evening there was a momentary kink when I saw the new six packs I ordered are REALLY large.  I must have clicked on the wrong button for the size choice.  So I'll have to go with re-used six packs from last year's seedlings to get started.  I'll transfer from there to the bigger six packs and then, hopefully, into the 'stocky transplant' pots I I also purchased.  

Additionally I'm super happy with the quality of Gardener's Supply Warehouse brand seed starter.  Time will tell how things sprout but I'll then also get to test the quality of the brand's potting soil.   There's a place right up the road selling bags of rotted horse manure but you have to inquire within.  J and I are past the point of being comfortable with that formerly normal and totally neighborly way of getting what you need around here.  Probably 20 or 30 different people are involved "within" as the stable boards and breeds.  So we'll be budgeting amendments from what's on hand until I find something that seems workable for us.  Feel fortunate we over-bought straw mulch last year.  Something told J. it was imperative for the spring.  He's not the type to be that way but every once in awhile he gets feelings.  This hunch will be invaluable for the welfare of the new beds.

*****

Insta-cart grocery shop fulfillment was stressful this time although that's no fault of anyone involved.  There were just a gazillion  substitutions one right after the other and sometimes it wasn't clear which of the alternatives had been selected for us.  But when the order arrived and we got everything situated in the first stage of our decontamination process we saw everything made sense beyond an extra container of cocktail tomatoes but I already have a plan for that.  J. was particularly happy about the meat selection substitutions.  From what I saw from my vegan's 'social distance' it looks like the swap-outs will be more enjoyable for both the guys than what I originally chose yesterday.

(today I also hit Dick Blick online to stock up on gesso, YES paste, hinged linen tape, glue sticks, and a handful of drawing pencils but that's a story for the other blog.  I'll share it when the package arrives and the stock-ups have been through our evolving de-contamination process.  Gassed up and hopefully ready to go absolutely nowhere my car has become a sort of holding tank for surfaces that need more than 72 hours before bleach cloth wipe down, rinse and life-integration.   Virgos do not play with things like a highly contagious rapidly mutating virus and J. has been gradually refining our system. Tonight we're going to re-organize everything on the garage shelf he built to hold the canned/non-perishable food cache.  Make it more of a working pantry than a storage shelf.)

stay at home day 1/wood language .2

The otherwise unexplained fourth wooden item of this post is the rolling pin directly above these words.  It's from Pearl's kitchen in the house I was raised.  Am not a baker, never will be, and so I use this talisman of my crafty roots as a brayer kinda thing for art journal smoothing and layering plus the occasional spontaneous monoprint that might chew-into the rubber brayers I keep around and misplace on the regular.  But it's pretty hard to misplace my grandmother's rolling pin for more than a moment or two.  Here this treasured bit of family memorabilia is serving as a scale model.  The rattle is roughly the same size.  The inner dimensions of the lid & box is 5. x7.  My plan is to display it sideways as seen later in the post

Since this is the third phase of US pandemic response here in MA talking about "day one" isn't feeling very first-ish anymore.  From the perspective of my adaptability quotient it's been 5 days since I last crossed property lines and ran one drop-off and two pick-up errands in my car.  The things I purchased then are still cooling their heels in my car.  Tomorrow will be a full 5 days worth of 24 hours since I came home and spoke truth to the concrete walls of my garage:  No more.  Not until there's no other choice.  

Keeping track of the days is vital to also keeping track of when it's safe to bring newer items into the house.  Tomorrow it will be safe to wipe down and store the enormous bottles of brandy and 100 proof vodka I bought on that very last run into the headlights of crumbling normalcy.  The brandy's for stabilizing and preserving flower essence mother stocks and also tincturing certain flowers - e.g. ladies mantle.  The Vodka will back-up the fifth I already had to hand for the rest of my medicinal tincturing needs.  It's also what we'll use when there's no more rubbing alcohol.

In case you're not yet as far down the rabbit hole of radically changed awareness/priorities/general life flow as I've become -  Per established universal viral contamination guidelines --  Glass containers need 5 days isolation time before handling.  Plastic needs nine and so the other package in my car must wait 4 days beyond the glass bottles' removal.  But I don't care.  I'm not planning to go anywhere beyond a ride in J.'s truck tomorrow to pick- up our bread share in the next town heading northeast.   All I can say when I catch myself thinking in endless lists of contamination safety data is that I'm ever-grateful I got back as much brain function as I did before all this hit the fan!

This is how I'll hang it now.  When it was the lid of a box it had the orientation shown in the next image.

Last night I asked my dreaming self to set me a path for early morning grounding.   Prior to that I'd gathered three of the four very well loved wooden possessions pictured above.  I also gathered a soft scrap of cotton quilt batting and the lemon verbena wood conditioner I've grown to love.  Had planned to get ginormous amounts shipped here so I could clean and condition as much of the wood finishing over-load in this house as ultimately possible but then I thought to check the location of the product's manufacturer and shipper.  Canton OH.  I checked the pandemic map and decided I'd work with what I have with much smaller refurbishing ambitions setting the course.  This will maximize the number of wood items I'm able to nourish if not in much scope.  Makes sense to start with a few extra special personal keepsakes, right?

(while writing this post I came up with a spontaneous DIY solution for my urge to condition ALL THE WOOD.  I will use the pine/juniper/tulsi oil I just strained clear the night after the full equinox day here.  I'll simply add about a quarter or third more melted beeswax - not sure yet which essential oil - and that will make my own place-based conditioner.  The wood in the house will be fed by the wood living as trees just beyond.  It makes me smile just typing that.)

In the summer of '80 I bought a beautifully constructed wooden box topped by the parquet lid directly above these words.  I bought it directly from the wood wizard who made it.  He was stationed with a wide table full of beautiful boxes and jars and intricate oversized parquet coasters just by the center entrance to Central Park (south).   It was a warm t-shirts only mid-Spring weekend that proved to be incredibly switched-on and seemingly charmed.  Right up there with this experience. in terms of my personal memory highlights.  The creator of this lovely piece and ever so many more was a little arrogant and presuming but the box has remained a beautiful thing that I love.  The best part of 'having' keepsakes is the recollections that move far beyond the thing itself.  This is why I love boxes as memory keepers on multiple levels.

  Somewhere along the line the impeccably constructed box separated from the box.  My goal now is to use tacks in the wall placed to mount the lid in a place where I'll see it often and use it as an ongoing lunar-driven touchstone.  This is so important as sunlight lasts longer each day and I move into a stronger solar mode myself.  I continue to use the dis-joined box as an altar space container for a shifting arrangement of stones, shells, and tiny mementos.

Note the pictures show my treasures before full wax absorption and buffing.  With that slow and steadying process now complete, the objects' combined presence is now a glowing line of energy as I've set them side-by side for contemplation here in the studio. 

Above is an inkwell that was always kept carelessly in a desk I sold in '88 for enough to get us through an entire winter, spring and summer as a young family in Boston.  First by my grandmother and then my mother.  I know the story behind their grim attachment to it but it's a sad discouraging story about my grandfather so we'll leave it at that.  I took it to heart and have kept it because as a [failed] ethnobotanist I'm really fond of this piece.  Inside the carved seed pod is a tiny inkwell I use with my dip pens on somewhat regular basis.

This rattle has lived a very hands-on life over the 19 years we've been together.   It's taken me probably 15 of those years to grow into my inner spirit voice enough to shake the rattle in ways that speak to her voice's scope and power.  I have her because when I heard her in full voice I understood the person who'd known how to hold and shake her like it's an easy thing to merge with a rattle's spirit would not be able to take her home.

I heard her in full glorious voice as a perpetual flurry of the small white stones lovingly described on her authentication certificate.  The shaker was a tall sturdy-legged teenage bear of a boy.  He stood very straight with a rapt expression on his face as he shook and shook and shook.  Everyone in the gallery turned towards him - surprised and smiling.  Everyone but his father who was annoyed and intent to cut the experience short.  Words were exchanged between father and son - protestations and refusals and a final plea with a backwards glance.

If you think I'm putting up with THAT any time you take it in your head ...

And the rest of us either turned away briskly or sought-out each other's eyes.  Small little head shakes and shoulder shrugs.  I'd been planning to buy a colorful wooden Mexican candelabra of carved hummingbirds circling in clusters.  But I asked the owner if he had any sense that boy might come back.  What if I bought the rattle and he kept it under the counter just in case?  Owner shook his head as he looked me over - suggesting I'd be better off buying it for myself.  I thought how much easier it would be to keep a rattle too big for me close at hand than to haul around an elaborate candelabra that felt just right.  And was undoubtedly a beast to clean after use.

That's how the rattle came home with me.  And we have taken a thorough good long while to get to know each other.  When I shook her briskly over the newly pressed-into-earth columbine seeds I heard what I'd heard in the art gallery so long ago.  Not sure how and when it happened but I've got the touch for her now - and she for me.

shake rattles & sing .2

Yesterday my body felt too sore and stiff to push any yoga-related edges.  I took the day off and further took my time getting to the point of taking time outdoors.  When I did get as far as planting columbine seeds I worked with Mama's close attendance.  She startled some when I produced the rattle and commenced shaking it but ultimately held her ground there on the ledge where the rattle rests in this picture.  I pressed seeds of the two columbine varieties featured as a visual lede in yesterday's post into the chilly soil.  The predicted n'oreaster is being successively downgraded.  Had hoped for 3-4 inches of snow but now they're saying just a dusting.  That's why I reserved half the seeds in each packet.  Have strong and seemingly good ideas of where I might plant those in another three and a half weeks.  I have viable delphiunium seeds in a box in the dining room closet. I'm thinking of starting them in a whiskey barrel in the field.  See what might emerge successfully enough to transplant into pots until they're sturdy enough to plant-out with next year's garden in mind.

wellness check of the day:  Make sure you aren't adopting habits of shallow breathing patterns.  Take slow steady breaths in.  Hold for release and then exhale slowly.  Shut your eyes and breathe for five minutes - preferably standing in soft morning sunlight and just before twilight descends in the evening.

J. fixed-up a hybrid wheelbarrow from various parts of two useless versions.  We now have two that function just at the time of year we need wheelbarrows most.  It was the first day I successfully nudged myself to get back to reading something I'm glad to be absorbing first thing in the morning.  Am beginning with a re-read of a book I loved the first time through:

It should be said that I met and briefly knew Jay Leutze in the mid-90's by way of a writing class at the Boston adult education center.  He was head and shoulders talented above and beyond anyone else in the room including the instructor.  We sat next to each other and at a certain point after he'd revealed he was working on a fictional trilogy I could not control the NEED to ask if I might read the fair copy (such things still existed then ...) of the first volume.

It was brilliant and as recently as last year I recalled a particular running theme without being able to place the book it came from for upwards of a week.  Shortly after I read that novel he moved Back Home to the mountain that features as a main character in the book above.  In addition to about a dozen books that are new to me I'd also set aside a small pile of re-reads last fall for my 2020 reading goals.  For a small window of time back in January I felt this particular book might not be a good fit since there really aren't any more safety nets left to allow environmental Davids to trounce industrial Goliaths.

but this is an excellent record of the time Before.  In time people will need to study this kind of thing as a way of figuring out how to bring more balance back to the land/people dichotomy.

(also I have never forgotten the way Jay could read a sentence or two of somebody else's draft aloud and if it was yours you'd sit there thinking.  "Wow.  My words can SOUND like that.")

shake rattles & sing .1

It's a sunny new england day but still quite chilly.   I'll add long johns under my gardening trousers and then head out, pomegranate rattle in hand,  to wake up the soil a bit.  Tomorrow morning I'll press the tiny poppy-like seeds into the soil and wish them good fortune.  Word of a nor'easter coming our way with six inches of snow expected is actually perfect for columbines.  I may scatter some larkspur and poppy seeds as well.

Columbines really like it here especially in and around the evolving sanctuary garden.  These two choices have been calling to me since the 2020 Select Seeds offerings went live back in January.  Once I finally did order I dickered for awhile over the "necessity" of them but then ultimately decided new columbine varieties for my garden are definitely in the hyacinths for our souls category.

Just below the trumpet vines you can see the earth I turned and rattled-over.  The seed bed extends several feet and I'll sow two islands with plenty of room inbetween.  Aside from cutting space to stand and tend to the seedlings we needed to cut down two secondary vines that were much too close to an enormous tree-like poison ivy entity.  It never went dormant so we didn't risk cutting it down.

You can see above, the two cut vine stems still entwined in the fence wire.   There's also a stripling elm to be cut on the other side of the ivy.   Just one of the many things that got out of hand the year Jim got Lyme and I was clobbered with an eruption of Graves Disease.   Seems we are still catching up from two critical 'gap years' for both of us.  But we are glad and grateful to have a place to be outside and moving .

There's a lot I'd love to clean up right here but the retaining wall and subsequent ground above isn't very stable.  Upon reflection I'm glad there will be plenty of roosting places available for the dozens of tiny birds who live here.  I want them to stay on general principle but also because they eat the poison ivy berries and also those of a nearby poison sumac.

While we were working two neighbors walked by.  They appeared to be together yet practicing extreme distancing.  J. saw them yesterday and concluded they walk at significantly different paces.   The woman complained to me of an eyesore across the road.  She asked if I had ever complained about it or asked that it be removed.  I said uh-huh same as I'd said when she asked if I wished it wasn't there in place of how beautiful it used to be.

it's taken a decade but I've learned how to fit in. 

My pomegranate rattle is very elderly and every year the seeds inside speak more loudly....

 

today's outside time .2

This morning at 8:30 a.m. there was frost all over the field's surface.  The garden's surface had a crusty layer of iced-together topsoil.  The cat and I prowled around quite happily all the same.  I wanted to visit the new root-crop bed and see how the energy felt now that it's had a chance to settle into itself.

Next time I come into the field I'm going to bring a rattle with me.  Like to walk around out here near the equinox with a pomegranate rattle.  Letting the dried seeds call to Persephone Spirit - seeking her blessings as she rises into her aboveworld guise as Queen of the Flowers.

I really love this time of morning in the field.  Maybe an hour or two earlier if it's very hot.  Got the sense the main bed and everything else needed time without me.  Everything that normally lives out there has been making adjustments to our regular highly focused presence.  I'm there regularly but not in this kind of immersive way.  Feels good to be acting and visioning through this specific lens again.  I grew our food the first three and half full years we lived here before growing too sick to manage.  Felt like such a failure at the time but now I have a lot of admiration for what I accomplished even while ill. 

Had trouble settling in the studio after this morning inspection tour and then again after lunch.  J. was evidently having the same trouble and we met as if planned out in the evolving sanctuary bed.  This is how it looked when Mama and I went out while J. was working in his office:

and this is how it looks now. I asked if J. could create this grouping.  He subsequently moved the other rock to join the rest as is evident in the larger view above.  While he was completing the wall I worked in my own personal circle of pachysandra hell to double the amount of cleared space. 

It occurs to me there has been no dormant season this year.  The ground cover area where their roots live never froze after the January thaw.  There are a number of places where the size of the colonies have nearly trebled.  It would be the most disturbing thing in my brain if we weren't immersed in a global pandemic.  It doesn't take much thought at all to foresee we're going to resort to bringing out the industrial weed wacker and massive amounts of plywood and cardboard.  There is no other way to begin to dream of bringing it to heel in the slightest.

Okay Cheryl and all others - feast your eyes.  It has tumbled merrily out of its laughably tiny intended space and pulled the whole damn wall with it.  And this is but one of five out of control pachy nightmares on our property.  But on the tiny daily hands level - I've cleared a good bit of it just there at the very edge.  Am now into gnarled well established groupings that are tough enough to successfully pry them out with a pitchfork.  That makes the work marginally quicker and the runners pull up in long ropes instead of small pieces. 

Also back there - living and perhaps hatching in the dogwood bark - many tiny ticks.  I have picked one from the hollow of my throat and now of course imagine they are everywhere.  Once J.'s clocked out of work for the day we're going to have to check thoroughly and have equally thorough showers.

Meanwhile, earlier this afternoon I sat on that little bench with my back to the nightmare and ate a honeycrisp apple surrounded by numerous songbird mating calls and a small falcon flying round and round amidst many cries almost as if talking to itself.  Not sure what was going on but I could see the bird quite well just across the road in our neighbor's woods.  Beautiful control of the air as well as its body and binocular vision.

Everything involved had a ring of normalcy.  I felt both healed and energized from grounding in this garden that holds so much life and meaning; grounding more firmly my intentions to clear as much of my projected goal's worth of reclaimed garden space as I possibly can.  It's good to have engrossing physical tasks I know how to accomplish.  Especially with J. around needing physical outside engagement on a very similar schedule.