Pretty little pics on the last night of April

Primitive Skills Open House, May 17, 2009

Maine Primitive Skills School of Connecticut

Primitive Skills Open House

Sunday, May 17th
10:00am - 5:00pm


Instructors and practitioners will be demonstrating:

Fire making

Cordage making

Edible and medicinal plant use

Bow and arrow making

Other primitive skills and crafts


Bring something to demo, work on or show off.



346 Newton Rd.
Northfield CT 06778
860. 997. 3480

Please note: The composting toilet will be the only facilities available.

Andrew Dobos
Primitive Skills Practitioner
Director, Maine Primitive Skills School of Connecticut
www.primitiveskills.com
http://primitiveskillspractitioner.wordpress.com/

First Harvest

When there is a day so beautiful
so plentiful
so enchanted
so nourishing
that time stands still long enough for you to revel in the piercing beauty.

when the sun hits you in exactly the way you imagined immortality to feel,

so perfect, so painfully temporary,

so long awaited.

When the day rolls by with moment after moment of exquisite life,

it is all I can do to spend it with her,

at my fingertips

Sting by sting, 

cold feet in the water,

bags full of harvest,

heart full of relief.

Freedom in an hour

My desperation for spring greens peaked this afternoon. I thought I was going to implode. So with a little hope I put on my rain jacket, grabbed my scissors and bowl, and took the great liberty of a nomadic hour in the hazy, drizzly day to forage my yard for the first edibles. 

Most of them are hardly picking size, and relatively few are above earth yet. I took it slow, combing back and forth for the little patches reaching up into the rain, long enough to clip. Freshly cool and wet, the vitality radiating from these densely nutritious spring greens is evident even before the first bite. Taking my sweet time to acquire a full bowl, leaf by leaf, is a gift. 

The bitters are not that bitter yet - but rather the perfect amount of bitter, imparting clarity and energy. The dandelions are supremely edible, the garlic mustard a burst of flavor. The bedstraw is succulent and deliciously mild, and the violets are slippery and crisp. Little rosettes of ground ivy add flavor and health, Comfrey shoots add more flavor and softness. My chives are up so they got a haircut too. 

There is scarcely another action, with maybe the exception of homeschooling my children, that gives me quite this level of deep abundance. In one hour I have a bowl of the most nutritious, vital, organic, as-local-as-it-gets, FREE food. The dressing and olives and feta paled in comparison, I may as well eaten the greens without (but the oil and vinegar were herbal infused:), and they help assimilation). 

What's additionally miraculous to me, is that I can do the same thing all over again, every day, for the next two or three months, if I want to. They will just keep growing, and then they will bud, and then flower, and then seed, and make more shoots...... and the simplest miracle of living on Earth I can take into my very body in every moment of gathering and tasting and swallowing. 

The season for foraging is my freedom; my liberty. In fact, it is everybody's liberty. 

First Warm Day images

Ways

Just as the caterpillar thought it was going to die.... it became a butterfly...

Does the pupa know it is going to become something greater? Does it care that it spends a year in the gall .... and lives for ten days as an adult fly? 

Do I know why I have made choices .... and exist in a strange, seemingly endless embryonic phase? 

Not really. I get glimpses. But other than that I have to just let go... I am here, now, with my present to do list and my present moment resources. It is a constant challenge.

I need to push on with tasks which are the wake of my choices. They are commitments, reflected in the watchful eyes of a larger passion. Is living within a larger passion always a trying task? Is it swimming in the swamp to study the willows?

Maybe. But I would like to be in the willow. Bending in the breeze and growing effortlessly. 

My Anima Medicine Woman Tradition course, this week, is self led, based on what material I have already and on my reading (and re-reading) of the Creed. I am stricken by the principles therein. 

One of the principles that moves me most is this one:

"While she accepts discipline from nobody, it is through her self-discipline that she is best able to benefit, actualize and utilize."

Reading this opens and relaxes me. Reminds me that I make good decisions for myself, and ultimately am self propelled. It pulls me right out of feeling helpless and at the mercy of others. It removes fear.

All of the guidelines on this wonderful declaration of interdependence are words that challenge me, demand my fullness, uplift and inspire me, and nourish my deepest sense of self worth. They are ways I am bringing into my life as allies. 

Great Read!

I'm only on page 30 and already I've learned more than I ever knew about the forest. This is a must have for any New England nature lover or anyone interested in Forest ecology. 

Thank you to friend and ally Justin Pegnataro from Two Coyotes Wilderness School for the great suggestion! 

This book is easily available from Amazon or other book sellers.