It was supposed to rain today, but judging by the grey clouds it looked like it would hold off until tonight, so I gathered up my tools and a collection of bags in my satchel and off I went into the woods to do some wildcrafting. Of course now that I’m safe and warm at home there is a wind storm and it’s just started raining! May is a beautiful time for wildcrafting as flowers are blooming, trees are now clothed in green leaves, and there’s shoots of green sprouting everywhere from the dark earth. Balm of Gilead season has passed and in a week or two we’ll be moving into Cottonwood season here – not quite as loved as soon all of Forest Grove will be covered in a blanket of snow… snow of the fluffy poplar seed variety. Last year I send a bunch to my sister as she is a spinner and knitter, but she did not get back to me on whether cottonwood fluff can be spun or not!
The treasures I wildcrafted from the woods today include blackberry twigs for more witch’s whisks, bleeding heart flowers, cherry blossoms, fern fiddleheads, hazel leaves, horsetail (shavegrass), licorice ferns, Oregon grape roots, periwinkle flowers, and plantain plants. Some are for healing and some are for magic, some will be sold in the botanica as whole herbs once dried and others I will use to make magical and medicinal concotions also for the botanica.
I also received some more macabre treasures in the mail yesterday. Two little hare skulls and a small fox skull to make fetishes out of. I think I may use a combination of painting and pyrography on them as they are too delicate to carve. The aren’t small enough to be worn as pendants, but they are the right size to top off a staff or use as an altar fetish. I’m excited to see what I can come up with and how they turn out! I work with bones and fetishes, but I’ve yet to have decorated any.
