True babble

[urticadioica]

At my old house, sometimes I'd pick some fir needles outside and make a tea from it. It was really good, especially with a few drops of honey and lemon juice mixed in. It's truly a sublime taste. I was just having thoughts of it, because I associate it with Miserere Mei by Gregario Allegri for some reason.

The desert here seems lifeless to me. I miss wandering aimlessly through the woods, under the canopy of fir, cedar, and maple--the way the sunlight would break through, making little patterns of light and shadow. Right about now, I'd be searching the ground for the first tasty sprigs of wintercress, or picking cattail and licorice fern rhisomes. Of course there would be the rosettes of biennial thistle and mullein. Dandelion and blackberry leaves could combine to make a tasty salad.

[Birdee]

That really is the most peaceful babble I've ever heard. And it sounds a little sad too.
Do you not like living in Utah?
It does look alright from the satellite images... though, one can't really compare it with Washington.

I very often dream of an old home of mine too, and in a similar way that you do, I think. But I can't say I have ever made tea of fir needles and drops of honey. Sounds a little strange... but it has got me thinking of menthol. Don't ask me why, though. Your association sounds much more "healthier". No, but in wintertime as it is, when I think of that specific place I still call home, I remember things I used to do. Things that remind me of what life can be and how a home can make you feel. And a real home that is! There aren't many places we can call that in the world.



I once rolled about in the snow under an enormous spruce. It grew on a cliff by a frozen lake. There was just snow everywhere, and a lot of it! The sky was cloudy but light, and the wind was still. It was getting darker outside. And not a single sound reach my ears. It was like time had stopped, and I can remember how it felt, right now, just by thinkng of it. It was peaceful. For once it was peaceful.

I was about nine or eight years old, I think. Still can't forget that moment, nor that home. Time really does change things, it changes life.

Yet my feet keep walking, even if I stumble sometimes... it doesn't matter.

[urticadioica]

It was several years ago that I started eating wild plants. The first I ever ate was blackberry, of course; lots of people in Western Washington eat wild blackberry, because it's so sweet and the fruit is so huge. Eventually I started picking up books and field guides that explained what foods can be eaten and which ones taste good. I came to be pretty good at it, but I studied for the area I was in, and now that I live in a different climate, so many plants seem foreign.

A couple of days ago, on a walk to the park with my mom, I noticed some maple trees in bloom so I tried eating their flowers. Delicious! A maple flavor combined with sweet nectar, almost like what I'm used to. Of course, there aren't as many as I'm used to, and they aren't quite as big and sweet as the big-leaf maple, which grows only west of the Cascades, but it brought back good memories.

I need to check the libraries for some field guides that focus on wild food in this area. Many plants are the same of course, but most of them seem unfamiliar.

Well, I'm off to my dad's for a week, so maybe I'll find something while I'm there.

[urticadioica]

I'm back!

OK, enough posting for now