Urtication, hands become comfortably numb

The nettles have the knotweed surrounded, luckily the nettles are my primary reason for my foraging visit to this area which was a small farm back in the early 1950s.

Yes running approximately 15 feet out from this large patch of japanese knotweed is a healthy stand of stinging nettles which I’ve been gathering from each spring for around 30 years. The stinging nettle I will gather today should last me for a year, as I will dry them and use the majority in tea.

These 2 baskets took an hour to collect as I prefer to gather using scissors and bare hands accepting a few stings which I find somewhat pleasant and the gathering is more of a dance with them. The plants in my home garden came from seeds from these grounds where there are always a large number of water fowl, hawks, ravens and many other birds and creatures which move in close if you are relaxed and moving with gentleness as this is a very narrow valley which drops into a huge freshwater marsh and then a salt marsh before the waters of the Bay of Fundy.

I was too entraced with the stinging nettles to retrieve to my camera to take any bird photos but this little flying friend touched down long enough for a pic, this is a commonly found red admiral butterfly.

Back on the ridge, last look out into the marsh for today. If you are a stinging nettle tea drinker, you may enjoy trying  Christine’s these light footsteps nettle tea recipe which is very good cold and probably hot as well though I haven’t tried it that way yet. Check it out. ciao

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gill over the ground

I gathered a nice collection of yellow goatsbeard tonight which I will share some photos with you later on, but for tonight here are a few pics of a member of the mint family which was appearing very radiantly amongst the many greens this evening.

Glechoma hederacea is  very commonly described as a troublesome lawn weed, others have called it a fine medicinal  and herb tea plant.

There are always different points of view, click on to enlarge the photos, maybe there is a whole lot more than gill-over-the-ground going on here.

more ground-ivy, it also goes by that name.

and in the last photo we can easily notice a certain bee-ing is present, though it looks different than what we expected. ciao for now

Goshawk and Hobblebush

This is the first time I came face to face with the gray ghost. I have heard their wings on a few occasions but never actually seen one well enough to identify it as a Northern Goshawk. This one in these photos definately wanted me to see and hear her as she closely swooped & chattered at me several times in guiding me away from her nest. I didn’t get any photos of her swooping as a goshawk will attack you, so fiddling with a camera during her flights didn’t seem like a good idea.

This young hobblebush (Viburnum alnifolium) also caught my attention.

On this trip the big one didn’t get away, this is an old cod liver oil bottle I found today, click on the photo to see closer his catch.

ciao for now

Old friends and beautiful strangers

Here is a small hill approximately 3 acres in size in the middle of the marsh which is home to some interesting inhabitants. The hill-side is rather dry so I was surprised to see Labrador-tea growing here as I have gathered berries here for decades and these old friends never drew my attention. Notice the brown woolly underside of the leaves. These leaves can be collected year round to make a very unique tea.

I’ve seen somebody on the web selling the dried leaves for tea and also a jelly which could be quite good. Labrador-tea’s taste is hard to describe, though I always look forward to a cup of it.

The buds appearing at the top of the stems will produce around 5 inches of new stem growth with around 8 new woolly white leaves in June with a group of 6 to 12 white flowers which also can be used to make a tea.

Some dried Aronia berries from last year.

A photo of some Aronia berries I’m thawing out for muffins. There has been some buzz in North America in recent years concerning this healthful berry. Some folks in Iowa are showing an interest in this plant which has already been popular in Poland for a number of years, of course 10,000 years ago humans and other creatures were quite fond of them in N.A. as this is Aronia’s natural home.

Here are some Fox berry plants also known as Lingonberry.

Since we did just see Fox berry plants and also by the size of this hole I suspect this is a fox den, there were 4 other holes within 30 ft of this one. I was surprised to see so many exits.

I do not know my lichens and mosses by name though I wanted to show you a few photos of these just the same. click on these pics, I find they are nice thought stoppers. I could look up the names, no lets keep it a mystery.

Nature is always in season long before the berries are ripe. Have a great weekend and relax and enjoy the true nature you are always presently seeing.