The Forest Path - June 2020
June was the month of salmonberries! These bright orange berries pop like little jewels against the dark green of the leaves, especially after a rain, which we had a lot of last month. In classic northwest style, the first day of summer was cloudy and wet. The berries are beautiful and pretty tart. They’re a little plain tasting but make delicious jam. We’ve been picking handfulls as we find them and freezing them until there are enough to make a batch of jam. Of course, some windfall lichen usually makes it into the collection basket too. This usnea lichen is the variety that I sometimes use to dye silk and wool.
Did you know that blackberries are in the rose family? When I teach ecoprinting workshops, I share this with my students because most leaves in this large family of plants make reliable prints on fabric. Photos of their flowers clearly illustrate their relatedness! The pale pink is Himilayan blackberry - terribly invasive but such delicious berries - and the dark pink is our native nootka rose.
Amidst the beauty of berries and blossoms, June had some bittersweet moments. We canceled our summer camp programs for the year and the absence of happy children’s voices is strongly felt. Our forest paths are becoming overgrown without the footsteps of dozens of kids to keep the ferns in check. Last month we shared photos of little ferns unfurling their new growth and now they have expanded to fill in every space possible.
We have become so accustomed to sharing our forest beauty with visitors that it’s almost hard to pause and just enjoy this space ourselves. The silver lining is that we have so many fun ideas saved up for summer 2021!
Another silver lining: Not spending hours planning summer camp activities leaves more time to tackle our chicken problem. They’re like ninja chickens and escape every type of fence we try to contain them with. Many have stopped going into their coop at all and four have taken to roosting in this tree near the house! For those of you who have been here, it’s the tree right next to our rabbit, Bramble’s, cage. Not only do they sleep there but they bounce around in the branches during the day. When I posted this picture on our Instagram account, someone called it “camping.” Haha! Maybe it’s their version of a staycation?
Whatever the reason, the main annoyance is we can’t figure out where they’re laying their eggs. We occasionally find some but having to buy eggs at the store when we have 12 happy, free range hens wandering around the yard is pretty frustrating.
Nature continues to be not just the source of colors for the silk embroidery floss I’ve been dyeing, but an inspiration for the color palette as well. This embroidered piece is part of a series I’m making that is inspired by some of my favorite plants in the forest. (You can see the first piece here.) Some of these threads were dyed with mushrooms, while others, and the fabric, were dyed with onion skins.
I started out dyeing embroidery floss mostly for my own use but it’s been so popular in my shop that I am working on dyeing it in larger quantities. Even so, the color selection is always rotating.
Surprisingly there aren’t any photos of our sheep this month. All my attempts from the last few weeks are blurry. They’re too busy foraging for fresh leaves to eat, or nosing my pockets to see if I brought them anything yummy, to hold still for a photo. This wool is from them, though! The colors were dyed with black walnut (brown) and lichen and onion skins (yellows) by kids in our homeschool class last fall. I’m working on carding it all into fluffy, woolly buns and it’s available as part of our newest craft kit!
Peedie is the stoic project manager. He squeezes in to find every little patch of sunshine that he can.
After she sheep debaucle of May - our sheep, Flint, broke into the garden twice and chowed down on pea seedlings - the peas made an encouraging comeback! We’re thankful they’re resiliant, fast-growing plants.
Good news and something to look forward to came in June as well! I had two workshop proposals accepted so I will be teaching at the Focus on Book Arts Festival in Forest Grove, Oregon next summer. My classes will be a two-day ecoprinting class focusing on printing paper the first day and creating a fabric and paper book on the second day. I’ll also teach a one-day indigo dyeing class that incorporates dyeing fabric as well as paper. Hopefully in 12 months the festival will be able to be held as planned! You can sign up for their newsletter to receive registration and class information when it’s available in the fall.
This photo journal is as much for us to reflect and remember all that goes on here on the homestead as it to share our journey with you. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into our life and work during the pandemic, and that you are well and finding ways to connect with nature this summer! Throughout each month you can always see more of our forest, farm, and natural dye life and work on social media.
