A River Thames wassail, for a damson tree. First verse is newly written for the tree. Second verse and refrain from The Gower Wassail (trad). Thanks to the guys from @pilgrimtrust for teaching me this song last year on their wassail pilgrimage. Sadly, or maybe happily, considering my creaky faltering voice today, the last refrain is cut off. You can hear the water flowing over the weir in the background. A bottle of ale and a song for the tree where I get all my damsons in July to make jam and desserts. The jam is a good trade here on boats. Last swap: pressure washer loaned to clean my boat, for a big jar of the jam. ‘Waes Hale’ - good health. Sing it to your beloved trees in winter, with some ale or cider to pour on the tree, once you notice the days getting longer, but before spring arrives. .
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A River Thames Wassail .
A wassail a wassail around this tree,
May the sun, rain and soil bring it vitality,
Our wassail is made of the finest brown ale,
In the hope that the Spring finds it hearty and hale… .
Fal de dah, fal di fal di dah,
Fal di dal de dah, fal di dal di dee,
Fal de dair-o, fal de dadee,
Sing too rah lie-o! .
We know by the moon that we are not too soon,
And we know by the sky that we are not too high,
We know by the stars that we are not too far,
And we know by the ground that we are within sound…
Fal di dah… .
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#wassail #traditionalsongs #folktraditions #damsontree #fruittree #oldways
Bark tanning set up in the sun by the river. Buckets, spoon, table, cauldron... deerskins went in third batch of barktea today (I didn’t have fresh oak, so have needed to top up with fresh mixed bark tea batches). Also soaking are 2 roadkill squirrel skins and an extra tail. We shall see. Maybe one more week to go. I am not sure. I will go by feel and colour. I am a complete novice at bark tan, more experienced with buckskin. @robgmacfarlane asked where we are this fine day. Here’s my answer.
#barktan #garden #bushcraft #wintercrafts #deerskin #squirrelskin #primitiveskills #ancestralskills #reskilling #wildcraft
Sunday Summer throwback. Two of my favourite places, woods of the River Mole, near Esher, and Finzean, Aberdeenshire, by the banks of the Feugh. Both small rivers which feed my heart and eyes on a regular basis. .
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The practice of the wild is not fluffy or snowflakey. Gary Snyder, Lynx Wilden, San Bushmen, and thousands of other excellent humans make their lives with rather than against nature. It’s why I really enjoy the company of bushcrafters and outdoors people as well as writers, artists, T’ai Chi folk, (one can be all these things, of course..) The best practice is going out and working with wild nature, and by actual physical experience learn to appreciate and be grateful for the turning of the seasons and the tides, and knowing that these are created by sun and moon, real, astronomical bodies. This is not hippy or soft. An attitude of appreciation rather than entitlement is beautiful in a human, not a sign of weakness. .
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I spent yesterday at a secular church, with an atheist pastor, and taught a bit of simple sticking hands, to get us connected and in our bodies, amongst so many words and speakers, much of which was excellent, by the way. And today I wake up with a nature version of The Lord’s Prayer in my head. I shall post it here in the comments, shortly. I like the irony of a day spent in an entirely secular space drawing out my deep religious conditioning from childhood. I decide to work with and transform it rather than eradicate it. If it’s not your thing, please swipe past :). If it is your thing, enjoy, speak it, adapt it for yourself. I am probably a post-Protestant pagano-Taoist, Dorset woman, river-dweller. Though I prefer @mrkocnnll ‘s term for me: a ‘Sprucean’, long story... These things are all dye-stuffs in the fabric of my life. .
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#trees #rivermole #feugh #surrey #aberdeenshire #prayer #bushcraft #wildcraft #practiceofthewild #anearthprayer
Friday experiments with drying apples, pickling ginger for sushi, boiling more bark for the deer hide tanning vat, and shortly drawing with some new pigments. I have added a few other first experiments here, in the spirit of play and freedom, as they came to hand. From last Winter Solstice (21 Dec) until Imbolc (1 Feb) I am playing, experimenting, crafting and just following my inclinations. Then when I return to drawing and other important projects proper, my inner stores will be full. I promise myself this every winter, but this is the first time I have actually seen it through. .
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First two pictures are oak gall ink plus madder and ochre tempera and glair paint trials, drawn with my first quill pen, on parchment, found in an old sketchbook.
Apple rings, drying by my fire. Thanks @simple.woodsman !
Russia leather, made from over-tanned scraps from a ‘failed’ first attempt at home bark tanning a few years ago. Treated the scraps with birch tar and home made beeswax dressing, now they are really water resistant. .
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#barktan #glair #tempera #oakgallink #experiment #illumination #play #applerings #driedapple #russialeather #deerhidetanning
Circles again, this time of least waste. I am playing a little game with myself this year re cutting down my plastic and other non-compostable waste even more. Mainly this involves shopping decisions over packaging, as recycling and reuse are not breaking news in the foundandground household... .
Here’s today’s spurious round pics. Red onion skins drying for dye stuff, which will one day meet in some fabric with the ironwater that is coming on nicely in the tub of rusty scraps. Lastly, my major addiction: Yorkshire Tea. A friend gave me a superb, stainless steel filter in a lidded mug for Solstice, which I have using mainly for ginger and lemon. Today I bought loose tea and did a trial brew, as using a pot doesn’t make sense for just for me in a chilly galley, same goes for fiddly strainer devices, I begrudged the fuss... This strainer is so easy to clean, and now I don’t have to open every bag before I put it in the compost, (bags often contain small amounts of plastic), not that I minded emptying the bags... but the surprise was that loose tea does indeed taste even better than the teabags. I am a bit late to the loose leaf black tea party, but hey ho. My compost bin and taste buds are thanking me for it. The excellent strainer mug is from T2 tea shops, not cheap, but very well made. .
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@t2tea @yorkshiretea #teastrainer #leastwaste #reducewaste #noplastic #plasticfree #redonionskins #ironwater #naturaldye #circles
‘When I say “serious”, I mean like children are at play.’ - Peter Blegvad . (Thanks to Paolo for this superb quote). .
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Half-plait making, limebark twizzling, tree-doodling, Fibonacci-mulling, niece-bird-drawing-admiring, smooth river-stone handling, current late night play.
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Met with a lovely XR-human today, re possible regenerative work with craft, riverbank foraging, garden time, T’ai Chi, drawing, tea drinking, for those working hard, being arrested, and putting themselves out there for earth. How not to burn out, when working hard for something you love with all your heart? Take play, and rest, seriously. The concept of ‘productivity’ is a pervasive coercive tool of the machine. Non-doing brings the whirring drives to a halt. What must be done will still get done, all in good time. .
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One can only burn spirit for a very short time. It is the fossil fuel of internal energy. .
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#extinctionrebellion #regen #regeneration #play #rest #formlessness #avoidburnout #gubbins #nondoing #wuwei #internalenergy #peterblegvad
One bursary left on Wild Twins course...
.. I am teaching Wild Twins again 4-10th May 2019, with writer Paul Kingsnorth, co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project. We will be making everything we use from scratch, from natural and wild materials, and from the wild hearts of ourselves. Writers and artists will be making their work, sometimes paired, sometimes solo, in response to rugged nature that will be our home for the course. We will not draw or write in the way we always do, but instead find new ways to express something less anthropocentric, more embedded in the living world which we barely behold, but which we can get to know by paying close attention. Both of the teachers are experienced in bringing people to their senses, rewilding their art and connecting to place authentically. We have a magical week planned, full of great work, fires, story, words, images and nature. Writers will be responding to the work of artists, and vice versa. We will turn our work on it’s head and see what we can glimpse when we put down our habitual ways of thinking and working. .
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Artists and writers of all stripes have joined us for our first course in May 2018, choreographers, film makers, illustrators, professional and less-experienced alike, made hand made books, oak gall ink, mixed ochre paints, smashed green earths from Dingle to make paint, produced quills and brushes made from feathers, cherry tree gum was used to bind everything, badger-dug and sea strewn chalk for our whites… We explored the significance of red, black and white in alchemy and art, writing and history, and how these colours wind through myth and story.
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As well as all this, we'll also be making charcoal, natural cordage with which to sew our books, and make precious paints with lapis and malachite, inks from nut shells, spices and wine. The studio and accommodation are just metres from the wild Atlantic edge.
Full course details at wyrdschool.ie Venue is Sherkin North Shore, on Sherkin island, Ireland.
One of two reduced price bursaries remains (700 rather than 950 Euros), now available. Go to www.wyrdschool.ie for details or to apply.
#paulkingsnorth #carolinerossartist (More in comments)
