This glade is one of my favorite spots on the bit of land I work with. Walking down from the house, first you come to the river birch guarding the invisible deer path. I would never have known the path was there if I hadn’t stumbled upon it on a winters day—when the path was just visible. And somehow, even though I’ve been wanting to work with a birch because of its importance in Slavic lore, this one was invisible to me until I suddenly saw it this spring.
The river birch receiving offerings during Rusalia Week and around Kupala/Midsummer
On my May Day visit to the glade this spring I was delighted, after working my way through the blackberry bramble, to come upon the most gloriously beautiful wildflower—a gorgeous, blue Carolina larkspur.
In late May, I identified my first Carolina Elephant’s Foot, and then caught it flowering on my Lammas Day visit.
Also in late May, I identified my first teeny-tiny shiso (perilla) plant in the front yard, but it wasn’t until the mimosas started blooming in early June that I wandered back to the glade and found the shiso patch of all shiso patches.
Bottom photo: visiting the shiso patch on my Lammas Day pilgrimage/protection ritual
Also in June I identified a large patch of tall stalks of Chinese bush clover. White-tailed deer, rabbits, wild turkeys, and other herbivores consume its foliage and seeds and deer like to bed down in it for cover. Which might explain the deer path.
The mimosas have been one of my most important plant allies this year and I spent nearly every other day in June and July just outside the glade harvesting blooms. The trees are pictured here as the Midsummer sun sets behind the glade and through their leaves.
On my Lammas day pilgrimage leaving offerings at the four corners of the land, I realized that I had blindly walked by two native black cherry trees all summer and missed doubling my harvest (and my beloved cordial). I also discovered a winged sumac right under one of the cherry trees at just the right time to harvest the berries.
The smallest black cherry is growing in a nebulous area where the trees surrounding the glade thin between our property and the neighboring mini-farm (provider of the farm fresh eggs). I don’t know if the slabs of broken cement the tree is growing out of are from the neighbors or one of the lovely gifts left by my brother-in-law from one of his job sites.
On Lammas I also discovered some tall boneset, which I had thought about harvesting, but the more I read about it, the less confident l am about using it. I will probably just enjoy it aesthetically.
On the Feast Day of Saint Clare of Assisi (August 11) I found the remains of a doe in the shiso patch. One of her poor little legs is currently hanging in a tree to protect it from the majority of scavengers until I figure out how to preserve the hoof.
Be Praised—mural of St. Francis and St. Clare on the side of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque (detail), photo of paint on adobe wall, Dimitri Kadiev
I have been meaning to build a relationship with St. Clare as the patron Saint of needlework and decided to dedicate my little glade to her and her namesake, the little doe. I have been focused on Mezi Matičkama, but will begin my work with St. Clare in the glade during September.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth,
who sustains us and governs us and who produces
varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.
Canticle of the Sun, St. Francis of Assisi
