a busy moon cloth

To my great relief, the calendar moon cloth for June is finished. It's a perfect representation of how June felt to me because it's so busy with color, pattern and texture all happening in one tiny space. June really is a chaotic month, when you think about it -- the endless yard clean-up and simultaneous planting frenzy combined with regular life make it rank as probably my busiest month of the year. I surrender. July's moon cloth will be white.

A double-batch of basil pesto, four more little jars-worth for freezing. The smell of pesto-making awakens olfactory memories -- I can feel the first summer I ever made it and all the summers between then and now.

The honeycomb-bee burlap is from JoAnn's, I went for floss and left with one yard of this. I'm hoping to make some nesting buckets using striped cotton from stash for the lining. My pattern is by maya*made but I don't see it anymore on etsy.

I am usually focused on one particular plant at a time to learn more about it -- by reading, observing, and experiencing firsthand -- some call this approach having a plant ally. Lately I've been spending time with yarrow, Achillea millefolium. It's believed that the most potent yarrow flowers for medicine-making are from plants that have toughed-it-out in the wild and grow much smaller than cultivated ones. The yarrow that lives with me definitely qualifies. I find it so interesting that yarrow both stops and causes bleeding and both dulls pain and heightens consciousness. Plants are much more than just a flavor or one medicinal action, aren't they?

Thanks for coming by and happy weekending. Making yarrow tincture now. xx