an eye on july

My full moon art goal is to finish each month's calendar moon cloth before the following new moon. It was an easy feat this time -- July's full moon art, eighth in a series of 13-moons, was pretty much about surrender and is made of various whites, including a piece of Rumi cloth plus three little pearls stitched on for the line in the poem seawater begs the pearl to break its shell. (Some Kiss We Want by Rumi) That lacy house section is cut from a Nancy gift and the hand-stitched eye theme on all the moon cloth houses was inspired by the cover of Fifth Business by Robertson Davies.

Today is the New Moon in the sign of Leo. I've already drawn a tarot card and an oracle card for guidance in the coming month and later today I'll think about Leo new-moon intentions.  So often, the cards I draw relate to each other or to future experiences and I love the synchronicity of it all. Doing this is a monthly ritual for me from which I've learned so much.

I like to use common dooryard weeds for food and medicine. What we normally call weeds are often healing and deeply-nourishing plants -- I believe they fill receptors in our cells and satisfy us in ways that no other food can. A few biennial burdocks, Arctium lappa, are welcome here their second year of growth until they begin to set seed and their burrs become a nuisance for the dogs, expecially our long-haired Daisy. When the burrs (seed pods) begin to dry out, I cut down the entire plant -- the flower/seed stalks are discarded and the huge leaves are put directly on the ground as a nice mulch. These are first-year plants in the photo, whose roots can be dug up and used in recipes or medicinal preparations this fall. They could also be harvested next spring but after that, not much point as the roots start drying up. I'm too busy in the spring anyway, so my preference is to harvest them in the fall. A new crop of dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, grows in a shady spot, the leaves look nice and healthy -- perfect for a batch of Dandelion Italiano or maybe just chopped up and added to a homemade salad dressing made from olive oil, apple cider vinegar and honey. 

Do you cook with weeds? I'm always on the lookout for new recipes! 

And may the Leo moon shine bright and strong for you this month.