asclepias

it's milkweed harvest season.

the monarchs are all done

and in my 25 acre grown up meadow

amongst the head high and higher goldenrod and brambly blackraspberry

i strove for an hour and a half harvesting

asclepia, milkweed.

it's between green and field retting time,

the leaves are gold or gone,

and only a little milk left.

the bast fiber  in the stalks is what i'm after, 

and the few pods left 

will provide me with seed fiber

all this fiber is for making paper later this fall.

i can't even begin to describe how jungly that meadow is.

much grown up to baby trees or bushes

but the goldenrod! over my head!

and the warm october meant that the thankfully tick free toil

was some of the hardest work i've done in a long time.

the result was a huge heavy plastic bag of potential.

 i always make a little twine for fun

thankful that i don't have to make all the string i use in a year.

 on my stove is a big pot

full of the black walnut harvest from two trees in town

in dye form.

(i only took some, the squirrels got most).

i've already dyed paper and cotton and silk and maybe some wool in it.

but i put in woven cotton tape a couple weeks ago.

it's cooked, steeped, cooked, steeped, fermented a bit

and the tape isn't dark enough yet.

but it will get there.

skein of twill woven cotton tape, dried

the last reveal included a fruity growth

moonorlichenscape?

see those beady bubbles

baubles

looking like amber treasure. 

 and some spores...

this layer went right into the garden

before i removed the skein.

my friend told me this summer

that if i was born 200 years ago i'd have been 

accused of witchcraft.

perhaps he's right.