April 20-27

After the weekend in Seattle, I stayed over for a few days because I had registered for a plant identification walk in Discovery Park with Michael Pilarski and Arthur Lee Jacobsen. Both are brilliant at this, with long histories in the field. It was a great day.

 Arthur Lee & Michael P

Yarrow 

In ancient China, the yarrow stalk was traditionally dried & used for casting I Ching hexagrams. It is also a powerful medicinal plant with a wide variety of uses. It was well known among the native peoples of the NW.

Time to Mow

I arrived home just in time to hop on the mower and mow the meadow before the grass got totally out of control. There are many stories about mowing the meadow and building of hay piles back in the early days of camp. When Leonie and I first came to Indralaya, there were often brigades of people out raking the grass after mowing. This changed when a camper suggested we purchase mulching blades for the mower. 

Mowing ramps up considerably in the Spring, when we need to mow once a week. We generally do the mowing between programs. With the exception of the garden, the grass usually slows down considerably by mid-July and mowing is less frequent. The grass in the garden never seems to stop growing - it must be those happy nature spirits!

wavy patterns on the volleyball court

It's a lot of fun to mow the meadow, and also time consuming. It takes at least four hours to mow the meadow and another couple hours to get to all the fringe areas and garden. 

freshly cut

Wisteria Time

The wisteria has taken to its new bower very happily. With the mild spring weather that we have experienced it is no surprise that it is blossoming about three weeks early than usual this year.