Summer has come and with it the warmth of the sun and the beauty of flowers humming with bees. I have found myself wandering outside more and more through the yard, through gardens and through alleys, smelling flowers, picking flowers, and eating flowers. I found huge escaped comfrey plants growing in the alley behind the house, purple flowers full of soft fuzzy bumble bees – its thick juicy leaves just asking to be turned into a healing balm.
There are many hawthorns in this old city. Some perhaps once hedges of farmers’ fields since built over with houses from the 1920s-40s. Some cultivars were obviously planted for show like this gorgeous Crataegus laevigata ‘Plena‘ with it’s perfect tiny rose-like flowers. I’m rather in love with it. Just imagine those tiny perfect flowers in a salad or as a dessert garnish or decorating an altar for some love or healing work. I brought some tiny sprigs home to lift my own spirits as hawthorn is happiness.
I stop to sniff every rose to find which are the most fragrant. The wild ones are always the best for taste and smell and make an ambrosial mead with fireweed honey. I inhale deeply and ask which ones want to go home with me. The palest pink ones oblige and I snip off their heads, storing them sealed in the fridge until I’m ready to infuse them into herbal teas of fresh mint and lemon balm, or fir tips, or roasted dandelion root with milk and honey. Others I leave long-stemmed and place into little bottles to leave on windowsills as offerings to the house spirit. Roses for love and a peaceful home.
Summer flowers are brought inside, painted the colours of sarees and gypsy vardos, and fill tea pots and canning jars. Nighshade, poppies, red clover, comfrey, daisies, sage flowers, and foxgloves. Some from the yard, some escaped from gardens into the neglected back alleys of the old neighbourhood. I know that by taking them home I am consuming them, making their already short lives even shorter, but I try my best to ask sweetly for their blessings before I snip off their heads and bring them home. I try my best to let them know why and what will be done with their beautiful sacrifice – their souls burned up like incense to be eaten by my own beloved spirits – eaters of flowers.
There are potted orchids at the kitchen window and orchids for Pan, guardian of our mead and wine (who surely gets his own share in reward). Live plants bring the offering of clean air and beauty to one’s home, spirits, and gods. The orchids are joined by a fuschia from my mother and a tough purple datura from a fellow sorcerer who grows and works with poisons.
The Poisoner is a sweet man who often brings me flowers for no reason other than I love them and he knows I will leave them as offerings on the altar for Old Man and Old Woman. I do so, inspired by the Chinese and Thai ancestor altars I have seen here. I love that many always have fresh flowers on them along with food and drink. I do my best to always have offerings of blessed water and fresh flowers on my altar. Their beauty, fragrance, and taste a welcome treat for many spirits – insects, animals, ancestors…
If I’m able to, I most love to offer up seasonal flowers that are native to the forests and mountains here in the Pacific Northwest, or are at least naturalized and prolific. This year it is a matter of convincing the baby it is a good idea to go flower picking.
To continue the flower theme in two dimensions… With any pocket money I have leftover, I’ve been trying my best to support other independent artists as I know how hard it can be to live off of one’s art. My treat for May was the Nømad Tarot of black and white illustrations by Jennifer Dranttel. The court cards are simply of butterflies/moths, crystals & stones, sea shells, and feathers making this deck more for collectors or experienced readers, but the art is lovely. I’m rather enamoured with it and plan to start performing readings with it.
My treat to myself for June was artwork for my new home. I’ve admired the art of the wonderful Rima Staines for many years and was able to purchase her sweet little calendar for Yule, but now that she’s reopened her shop I was able to snap up large prints of three of my favourite paintings: “The Weed Wife” for the kitchen, “Ajna in the Horse Chestnut for the baby’s room”, and her newest “Maiden Mother Crone” for my bedroom.
May your summer be filled with the beauty of flowers, whether admiring them in nature or gardens, in sunny back alleys, inside tucked into tea pots and old bottles, or painted onto wood or paper.