Most of you already know that I live my summer's in the mountains near Lake Tahoe. I have a studio in my basement so I don't miss a minute of clay making. It's a very delicious set-up.
Because we had a very late rainy season up here this year the wildflowers are still blooming like crazy. Out the cabin back door and down a steep hill is the Tahoe Rim Trail. We walk sections of it almost every day. Lately, in spots, it feels like I am about to enter the Emerald City through the poppy fields. Some of the meadows of flowers are as high as my head. It's indeed very, very intoxicating.
My friend Michele,who is visiting, gave me the evil eye this morning for suggesting we go flower picking.. "Don't you know you are NEVER supposed to pick the flowers?"she informed me as I swiped an Alexander Thistle that was growing by the trail. YIKEES, I didn't know my good friend was part of the Nature Police. I can't help myself. When there are oceans of color right out my door I figure plucking one or two flowers couldn't really hurt, right?
I do have a bit of a conscience. I did recently make a small vase specifically designed to accommodate just a few flowers. I got it out of the kiln yesterday and filled it this morning. Above is a pic complete with the little thistle that I smuggled home from the walk. Below is a detail of the mishima design on the vase.
9 comments:
Love the vase. Nicely done mishima. I still can't make that work... reguarding picking the flowers... as someone who's daytime work hat seems to be labeled Dr.Dirt... go ahead and pick the flowers, just call it pruning. The plants truly love the attention.
thanks Ghost. Think I'll go do a little pruning this morning.
Funny I just got back from Truckee this afternoon and totally 'stole' a pinch of a bouquet of wild flowers before I left...
I have a great story for you though about wild flower picking, Josie...
A few years ago my mom packed up and moved straight from Southern Marin to Red Lodge, MT. A big change. Well, one of her first offerings of friendship in her new community was to hold her young realtor's wedding at her new country home. So the day of the festivities my mum is sprucing things up and decorating for her first country wedding. Well, what is more appropriate for a country wedding than wild flowers? So she goes out into her back pasture and picks several bouquets of a brilliant purple, pompom-esque flower. In a couple hours the guests arrive, a large group of mostly local ranchers and cowboys. Things are going swell, my mum is meeting many people and everyone is enjoying the party. My mom makes her way to chat with one of the local ranchers on her sofa in front of her coffee table, atop which sits one of her wild flower bouquets. The quiet rancher, engaging in a modest conversation with my mother, makes a small comment on the bouquets all over the house and indeed right in front of them, to which, my mother begins to gush about 'Yes, aren't they just beautiful?' On and on she goes about how happy she is to be here in Montana and how lovely it is and how thrilled she is to be able to pick such delightful wildflowers right outside her back door. 'Well,' says the rancher, ever so politely, 'you might want to know those are some of the most noxious weeds in Montana.' As it turns out, an average rancher in Montana spends thousands of dollars a year getting rid of those brilliant purple, pompom-esque 'wild flowers'. Hah! My mom quickly became the talk of the town, in fact years later people still love to tell this story about that gregarious, ditz from California. Though now it is more in good jest and fondness of a member of the small community.
Anyway, I thought you might enjoy that little story. I know it was a bit long... so I hope it made you giggle at the end which it always makes me do. :)
I just got back from Truckee this morning with my own naughty pinch of wild flowers. Hope you're having a lovely summer up there!
Picking and collecting wildflowers: Should we pick and collect? For many reasons, the straight answer is "No".
It is a tribute to the beauty and appeal of wildflowers that we want to hold them in our hands. We should remember, though, that a great part of what appeals to us is the beauty of the flower growing wild in its natural surroundings. Picking a flower and admiring the sheen of its yellow petals is comparable to killing a bird and admiring the iridescence of its feathers. Do we really need to destroy beauty just to own it for a few hours? Even the scientific collector does damage: populations of endangered flowers have been made more endangered or exterminated by collectors who felt they just had to possess.
Here are some specific reasons for not picking or collecting plants or wildflowers:
A) Some of us pick/collect believing that the plant is so abundant that we are not doing any harm. We are rationalizing to justify our destruction:
1) The vast majority of us do not even know the exact species of plant we pick, so we do not know if it is rare, endangered, or threatened.
2) A plant can be abundant in an area, yet be endangered in general.
3) If we justify our picking, we must accept everyone picking. Some trails are walked by thousands of people in wildflower season. Where have all the flowers gone?
4) Most people who pick wildflowers would draw a line somewhere. Most would not pick very dainty orchids that grow only by the ones and twos in secret spots. Perhaps we should be consistent and not pick at all.
B) It is an incontrovertible fact that if we pick a flower or plant we are interfering with natural processes:
1) We have stopped the plant from reproducing.
2) We are interfering with the process of growth, decay, and natural selection.
3) We are interfering with that plant's role in stabilizing and building soil.
4) We are interfering with the food supply of innumerable critters who eat wild plants and their seeds.
C) We are setting a very poor example for those, especially children, who see us picking.
D) We hold picked flowers in our hands for a few minutes or hours or keep pressed flowers for a few months or years. We all know about throwing out our seashell, rock, wildflower,... collections when we move or clean house. Unthinking, fleeting, self-gratification is the essence of collecting.
What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long the weeds and the wilderness yet.
from "Inversnaid" by Gerard Manley Hopkins
I believe in picking flowers as long as you leave no trace of picking, and that includes the wilds of Tahoe and my neighbor's yard!
Jessie, thanks for that story...very sweet. I'd love to know what were the weeds were. Up here we have the beautiful corn lilies that are totally poisonous. I am always afraid the dogs are going to find them delicious and die.
Gee, I feel like a dope. I just got back from a wildflower hike on the Kit Carson Trail near Hope Valley and I didn't pick a single flower.
Love yours, especially in that fabulous vase.
I like it a lot. My last attempt at mishima went terribly, I think the design was too complicated.
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