Annual abundance

Deep in the cattails at Oberlin's George Jones Memorial Farm.

The harvest of leaves and stalks (a few heads in the bucket just for seed variety).

Now I see papermaking fiber everywhere. Hostas outside a dorm at Oberlin. I know if they were landscaping with them when I was a student, I would never have noticed.

Autumn at my alma mater is so pretty! This was all on Monday. All sorts of other things happened during the week that I can't recall.

Then on Friday morning, I visited the field station at the University of Akron. Rainy but such a FUN visit. Except for being covered in tickseed (I spent a good part of today with tweezers trying to save my clothing. I saved two thirds). Pretty good, given that nature always wins.

Old tree species that were here when mammoths were.

A new walkway being constructed through what was once wetlands. Black, peat-y soil. Lara showed me lots of species so I could come back later when it wasn't so wet and harvest whatever I like.

Today I visited Jessica at Praxis and helped her start walnut dye and ink. It required many, many rounds of boiling water in the tiny electric kettles (and two big pots on the stovetop). She harvested from a farm an hour east and even with the mold it all smelled heavenly.

Back at the Morgan, Charity helped me trim cattail. Next week I get to visit an arboretum I haven't seen yet! And someone gave us probably 200 pounds of iris leaves, so busy busy busy is arriving alongside the start of some hanji fiber prep next week. Even though I feel compelled more than ever to only eat and sleep, this kind of work keeps me from sluggish inertia as we move into the dark days.