Float or stick

In a week when I would really have liked to hibernate fully, the plants instead insisted that I harvest. I did milkweed harvests on my own, and yesterday showed Kyle how. He has never done this kind of papermaking before, directly from plants, and he was the perfect pupil—climbing into the kozo garden, getting every last stalk he could find, carefully finding unburst pods and bagging them, making space in the freezer for them. It's pure joy and we were blessed with rain that kept holding off and weather that stayed warm when I kept thinking the next day would be too cold.

Some seeds have flown, some have stayed home, and others very close to home. I've been making iris paper this week from the bounty from a couple weeks ago. More pulp that I thought I'd get, so I invited Pam to join me and we made a bunch yesterday. I tried to finish the batch today but the dryers are full and my body is tired so it was just a mini batch (just under 30 sheets, letter size). I wrote a letter on one and enclosed it in an iris envelope and I was so satisfied. When Kyle said he's never done plant papermaking, I told him: it's the best kind of papermaking.