Past halfway but still immersed

This is the first rhododendron I've seen here! We were finally allowed inside the buildings for a private tour on Sunday because our quarantine is done (just the two of us, Emma is the other artist and we have barely seen each other).

I harvested only about 7 dogbane stalks and stripped them right after I got home, and got about six tiny sheets (each half the size of a regular letter-sized sheet of paper). I knew how it would look based on other samples I had from friends but wanted to have done it myself because I am stubborn like that. How else do you develop relationships with plants?!

The dark one, what's your name?

After my tick bite I was horrified but knew I couldn't let it keep me inside forever, so I took an hour-long hike on the other side of the property and it almost killed me (because I am still not in great shape and because it was about a thousand percent humidity so it was hard to breathe). But I found the creek and had big boots on to get through the dampness in the rain.

After a week of letting the steamed stripped milkweed sit outside in soda ash, I rinsed and washed it and went through almost every bit to try and remove some outer skins plus latex bits. But it's never going to be enough unless I did a full fermentation or scraping (my knife is not with me and there's no time/patience to ferment).

This is after today's cook in washing soda with peroxide. I haven't had such a green batch since 2013.

I barely beat, just a bit.

The okra for goo was from the garden but it wasn't quite enough so I added some synthetic goo as well.

My first batch of larger sheets! I didn't use all the fiber, was too tired after a studio visit to go all out.

To break quarantine with friends, I met Frank and his partner at Sky Meadows Park and we happened to park right under a big walnut tree! He suggested I take some home but I was too hot to worry about it and I already feel overwhelmed by all the plant options around me. But he's right, I should have!

This was my first test bundle though it's not helpful because I don't really know what most of what I harvested was! But when you're just doing it for fun, that's okay.

This was coming down from my duck teapot, not as exciting but just needed to get the extra steam in my hands onto some more stuff. Onion skin dyed cords from last year.

A regular stopper, but that took a long time to figure out. Finishing bits always do.

The deep joy here is being able to eat the veggies from the land. These are the sweetest beets I've ever eaten or roasted.

One bit turned into beet hummus (using peanut butter because I had no tahini, and it worked!). It was a big hit at our Sunday picnic.

The rest went into the chocolate beet cake. I didn't want to buy more sugar for frosting so I got strawberries instead and made a lovely glaze with extra dates and whatever leftover sugar I did have.

On the fancy side, we saw interiors with lots of painted floors. The floors are wood...and then painted to look like wood. Hm. This seems like a lot of work to make something look like a different version of itself but what else would big wealth want to do with its money?

I miraculously turned my milkweed chiri messy paper into a mix of respectable sheets with a tiny bit of leftover slippery elm, and made a new book. I couldn't sew the small paintings on because the thread would show on the other side so I opened my glue container to see it was mostly really old, which is perfect! Less moisture. I put it all in my book press and it came out flat.

Today and yesterday I visited the library in the excitement to enter buildings again. There is way too much to really get my teeth into but it was still lovely to look around and today to browse after seeing fancy things yesterday. I'm looking forward to see how a second book in the press comes out tomorrow, plus the milkweed paper, but for now happily eating a late late dinner of a green onion pancake. Feeling a bit overwhelmed to have some kind of in-person appointment every day this week after two weeks of isolation, but it helps remind me that I'm not the only person in the world right now.