People and Plants

Today I gave my first walk: the topic was ethnobotany and it went pretty well. I am not satisfied yet, which is how it should be. It was a lot of fun, but I'd like to add in some more interaction with the plants we talk about. Picking berries seemed to be the highlight, and I had a little girl who pointed out every cedar tree we passed (it was awesome).

I also ate stinging nettle off of the stalk. I was telling Aaron (park aide) that I had heard such and such about eating nettles raw, and so we decided to try it. I actually spit it out, but we discovered that indeed the leaf, when folded in on itself, does not sting you. After killing the poison with our saliva, we discovered the leaf didn't even sting our hand. This will definately be added to my program. "This is stinging nettle, people eat it." chomp. And it's true; the stinging nettle is edible, but it is a good idea to cook the poison out of it. A raw leaf was put on the toungue to stop nose bleeds. The fibers in the shoot were used to make string and twine. The leaves are cooked and used as a substitute for spinich. and we just think that it is a nuisance.

Still continuing the debate about school...mama was there (on the phone) to calmly and cooly stop me from entirely freaking out. I'll figure it out.

11:11!

For now I am going to go read a book and revel in the fact that I don't have to work until 11 tomorrow. Which means I should rise early and do things, but which actually means I will catch up on some much-needed sleep. Which means I won't freak out about school. Sweet!

I leave with a random collection of pictures I took today: