30-Day Sit Spot Challenge: Day 6

  The 30-Day Sit Spot Challenge is a way for you to connect with the depth of the natural world through one spot in the nature.

You can learn more about this 20 min. a Day Exercise, and why I think the experience can provide interesting opportunities for Writing Prompts, in the Introductory Post, and then follow the link, at the end of each post, to the next chapter.

Question #6: How many edible plants are within 5 ft. of my Sit Spot? Name them.

Quote to Ponder:

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet, and the winds long to play with your hair.

Kahlil Gibran

How many edible plants?

I had no clue and would not be able to recognize one if it waved a plate, utensils, and some Ranch Dressing in my face begging me to eat it! ;-D

 

I went to the website of the Santiago Park Nature Preserve in search of answers, and came up empty.

So before I left home I sent them e-mails in search of those answers.

 As I passed the Preserve Offices on the trail, a half hour later, I saw a man and woman came out, and it turned out the man, Joel Robinson, was one of the people I had e-mailed, and he'd just sent a response.

He is the Treasurer/Incorporator/Outreach Coordinator for the Santiago Creek Watershed Preservation and Restoration Project, and a Naturalist.

We chatted a bit, he gave me some fliers, and promised to read my stories, look at my pictures, and get back to me.

He was as good as his word!

While my photos, over the 1st 5 days, were not the best for making such identifications he DID give me a general idea about what can be found in the area around the Sit Spot, and along the trail, and in the Preserve as a whole.

 It looks like there is some black sage (minty leaves used in cooking), bush sunflower (resin used like gum), and sagebrush (leaves are moth repellent for grain storage). 

 

There is probably buckwheat (tea for stomach ailments), mugwort (medicinal for headaches), mulefat (young shoots roasted and eaten as famine food/cure for baldness), willow (bark used in tea for headaches - natural aspirin), lemonadeberry (sour berries) and elderberry (sweet tart fruit) as well.

 

I had no idea, and I'll bet most folks who use the area for recreation don't either. ;-D

 

Kahlil Gibran...now that's a name to conjure childhood memories!

 

My Mother had a book of his that she absolutely loved,but I no longer remembe its name.

 

If he says that the earth would be delighted to fell MY bare feet, then feel them they shall! ;-D

 

I traiped about the clearing, and back, and forth between the log, and my camera, several times, as I made sure I got this silly photo of me and my toes, just right for posterity, and as for the breeze it happily blew cooly through what hair is currently available on my head.

 

I almost lost lost my balance on that log, and fell backward, and I'm sure it would have looked spectacular if the camera had caught THAT moment on film. ;-D

 

While I walked in the dirt, feeling its coolness between my toes, I steered clear of the the mud that was all that was left of the little lake that was here a few days before.

 

My 20 minutes over I pedaled off to catch my bus to work.

 

30-Day Sit Spot Challenge: Day 7