Early Mornings Are Where I Vibe

     Officially not a fan of normal people hours. I mean I don't know how you all do it? Working 9-5 or 10-6 how do you ever see daylight? Through the windows? That doesn't count. While this gig is temporary it has solidified for me what years of conditioning have made true. I am made to get up early. 3 O'clock is approximately my latest productive hour. After that I become all but useless. Unfortunately I think its frowned upon to knock on peoples doors as 6 am and say "I'm here to work!" Enthusiasm is generally not encouraged at that hour. So I am trying to make it work by still rising in the morning and getting all I can accomplished in these early hours, maybe see a few hours of daylight before heading out to the farm to work on the crop. Which, I should say, is beautiful and my host/boss is wonderful. We are working in a beautiful space full of plants and sunlight and with views of the farmland below, horses and llamas frolicking and such. Good music and good food, yesterday even some live music to accompany the work. All in all its a pretty good gig for the time being. Easy to loose perspective over the little things.

     Last night was my first night in the van in the city and I must admit it was a little nerve wracking. This city is still very foreign to me and I don't really know the areas that would be good to park in so I just kind of drove around looking for somewhere suitable. I did end up finding a spot kind of between residential and industrial, it was not my ideal and not what I will look for going forward but it worked for last night.

     It can be difficult to shed ones expectations. I feel like leading up to this trip I spent a lot of time talking about what I was going to do and getting advice and feedback from people about what I was doing (van living and seasonal farm work). While I think that research is very important and I don't like walking into things blindly I have a hard time separating the horror stories, that people seem to love to share, from a more pragmatic view point. I think it will be very important to follow my instincts and let my own inner alarm bells warn me if something is amiss (and my canine alarm) if I want to find any enjoyment in this experience. While the freedom of it is definitely liberating I am still very tired. I feel myself slowly coming back into my body but it is a little like learning to be a person again. Where do I brush my teeth? Bathroom? What if I want to cook? Yoga? Luckily I have found solutions to most of these already but none are perfect solutions and it feels like it takes a lot longer to accomplish anything this way. Maybe that's because the city is unfamiliar and I'm still learning my way around. I certainly seem to find myself driving around looking for park entrances a lot. Ashland is very secretive about getting into its parks apparently. I think in time all will become easier and more familiar, and if not then it will be an experience for the books and I will be on to the next adventure!

So dear dreamers with that I shall leave you with some pretty vistas, I hope to go find a beautiful sunrise this morning and that is what I am off to do,

Alex

UPDATE

     Gee Whiz, I got so excited about sunrises I forgot to share about my cattail experience! So I have had a slow but steady love of cattails growing in my heart. It started (as many things have these days) in reading a chapter of Robin Wall Kimmerer's book Braiding Sweetgrass and has only grown as time passes. and lo and behold Ashland just seems to be overflowing with cattails, they are everywhere I look. So I got down and dirty and finally went out searching for some. I took a piece of tigers eye with me and trekked out to harvest a few stalks. I walked past the first patch I found greeting them warmly, even though I know cattails abound here I am trying to be respectful of the honorable harvest and ensure that there will always be more for others and for the plants themselves to continue to sustain. At the third patch I stopped and said hello and they swayed a little in response, I asked if I could take some stalks to practice and learn with and let the tigers eye fall in around the center of the patch, a gift back for what I was taking. I decided to just take a few of the stalks closer to the end of their life cycle since I am just learning. I grabbed one by the base of the stalk and gave a little tug, and it started to let go! Another good tug and out it popped, all yellow and green with a stubby hair rhizome on the end. Success! I found another and gave it a good tug but it didn't want to budge and in the process I got poked in the eye with another plant. Point taken, you don't want to come :) . moving on I found another, knelt down and repeated the process, another gift from the land. I figured two was plenty for my needs and trekked back to my work space. After separating all the leaves and the rhizomes (which I totally ate, they are very starchy and would probably be similar to cream of rice if you cooked them up, I just soaked them in water for a while and chewed on them.) I got down to work trying to weave with absolutely no previous experience and only a vague understanding of what I was doing. The leaves produce a gelatinous substance which is similar to aloe gel and is just as soothing, I had a few cuts on my hands and it helped greatly. Below is what I view as a knitters "washcloth" of cattail weaving. The first project :) I feel pretty proud and I think its beautiful, hopefully more to follow!