Fence Art

Very Cool Fence in Belvidere, Vt.

THANKS FOR YOUR VISITS, FAVS AND COMMENTS. AS ALWAYS, APPRECIATED VERY MUCH!

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY ELISE T. MARKS. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS IMAGE ON WEBSITES, BLOGS OR ANY OTHER MEDIA WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Cowl

Here's the new cowl I created the pattern for and crocheted. This is the first time I've created a pattern. Notice the Crystal Button.

THANKS FOR YOUR VISITS, FAVS AND COMMENTS. AS ALWAYS, APPRECIATED VERY MUCH!

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY ELISE T. MARKS. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS IMAGE ON WEBSITES, BLOGS OR ANY OTHER MEDIA WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Headband

 Here's the new Headband I made.

This chunky hand crocheted Teal and blue headband is made of soft thick, 75% acrylic and 25% wool yarn, the blue fern appliqués are 100% cotton, and with a Spalted Maple Decorative button, for warmth and style. 

The one of a kind button is made of forest salvaged, Vermont maple wood, by Jedd, of Kettler Woodwork. You can purchase his buttons at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/KettlerWoodworks.
The distinctive dark spalting colors and lines and freeform shape make this button truly unique. Finished with completely natural, 100% pure tung oil, the button is soft to touch but durable enough to hold up to years of use.

THANKS FOR YOUR VISITS, FAVS AND COMMENTS. AS ALWAYS, APPRECIATED VERY MUCH!

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY ELISE T. MARKS. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS IMAGE ON WEBSITES, BLOGS OR ANY OTHER MEDIA WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT WRITTEN PERMISSION.

International Day Of Forests

We must celebrate the valuable things we do have in our lives now, and our ancient forests are one of them.

It's the International Day of Forests today.

Ancient forests are Protecting our climate.

They are home to many animals and many indigenous people.

Companies should STOP cutting down ancient forests and converting them into plantations.

Plantations are NOT natural ecosystems.

THANKS FOR YOUR VISITS, FAVS AND COMMENTS. AS ALWAYS, APPRECIATED VERY MUCH!

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY ELISE T. MARKS. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS IMAGE ON WEBSITES, BLOGS OR ANY OTHER MEDIA WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Foraging Wisely

Here's a good article about foraging
https://www.chelseagreen.com/2020/on-picking-wild-plants-or-foraging/?mc_cid=b232a8f2e1&mc_eid=b6524e165a

On Picking Wild Plants and Foraging

Food & Drink, Nature & Environment

Foraging for your own food limits your carbon footprint and helps to maintain the natural landscape. Done correctly, it reconnects us to nature while limiting our impact on our natural surroundings. Humans need to be an active part of changing the environment—even on this small scale.

The following is an excerpt from Wildcrafted Fermentation by Pascal Baudar. It has been adapted for the web.

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Like many of our human activities, foraging can be done for good or evil; it can help the environment or intensify sustainability issues.

Over the years I’ve learned to streamline my activities so as to minimize my impact on nature. It’s been a learning curve with trials and errors, but these days I actually think foraging can be done in such a way that you help your local environment by removing non-native plants (pretty much 90 percent of what I pick) and harvesting sustainably or growing the native plants you need. As far as I can remember, at this point I’ve pretty much replanted all the plants I used in this book in much larger quantities than I’ll ever use, mostly on private lands owned by friends.

You don’t need to be a fanatic tree-hugger to see that our planet faces real problems such as pollution, climate change (natural or not), human expansion, loss of natural habitat, species extinction, and much more. At this time in our evolution, we absolutely need to be part of the solution, and this responsibility even applies to the simple act of picking wild plants. We must make sure that our picking wild plants for food, drinks, or medicine is done carefully, with environmental health and integrity in mind.

Picking plants and berries for food or making drinks can connect us back to nature: It is a sacred link that, as a species, we all share. We are here because our ancestors had a very intimate relationship with nature, knew which plants to use for food or medicine, and in many instances knew how to sustainably interact with their wild environment. No matter where we live, it’s part of our cultural DNA.

I personally don’t think the impulse to protect nature at all costs with a look-don’t-touch mentality will work. Growing up in Belgium, I came by my love for nature through a deep interaction with my wild surroundings. If you truly love something, you will take care of it and make sure it is still there for generations to come.

When I was a kid, raising animals, growing food in our garden, and picking up wild berries, nuts, and plants weren’t considered weird or special; they were a normal part of life. The knowledge was used by elders, who would pass it on to the next generation. In many modernized countries, this cycle of transferring knowledge has been lost.

Very valuable and nutritious foods such as dandelion, mallow, and other plants are looked upon as “weeds,” and TV commercials gladly promote the use of toxic chemicals to destroy them. The people I’ve seen trashing the wilderness are the product of our current society. If you don’t know or understand the value of something, you simply won’t care for it.

So do it the right way! Respect the environment, learn which plants are rare or illegal to pick, don’t forage plants in protected areas (natural preserves and the like), work with native plant nurseries, and educate yourself on how to grow native plants and remove non-natives.

If you take from nature, work with her and make sure you always plant more than you’ll ever take. That way future generations will have the same creative opportunities you presently have—or more.

Western Monarch Day

Monarch Butterfly On Bee Balm in honor of Western Monarch Day, February 5. 

Monarch butterfly alert: There are concerns about the alarming decline of the western monarch population, which has plummeted by 95%, from more than 10 million in the 1980s to less than 30,000 in 2018. Insects can bounce back quickly when conditions improve, but unfortunately the numbers were not any better in 2019. A recent census of the wintering sites along the California coast revealed mostly empty trees once festooned with monarchs. The decline is due to habitat loss, pesticide use, and drought triggered by climate change. None of us can turn around those big trends individually, but what each of us can do is make our backyards and public spaces more attractive to monarchs by planting the right milkweed plants. Plant, and they will come! Monarchs can’t survive without milkweed. They need it to lay their eggs on and their caterpillars only eat milkweed plants. The monarch butterfly population is in danger because milkweed plants are disappearing, due to loss of habitat stemming from land development and the widespread spraying of weed killer on the fields where they live. We can help monarchs by growing milkweed in our yards, fields, and gardens.

Monarch On Young Crabapples

Danaus plexippus

Monarch Butterfly On Echinacea

Monarch Butterfly On Echinacea

Monarch Butterfly On Purple Loostrife

Monarch Butterfly On Purple Loostrife

Monarch Butterfly On Purple Loostrife

My photographs are available for purchase through EliseCreations.net

Thanks for your visits, favs and comments. As always, appreciated very much!

© all rights reserved by Elise T. Marks. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.

Disclaimer

My blog is meant to inform and I strive to be totally accurate. It is solely up to the reader to ensure proper plant identification. Some wild plants and mushrooms are poisonous or can have serious adverse health effects.

Winter Wonders

Winters Cotton

Snow Covered Seed Pods

THANKS FOR YOUR VISITS, FAVS AND COMMENTS. AS ALWAYS, APPRECIATED VERY MUCH!

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY ELISE T. MARKS. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS IMAGE ON WEBSITES, BLOGS OR ANY OTHER MEDIA WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT WRITTEN PERMISSION.