Wildflowers, fire circles and spoon carving

Poudre canyon is amazing and beautiful! I look foward to going back sometime soon. There were sooooooo many wonderful plants, osha, valerian, pedicularis, scullcap, uva ursi, red root, aralia, baneberry, clematis, pulsatilla, clovers, dandelions, rose, geraniums, alders and willows and so much more. Of course I had to bring some things home, and in the works are yellow sweet clover tincture, scullcap tincture and just some nice fresh alfalfa for tea.






The best part about Poudre canyon was the Poudre River, which of course beackoned each day to be dunked in. The water was COLD, melting fresh off the snow up in the mountains, but oh so refreshing and revitalizing. A quick cold dunk in the morning, and then a nice sit on sun warmed rocks was a beautiful start to the days, which were equally beautifully finished around a campfire with friends, classmates, teachers, and songs and prayers.







We headed to the plains and stayed at Pawnee Buttes for a couple of nights. What should have been sweltering heat gave way to gentle, cool rains for our pilgrimage out to the buttes to leave our prayers. Yucca and prickly pear flowers abounded, and more campfires at night, which were especially fun because of a little spoon carving project. everyone got a small piece of wood and burned a small indentation in it with a hot coal. Then they were carved with knives and sandstone rocks made them smooth. We all came away with special handmade spoons. I'm especially proud of mine.





After spoon making, we graduated to cup/bowl burning! I'm in the middle of mine, and wont finish for a while, but i'll be sure to share pictures when it is done.