Random Thoughts and Photos

My daughter and two friends have decided to do a week of random photos, so I decided to play along with some of my own thoughts and random photos.

I love pattern play, so this post is dedicated to the beautiful patterns that nature creates. Here are a few in all their glory.

Execuse the second picture, it is our stamped concrete walkway, but I love the texture and interplay of colours.

Build your house not on sand, but on solid rock.

Knitting/crochet warms my heart, brings me peace, soothes my soul.

Basket-weaving is one of the oldest known Native American crafts - there are ancient Indian baskets from the Southwest that have been identified by archaeologists as nearly 8000 years old. As with most Native art, there were originally multiple distinct basketry traditions in North America.

Different tribes used different materials, weaving techniques, basket shapes, and characteristic patterns.

Northeast Indian baskets, for example, are traditionally made out of pounded ash splints or braided sweetgrass.

Cherokee and other Southeast Indian baskets are traditionally from bundled pine needles or rivercane wicker.

Southwestern Indians make baskets from tightly coiled sumac or willow wood, and Northwest Coast Indians typically weave with cedar bark, swamp grass, and spruce root. Northern Indian tribes like the Ojibwe and Dene craft birchbark baskets, and the Inuit even make whale baleen baskets.

Papermaking is considered to be one of the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China, since the first papermaking process was developed in China during the early second century.

And finally, ferns, one of the first plants to lift up their heads to look for the summer sun. Fiddle head ferns, who can resist their delicious taste, simmered in a little butter & garlic. That to me is the first taste of spring.