Edible foraging

So I had this all set to go and previewed it and then lost it - my system must be sluggish ti=his morning - took a bit, but finally found it. WHEW!!!!! I need to go get Mia up!

Went on a great hike in Birchwold Farms in Wrentham yesterday. We were led by Russ Cohen, the author of, "Wild Plants I Have Known ... and Eaten", who also gave a great slide presentation of the same topic Tuesday night at Fiske Library. This was all sponsored by the Open Space Committee.

So you need a little back story here. I had spent the morning getting a boundary plastic thing put into the back of the new herb bed ten inches from the house so as to not have any of what I am planting interfere with the foundation of my house. I had mistakenly planted pachysandra in their from where the ugly initial landscape shrubs had been planted and gotten way too overgrown and unsightly over the years. So Thankfully one of our gardeners, Sheila, who is a Realtor, pointed it out to me as a potential huge problem.

So as I also needed to get the soil level lower, as there is now a regulation amount of space that is supposed to exist between the ground and the house shingles, (go figure!), and my soil (who knew) is so fertile that it is very heavy even by the smallest of shovelfuls, and I did it. I was on the ground on my knees (my favorite position for gardening). And I oh, so innocently took my half length size shovel and started taking up shovelfuls and putting it into a container to get it out of the garden. Well, evidently I must have moved in a manner that my back was not too happy with it. You know how it goes, you reach to pick up your pocketbook, or you sneeze, or whatever, and BAM - there goes the back! Yup, I pulled my lower back out. Now if it had been thter on. But, no, it had to be the lower, so I had to pay attention to it. Mind you, I also had not finished what I was working on, so I did get it done, loaded up the cart with soil, measured and marked where the plants were going to go.

Okay, so I probably should have stopped everything and taken immediate care of the back, but that is not how I deal with it. I do continue on with any activity I am involved in. It does take a bit before it freezes up entirely. BUT, I did not try to maneuver the heavy cart to where it needed to go I left it for hubby to handle later on. And I did go and get myself into the hot tub. But did I go lie down and rest to try to get ready for the two hour hike I was due to go on in the afternoon?? Of course not, I had my first Knitting Club meeting at the high school that I had to attend.

The hottub gave me the continued mobility I needed to get to that. Went to the club and headed to the hike, with only minimal pain. AHA - the old body was not failing me yesterday. No, not the body, just the brain!!

Got to the hike. Learned so much and took so many photos my battery ran out in the middle ! (did remember to have extra batteries with me). Walked up and down and up and down paths through the wooded area for 2 hours, learned all sorts of useful information about edible plants, even got seeds for one of them. Had lots of tast tests for many of the edibles we learned about. Got back to my car after 2 1/4 hours of hiking, .... and realized I had lost my glasses on the hike. (that's the brain part). Still able to move without too much pain, I figured it had to Have happened when I bent down to get a picture of wintergreen. hiked/sort of ran back to that spot as it was beginning to get dark, the glasses weren't there. Could not go on as the rest of the walk had been in the deep woods, and it was dark in there when we were in it, so I knew I would not be able to even see them if I found them. So I headed back, trying hard to stay on the right path to not get lost, and guess what - I made it back to where I needed to be. I could imagine me getting lost on the paths, as I had not been there before, but I had called my hubby to keep him informed in case I needed him to bring Abby over to find me!!!

So got home, frazzled, was unsuccessful in helping Mia with her homeowrk. Now, I majored in math in college, no matter that it was almost 4o years ago, I should have been able to help her with her homework, and Freshman Physical Science, shouldn't be beyond me. Well at after 8 PM funcion, domain, range, SI, derived units, and on and on were not words that I had any comprehension of. Even with the textbooks in front of me I had no clue how to hep her with what she needed to do. So Melt Down City, for both of us.

So I will do a really nice post on the hike, and on my new herb garden, have lots of photos. But not this morning. I need to get my self ready, with my stiff back, to get back over to the hiking area to find thsoe glasses!

Heard from someone at the hike that there might be a frost last night. It is too dark out right now for me to see if indeed we did. If so, I am up a river in a canoe with no paddle. I have so much more I'm trying to get moved so I can develop the new beds, I am praying that it was not a hard frost. Once that happens it will be very hard to move anything else.

Have a better day than I had yesterday!!! LOL