December 23--buttercups and dandelions!

Christmas had me my the throat, so I decided to take a walk to loosen the noose. Good idea!  Look what I found-- a blooming buttercup and lots and lots of blooming dandelions. If you want to focus the mind, walk a mile with cars and trains zooming past while you're trying to keep a head of dandelion seeds from blowing away!  Every breeze feels like a gale. I'm mighty proud of the undisturbed dandelion seed heads in this arrangement, Other things in this conglomeration include a particularly pretty stem of blackberry leaves, a wand of honeysuckle, and a stem of red-leaved greenbrier. Under the vase is a cookbook I couldn't resist including. A gift from artist Betty Gatewood (who illustrated the cover), it's called Dandelion Salad, And More Recipes from the Frontier Culture Museum. On page 38 is Betty and her husband Mark's recipe for Dandelion Greens Salad (which calls for a "loose gallon: of leaves). I didn't pick enough to make a salad of dandelion greens alone, but I'll add those I did pick to other greens tonight. I'm almost embarrassed to say how smug I felt foraging greens along the roadside while those passing me were dashing to the grocery store. (Unfortunately, foraging will get you only so far, and I'll be back in the car soon myself-- pursuing foods much less nutritious than dandelion greens.)