Rapatap the birchsap tap rap ...☺️

The birds were singing and the sun was oh so warm. After all the cold and the shite happening all over the world this was really soothing. The woods are calling, and obviously I heed the call. 

What really feels great is that my sentiment of "why bother?" does not involve anything woodsy, crafty or natural. These things still give me the motivation to get out of bed, so to say. Because they make sense. Obviously, I am fucked, but on each outing in the woods I learn more how the woods work. Of course, they are in a sorry state, what with climate change killing fir, spruce, birch and beech, and I plant as many trees as I possibly can, but yup, we are ruled by idiots. That said, I left the politics at home. The birch sap is rising, and I like birch sap. ☺️ 

This creek is running with more water than it has in the last five years. This gives me a lot of hope, actually, that even if we get another summer of draught eventually, the new trees will eventually recuperate. As is, the woods are radically changed. 

The first spring blossoms, too, and something tasty to boot : Violets (viola, in German :Veilchen), with an anti - bacteria - effect, blood - cleaning, calming and anti - inflammatory. Also you can make a tasty tea or spice from it, a wonderful cordial and it goes into my "lawnmower - mead" 😁, Methubrawri in the language of the Dhiudhai na nÍamparaï, a mythic people I invented. Invented the language as well, BTW. ☺️ 

Now if the trees all die, how can he possibly tap a birch, some may ask. First, I very much know what I am doing, and all the trees I tapped are even now still alive, but then there was that stump of a recently felled tree, where the sap rises really strong. So strong in fact, that there was a rare bushcrafty treat. 

But first things first, out came the tools. 

And in no time the birch was on tap. 

In the meantime, I collected some last Chaga (Innonotus Obliquus, in German :Schiefer Schillerporling). And sat down to really savour a sip of tea made from rowanberries and roasted and dried apple I foraged in autumn last year. 

 On the detour then I was in for my treat... Some chunks of frozen birch sap.

It was a really cool outing. Well, pardon the pun. But actually, I could wish for little more. Sipping your sap and your tea from a gukši you have made with your own hands with a knife and a carving hatchet you have forged yourself while preparing the Chaga you have just collected in a dish you have made with your hands is more than just comforting. It is not only strangely soothing in a world gone stark raving mad, it is empowering. Everything of these items was made from junk. From scraps of steel to scraps of wood to food most people do not see. And it is all connected. 

We all need to change. Well, I never belonged at all, so maybe I can exclude myself a bit. A bit, because I still have to learn a lot. Most people think this means a loss of quality in life.

Personally I think, the opposite is true. This is how life is meant to be. I do not say this because I were a guru or something. We need less gurus and a lot of more common sense. It is nothing esoteric or philosophical. It is just getting the good stuff in, and then have a cuppa of the good stuff. And the good things are estimated as junk, and noone cares. But I do. 

I, for one, came home deeply content. It was a feeling you got when you came home as a kid and got a hot cocoa made by your mother. Only that my mother is dead now and I get that feeling in the woods. There is so much good in the world. We need to learn to appreciate more and learn to be humble and grateful... As we were as Kids, when we got our hot cocoa made by our mothers. 

And it feels plain and it feels good. 

Harvest!;-)

 I  am currently preparing ´shrooms and potions;-). The mushrooms are either just dried or salted and spiced and salted with...erm ... salt, thyme, sage and artemisia, weird, I know, but tasty;-). I even seasoned some with honey and sage, and dried them and what can I say... they are all gone already..;-) I tend to eat them as snack more often than cooking with them!

Those are gins and potions: Up front there is a very handy love potion, which is also a good tonicum against arthritis:

take four handful of nettle seeds,
four handfuls of dried rose petals (rosa canina)
0,2 l of birch sap
and honey to cover the whole mess
2 cl of Amaretto liqueur

let rest for three days in the sun, and three weeks in the dark, strain through a sieve and enjoy. 2 cl per day will suffice!

Behind that, a cough syrup.

take two handfuls of ribwort plantain (plantago lanceolata),  ten leaves of gravel root (Euparium) or Echinacea, one small and sharp chopped onion, cover with honey and let it rest for six weeks in the dark.

The big bottles: Sloe gin, with cinnamon spice, Birch sap and herbal wine with nettle seeds, sloe / birch sap wine, sloe / birch sap / herb wine. Jul feasting is accomplished!;-)

By the way, this is Willibald;-), a birch sap vinegar fungus that simply built up in a neglected birch sap bottle. I fed him with honey, and he prospers well. I have made birch sap wine with him and added a bit to bannock dough already... works!;-)
 

Fox´s head pendant

 I made a fox´s head pendant as an amulet. If you´ve read my posts, you know that the fox as an animal means something to me, and I made it from a piece of birchwood I found near the Hünenpforte cave.

 

 That´s the knife that did it;-). Zwissler damascus, with a leather wrapping and a Kopis blade.

I then simply cut it from the stick I carved it from, drilled a hole and dyed it with linseed oil, spruce resin, and ritual paint consisting mainly out of incense, pitch, linseed oil, beeswax and soil;-).