Treasures to be found !!

I have been taking the time to really get to know my neighbourhood by foot the last few weeks.

Since I live in an area where there are many coves, I have been finding the very coolest flowers and places.

These beautiful Lavender I used to make some Lavender Cashew Creme. I did not use very much lavender, but boy! How supremely strong they are in a bit of creme! Especially when just picked.

I took the picture by a cove that I found at the dead end of a street. Getting down the rocks so I could be closer to the water was pretty tricky. As it turned out, there were so many bushes with prickles on them towards the water, ( and a pretty steep drop off) .. .I just decided to stay up where I was! You can see how beautiful it is though.

The Pink Flowers are from the Motherwort Plant. These are the only motherwort I have seen in Victoria. I was talking to a friend at the a raw pot luck recently, and she said she had found some here. Confidently, I told her it was the wrong climate on the west coast for it. She was pretty adamant, and I look silly now! Thanks Dianna,, for setting me straight!Motherwort used to grow like a weed in our garden when we lived in Toronto! Actually , many people think it IS a weed! And my neighbour there suggested I keep the kids away from it, because he was SURE it was stinging nettle. But it has very powerful medicinal properties for helping women before and after childbirth as well as other stages of a woman's life.

You can read more about the amazing benefits of it here

Very Tall and spiky , thistles are either blooming or just about to bloom as you can see in this picture here.

There are a number of varieties of thistle, sow thistle, bull thistle and Milk thistle to name a few. I don't know what this one is exactly, but it was pretty! Please comment and let me know!

The fantastic orange flowers are from the Nasturtium plant. You can eat the petals. My daughter tried them the other day, and very carefully tasted one petal. Her discovery ? Pretty spicy!! They are great to add colour to salads.

I thought the white parts of the leaves looked liked stars!

Have a walk around your neighbourhood, see what you can find!

Then, come and comment on what you have found. Share with the rest of us.

Finding Bliss and Fish on a walk

Today there seemed to be many people who were needing my attention. It was a day of giving. By the 'golden hour time' I was noticing a great need for a walk to get my body, mind, and spirit back into balance.

It was so lovely outside ! The sun wash shining, and low in the sky , so everything was awash in a golden light . Hence the term Golden Hour. As an artist, this is my favourite time of day. Everything looks so magical at this time, even things that are not beautiful most any other time of day in harsher lighting, like industrial equipment or broken bits of things lying around.

I started playing a fun game as I go for walks on my own now. It is version of a game the kids and I play when we feel like going on an adventure. As I walk, I ask 'should I go this way ?' and I get a sense of whether it is a 'yes' or 'no' . If it is 'no' then I ask again, and see what happens, until I get to a 'yes'. It is so fun and I learn by this game to gain more trust in my intuition, which

serves me so well in my life! !

Today, this game took me to an abandoned lot that was 'opened up' a couple of years ago for building 3 houses. Two of the houses were built, and there is one piece left that was just left as soil and many bits of broken pots from the landscaping on the adjacent properties. It has turned into a field of dreams for myself and all the diverse wildlife! So many different flowers, grasses, herbs, wild plants and insects are in this small area. Each time I go there

, there are new flowers blooming, and the grass grows another 3 or 4 inches

As I frolicked in the grasses, prickly bushes and blackberries new growth I recognized some plants and could name them, but there are many I don't have names for. Next time I will bring my field guide with me, and match up the pictures in the book to the plants that I find. The bees don't need names for the plants though, as you can see in the picture! There were many bees gathering pollen from this beauty of a plant! ( This is one I don't know the name of yet)

As I continued my walk, I passed by the local Elementary School. They have all the hand painted fish on the fence . Each fish was painted by the students of the school, and it looked incredible tonight, with all the colours vibrant and stunning!