Hello. I hope this greeting finds you well. Spring is coming!
The Red-Osier Dogwood tips will soon turn from beautiful winter-red to a less noticeable brown. The creek is running full, and a lovely spring ground cover called “False Lily of the Valley”, or “Deer Cabbage” (Fauria crista-galli), is coming to the surface along the soggy banks.
Pacific Herring have been returning in increasing numbers since late January. We noticed some of the first signs of herring, when more and more Surf Scoters arrived and began hanging out together, moving around and diving in unison. Soon after, a few Sea Lion scouts appeared. By the end of February rafts of dozens of Sea Lions have come to feast on the herring that are here to spawn. and inadvertently to entertain us.
Today, the Red-Flowering Current, (Ribes sanguineum), growing in sunny places near where I live, have buds on the verge of bursting into clusters of pink and crimson flowers, harbingers of spring and of hummingbirds.
Time for gathering the new tops of nettles, emerging after the long winter, bringing us mineral-rich tea to drink, and nutrition for our family and friends when mixed in biscuits, soups and pestos.
Spring is getting to visit with Ed Carriere after his winter vacations in warmer places. Time to catch up on all the projects he’s involved with now and the honors he’s been recipient of this year. This picture was taken over a decade ago of a large “Net Project” Ed was involved with. It ended up in the Clearwater Casino Hotel. It was a replica of a large fishnet that would be held between two canoes. Ed made it using split cedar limbs and roots. He often keeps track of the actual footage of split materials he uses in a project. If laid out in a straight line end-to-end the materials would cover miles.
I think the Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanum) is one of my favorite plants. It’s like the smell makes me wake up and pay attention to what is happening in nature. I know it’s time to pull my head out of the reading and writing, and indoor projects I’m trying to make progress on. Time to be outside. Spring is at hand!
And remembering Springs from the past….
It’s been twelve years since Katie Jennings, of New Canoe Media, produced the film “Clam Basket – A Story By Ed Carriere”, with her crew Jo Ardinger and Kevin Michael Martin. Since that experience, Ed has gone on to be featured in many more good films and interviews. A lifetime of practicing his art and teaching his culture has lead him to be a recipient of the National Heritage Fellowship Award this year. It’s wonderful that he is recognized by the broader community as the National Treasure he is! Watch for him soon to be featured on the KING 5 EVENING show.
Here is Ed in 2017, giving one of the first presentations at BARN. At that time it was a brand-new center for artisans, the Bainbridge Artisans Resource Network.
