A perfect weekend! Friends and Fresh Flowers,




Kate and Don up at Woodlad Essence are great. Good friends, fabulours teachers, mentors, collegues, amazingly inspiring, magical people. We drove up to their place Thursday evening, Friday I taught a class to the advanced apprenticeship "Intro to Clinical Aromatherapy" in a beautiful new "mushroom house" and Sat morning more good friends arrived and the fun began!

Ash Bark Basket Making.....

Into the woods we went to an ash grove




We picked a tree, a 18-24 year old fast growing tree. Then we gave thanks.



We measured, and scored and removed the peel









Then back at the shop we scored and folded (same shape/pattern as McDonalds fries) and laced up the sides with soaked hickory laces and reinforced the top. Finally we made loops to attach the straps.





Zoe too made her own basket! I drilled holes in pieces of Ash Bark and she laced the soaked hickory.



and bonus fun......

blueberry pie,



SWEDISH PANCAKES ("Plattar")
Ingredients and Preparation:

3 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla, optional

In a blender, combine all the ingredients above until smooth.
Heat a 10 inch cast iron skillet over medium heat until very hot.
Lightly butter the skillet and pour 1/2 cup of the batter into it.
Swirl the pan with batter to expand to a thin layer.
Cook until bubbles form and the pancake is golden brown on the bottom, about 1-1/2 minutes. Flip turn and continue to cook for about one more minute. Remove from the fry pan. It should not be necessary to add more butter to the pan for more pancakes. When finished, fold each pancake into quarters. Traditionally topped with the traditional dollop of lingonberries we ate with strawberries.

Inkle Loom Weaving.... (straps for the baskets)



What a great weekend! I am feeling full and thankful.