Currently in this city, plants and trees are exploding and unfurling gracefully into bloom all around us. One week later, a tree that was bare and gnarled has erupted into enthusiastic puffs of cotton-candy-pink flowers, and I feel my chest swell with love every time I see it or any of its kindred. The alley walk to the tax office even becomes a paradisical garden meditation.
Cherry tree sp.
The beauty on every side has been helping to temper the bittersweetness of my impending move from 19th Street. I've always liked the upper Northeast district, taking walks through it, visiting the parks or popping in and out of shops. I feel like I've hardly gotten reacquainted with it and here I am having to uproot again. (Quick! Which eating places and shops do I still have money to patron while I'm here?)
On April 25th I went on such a walk, tied to running a small errand. As I retraced my steps, I gathered from the flowers and trees and plants I'd passed on the way: Cherry trees and rosemary shrubs, lemon balm and mint, dandelion and deadnettle, currant and hawthorn. My paper sack held a veritable celebration of new plant life, of all the energies that my early European ancestors would have greeted joyfully with the return of spring, and thus their own lives sustained by Earth's abundance. How could I not turn all this stuff into a delicious potion?
As I walked, I gathered things --- without conscious thought at first, but I soon made a point of it --- on a seven-power basis. Seven dandelion heads, seven mint leaves, seven bunches of currant . . . Whether it was distinct blossoms or clusters depended on the nature of the plant, but the principle remained. The exception was the candy-pink cherry blossoms, whose exuberance and my love for such seemed to demand a double handful; so, into my brown paper went loads of pink.
Potistry is one part knowledge and wisdom, but an almost equally large part is instinct. So I felt when it came to mixing the base. I went with a seven-part mix again, which included two red wines, as well as the more powerful vodka for added preservative power. But why was I reaching for my leftover Thai Basil soda, or this hibiscus juice blend? My deep mind suggested these flavors might all go well together, the sweetness of soda and wine balancing the alcohol --- just as the handfuls of flowers balanced the few potent herbs I felt drawn to add, Perovskia, rosemary and dandelion among them (I consider dandelion, in all its cancer-beating bitterness, more an herb even if I'm using the flower).
I laid all the blooms and bits in a mason jar, the more intact clusters reverently, then poured the jar carefully full of the base, capped and swirled it. Then I set it in the sun for awhile, to be imbued with the same force that brought forth those splendid flowers and herbs. For me, it's not only a celebration of spring, but of the particular creative enthusiasm and spirit of the NE district and my relationship with it. And, of course, a celebration of my time spent in this particular sweet house, and another year of my life. I don't know about other folks, but in a world of too much fear, judgement, loathing and pain, I can always use more joy and well-grounded love. When something makes you happy just looking at it, never mind doing it, you've likely discovered a good thing to keep in your life.
Blessed be.
Sevenfold (7 Blessings) Floral Spring Wine
--- Base (Menstruum): ---
1/2 cup Sole brand Vermouth, extra dry white
1/2 c. Industrialist red wine
1/2 c. Chocolate Shop red wine
1/2 c. Thai basil Som Soda
1/2 c. Brewed herb tea juice: hibiscus, rosehip, licorice, cinnamon, orange juice, lemon juice (This is mix-n-match to the best of memory, since Trader Joes Aguafrescas are discontinued.)
1/2 c. Vodka.
--- Plant Ingredients: ---
7 rosemary blossoms
7 applemint leaves
A fennel tuft, young leaf
7 sorcerers' violet blossoms
7 dandelion blossoms
7 deadnettle tops
Large cup of pink cherry petals
7 borage blossoms
7 hawthorn bloom clusters
7 lemon balm leaves
7 redcurrant bloom clusters
7 star geranium flowers
7 catmint leaves
7 dragons blood (bugleweed) flowers
7 russian sage (perovskia) leaves
7 sage leaves
Whew!
Blend menstruum in a large liddable mason canning car. Add plant materials, after infusing with blessings. Cap jar, potentize, and set in sun for a couple hours to imbue with sun's energy. Continue to steep herbs in liqueur for at least another week (mine went for more like two weeks), strain, and bottle.
April 25th
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