binyan av- tea, midrash, and prunella

21 tamuz 5782

it is summer here in the PNW and although the season started off cool and  cloudy, the sunny hot days are finally here. this means i am trying to spend as much time outside as i possibly can. Part of doing that is by going camping on all my weekends and i finally got to do my first camping trip of the summer. i have weird days off so i wasn’t able to go with anyone on such short notice but going by myself is just as good (and sometimes even better… i like my alone time).

this time of year is when i also like to connect with all of the beautiful plants that are around me. something i always do when i go camping is to start my mornings with an herbal tea made with the plants around me. it gives me something fun to keep in the back of my head while i am exploring and getting to know the area where i am. it feels like a good way for me to get in touch with the place and to start to build a relationship with the land. when picking wild plants, a rule that i like to follow is to never pick the first of what you see. the first is not for taking but for saying hi and making introductions. the tea for my morning this past weekend was: strawberry leaves, heals all (prunella vulgaris), cedar leaves, and douglass fir needles.

i had a great couple of days sipping my tea, drumming on logs, walking trails, singing songs, writing in my journal, sitting by a river, and reading books on midrash and some YA in preparation for my future of teaching ELA to middle and high schoolers (i want to be hip to what them there youths are reading).

as a funny aside, while camping alone, a car pulled in late at night and had nowhere to camp because all the sites were taken. i helped them set up their tent in the dark and we hung out around the fire sipping Fireball and toasting marshmallows. fun things happen when you go out alone sometimes.

l’chaim

xoxo,
atzei besamim