Healing Gardens

Body:

1Week Two

October 8,2006

Time 2 hours

Activity: working on site description at the Longhouse

learning: identified huckleberries, wild strawberries

Cumalitive hours: 2 hours

October 18,2006

Time:two hours

Activity: met with Nick and took a long walk around Evergreen forests. We walked the edges trying to find simularities in the moist forest edge habitat.

Learning: Well we tried to identify a moss. We just recognized that huckleberries and blackberries and many other plants commonly grow together in the moist forest edge.

Cumalative hours: 4hours

October 23,2006

Time: 2 hours

Activity:Met Nick at longhouse and raked leaves. We indentified some trees and ferns and mosses. Discussed where and how we would like our trail.

Learning: identified a big leaf maple with licorice fern growing off of it

Cumalitive hours:6 hours

October 26, 2006

Time:2 hours

Activity: Went to Karen's house and pulled weeds.

Learning: I learned to identify geraniums and buttercups

Cumalitive hours: 8 hours

October 26,2006

Time:2 hours

Activity: I attended a speaking on spices and herbs by Carolyn Fisher.

Learning: I learned about how spices can help preserve foods for longer periods of time. She focused a lot on chemistry and health, which i was pretty confused about. But i did learn that she takes plant derivitives and many of the same substances(derivitives) are put in foods and poisons.

Cumalative hours: 10 hours

November 1,2006

Time: 1 hour

Activity: raked leaves, continued planning trail, identified

Cumalitive hours: 11 hours

November 1, 2006

Time: 2 hours

Activity: gardened at Karen's house

Learning:I learned to identify columbine

Cumalitive hours: 13 hours

November 5, 2006

Time: 1 hour

Activity: mediated at longhouse habitat. listened to the birds, noises of people ect

Learning: practiced drawing a few things i saw

Cumalitive hours: 14 hours

November 8, 2006

Time: 3hours

Activity: gardened at karen's house

Learning: I identified a common clover, which i am embarrassed to admit that i didn't previously know.

Cumalitive hours: 17 hours

November 11, 2006

Time: 2 hrs

Activity: attended a herbal workshop at the organic farm. We made tinctures and teas and discussed herbal remedys

Learning: i learned that making tea with lemon balm will help me sleep. I learned that orange peel is commonly used with other herbs such as peony for menstrual cramps, but that it shouldn't be used by women who are trying to get pregnant.

Cumalitive hours: 19 hrs

November 14, 2006

Time: 4 hours

Activity : Read the chapter on forests in Natural History of Puget Sound COuntry by Kruckeberg

Learning: Douglas fir dominates Northwest forests, while Sitka Spruce is almost as common. That there are three vegetation zones in the Puget Sound basin but the plants in the zones overlap and aren't exactly specific.

Cumalitive hours: 23 hours

November 16, 2006

Time: 2 hours

Activity: made root honey

Learning : you must use the root when it is still very fresh and moist. It would probably taste better that way.

Cumalative hours: 25 hours

November 27, 2006

Time: 4 hours

Activity: ventured into the forest to work on treasure hunt, meditate and connect with nature

Learning : although the sky was blue, there was still two inches of snow. I learned that i need to dress in more layers and be more prepared for this freeze.

Cumalitive hours: 29 hours

November 28, 2006

Time: 1 hour

Activity: photographed habitat at the longhouse only to lose the film due to snow and poor planning...(waaa)

Learning: Always save a hard copy of all your work. Finish downloading before leaving your computer (especially at computer center)

Cumalitive hours: 30 hours.

November 29, 2006

Time : 3 hours

Activity : met with Nick and tried to start our Drupal presentation. Encountered problems dowloading pictures. Tried to identify more plants. Expanded our site description. All in all progress wasn't flowing well.

Learning: relearned how to download and post pictures

Cumalitive hours: 35 hours

 

 

 

Winter Quarter

week 1

January 25,2007

Time: 5 hours

Activity: Spend 2 hours at site drawing, sharing what plants we can already identify, and made plans to make a trail next week. Spent another 2 hours looking over last quarters website stuff, discussed some things that may not be too relevant and therefore should be removed from our site. Finally we took a walk around campus to see what the moist forest edges look like.

Learning: We realized how much we already can identify. We also made plans to make a trail. I feel that Allie learned a lot about how the website works, and what is expected. I learned what kinnikinik is from Allie.

Cumalitive hours: 5 hrs

Week 2

January 31, 2007

Time: 5 hours

activity: Raked leaves to make a trail. found sticks to boarder one of them. Spent time journaling and taking pictures of the site. Discussed future plans of removing some trailing blackberry. and adding some kdkajf. Looked at all the information Allie missed Saturday and did some twig identification. FInished with a walk to the beach to see more moist forest edge habitats.

learning; It seems tome that making trails in the winter is much easier than the summer, when things are more full and rooted. I learned that there is some possum or mole or other creature making his home in our habitat. He/ she lives in this hole where trees have become uprooted and are precariously leaning, probably due to the storms recently.

cumalitive hours: 10 hours

week 3

February 3,2007

Went to the site just to see what i could sense. I needed to breath the fresh air and meditate. I heard many birds, observed a kitty in our site which surprised me. I took photographs to document when i was finished.

learning;spending time enjoying nature makes everything more optimistic

cumalitive hours:

week 4

February 9

Time:

activity:I spoke with Allie about what we thought was most important about our site. We tried to come up with a theme for our habitat. I might be making this more difficult than i have to. I feel that somany things are integral it is hard for me to limit myself. I feel that our big leaf maples, huckleberries, mosses, and ferns are all so important.Spent a little while observing the smells of green at the LHG. Observed some big black beetles i tried to photograph but couldn't document well.

learning;I learned Coltsfoot has been cultivated by Japanese immigrants as an early spring vegetable.

cumalitive hours:

week 6

2/20/07

Time: 3 hours

activity: worked on the border of our trail at the LHG. Worked on our habitat theme (research and revision). Created a skeleton of presentation on Drupal.

learning; we need to ask for a huckleberry and kinnikinik. we also need to plan where we want to plant them.We discussed our habitat theme introduction.

Cumalitive hours:13 hrs

Week 7

February 21, 2007

Time: 3 hours

activity: Photographed the hole in our site, where a tree is leaning and become uprooted. I tried to use a stick to measure how wide and long the hole is. Threw away some litter in our site. Put some leaves from pathway into compost. I also composted twigs and other dead things lying around. I spent some time online looking at pictures students had posted. I also looked at others' plant monographs and work.

Learning: The hole is a lot larger than i expected. It is filled with a lot of water so i doubt if an animal is living in it now, as i had previously thought. But in the summer, it will make a fabulous home for a critter. I will site my source later but i learned from someone in the class's page a myth about trailing blackberry i found fascinating."An angry husband chased a woman up a tree and the blood of the woman fell to the ground and turned into blackberry." I learned leaves can be made into tea's to help with such cases as diahrea, a sore mouth, or excessive menstruation. To be honest i don't feel comfortable pruning much and although am familiar with the saying "when in doubt, hack it out" i am reluctant to do so. I feel i should prune more though.

cumalitive hours: 16 hrs

Week 8 Feb 28

I spent an hour and a half researching the museums and looking at pictures from the field trip to Seattle i missed. I spent another half an hour talking to Lorn, Lonnie, Dana, and Alina about it. I learned a lot about Vy Hilbert and the history of both museums.

cumative hours: 17.5 hrs 

February 29,2007

I spent a half an hour just meditating at the sight. I didn't notice it was sprinkling for awhile. I realized how quickly the plants are starting to bloom again.

cumalitive hours; 18 hrs 

Week9

March 1, 2007

I spent 2 hours researching plant care information on the plants i am growing in my personal garden.I ended up finding out a lot about other kinds of plants. I learned a fertilizer overdose can be remedied by flushing with water. Plants with a particular nutritional deficiency require the addition of fertilizer along with plants that need acidic soil.You can tell if plants are not getting enough phosphorous by the leaves turning red or purple, have stunted growth, and have yellowing bottom leaves. Potassium deficency produces very tall plants with weak stems as well as leaf tips and edges turning yellow, then later brown. Too little nitrogen produces light green to yellow leaves and slow growth.

cumalitive hours; 20 hrs 

March 7

Time:3hrs

activity: Looked up inside out flower and was really excited with this plant. I tried to find ways of purchasing it but was unsuccessful. I also continued researching for our chapter and sign texts. Some information will also be useful in our presentation.

learning: “Some have said that the red huckleberry was created by Asin, the monster woman of the woods, and that those who ate the berries lost their reason and were carried off to the woods.” (Pojar and Mackinnon 57) I really loved this because i have always felt a special connection with red huckleberry.

cumalitive hours: 23 hrs 

March 11,2007

Time:5 hours

activity: Spent a while sitting with site, meditating, and thinking of future plans. Spent time bordering trail and photographing. Worked on LHG presentation. Looked up more medicinal uses of plants in our site.

Learning: Among First Peoples sword fern is commonly known as “pala-pala plant” because native children play a game where they see who can pull the most leaflets off a leaf in a single breath while saying “pala”.

Cumalitive hours:28 hrs

March 13,2007

Time:3 hours

activity:Met with Allie to work on our presentation. Continued adding text, especially medicinal uses of our plants. We looked at both of our pictures from our site more and decided which pictures were not as important to use and which ones we really wanted to use.

Learning: I realized that Allie and I take pictures much different from each other. Maybe this also shows our unique ways of looking at the site. While I tend to focus straight on and focus more on the larger scenery pictures, she uses unique angles to capture integral details such as of moss or dew drops. Maybe her camera has better zoom. \Whatever it is, i love how our different ways complement each other.

Cumalitive hours: 32 hours

 March14,2007

Time:3 hrs

Activity: organized finished products for end of the quarter. Chapter and sign texts will have to be continued working on next quarter. Practiced presentation and edited, threw out what isn't as important.

Learning: It is getting harder and harder to work indoors in such nice weather.

Cumalitive hours: 35 hours