Mare’s tail, dried tutsan, and travellers joy

God who at sundry times and divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds 🌎; Who being in brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high;
Hebrews 1 : 1-3

Travellers joy flying out in all directions a celebration of hope for travel again!!! Dry Tutsan keeping shape with mare’s tail coming out the spout.

This orange and turquoise jug has a potter’s mark of a bare foot. So sweet. I wish I knew their name. Another charity shop find. ❤

I kept the green tutsan used in my posts in the summer and it dried over the months while hanging up. It has kept it’s berries well with the leaves twisting and taking shapes much like the burnt orange swirls on the sides of the pottery jug.

Dry tutsan. It’s hollow aged black berries with green to brown leathery leaves.

During this past summer a corner of my garden had a lot of mare’s tail. It just snaps as you pull it out. I made a bunch of it, tied it up and let it dry for a few months. Once dry it feels very much like raffia to the touch. In this arrangement I used it to wrap around the stems and let the ends come out the spout of the jug .
The stems and leaves of mare’s tail apparently contain silicon which makes it resistant to weed killers. However, because the plant likes damp acidic conditions I am buying some Dolomite Lime and I will try to get rid of it that way. It is deep rooted and can grow through tarmac. It is a weed!

Traveller’s joy lining the path way as it zigzags into the distance. This photograph was taken three days ago while cycling along the Thames between Windsor and Maidenhead. The travellers joy in my arrangement was picked in the summer.

Take my hand.
We will walk.
We will only walk.
We will enjoy our walk without thinking of arriving anywhere!
Thich Nhat Hanh

P.S.

In my last post I asked what caused a tree wart. Shelly (my sister) answered and said another name for it was a burl which is caused by a trauma. (injury, virus or fungus) . Thank you Shelly🙂 ! Google has helped us know that the most common trauma is caused by certain types of mold and insect infestation . Burl wood is extremely dense and resistant to splitting because the grain is twisted and interlocked. It is considerably older growth meaning it has no sapwood and as such it is valuable. Burl wood is used in furniture, veneers and artwork. Don’t take a burl off a tree because the tree could die!!

An oak tree with burls. This photograph was taken while cycling through Windsor Great Park three days ago.

2 thoughts on “Mare’s tail, dried tutsan, and travellers joy”

Kelly says:

13th Jan 2022 at 1:45 am

Love the photograph you took while cycling.

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1. sandyroybessandbugzy says:
  
  13th Jan 2022 at 8:04 am
  
  Thank you Kelly. The traveller’s joy was in such large amounts I could hardly believe it.
  
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