April's Audacity

Exploring the abundance offered to the body, mind and spirit through the month of April as seen through my lens.

April is a month of blossoms opening, rain showers nourishing, foraging for spring greens and beginning to acclimatize my new tree seedlings and heirloom veggie plants that were started inside to be ready to set down roots in the living Earth so that they can achieve their true potential.

Here in southern Ontario, we also sometimes get surprise snow storms and ice rain in April from time to time which is a reminder to work closely with resilient heirloom plants, native perennials and hardy trees in our garden designs.

In April the forest floor comes to life with an array of verdant foliage and colorful blossoms providing food for the soul and nourishment for the body (to those who pay attention and are ready to receive those gifts and reciprocate).

During the month of April we are gifted opportunities to gather seeds, tend seedlings to grow onto their highest potential and align our time and energy with the immense and irrepressible regenerative capacity of the Earth.

As the acorns in the leaf litter germinate and spruce and pine trees audaciously send out their new growth tips and open their purple and red flowers to receive the life giving pollen and create seeds with the potential to create entire forests, we are reminded how big changes and abundance can result from small things tended with love and persistence. As the green shoots push through the leaves and weather the frosty nights to gather the sacred sunlight and transform it into nourishment for their flowers and food for other beings we are reminded that nothing can stand in our way if we align our will and intent with life and give our energy in service of life.

The audacity of the seeds, the sprouts and the seedlings in the forest and in our gardens are teaching us how to be effective agents of regeneration, satyagrahi and contributing members in an ecosystem. They invite us to open up our hearts, our minds and our eyes to perceive the intricate wisdom imbued in nature’s design and the resplendent abundance and beauty that is all around us.

I hope you enjoy this journey through the month of April as seen through my lens and I hope these pics inspire you to get out there and explore, appreciate, forage, reciprocate and cultivate

Pic above and below show the Service Berry opening up and revealing their beautiful rainbow colors and downy bud protecting hairs at the 42nd latitude in Ontario.

serviceberry blossoms covered in snow

serviceberry buds in snow

serviceberry blossoms

These resilient little pioneers are a variety I co-created called "Purple Ponderosa". This s a variety of Cannabis I co-created along with the forces of nature via selective seed saving and allowing males and females to mix freely, self sowing and adapting to our local climate in Canada. I have been selecting for cold hardiness, powdery mildew resistance, high caryophyllene, limonene and THCa, CBDa and anthocyanin expression for five generations now.

Paw Paw blossoms buds with their furry protective hairs

Paw Paw branch with blossoms buds with their furry protective hairs

close up of Paw Paw blossom bug with her furry protective hairs

I love how our photosynthetic elder beings lovingly protect their blossoms with soft and warm coats of hairs and fibers. The Apple blossoms on our wild trees are furry, soft to touch, ready and resilient, capable of dealing with sudden frosts, same with these native service berry buds, same with the heirloom cannabis seedlings I allow to do their own thing self sowing in our garden. What a marvelous and adaptable thing it is, to align with and lend one's creative potential with the forces of nature.

Austrian Pine new growth “candles” (shoot) protected by a furry sheath

(Malus sieversii buds and leaves opening up with furry coating) to protect against frost

“dreamwaver” crabapple leaves and blossoms with hairs and antioxidants to protect them from frost

(Malus sieversii first leaves opening with furry buds revealed ready for frost, resilient and adaptable)

Malus sieversii first leaves opening with buds swelling and furry leaves unfurling but ready for frost, resilient and adaptable)

sometimes they get the frost in late April, but these resilient ancient genetics are ready to adapt and persevere.

first apple blossom to open in our Garden in 2024 (April 24th)

When we receive her wisdom and gifts with open arms (growing progenitor, heirloom and native species) and reciprocate her gifts, she envelopes us in the warm hug of her protective embrace, holding us in a safe place like the downy blankets of soft fur that she covers the blossoms with. Such are the blessings we receive when we give them the chance to adapt and unfold through successive generations of growing from seed.

bumblebee resting on some lilac blossoms

flowering almond

flowering almond blossoms

I was paying attention to a woodpecker that was making his presence known with his rhythmic thumping and song the other day and he drew my attention to an Austrian Pine tree that was apparently full of tasty bugs that he was snacking on. This brought my attention to the pine sap that he had been encouraging to flow out of the cambium layer with his foraging efforts over the weeks and months prior to my working on that site resulting in pine sap gathering on the bark, dehydrating, crystalizing and becoming hardened pine pitch that broke off into large orange/amber colored crystal looking pitch pieces.

Pine pitch has been used by indigenous peoples and survivalists for millennia to help seal and disinfect wounds in the wild. It is also a universal burn remedy among Native Americans of the Eastern forests. They use sap oozing from damaged coniferous trees or melt down hardened globs of pitch or resin to create a medical superglue. Pine sap contains about 20% alpha-pinene, which has both anti-inflammatory and bactericidal properties.

I collected some of the pine pitch (shown in my hand in the pics below) so I can experiment with making a variation on my Sacred Seven Salve which will be melted down, filtered and made with bees wax/cacao butter to stabilize the consistency to be more solid and shelf stable (for adding to the camping/herbalism survival first aid kit).

It’s also used as an impromptu glue and firestarter.

Pine pitch or resin can also be used for waterproofing!

You can use waterproofing for a variety of things, patch up your canoe, tent, tarps, waterproof the seams on your boots, use it as glue if your building a shelter. There are just so many things that you can waterproof.

You can even make a lamp using some moss and a rounded out rock!

Pine resin is used medicinally for a variety of issues, both internally and externally. Externally, it’s made into a pine resin salve that is very effective against rashes, but “It’s also an effective healing agent on cuts and bruises, helps to draw out splinters, and can be rubbed on your chest for congestion.”

It’s naturally antibacterial, so pine resin has been chewed as a gum for mouth complaints as well as sore throats.

Such are the blessings we receive when we give our attention and pattern recognition awareness to our winged and rooted elders. Through getting to know our neighbors (whether winged, rooted, four legged, myceliated, finned, scaled) and learning to recognize them, their gifts, receive them and reciprocate them, we tap into an ancient decentralized gift economy where we discover that we are actually surrounded in food, medicine and wisdom being shared by our elder species 24/7.

magnolia

one of our paw paw trees, blossom buds beginning to swell

maple flowers

pollinated maple flowers forming seeds

crabapple with a carpenter bee

new growth emerging on our clematis vine

This is what one of my typical work teas looks like each morning as a begin to simmer the ingredients. I make gnarly apoptogenic triple potency nootropic, vasodilating, immune system optimizing, blood strengthening and cardio vascular system toning teas like this for work on the cold days of Spring and fall. The one in this pic included, dried elderberries from our 2023 harvests, fresh white pine needles, wild foraged Chaga chunks, homegrown ginger rhizome, homegrown dried echinacea roots, stems and flowers, nettles ,Schisandra berries, dried home grown Vana and Krishna Tulsi, from our 2023 harvests, mint, Regeneratively farmed Yerba Mate and love.

adding dried nettles and tulsi

adding some sliced ginger

Then I steep it for an hour, then strain, compost the solids (giving them back to the Earth and saying thanks). I fill up my thermos and I like to share and sip on the potent tea as I work out in the elements with other tree tenders and landscapers.

Sacred Medicine to some and invasive plants to others, these ubiquitous healers are the epitome of wild nature. They`re strong, resilient and adaptive. They live with us in rural and urban landscapes alike, bursting through cracks in concrete and bringing beauty, color and character to an otherwise boring lawn. Wild is often defined as being out of control, but when nature is healthy and functioning as she should, wild spaces are rhythmic, peaceful and sometimes, necessarily violent, but with every sentient being serving a purpose. Every wild animal and plant is clear about the role they play in an interdependent ecosystem.” - Vanessa Chakour, (from Awakening Artemis: Deepening Intimacy with the Living Earth and Reclaiming Our Wild Nature)

the shore of Lake Erie, southern Ontario, early April.

me next to an elder red oak

a germinating acorn i collected from the base of the elder red oak to save him from the lawnmowers and plant her in an ideal forest patch nearby. "The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn"

I collected this germinating acorn shown in the pic above from the base of a 170 year old + red oak.

This tree saw a time before internal combustion engines and the existence of a thing called "Canada".

I am honored to be able to save one of her acorns from the mower and give it a chance to grow onto it's true potential.

May this single acorn grow to be a 300 year old elder and may her acorns create yet thousands more.

May these Mother Trees become the hubs of biodiversity and nourishment that can sustain, provide habitat for and protect countless generations of winged, four legged and two legged beings for millennia to come.

So it is, and so it shall be.

Peonies breaking dormancy, reaching out their leaves in a spiral pattern

peonies emerging and reaching up, yawning and reaching for the sunlight

It went to minus three C early on the 24th of April, 2024 so they had to run the Irrigation system at work in the middle of the night to surround the plants in a protective shield, this was the result…

magnolias..

kale blossoms covered in snow

maple flowers covered in snow late April

maple flowers

after maple flowers are pollinated, the potential for a thousand forests is born in each “spinner” key ;)

sending my thanks and love to an elder tulip tree, expressing my gratitude for the many gifts she shares with our world

one of the last few elder tulip trees on our area, beginning to leaf out, late April.

new tulip tree leaves emerging from their buds, close up.

And when the Tulip tree leaves are emerging that means there is a plethora of ephemeral ultra nutritious spring greens to harvest on the forest floor, empty lots and in my own backyard! :)

ramps

adding whole ramp leaves to a jar with other ingredients to ferment so we can enjoy later (and have some amazing garlicy brine to create with as well ;) )

fermenting whole ramp leaves in a light salt brine to pickle and preserve for later.

garlic mustard growing at the back of the farm where I work

I used the leaves in soups and stirfries and then saved the tender stems at the top 6-8 inches of the plant for pickling to make a fun crunchy nutrient dense snack

pickling/wild fermenting garlic mustard stems in a light salt brine with some five flavor berries

stinging nettle growing underneath my goji vines

a fist full of stinging nettle harvested from the back of the farm where I work

I decided to combine all those with some fresh veggies, spring mushroom harvests and preserved/dried garden harvests from 2023 to make something filling, vibrant and nourishing to keep me warm and super charged during the long word days and weeks that often fill up my April days.

I used some spring harvests of Ramps, Nettles, Garlic Mustard, Goji leaves/shoots, Morels and combined it with dried beans, frozen garden tomatoes as well as Goji Berries, freeze dried garden peppers, some fermented fire roasted hot peppers and dried spices/herbs from our 2023 harvests (with some wild rice and schisandra berries) and made a batch of fun and extremely delicious Spring Chili. (I will share the full recipe in May as a stand alone post).

the finished chili, soooo good I have three bowls at a time. Worth making in giant stock pot batches so you can freeze or pressure can some for later months to enjoy the spring vibes and flavors later

nectarine blossoms

white lilac, they emit such a heavenly aroma and the individual blossoms float in the sunshine like little angels..

Azaleas

Serbian Spruce flowers (those purple flowers become the cones full of seeds once pollinated)

The picture above and the next few below show female cones or "flowers" on various types of spruce trees, ready to receive pollen and transform into cones filled with seeds.

norway spruce flower

white spruce flower opening

norway spruce flower

and as the pines and spruces spring to life, the winged beings also tend to the potential for new life by building beautiful homes in their branches and laying eggs that they protect fiercely and nurture lovingly. As I work intimately with trees, tending, pruning and helping them find forever homes I am blessed to sometimes get a glimpse into the ‘homelife’ of many of our winged co-inhabitants of Planet Earth. I strive to be as unobtrusive as possible when I happen upon a nest and to respect the mommy bird’s space when possible.

Balsam Fir new growth

Balsam Fir new growth tip close up

balsam fir new growth tip extreme close up

blue spruce new growth tip emerging from protective sheath

blue spruce growth tip emerging and gaining momentum

white spruce flowers and new growth tips (the tips are tasty and citrusy, I nibble on them sometimes when the trees are bigger but I never nibble on the terminal shoot)

blue spruce flowers emerging from their protective sheath, ready to receive pollen and transform into cones filled with seeds.

Spruce flowers (those greenish flowers become the cones full of seeds once pollinated)

blue spruce flowers opening and new growth tips

service berry tree in full bloom in our front yard

Kwanzen Cherry tree blossoms

apple blossoms

crabapple blossoms

Bloodroot fully leafed out in the Carolinian Forest of Ontario

wild Anemone flower in the Carolinian Forest of Ontario

ramp season is peaking and May Apples are beginning to get tall and proud in the Carolinian Forest of Ontario (april 27th)

looking through the mayapples at both the forest floor beneath and the forest canopy above

Mayapple from underneath with fruit forming

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Okay that is all i`ve got for April everyone!

Now that our exploration of the nourishment for the soul that is offered in the month of April has come to an end I hope you will take some time to go out and experience similar moments of magic in your local area. Each moment we spend in nature opening our heart, our eyes and our other senses to what she is communicating to us offers us a chance to gather spiritual sustenance and enrich the eternal part of one’s Being.

Giving our attention to the beauty and wisdom inherent in the natural world around us is an act of reciprocity and in doing so our hearts are compelled to take that act of reciprocation a step further to actively engage with and tend to increasing the beauty and biodiversity we are blessed to be able to experience so that future generations may share in the same blessings.

I would like to pre-emptively apologize to all my generous subscribers for the sparse posts of late (and likely going forward into the next couple months) as I am working 7 days a week saving up for printing / self-publishing my next book so I do not have much time for writing and online creativity at this point in time.

This will likely be my last photography post for a while but I hope to pick back up sharing moments captured through my lens once I have saved up enough to get my next literary creation manifested into physical form and able to be shared with food forest designers and ecosystem regenerators far and wide out there.

Thanks very much for your patience and understanding as I strive to make my next book a reality and carve out little bits of time for tending my own garden and preserving seasonal abundances.

Wishing you all bountiful spring harvests in the forest and in the garden, and may the seeds you plant set down strong roots and produce a bounty of food for your spirit and nourishment for your body as well.

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