Lookin’ At Plants: The Beginning
We were over the pandemic.
Not in the sense that it was close to an end - nor in the entitled “New York is Dead” and so I must go. But in the way that my partner, Jack, and I were taking it extremely seriously and were going to lose what few marbles we had left if we didn’t escape Chicago - safely - for a weekend.
A refuge became available to us: Gram’s House.
The home where my partner’s grandmother spent the last decades of her life - recently having gone off to her next adventure - burrowed in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A small, but fierce woman who protected the Loons who nested on her lake and had a collection of hobbies that I can only aspire to. I was only able meet her once but was excited to potentially connect with her anew by visiting her home.
Jack warned me that the house had been uninhabited for a few months and upon our arrival there would be a fair amount of cleaning and… most likely… mouse droppings. The choice was easy - we packed our bags and set off for a few days. No internet. Limited cell phone service. The perfect detox from COVID-19 and all the anxiety and tragedy within. A privileged break and one I continue to be grateful for. Can’t doomscroll if you have zero bars.
We arrived, we cleaned, we began to relax.
Gram had many books so of course that was my main activity the first day - what did she read that I may? I settled on Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. It was short and I hadn’t read any of his work since high school. How would it feel without a teacher’s narration?
But more importantly, I found:
Peterson Field Guides: Edible Wild Plants by Lee Allen Peterson
This book became my best friend. A constant treasure hunt to see what I could correctly identify in the UP of Michigan.
“Jack, if we had to we could eat the seeds from this.
Oh you can make a tea rich in Vitamin C from those leaves.
Jack, SMELL THIS!”
Lookin’ at plants seemed to really calm my mind and spirit. COVID didn’t exist for a few moments. I had no emails to respond to. No Zoom calls to put on a smile for. My only task was to stare at a plant and see if I could match it in the book. Were the leaves fuzzy? Did it smell like pineapples? Was it the edible one or the poisonous lookalike?
This task and reliving it through photos gave me such joy that I wanted to take it a step further - by writing about it! This will be an ongoing series, as discoveries last, on what plants I have identified where I live or have travelled. Although no additional traveling will happen for a while (quarantine life) I identified quite a few in Michigan that I think will last until this is all over - fingers crossed.
I’ll be detailing what Peterson’s book says about the plants as well as any magical uses for plants I can find in Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia for Magical Herbs (which obviously, I own).
I hope you’ll join me on this series to learn some stuff, roll your eyes at other things, and maybe take your mind off the world for a minute.
Here’s Lookin’ at Plants, kid.
