This morning,
you roll from your sleep-space, reach out with your busy, delicate hand and touch me softly on the shoulder, then the face and I'm certain that I smiled. I awaken happy and filled with the sound of your laughter--your hearty giggles. Stirring, still smiling and watch as the covers fly away and WE'RE NAKED!, it's morning and a whole day ahead. WE'RE NAKED! and I jump up running to win the race to the toilet but you're faster--you've been awake longer--and i'm sssstill dreaming on my way to the table by the sink where there's a joint, some water and a tapedeck, a lighter and a candle, so I play while waiting for the facilities.

"don't you dare light that joint 'till i'm done peeing."
"Are you almost done peeing?"
"Yeah."
"I'm lighting it. First toke my turn today Love" ...click...fssschhh

"Good morning! Good morning!" It's the Beatles, they're making noise as the chillin' cannabis flower smoke drifts softly into the air. I hand off the spliff as you leap from the peespace, grab it with grace and i take my place on the potty with pleasure; release with pleasure the stored liquid of a night full of dreaming. Yeah.

"Yeah... I had a wild dream just now."
"Prophetic?"
"No, I don't think so, I don't know, maybe."
"Tell me."
"Let me get off the can first. Can i get a toke?"
"Here, do you want to take a shower?"
"No. Um, I want to sit by the window."

I hop from the toilet and grab the blanket from the bed on my way to the sliding-doors window,

"What are you doing?"
"Do we have any really dusty powder?"
"...There's the dust in the bag in the vac in the closet. I'll get it"

,place the blanket on the heater by the door, turn around and YOU'RE NAKED!, I'M NAKED!, WE'RE NAKED! and i pass you the joint and you hand me the dust and i open the door to the third floor balcony and this sunny Saturday summer morning.

"It's certainly not the weather of my dream...Shit! where's the fan"

The fan's in the closet, I run over to get it then stop where you're standing to kiss you a kissy-kiss; you kissy-kiss me right back, put the joint in my mouth then turn it on high.........

"Yeah."
"I'm quite cooked. Nice bud!"
"You want this, last tokes?"
"Yeah"

Your strong, strong fingers clasp at the tip of euphoria, I stand by the window, the dust in my hands, you point the fan at me smiling, the dust starts-a-flying! all around all around, outside and in, it covers the Lovers and the room that WE'RE NAKED! in.

"Do you see the way it's swirling around?"
"Yes."
"Imagine it to be a cloudy day and there was this swirling around and we didn't have these walls, only thin air around us, and dust, like this, swirling all about. come, sit on the heater"
"It's really dusty"
"It's quite an effective effect."
"Sure"
"This was the end of the dream; what i just woke from. clouds of swirling dust with myself and everyone with whom i'd ever connected--although i couldn't see them for all the dust--we were all in this dust, being quite comfortably so, on the warm space all around us. It was very peacefull.

"Before that we were all at a huge party being thrown in Central Park in New York City celebrating the day of the Apocalypse. Everyone in the park with bands playing on a big stage. I guy came on between sets saying things like 'Great to be here all together isn't it?' and 'Okay folks we've got forty nine minutes to be alive like this', etc..

"We partied and partied like it was the end of the world, not a care in the world, just reverence, REJOICE!! (WE'RE NAKED! and it's GREAT!!) And the MC came on and told us 'two minutes to go', we all quietly counted down noticing smoke trails of missiles over the city.... then, masses of swirling dust carried us all and everything else away.

In a totally
pleasant
fashion

we all still hung out and relayed and expressed that 'wow this is a pretty wierd or interesting sensation' and 'Not at all what i expected." with lots of 'Grooovy!' and 'Ohhh yeahhhh.......':

(...sigh)

You turn off the fan, light up a smoke and sit back silently on the pseudo-sofa as the dust settles subtly all around us and WE'RE NAKED and in Love in a filthy room. You've got tears on your face but you're so happy it feels.

"That must have been beautifull"
"Yeah, quite something. Feels a little melancholy now. Perhaps it's that i'm having cravings the feeling already. Beautifull is almost vague. I don't know Love. Yeah."
"Good dreaming." You hand me your smoke.
"Good waking up with you."

You smile, spring from the heater onto the bed, into your robe then right out the door with a thumbs up, no words just a giggle and I'M NAKED and alone with your cigarette, a mess in the pad, with a hot beverage and the whole day with you on the way.

3cups (or to desired thickness) Nettle Decoction (see recipe)
3Tbsp butter (or other fat or oil)
3Tbsp Kamut flour
2tsp Miso

(you can try a mirepoix too but it's not especially necessary... there's LOTS of flavour already)

lightly toast kamut flour
melt butter in saucepan over medium heat
add lightly toasted flour to create the roux
mix in the miso and allow to simmer gently for a minute or two

slowly add Nettle reduction, a third-cup at a time. mixing it in and allowing it to boil before adding another cup. continue this process untill the gravy achieves your desired thickness. for last night's dinner, i think it was about three cups.

The flavour of this gravy will vary depending on the miso and the strength of the Nettle infusion.

Last night's gravy was remarkably robust and also deliciously subtle.

I've been harvesting a quantity of Nettles and drying the leaves to "cut and sift" and sell for tea.  It's quite a venture and it feels so amazing to be on this journey.  I'm feeling guided by Sister Urtica and all of the ideas that we are generating on this quest.

When the Nettles were small, I just dried them, stems and all in the dehydrator.  Now that they are big and I'm harvesting more than I can process in a day, I'm using a screen and baseboard heater system. 

And I've found something extraordinary to do with the stems.

RECIPE
3-4 Lbs Nettle Stems (I wear rubber gloves when I'm handling mass quantities)
7 Litres H2O

Boil the Nettle stems in the water for several hours.  The more the merrier!  If you have the patience for overnight.....

Strain out the spent stems and then lightly simmer or even subtly steam reduce the decoction.  This can be done "to taste".  The first time I did it, I reduced it incredibly.  Subsequent decoctions much less so; by about half. 

The ensuing liquid is pretty versatile.  I've used it as stocks for soups with amazing results.  laura uses it as part of her smoothie every day.  It is such an iron-rich brew.

This...
is
Alchemy...

Love in solution
Morphs according to
The conditions that we choose,

As the mix magically becomes
This mystic elixir;
Our paradigm.

An unknown elemental state.
A taste of being
We beings attracted, excited

With the warming of our brew.
This  is...
Always new:

An infusion
Of experience
And time.

An immense amount of my current time is being spent with Nettles. Stinging Nettles at that! (Urtica Dioica)  If I'm not harvesting or processing them, I'm thinking about how many different ways I can bring this bounty to the masses.  I'm on a pretty serious Nettle mission this year.  Last spring sort-of kicked it off but the abundance of Urtica this spring has affirmed it:

I'm going to make my living and support my family with Nettles!

Nettles are a plant. In the same class as Mint: Magnoliopsida - or Flowering Plant.  It grows pretty big and is a common and abundant "weed". The young shoots look similar to Lemon Balm or Mint or Catnip but a little more aggressive... rigid, angular.  They have the highest iron content of any plant and are sooooooooooo delicious. when these young shoots are steamed they taste incredibly sweet. almost like blood.  No need to salt or to season in any way.  YUMMM!  They also are superb in pesto or in scrambles.

The best thing about Nettles though is that they're free! If you find a patch, you can tend to it and it will thrive and feed you and your family for years and years.  I'm guessing that by this time next year I will be cultivating them.  Perhaps even in greenhouses.  I've been pretty passionate about plants and about Nettles specifically for many years. It feels like I'm being told that it's time to turn that passion into a comprehensively sustaining passion.

Nettles are pretty all-over the place in bushy and fieldy places. Go find your patch today!! just make sure to be mindfull (even wear gloves until you learn how to grab them) while you're cutting them.  In my opinion it's worth it to get stung, just to see how it feels.  It's more difficult to intentionally get stung though.  It's a really surprising thing that happens when you accidentally brush up against the plant.  Kinda like a little electric shock. Then, depending on how severe the 'bite' the affected spot will go through some fascinating sensations for the next several minutes, hours, days. it may even produce a mark or some redness.

Im wondering if we can use the Urtica sting to access mystical realms. It wouldn't surprise me and it's certainly food for thought as I explore all things Urtica these days.

I probably talk about Nettles, Cannabis and Fungus forever so deep runs the passion for these magnificent beings.

So how about you tell me
About the warm Sun's Moon-swoon along
The small of your back tonight:

How the whisper of light, quiet as a wonder
In a sea of shouting feelings
Feels,

While you stand in Love, laughing
At the whirlwind of a world
in such Motion,

Cacophony!....

Tell me anything!
Tell me, quick as
You can stand--
I can't stand not knowing
Much longer than this.

The way we shudder in embrace:
A testament to this wonder.
Shhhhh...

We'll quietly fall away
Into this brisk
Unfolding dream.

So pleased to have found a rambunctious patch of Nettle goodness nearby.  It will provide our growing family with an abundance of nutritious greens in the months ahead.  Today's harvest, much like yesterday's, was largely made into this amazing tonic soup:

Chef MyKLove's Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) Soup

1 Large Onion
1 Bulb of Garlic (10ish cloves)
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1Tbsp Virgin Coconut Oil (optional)
2lbs tubers and/or roots
2lbs Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) tops
1 Gallon Pure Water
1tsp sea salt (to taste)

I sautee the minced Garlic and diced Onions in EV Olive Oil until they're translucent, throw in the coarsely chopped tubers/roots (today was Parsnips, ytd was Potatoes) and the Nettles which I've sliced up with scissors.  I fry this mix about 'till the Nettles begin to soften slightly... not too long, and then add the gallon of H2O.  Pshhhhhhhhhhht!  Get it boiling and then simmer for fourty minutes.  About halfway through, I stick in an electric handblender and randomly chop it up.  I haven't tried yet but it would probably cream up nicely.

The rest of today's harvest went into the dehydrator.

Oh  beLoved Nettle!  It feels especially  wonderfull to have an abundance of this  ally with us ... and especially this early in the spring.

What did you do for Equinox?  I know it's kinda late, what with Easter just having passed and all but I really feel inclined to write about the experience of this March Equinox day.  It was a pretty special day... it's been pretty busy since.  Happy belated Equinox!

I'll Start by saying that the Blisstians, who've been staying with us for a couple of weeks now, have bought themselfs a Delica.  I'm SO excited for them and eager to get one for ourselfs.  It's going to be their home for the rest of the spring into summer as they stay at the OUR Ecovillage in Shawnigan.  This in itself is pretty exciting too as it means the'll be staying close by for a bit longer.  Just across the Lake.

They got the van the day before and on that special Equinox day, we awoke and, after a hearty breakkie, we piled in and headed out onto the logging roads... because we could.   We found a great little spot that's part of the Koksilah River Provincial Park and set out to explore the river.

We evacuated the van and began our exploration of the wood quite randomly.  I was first out and walked right on in to pee while others meandered about at their own pace.  The trees in this part of the park are pretty big.  The canopy begins quite high up.  It feels quite vast.  The Koksilah river provides a constant rush of sound and excitement while slicing through the forest to the ocean.   It moves pretty rapidly these days. 

sOMa found me getting sticks together for the raft he spoke of building.   We observed a little swarm of water striders on smal calm beachy spot of the river.  Then sOMa went off by himself for a bit and found the Blisstians a little up river.  laura and I followed behind a little, in Love and out in the nature (wink wink! :o) and found that Christian was walking in the frigid water, exploring the painfull healing energy.

This sparked discussion about the merits of immersion in frigid waters as a healing exercise.  It was mentioned that the key was to stick on dry clothes immediately after and one would become warm.  I was very intrigued and while Blair was getting half-naked to wet her feet, I was getting ALL naked to immerse my body.

The water was SO SO COLD on my legs...painfully so. It was about thigh-high where I was exploring.  I Shook out all off the heebie-jeebies and plunged straight down into it, head and all, somewhat fetal and I floated for about a second, maybe two then plunged right back up and out and OH MY FG!!! It's so cold stepping out and to the rocky bank.  I shuddered excitedly and so full of adrenaline and rubbed my arms and quickly felt the warm air and it was all really great as I warmed up in the sun over a few minutes.

Christian went next.  Right by where I went in he got down on his back, keeping his head above the water and floated for a couple of seconds, squealing and excited as he made his way out. 

I went back in again.  I stayed down for a little longer than the first.  It was more clear the second time.  I had time to hear the river and to feel the sting.  I found that there was something eerily compelling about staying in the water.  It was an innate knowing that I could find the place that I'm looking for with Aya and other plant and fungal allies.  It added a dimension of bliss and glee to the experience that went beyond the simple challenging of bodily limitations.  Felt kinda like I found 'church' again. 

Well, sOMa went in (but couldn't immerse fully) then Blair and after, laura, beautifull belly and all, both dove full-on into the deep spot.  And each quickly ran from the water, brimming with sacred excitement.  A complete and brilliant communion...

...presque.

As we were making our way back, Blair stopped with Sequoia for a sip and I joined.  Koksilah tastes really fine.

After such an event, we went for some Hot beverages at the local cafe and roastery, on our way to Tyler and Leah's for an equinox pot-luck and fire and circle:  A perfect cap to a most magical day.

Since then, my life experience has been markedly different.  Not unlike my experience with Daime.  I've got an incredible desire to do this again.  The next time however, to dive in a-la laura and Blair.  There is a strong pull To make this part of some practice.  I think that with the right crowd, it may be possible to find authentic and communal mystic states of consciousness... using nothing but water and the body.

Moist
Outside, the fog clogs
The crickets' bows. They know
To be winding down now anyhow.

The soloist who remains:
At play with a simple serenade
Into the thick and magical misty night.

Inside, Lovers' quiet breaths breathing
A mystic aria into brief instants of silence.
Tonight's  chorus: a melody of coyote at prey.