http://www.flickr.com/photos/43866587@N07/
this is the link to my photostream on flickr where I have fotos of my work with felt

and the down side

the riot police are back. in fullforce. they are afraid a handful of villagers will stop the bulldozers.

a moment in paradise

it is not all burnt. on the way my boys asked me a thousand times, watching the blackened trunks, are you sure it is green where we are going?and when we climbed out of the car and started walking, their joy was tangible. oh, it smells good they said, over and over again. I realised how hard it is for them to live with the evidence of the catastrophe of their environment around us. the outing was an exploration of new storywalks for the museum, because we cant take children to the old ones.
and of course a dyeplant hunting excursion for me. see the cotinus coggyria (smoke tree) lower left in the above foto

and joy of joys madder, madder madder everywhere. it is like a second spring, we have warm weather after rains, sprouts seeds and flowers all together on the same plants. I hope the winter is not too harsh

these are wild pistachio galls, source of tannins and yellow dye which is very lightfast, according to D. Cardon. The bushes are full of them.

I opened one, it was full of aphids. Cardon says they were used before the insects broke out. I promised the boys we'll explore properly during the weekend, I see me dyeing next week

:-)