Raided a poor roadside hazelnut tree, which was bothering no one at all

C and I actually went out to get some fresh air and a break…me from working, C from writing term papers, and we decided that what we needed at home were some flowers…and apples…and, come to think of it, we were running low on bananas and C had a craving for a loaf of freshly baked cinnamon raisin loaf from the local bakery. (It’s just the best all toasted and warm with cold salty butter melting into it…mmm)

Anyway, off we drove, up the hill and past a little green space. There are tons of green spaces in and thru Vancouver. They are connected to parks and filter under highways and are designed to let the creepies and crawlies (everything alive up to and including raccoons, squirrels, skunks, etc), and the OH MY GODS (bears, coyotes and cougars) Move thru the residential neighbourhoods in relative safety. These green spaces usually follow creeks, some of which might serve as spawning creeks, and are semi-wild and uncultivated with indigenous vegetation and the odd path or stairway for people.

So this particular one we passed had some great hazelnut trees with awesome branches and I stopped close by and walked back to cut a good sized branch to take home.

I’m telling you, life of wild vegetation raiding is so much simpler without my daughter the nature policeman around! She didn’t want me to cut a branch too close to the road…in case…of what?…I never did find out…but, to keep her happy, we trekked deep into the green space and down some stairs. Then I spied a good branch except it was about ten feet up. So we jumped for a close branch and pulled and then jumped for a closer branch and pulled some more and slowly lowered the good branch down to cutting level and I took the shears out of my pocket and clipped that branch down! Hooray! Then, to make my child happy, I had to secret the shears back into my pocket before we got back to the road.

On the way up the hill I spied some lovely, fluffy wild clematis seed heads and carefully untangled a nice long piece and clipped that too.

At home I got a cream pitcher, filled it with a little water and stuffed some plastic bags around the stem of the branch wedging it upright in the pitcher. Then, with C’s help to move the branches, I carefully wove that clematis stem around so that the seeds wouldn’t get dislodged and there you are! 🙂

I was originally going to hang some origami shapes from it but now I love it just the way it is with that little funny wooden bird perching on the mouth of the pitcher. But then, C folded a brilliant owl…so now I don’t know what I want…lol 🙂

While we were at the village buying the flowers and cinnamon bread, we had a peek at a lovely little gift shop. This is what I found: These charming little animals under glass domes. I would love something like that on the mantle, but, these are too small, (only about 5 or 6″) and in my opinion, a bit pricey at $15 for size and quality. So now I’m thinking how hard can it be to make some. I bet that with a thrift store dome, from an old clock or something, plus if I painted a creature…like a cheap plastic squirrel, I bet I could make this.

Hmmm.

Joining a couple new link parties which I’ve never joined before: Party one is Pamela at From My Front Porch to Yours and party two is Stacey at Embracing Change