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A Field Guide to Divine Foraging
 

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Thistle Bonnet: made from thistle heads found somewhere on the Lancashire Way and recycled cotton. 

In the North of England the creeping thistle is one of the last wild plants to flower before winter. Sometimes Comma butterflies feast on the flower heads and dot the field with dashes of pink and orange. Cows and thistles are good friends and often sit together but traditionally thistles are a farmer's foe and they work hard to eradicate them with herbicides that also eliminate dandelions, clover, vetch, tare and mayweed. If you're lucky you might still find a field abundant with thistles.

You will need:

A bonnet pattern

An old cotton sheet

A tape measure, pins, needle and cotton

A pencil

Some thistle heads

Referring to the bonnet pattern measure your head and transfer the pattern onto cotton with a pencil. Sew the segments together using a sewing machine. Once you've made your bonnet select a thistle head and guide a needle through the fleshy part of the pappus and attach to the outside of the bonnet. Continue in this way until you've formed a line.

Repeat.

Ensure sufficient time is available to complete the task (a number of days) as the thistle heads will continue to develop its fruit (the feathery pappus)  and attaching the thistle heads will become increasingly difficult. Fresh thistle heads should be attached as soon as possible.

Once the thistle bonnet is completed and the pappus are fully developed for flight select a bright blustery day, put on the bonnet securing the ties beneath the chin. Go for a walk around a farmer's field ensuring full distribution of the thistle seeds before leaving.

A Water Offering at Hest Bank

Anglo Saxons believed what you took in your hand grew in weight; that matter and intention could merge and form a new union creating a sacred entity. These objects were often used in ritual offerings or as divination tools.

Take time to integrate into your surroundings.

When you're ready select a waterside pebble - wait until something catches your eye, a shape, colour or texture perhaps - this is how the pebble attracts your attention.

Go for a walk and hold the pebble in your hand, feeling the temperature and texture against your skin.

Notice a communion as you share your warmth and microbes.

Now think about infusing the pebble with love - love as a sensual, molecular intermingling - fill the pebble with love.

When you’re ready place the pebble at the water’s edge.

If there are more pebbles put them together and form a cairn or, if you’re feeling vital you might throw the pebble into the sea.

As the pebble hits the water imagine your love bursting out across the Bay.

(Hest Bank Beach is a small, stony beach on the edge of Morecambe Bay. There you’ll find an abundance of sea glass, pottery, seabird feathers, driftwood and big lumps of slag shunted down the coast from Warton by the estuary’s intertidal drift. You might also spot curlews, oystercatchers, gulls and terns.)

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