Of Weeds and Wizarding

SPELLBINDING: Wednesday afternoon, we headed down south the main library in Kent for a special Wizarding Wands Workshop. Part of King County Library System's Summer Reading Program, it was a drop in DIY session, led by library staff. The promo for it on the library website read, "Make it Magical. Make your own Wizarding World Wand. Design it yourself from our select magical materials, or get enchanting advice from senior wizards. Participants may bring their own patronus or messenger bird."

The kids used chopsticks as the base for their wands, and then used decorative tapes, gems, and other embellishments.

We hope to plug into many summer reading program workshops and events over the next couple of months!

JUST DANDY: Last weekend, we took on an enormous task: Digging out probably around 500 dandelions from our front yard.

The space was basically just a dandelion forest rather than grass lawn at this point. 

As we dug up the dandelions, we talked about a different world, where dandelions weren't viewed as the enemy. 

                              Elizabeth Blackwell, - A Curious Herbal, 1736, public domain

CJ did a little research. ...

Dandelions are plants characterized by their unique blossoms (the two most common forms being yellow florets, and the other form being a head of seeds). According to NatureNorth, the word "dandelion" is derived from "dent de lion," a phrase used in the French language used to refer to the plants. Whiledandelions are native to three different continents (Asia, Europe, and North America), two of the most common species worldwide, the "common dandelion" and the "red-seeded dandelion," are of European origin.

For most of their history, dandelions were not regarded as weeds, and were often used in medicine, according to the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. In fact, grass was pulled in many a yard to make way for dandelions. However, at a certain point in the 20th century, public opinion of dandelions turned towards the negative. By the end of the century, pulling dandelions had become standard yard-keeping practice.

                                       Dandelion leaf photo by Greg Hume, via Wikimedia

A LITTLE HISTORY: Recently, we also took a couple minutes to watch an episode of "Nick on the Rocks," a video series hosted by Central Washington University professor Nick

The episode we watched was about ancient volcanoes in the Cascades.
In it, told us about geologists who have found places in the Cascades where Mount Rainier-like volcanoes once stood. Though the ancient volcanoes have disappeared, there are still many clues today about the long gone 'ghost volcanoes.'