Welcome to Lydia McCauley's Garden of Simples Blog

The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get from it, but what they become by it. - John Ruskin



Lydia McCauley and Kurt Scherer are owners of STONEHOUSE ARTIFACTS, offering Treasures from Colonial India. Online Here.

Our shop is located in Bellingham, Washington. We welcome you to come and visit our small estate, enjoy the grounds and share a cup of Chai.



Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Surprising Things


Summer leaned toward Autumn. Autumn ushered itself in on a full moon. Some of us couldn't sleep for the magnetic pull of the year's tide.

Beans came off the vine in multi-colors. We sat at the table opening the pods, each one a different hue: hand-painted cream, dove grey, lavender speckles, and purple purple. All of the colours came from the same plant. This was truly a wonder.



One morning we woke to hundreds of spider webs. It seemed the little creatures got a cue all at the same time and suddenly started webbing up. These silver strung beads hung from grass to twig, rafter to trellis, on berry and bush. There were gossamer wings on the ground that caught enough dew to quench a thirst.



I was in South Dakota at summer's end and was surprised to see such beautiful haystacks.



A friend and I dyed wool with St. John's Wort this year. We were hoping for a red colour, but here's the golden reward of our efforts. One never knows what will happen with natural dyes.



That's the thing. There's so much to not know about and to see and experience. It's surprising.