#flower garland

The Roman Widow

Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (English, 1828 - 1882)

Date: 1874

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Museo de Arte de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico

Description

In 'The Roman Widow', Dante Gabriel Rossetti, founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, crafted an image of a widow performing a musical eulogy for her deceased husband. The inscription on the tombstone depicted in the upper right reads: “To the deities of the Underworld, Papiria Gemina has made this for her dearest husband, Lucius Aelius Aquinus: Hail, master, and farewell, master.”

Portrait of a Lady as a Vestal Virgin

Artist: Angelica Kauffmann (Swiss, 1741-1807)

Date: 1780-1785

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain

Description

This year I plan on going all out and making something magnificent with foraged herbs and flowers—so I’m beginning research now.

In the past I’ve used fleabane, tickseed, black-eyed susan, queen anne’s lace, sedge, honeysuckle, and prickly pear.

Czech midsummer věnce are most usually made with nine herbs, though the number can vary from region to region. I plan on using nine since that is the most common, plus the number nine shows up symbolically in other Czech traditions such as the nine strands in a vanočka (braided Christmas bread), and nine course Štědrovečerní večeře (Christmas eve) dinner.

“The nine St. John's herbs are suitable not only for a wreath, but also for your green pharmacy, from which you can draw all year round.”

“Girls were supposed to collect St. John's herbs in nine places, without looking back or speaking. The bouquet was placed under the pillow, but a věnec was also made from the flowers.”

“The nine St. John's herbs varied by region, but the most common among the meadow flowers were thyme, St. John's wort, comfrey, wormwood, daisy, cornflower, ergot, blín, stonecrop, and tears of the Virgin Mary, as the pretty pink carnation was called.”

“But all sorts of meadow flowers are suitable for věnce, traditionally they were also important medicinal plants—including, for example, yarrow, plantain, black elderberry, or linden.”

“The herbs are definitely not to be thrown away and will come in handy all year round. Herbal mixtures made from the nine flowers are used for digestion, relaxation, and even for colds.”

“Yarrow, common pennyroyal, and wormwood will promote good digestion, to which you can add nettle, common sage, and sage.”

“Elderberry, linden, thyme, plantain and yarrow help with colds, and thyme and chamomile can also be added.”

“To calm down and fall asleep, use St. John's wort and St. John's wort together with lemon balm, yarrow, or daisy.”

Solstice Eve walk 2022: tickseed, elderberry, mountain mint, trumpet vine, dewberry, fleabane, touch-me-not, lizard’s tail

I’ll be doing more research into the medicinal and magical properties of plants that I forage before deciding on a complete list of my nine. I know I’ll want to use sheep sorrel because of my personal connection to the plant, and I usually use honeysuckle vine as a base. If the sunflowers growing under the feeder are blooming I’m sure I’ll use them to represent the sun—same with the prickly pear. I may also work in hazel and birch leaves since those are the trees I’m working with this year.

@graveyarddirt obligatory ping because—vinok!

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