![]() ![]() Our lives are full and rich! Some of us have lived and traveled around the world some of us enjoy the quiet of home. We are 30 member households – singles and couples, working and retired, volunteers and activists. See the For Sale/Rent section for the latest updates. Changing circumstances result in some homes becoming available for sale or rent from time to time. Shepherd Village is the first cohousing community in the state of West Virginia.Īll original SV homeowners have taken possession of their homes as of May 2019. We wanted to create a close-knit neighborhood that will support aging in place, staying actively engaged in life and enjoying deep friendships. Edible, medicinal, and attractive, the shepherd’s purse is one of the West Village’s weeds most qualified to be viewed instead as a wildflower.Shepherd Village was designed by a group of active people, mostly >55. For all of its useful qualities, and for all of its poetic lines and grace, it is also physically tough and once rooted will resist a lawn mower nine times out of ten. Shepherd’s purse is a ruderal, one of the first plants to return to an area of soil disturbed, for example, by construction. The Latin name alludes to the capsules bursting and spreading their contents in a pasture an image as poetic and pretty as the plant itself. Apparently the shepherds of medieval times carried a pouch that paralleled the design of this seed-bearing structure. A loose group of shepherd’s purse plants, viewed with a little imagination, resemble whirling dancers.Īnyone who has access to an online search engine will learn the pods are the source of Capsella bursa-pastoris’ popular name. These wind up the flower stalk in a symmetrical spiral manner that conjurs up a sense of movement. Close up, they appear like tiny creased hearts served on a stem. The seed pods below the flowering head are the most beautiful feature of the plant. A basal rosette of toothed leaves similiar to the dandelion send up stalks fringed with seed pods topped by racemes of florets, each one consisting of four tiny white petals.Ī close-up view of the Shepherd's Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) reveals the wildflower's tiny white florets. This member of the family Brassicaceae, the mustards, is also one of the most visually striking wild plants to be seen growing along the margins of the West Village. The seeds, which have a flavor akin to pepper, can be used as a spice and are commonly used in Chinese won tons. The leaves are both edible as a green and medicinal as a blood-clotting agent. An immigrant from Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, the plant offers a variety of uses. The Shepherd’s Purse ( Capsella bursa-pastoris) stands in the forefront of this group. Dandelion leaves for salad, onion grass for spice, and chickory root for a coffee substitute are just a few of the culinary oddities that can cultivate a lifetime of interest in the folksy home remedy, the locally-grown green, the weed as wildflower. ![]() The initial attraction to the world of wild plants often comes from the edible angle. The dynamic forms of Shepherd's Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) appear to pirouette among the Beligian blocks along Bank Street. ![]() The wildflowers, too, had arrived, including. The humidity appeared in an instant, bumblebees filled the air, robins and purple finches trilled in the trees, which like the grounds all around town had gone a bright pastel green. When Easter Sunday did arrive, it turned into the first balmy warm day of the year. The spring season appeared to be as late as the Passover and Easter holidays. A season opening fly fishing trip to Prospect Park Lake in Brooklyn was accompanied by the somber colors of early spring. The lake itself was charcoal grey and surrounded by the tan stalks of last year’s cattails and the brown mesh of tree branches just beginning to bud. A hint of pale blue emerges, followed by the electrum sun and the full spectrum of visible light manifested by the prism of that same rainfall, now receding.Īpril 2011 followed this manner of blooming, at least in New York City. First, there is the monochromatic gray sky, opening up with wind and water until it begins to thin out. The transition from winter to spring really does resemble the way a rainbow emerges from a storm. A view of Prospect Park Lake in Brooklyn captures the cold colors of early April. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |