Hehaka Ska Win

I love working with the Dakota People from the Crow Creek Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It’s a great honor to learn from their elders. One of our projects last year was the creation of an ethnobotanical garden in the shape of a medicine wheel planted with cultural keystone plants. The medicine wheel is a vital part of the Dakota way of life and continues help teach us about the natural world around us. Our garden is named, Hehaka Ska Win after a friends mother, White Elk Woman.

Waiting to be planted last summer.

Taking a break from planting. Yum... love fry bread especially with Howdy Honey.

All day long people came to help plant our garden but we could not have gotten it done without these kids. They did not want to stop until it was done which took several hours but they were the ones who encouraged us all to finish it that afternoon. Teaching the rising generation is an important aspect to the Dakota People's heritage.

Here is a picture from a few days ago. We need to do some spring cleaning to prepare the garden for the season but below are signs of life:

Prairie smoke (Geum triflorum)

Little Bluestem (Andropogon scoparius)

Pasqueflower (Anemone patens)

The pasqueflower is one of my favorite plants. The Dakota and Lakota People sing songs honoring this flower as one of the first flowers to emerge after the snow melts.

Walker Family

Broken fan

"It will be a miracle if I get this thing back together... without any extra screws." 

Hmmm... I hoping for the miracle because I need my computer in good shape before the end of next week.

Freddy Cole in St. Louis

JAZZ AT THE BISTRO

David outside the Bistro... with the Fabulous Fox behind him.

David and I love Jazz and the Blues and nothing is better than a live concert. (One of our first dates was the Boathouse at Forest Park. We rented boats and then had dinner while listening to a Blues Band). We went to see Freddy Cole at the Bistro. Besides listening to great music, I learned that Freddy Cole was ready to hit the road at 18... but his mother intervened and encouraged him to continue his education first. Eventually he attended Juilliard. Go Moms!

Thanks Peter for the AWESOME Christmas gift!