This page is a call and response conversation in image and text between Bec in the New Town Rivulet and Julie in the Glen River Park
Trees growing out of the ruined walls have all kinds of odd formations, I wonder what caused the tree to respond in this strange way.
drawing made form Bec’s image using copper, avocado pit and acorn hat inks. The copper forms a verdigris /ˈvəːdɪɡriː,ˈvəːdɪɡriːs/ is a bright bluish-green encrustation or patina formed on copper or brass by atmospheric oxidation, consisting of basic copper carbonate I made mine form some old electical wire in spirit vinegar with salt added and exposed periodically to the air, in a well ventillated space. From a jeweller’s perpective Verdigris forms as a result of oxygen, moisture and other pollutants the metal has come in contact with over the years. The pollutants also include body sweat and oils, make-up, perfumes, hair products, and lotions. The ink is toxic and needs careful dipsoal, the best way I have found is to make drawings on paper and left to dry in.
The Final Corner
Plantago lancelota/Ribwort/Plantain/St. Patrick’s Foot/Lamb’s tongue/Rat-tailblack/ribgrass/tinker-tailor grass/windles/Cuckoo’s Bread/Englishman’s foot,/the leaf of St Patrick,/Patrick’s Dock,/Ripple Grass,/St.Patrick’s Leaf,Snakebite/Snakeweed/Waybread/Waybroad/White Man’s Foot
I have been reading Oein DeBhairduin’s Why The Moon Travels. There is a story called Airmid’s Gresko. Gresko means voice in the Irish Traveller language, Gammon.
It is a sad and beautiful tale from the Tuatha de Danaan of how the healing knowledge of plants was lost and partially saved by Airmid (who gathered them up in her red cape), and how this knowledge lives on, passed down in the remedies still given in De Bhairduin’s family today.
I have been seeking out the plants from this tale, inspired by the voicing and healing in the plants and following my own curiosity ….my mother also makes healing balms from plants she grows.
Crossing Points
Limestone rock in the Glen – we have a few of these along the park, not sure why this one has landed here exactly, perhaps placed at one time to deter the Travellers form halting here. The Glen is a sandstone valley and there is limestone too in Cork – that’s where the red and white colours of our flag come from, some of our oldest city buildings are red and white – St Anne’s ‘Shandon Bells‘ tower has 2 limestone faces and 2 sandstone faces, any true Cork person is said must be born within the ringing of that tower.
The Glen is full of hollow sounds of underground pipes and the sewers which were enlarged in the 70’s to accommodate new housing. This was after the industry had gone into decline and the baby boom had created a new surge in demand for family homes, ‘The Flats’ were built fast and cheap on the edge of the Glen. There is polluted water from household drains entering the river at various points and from both sides, the smell of washing machine effluent is strongest by the curved wall.
Conglomerates
First raindrops soak into the bark of a Tasmanian tree, late fall.