Weekend in the Woods

Last weekend my friend Emily was in town on her way down from a road trip that was preceded by a walk in the woods to gather chanterelle mushrooms. When she arrived at her next stop, my row house apartment in Baltimore, we started the day with kava cinnamon tea and mushroom pastries made from the foraged fungi...

Then we got into my new car and drove to Towson to do some thrifting. We were looking for rocking chairs and teddy bears, vintage teacups, green gingham dresses, and VHS tapes of cottagecore cartoons.

We found lots of cheap tapes, priced at 33 cents each! We found some rubber stamps, books, and mugs with bears and mushrooms on them.

My friend Arielle also found this beautiful ceramic platter with a fern on it and gifted it to me. We took it home and used to it eat cherries and mullberries off while watching Flight of the Dragons at our slumber party.

The next day we went downtown for breakfast and since we were already in Mt. Vernon, I gave Emily the walking tour of town. We went through the four parks, then to the Walters for their Majolica Mania exhibit. We toured a Victorian house while looking at ornate ceramic dishes, some with forest creatures carved into them!

After exploring the catacombs of the church, the libraries, and hanging out in the lobby of the hotel, we went the Druid Hill to visit Rawlings Conservatory and look at rare plants...

We went back to my neighborhood to go to the free farm and pick wild berries and visit the magical candy shop. I wanted to take Emily to the labyrinth in the Church of the Guardian Angel, but we ran out of time. Emily had to be moving on to her next destination...

After an exhausting day, we sat back in my room and drank matcha lemonade that I had whisked up earlier while reminiscing and posting pictures before she had to go...

Recipe for Matcha Lemonade 

 2 tablespoons matcha powder

3 lemons

1/4 cup honey

8 cups water 

Pour water into pitcher and whisk matcha vigorously with a whisk. Juice the lemons and pour into pitcher. Be sure to filter out the seeds, set them out to dry and save. Add honey and whisk the mixture together for three minutes. Chill in refrigerator.

It was a wonderful weekend in the woods with my forest friends. I wish every weekend could be like this! Now that I've got a car, I am going to explore more forests outside of the city on my days off...