Studio Sunday/ Boxes and Bittersweet

In the front of the studio, where it's usually kept clear as this is the path from the front door into the house, today there are boxes holding Spirit Books and bittersweet. The Spirit Books are usually stored elsewhere in the house, but I gave my first Skype workshop (great fun—more later) last week and these were the books I used for a show and tell.

And then today I gathered bittersweet to decorate the house. I usually don't manage it this early but this is the best time to gather it for fall decorating before the yellow cases open to reveal the orange berries. There are several kinds of bittersweet. The native Celastrus scandens or American Bittersweet is not a problem but the more common Asian Bittersweet, Celastrus orbiculatus, is. For all its fall beauty, it's is an incredibly invasive plant with birds spreading the seeds far and wide. The vines wind around trees and eventually strangle them. I only put it in the house—never outside—and when I replace the fall vines with winter greens, I make sure the berries are in the trash not the barrel for brush.