Rose Cottage

 This week, I invited you to pose a few questions - thank you for entering the conversation!  Most of your inquiries were about some of my interests - spirituality, crafts, and studying Cherokee - where did they begin? All are rooted in growing up wi th my parents - nurtured and inspired by their love, and inspired by their interests. We each had our own take on these - and i was encouraged to deepen with my own.   Lois • Nadya • Byrle - 1962 I'm an only child, and my parents were 37 and 40 when I was born!  My mum had polio during the epidemic in 1921, and was on crutches from her teens until she was 85, and went into a wheelchair for the next 7. Her mama encouraged her to do what she could for herself, and she did! Lois was plucky and self sufficient, training as a secretary, and working around the state for the Farm agency. My folks met at Grange (a Fraternal farm organization) in the 30s, when AB came to Central Oregon to farm with his brother. I was impres...

Learning Tsalagi continues to be an awesome journey. We're over halfway through summer classes with Ed Fields, and our in-person weekend with Woy' ale Ahid' was great!  A couple of the gals and I formed a study group, and have met virtually several times.  In the go-ge-yi (spring), I made Syllabary flash cards for the 85 characters. This writing system was crafted by Sequoyah, with a character for each syllable plus the 6 vowels and s (which indicates the sound 'ss' - or a question when at the end of a word:  tsa-du-li /  you want it / tsa-du-lis / do  you want it?)   Tsalagi values Following a recent group call, I reorganized the cards into sets following the order used in the ' Let's Learn Cherokee Syllabary ' chapters. This little book was written by a speaker who learned to read and write Japanese, using a similar book to learn the kanji. Though Marc could speak Tsalagi, he couldn't read or write ( i-go-li-yes-gv ale go-we-lo-di)  the language,...

Osiyo - hello For over 3 decades, I've been interested in learning Cherokee, and have gathered resources when I could.  I picked up books, including a little Cherokee Syllabary dictionary, and practiced the writing. My dad's mom Minnie had Cherokee heritage, and the language has similarity to the Gaelic other ancesters spoke. Syllabary + Ed's ale Mary's book This spring I signed up for live  online dideloquasdi (school/ learning) via the Tsalagi (Cherokee) Nation - which funds language classes throughout the year - at no charge to the students! Taught by first language speaker Ed Fields, with assistance from Meli (Mary Rae) who began taking Ed's classes nearly a decade ago, these classes offer a wonderful glimpse into the world view and culture! (Here's Meli and Ed's site  which includes little word puzzels) This post by another of Ed's students provides a nice overview of the classes, which still use the format Jamie describes. The online classes a...

 Recently, I used my little Cherokee Syllabary dictionary to record plant names in my garden journal, I needed to look up one of the wild greens, Sochani, and was delighted to find this article !  In winter, I ordered 'Golden glow' (Rudbeckia lanciniata) seed from Everwild, after finding the greens were a favorite food of the Cherokee. Sochan seed packe t In an article on his blog in 2019, edimental proponent Stephen Barstow wrote that Rudbeckia lanciniata "is documented as probably the most important spring vegetable of the Cherokee in the Southern Appalachians in Moerman’s Native American Ethnobotany, which is probably where I first noted its edibility.  "It’s missed in Cornucopia II. The Cherokee ate the tender young leaves and stems cooked alone or with other greens such as poke (Phytolacca americana), Ramps (Allium tricoccum), Rumex spp. (docks) and eggs. They were also fried with fat, were dried for later use and also eaten as a cooked spring salad or as celery ...