Welcome to the Natural Coalescence Blog

Making and testing natural inks & dyes from fruits and flowers in PNW.

Summer time means melons. All sorts of melons these days, not just the classic "water" so many of us ate and spat from the patio on a...

Oak apples aren't a fruit, they're a gall from a wasp and they may not be edible but you can use them for home-made ink.

Buds buds everywhere and not a bulb to eat. Spring is popping up, literally, as represented by bulbs popping up their plump flower heads...

medical traits and ID of wild shelf mushroom red belted conk (Fomitopsis pinicola)

There are many cool trees all over the world and possibly more than our 'fair share' in the Pacific northwest due to the variety of...

Blue flowers are the RAREST color. I’ve noticed this for a long time. And it makes sense. But it is also confusing and weird and...

*(sweaty, even while standing still because… heat domes & such) It’s a berry Pacific Northwest kind of life in summer time here. The sun...

There’s a disturbance in the woods. The snow has melted in most places, the skiers have slipped away with the entrance of spring. And...

Hydrangea season approaches! Blue is coming. The special and huge draw of these shrubs for many gardeners is the unusual color of certain...

The iris is more than a lovely (ok absolutely gorgeous) flower. Of ancient Greek mythology, she is the goddess who personified the...

There are dozens of flavors for vodkas on the liquor shelves, some fruity, some floral. As delightful as a toasted marshmallow vodka can...

I would bet this plant is among those that most people, even the botanically interested, would pass right by. Rosy twisted-stalks, and...

Begonia flowers are cooler than most people realize. I painted their corkscrew pistils as an oil painting, honoring them as I eat them.

Hey ya doll. Don’t you mind me, or should I say “us”. We certainly don’t mind this snow that can’t resist showing up again after a long...

You know that 'adult thing' where you like slipping on a fresh new pair of socks? It's like a cozy snuggle for each foot. It's a thing....

Cottonwood trees (Populus balsamifera ssp. trichocarpa, P. deltoides and B. fremontii) have a love-hate relationship with people. Some...

On a trip to southern California, I was so pleasantly surprised to find myself among the silvery scent-sational low shrubs I recall from...

At the edge of a forest, near a centennial remnant of crumbling cedar fence, there’s a gnarled struggling tree of knotted branch tangles...

This use probably won't make it onto a toaster oven box or manual, but it was only too obvious for me. How else can you encourage some...