Arcane arts

We have today off due to rain, and it sounds like we are going to an onsen and some other places in about 20 minutes here which is nice. Unfortunatly Viola is also leaving today which is dissapointing. She has been here longer then me so far, and functions kind of like the mother of all the WWOOFers because she has the best Japanese. (She can actually hold a full conversation with Obaa-chan) She is also the oldest out of the group, though she does not look her age. At any rate, she didn't tell me when she was leaving until yesterday morning. And I wanted to get her a gift before she left, but there was no time to go out and find something to buy, so I figured I'd have to make her something. Given my limited resources, this is what I came up with.:
Now, I haven't made a dream catcher since I was a kid. And even then I always made them from kits that came with a steel ring, leather, feathers, beads, and twine. This was my first time making one from scratch. The frame is reeds that I yanked off of a bush on one of the abandoned farms in the area. The string was out of Obaa-chan's basket. (Not exactly ideal material for this, but it worked. Thanks to Rachel for helping me tie some knots) The stone in the center is out of the garden in front of Kazu's house. (It was dark when I was looking for one, so I had to feel out for one that would work. I think I got a pretty good one though.) Lacking hawk feathers or anything like that, the feathers at the bottom are actually out of one of the feather dusters we use to pollinate the trees with. (There is actually still a bit of pollen in them.)

If you don't know what a dream catcher is, I'll give a brief explanation. They are a Native American craft meant to protect against bad dreams. All dreams pass through, but the dream catcher is supposed to catch the bad ones and store them in the stone in the center.

At any rate, I'll miss having her around, but now she can have a bit of Nakagomi Orchard watching over her as she sleeps.

~Daniel