I knew that when we took our roadtrip, I would want something from the road where I made my offering.  I had an idea that acorns would be good, one chosen by each of us, and representing each of my three main protagonists.

However, I had NO idea what that would turn into.

As we were getting ready to leave, I glanced around trying to find something to hold my acorns.  Lo and behold, I found a small mason jar, and thought that would work just as a quick fix.  Little did I know that I would need to choose a bigger jar when we got home because of all the goodies I found.

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Things I collected:

-Two striped green berries of some species of the Solanus (Nightshade) family.  (Possibly Horse Nettle or Tropical Soda Apple)  We found this at a little roadside cemetery where we met two farmers that let us walk up and take pictures of the cemetery on their private property.

-A mystery seed pod found at the same farm.  It’s fuzzy and wispy, almost like mature dandelion, but has green seeds (1/2 cm) embedded in the fuzz.  Can’t find a damn thing about it online.

-The pink seed head of an ornamental grass we saw growing in the main square of Madison, Ga.

-3 petals from a sunflower at a huge sunflower farm we stopped at.

-Fuzzy baby chestnuts from the road where my story is set.

-A mature, dried thistle head from the same road.

-Several acorns from the cemetery at the top of the road.  We picked the three, and then I kept picking them up because there were so many pretty ones.

-Rusted iron finials from some sort of railing or fence, from the same cemetery.  They were just stuck in the middle of the dirt and didn’t seem to be attached to anything.  There were two, and I took both.

-A piece of moss from the same cemetery.

-3 pieces of really clear, pretty quartz, a garnet, and a chip of flint from the same cemetery.

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This is going to become a tradition for any time we go somewhere.  Bear and J had a great time, so I think we’ll be doing this again sometime when we have the money and the day off together.  I would love to collect a jar from each trip and keep it on a shelf over my desk, with the date and main location of the trip written on the top in Sharpie.

Looks like we found a new tradition.  🙂