Himmeli, halmhimmel, straw heaven

We have a beautiful tradition in Finland: we make "heavens" from straw, preferably rye straw. If you search internet for "himmeli" or "olkihimmeli" you'll find lots of photos. I'll show himmelis made by Eija Koski, exhibited at Loftet in Vaasa. Eija Koski uses old traditions as a base for making new items from straw. The traditional himmeli was hanging from the ceiling in the old days, but you can still find them in Finnish houses especially in Christmas time.

I liked this himmeli made from Cow Parsley very much:

The fresh Cow Parsley has green stems. See how the color has changed from a deep green into a deep brown when the stems have dried!

If you want to use Cow Parsley you need to cut the stems while fresh, otherwise they'll split. Read about this beautiful wild flower here: Cow Parsley. In Finnish it's called "koiranputki", dog's pipe, and in Swedish "hundfloka" or "hundkäx", "dog's ?" or "dog's bisquit". On a warm and sunny afternoon when the hundfloka is flowering you can smell the fresh scent of a clean dog fur. It smells good!