A couple of days ago, I had a birthday. Okay, a rather large birthday. I turned 3o. For someone who has always been told that I am older than my age, and having had three separate careers in the last 15 years (Pilot, IT/Developer, Medical Herbalist…) being 30 should be in keeping with where I am in life – if not even older. But I feel like this birthday has […]
Once more, the weather disrupts my plans it seems. I was supposed to be teaching the first weekend of my course ‘A Year of Herbs’ today. But the season, and the weather has conspired to cast uncertainty on everyone’s arrangements and it is now a toss-up between running the course but at 11AM, or cancelling all together. It all depends on what the weather does. Yes, the full power of […]
As I write this post, I sit up late into the night – like I do many nights. But this night is different. I am listening to the sound of icy snow and hail thrash against my window, driven by a strong easterly wind. Normally, I would find the idea of snowy weather highly exciting – but not this time. This time, I find the weather to be threatening, worrying, […]
Some time back in the summer, I made a video on Wood Avens (Geum urbanum) and processed some of the root into tincture. I promptly forgot about it until the middle of November. But because of computer problems I only got round to making the video now. So here’s the video on my impressions of Geum. I wanted this video to be very much an exploration of my sensory experience […]
It is only 6 weeks to the start of the new year’s season starting to roll into full swing and for me, this time is a seasonal night of rest before the dawning of the new year. So I sit… And watch. I watch the dusk creeping in over the mountains. And stoke the fire for another early evening lost in thought. An aid to that thought is mulled drinks. […]
It’s that time of year again. A monstrosity of an occurrence imported from America called ‘Black Friday’. Only the nation that has a festival dedicated to being thankful for what they have could invent an event the very next day where they underscore what they do not have and want. In theory this is the time of year when American businesses would go ‘into the black’ financially. But it has […]
So, I find myself on the come-down from the euphoria of publishing my first book. Yesterday, a final draft copy arrived in the post, and after half an hour of squinting and hovering with a red pen – that ultimately wasn’t used – my finger rather heavily clicked on the ‘publish’ button and I found myself an author. Now; I suppose technically I’ve been an author for a while in […]
Another day comes to an end – I sit, in complete silence, the only sounds in the house are the tick-tock of the cuckoo clock, and an occasional rustle as embers settle in the grate. This is winter – not yet the deep mid-winter, but it is Samhain eve; to Celts the start of a period of limbo lasting until the midwinter solstice. And, as the sudden jolt of the […]
The year has well and truly turned. We are now at the half-way point between the end of summer proper, and the festive season of Yule, Christmas, whatever you call it. I never got on well with autumn growing up: a mixture of ME and generally overdoing it in the summer months always lead me to end up in a pretty ‘orrible state by the end of October. Then the […]
Sometimes it is a surprise to actually get great results when I make medicines. Not because I usually get poor results, but when things ‘go to plan’ and work in practice as they should work in theory, it’s a lovely surprise. Take today; for the first time, I made a floral water of German Chamomille (Matricaria recutita), as part of the process of making a Chamomille tincture (For those that […]