Category: Out and About

The wonders of Conwy Seed Fair – A herbalist’s perspective

Hand collected wildflower seeds

Transcribed from my notebook scribblings, 26th March 2019  As I write this I am sitting in the afternoon sun, watching the hustle and bustle of a street fair being dismantled. Today was Conwy Seed Fair, and it dates back over 700 years. We arrived in the mid morning sunshine, pleased to see Conwy high street full of people buying plants and seeds (and other things too!). Some years it has […]

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Oak before Ash

Oak Before Ash

These is an old saying that goes something like: ‘Oak before Ash, you’re in for a splash; Ash before Oak, you’re in for a soak.’ Whether this is in any way useful in forecasting the weather to come this summer is a moot point. But it is understood to reflect the weather in the winter and early spring before the leaves do open. Now, this year, the Oaks have very […]

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Flaming June

Well, midsummer is upon us. I will admit that it’s been a somewhat strange late spring/early summer though. Spring seemed to come late, with many things that would start in April only really blossoming in the second half of May. Of course, this meant an explosion in growth as nature ‘catches up’ with itself by speeding up. Now we’ve had a heatwave, and a week of wall-to-wall sun. And would […]

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Ar Lan y Môr (Down by the Shore)

Lowrian Foraging

As I get more into the ‘Silly Season’ of full-time (and then some) work, I’m becoming ever more aware of the need to make time – even just in small chunks. The half-hour here, or the morning there. So it was today – I’ve been getting interested in the idea of foraging for some time now – beyond just foraging for medicinals – as I realise that there is a […]

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Winter’s Harvest: Part 3

Musings on my mushrooming interest in fungi. What winter blessings! I have just been down the quarry from walking the dogs + seeing if where were any more fly agarics to pick – for friends who can’t get the tincture elsewhere. There weren’t any out, I think they’ve long gone for the rest of the winter now. Anyway, I saw a tree stump + fallen log covered with turkey tails […]

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Winter’s Harvest: Part 2

Last year, I realised that the shortening days and die-back of the world of herbs and plants didn’t have to mean the end of my beloved foraging walks or of learning more about the woods I call home or their inhabitants. I fell in love with mushrooms and fungi (Exception being the dry rot that has plagued our house over the past few years!). This year, as the shelves in […]

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Winter’s Harvest

Recently I have realised that my forraging and walking alond hedgerows has not stopped this winter as it normally does. Normally, about the end of October, the medicinal plants have gone in and I lose interest until they re-emerge in the spring. Associated with this slowing of the growing world, I tend to develop a bout of SAD around the beginning of November which is usually dispelled by Christmas but […]

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As busy as bees…

Spring day… the bees are busy… … And the day is busy as bees… After a fruitful but tiring week of organisation, planning, collaboration and thinking, the week ahead promises to be another manically busy time… but of teaching, working, and inspiring. But, just for this afternoon, I take time to just be what I am. A herbalist in Spring. I planted Borage, Calendulas, and Escholtzia (Californian Poppies), as it’s been […]

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Spring Around the Corner

It’s so clear today as I walk the dogs… the air seems to have been cleaned of all impurities, as it sucked up and scrubbed through a giant filter. It smells cold, and catches the back of the throat; a sharp, tangy sensation. The sun’s going down and the day’s almost done… fires being lit in the village, sending smoke rising to hit the inversion layer and spreading out to […]

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