So, last Wednesday, I stepped in to give a talk at the Holyhead Centre of Theosophy. I expanded an article I wrote, and which is available here into a talk – and I didn’t know it would be taped. I was given a DVD of my talk at the weekend so thought I’d share it with a few close friends who read my personal herbal blog. Actually, I am seriously […]
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 […]
So, now the busy-ness of the summer is passing into the quiet, reflective time of winter, it is time to revisit some of the things I’ve done over the past year to get me to where I am in my life, practice, and development of my business at this point. I’d say one of the biggest things I’ve done to get myself known in the local area, and further abroad […]
About 4 years ago, in the first autumn we had our land project, Cae Non, we had little produce from the land to show for our investment but were keen to experiment with what we had. One example of this is my exploring of crabapples. Originally, I’d thought of macerating crab-apples in brandy and sugar to make ‘Crabapple Brandy’ – think along the lines of Sloe Gin but different. But […]
This summer has been busy indeed, and has left me little free time – it has been a summer of sometimes 16 hour days as I see patients, grow, forage, gather and harvest herbs – and process them into herbal products for storage and use throughout the coming months until next summer. Something that has been very nice to play with in between my work has been a form of […]
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 […]
The journey of finding a variety of ,herb maps’ online keeps on unwinding. After I discovered that the herb map of Europe was made by Baldwin’s, I went to their blog with the intent of finding out more about it. Didn’t find any more information than I already knew, but I did find some more Baldwin’s infographic herb maps. Here they are… Herb Map of South America Herb Map of […]
A couple of days ago, I wrote about a rather lovely map of America where each state/area was illustrated with the medicinal herb typical of, or grown in that area. I found, and still find it enchanting. ` Recently, another herbal friend of mine on facebook shared an image of a European Herb Map where each area of land is represented by the herb or medicinal plant that it is known […]
A friend on Facebook recently posted a link to an article containing a very interesting poster. This poster is from America, and was created in 1932 for the National Wholesale Druggists Association as part of a promotional campaign. It is a fascinating map of herbs grown across America, and as a herbalist who uses many American herbs myself, seeing them on a map really helps me to place things. It’s […]
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to post on this blog as much as I’d have liked over the past year… I have found myself rather busy setting up my herbal medicine business and trying to kick-start that side of my life. But we didn’t stop working on Cae Non, and the land didn’t stop growing things!! The herbs I planted 1 – 2 years ago in the raised beds are […]