Chaga is quieting

Chaga - ah, chaga. Just for the moment, forget anything you're ever read about it boosting immunity or fighting free radicals. Picture, if you will, a forested hillside. Birch. It's winter, the sun slants on an angle through the trees. The air is crisp and all is quiet. Very, very quiet.

It's been my experience - and that of one other person that I know of - that when I take chaga on a regular basis, quiet comes over me. I just don't want to speak. I also really want to be outside, in the sun, and when winter comes I especially want to just stand still in the winter sun and the cold wind feels good to me. Odd, eh?

The lesson of aspen

Windfall!

Flower essences revisited and a few thoughts on dabbling vs serious study (of anything)

The flower essence posts sure are popular, and there have been some questions from readers, so instead of answering them each privately by email, I'll try to cover more ground here in a post.

First off - no, I will not supply them to others. Yes, I did mention to a couple of you that there is a local shop sorta interested in buying my tinctures, oils & essences, but that's a bit different, it's in bulk so I wouldn't have to deal with the time & expense of filling little bottles and mailing things out.

Besides, I haven't yet decided if I could, in good conscience, sell essences at all. Maybe I shouldn't even have opened my mouth to that shop owner that I make them; I still see essences as intensely personal concoctions, best made from one's own flowers. Tinctures & essences are very different animals.

Essences work more on an energetic level than tinctures and since energetic issues are so incredibly variable, I can't say (nor can anyone else, I'd think) with any certainty, what kinds of effects any one flower essence would have for any one person.

I'm beginning to see working with flower essences the same way I see working with something like the Tarot.

Blueberry flowers, gratitude and magic

From this site: (chosen because of its simplicity, low woo-factor and because there's the occasional quote in the chart from Matthew Wood, my current favourite writer/herbalist.)

"Blueberry (low bush)
Vaccinium Angustifolium

This essence brings resiliency on all levels- physical, emotional, psychological. It enables the person who takes it to “bounce back” from illness or adversity. Low Bush Blueberry is a good addition to any healing blend and an important part of the blend Crisis Care."

Who couldn't use a little more resiliency? I know I could, and Paul (my husband, co-conspirator and all around good guy) wouldn't mind a little more himself, so it seemed a good essence for us to try out. And also, blueberries are something we've got plenty o' in this neck of the woods. This is blueberry country.

It's also blackfly season.

Flower essences - where does the information about them come from?

Following up on the last post of a couple days ago ..

Talk about a rabbit hole!

No surprise, this - the descriptions of the attributes of the flower essences are extremely variable between sources.

There's Edward Bach's original work, (here's the official site) and those who adhere to it; that's fairly standardized (not that I believe 'standardized' is a necessarily always a good thing, but the man was a pioneer and his work is valuable ..). There's also a dizzyingly large array of essences 'discovered' since Bach, because let's face it, there are more than the 38 flowers that he had access to in the English countryside; people want to (and should) be able to use what grows near them ..

A new schtick for me - flower essences

I never thought I'd see the day I'd be diving into the airy-fairy, woo-filled world of flower essences, but if you were to rummage amongst all the jars of infused oils and deeply coloured tinctures on the top of my china cabinet today you'd find 4 jars and several small brown dropper bottles of what looks very much like plain water.

Flower essences are sorta-kinda like homeopathic remedies. It's one of those "they're the same only different" deals. Their similarity is that both are extremely diluted - I'll tell you just how diluted in a bit - but they also differ in a very important way.

A spoonful of sugar - discussing (medicinal) herbal syrups

It's been years since I've been able to dry the airy parts of some of my herbs successfully, especially those with large or thick leaves. The Ottawa River valley is notoriously humid to begin with; we've had a few really really humid summers in a row and this one, phew, it's been downright wet (but at least not hot!).

So, as with the past few summers, I have to find other ways to preserve my herbs for winter. One of those ways is by making syrups. I've been told that the pioneer women in my region nearly always preserved their herbs as syrups. I don't know how accurate that is, but I can see the reasoning. Syrups are instantly available, they can be easily turned into a cup of hot, sweet tea, and they're (let's face it) easier to get down the throat of a recalcitrant child (or husband) (or farm hand). In days of yore, tinctures weren't the 'thing' they are now, booze being at a premium or verboten. I wonder about the availability of sugar to a housewife way up in the bush, though ..