Tigers don't make good house pets

(Wherein she starts out on a philosophical bent, then gets pretty real about horsetail herb and does a little pep talk at the end)


There's a 'trend', you may have heard of it, known as 'rewilding'. It seemed to come out of something like the same place as the paleo movement; from the idea that we're in an evolutionary mismatch, both with our food and our disconnection from 'nature' (whatever that means) .. and so in one way or another people are reaching for ways to re-establish that connection, or eat and live in ways that are more evolutionarily appropriate. (It's been a 'thing' forever, of course, just by different names.) I'm on the tail end of that hippie, back to the land generation so I've lived that way a bit, and my somewhat older husband, a bit more (he actually lived on a commune in the wilds of British Columbia for a while in the 60's!).

The funny thing is that when people really do put themselves into a position where they are 'living off the land' they discover what humans have known all along; that it's really fucking hard to do. From 'here' it looks noble and romantic, and I suppose we could say it is .. but it's life-threateningly difficult too. Not only that, but when done authentically, it can/will often suck out any and all energy that might have been used for other purposes beyond hardscrabble survival.

Medicine chest 3 - Slippery Elm - the safe and the not so safe.

Here's a surprise for you all, I do some of my foraging in the retail environment! Ha!

Slippery Elm Bark - While we do have slippery elm trees in our neck of the woods (and I'm pretty sure I have a couple of weedy youngsters coming up in the wilder edges of our yard) I have yet to experiment with making my own slippery elm bark powder.

Medicine chest - 2nd instalment (hair tonics and dizzy spells)

This looks to be turning into a series of posts, and the plant descriptions seem to be getting more rambling as I go .. typical me. Don't take any of this as comprehensive, these are snap shots only. And remember, this 'list' is in no particular order of importance, I'm just writing them as they pop into my head. The idea is to throw a few bits and pieces at you that you might not read in "typical" plant monographs elsewhere, things I've learned by experience.

In fact, just pretend you're sitting at my kitchen table listening to me yabber, rather than reading anything authoritative, okay?

Medicine chest - the first 5

Someone was asking me for a list of the herbs I have in my medicine chest .. ho boy.

Seeing as how I've been obsessively collecting and messing about with just about anything that grows in our area for a couple of decades now, there's a lot of stuff in my 'medicine chest'. I've filled the shelves and cupboards of an oversized china cabinet with various sized mason jars, jam jars and tincture bottles and another, the one that officially is supposed to hold the good china, is starting to see more than just my Grandmother's dishes.

What you'll learn here - and what you won't (plus bonus rant)

I dunno if it's there's something up with the planets these days but I'm feeling particularly unencumbered by the need to treat anyone's feelings delicately right now.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still plenty smiley.

I'm just not in the mood to put up with falsehoods, excuses, wilful blindness or learned helplessness. In other words, the norms of society.

10 crazy ideas for better living ..

Here's a post for those who are using the New Year as a launching point for -

A New Way of Doing Things (lol)

It's especially for those who have

Tried Everything 

yet can't seem to shed weight or stop snoring or get it up or get things right in the bathroom. Actually, no matter what annoying/scary/disgusting little health issue is driving you to change things up, these are some thoughts that you might just want to consider.

You know what they say, trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity (and it doesn't work, either). Why not try something crazy instead?

The wisdom of Native American Medicine

The mystique of the wise Indian Medicine Man fascinates many of us, especially in contrast to our materialist culture. From Hollywood movies to the "shamanistic" practices taught on the internet, we may be offered tantalizing glimpses into the spiritual basis of these practices but rarely are we given anything like a realistic portrayal of what real Native American Medicine might entail.

Today I happened to trip over this moving video on youtube (of all places!). In a mere 3 minutes or so, it reveals an aspect of Native medicine that I consider to be one of the most wise I've ever seen. If we adopted this into our own health care systems, be they standard medical practice or alternative healing, how much better off could we be?