Nurturing the Wild Heart

Nettles at Root House 2018  One of my dearest plant allies is Nettles! Most people think of the sting and the burning itch but if we get past that we find it is such an amazing tonic herb for the entire body. It is high in all kinds of minerals like iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and more. Which is truly excellent since most of the soil our foods are grown in is so depleted we need some of these wild redeemers to help us find the minerals we are lacking in our diets. It is a blood builder and a helpful healer of the liver as well as a reproductive tonic. It helps to strengthen kidneys and the adrenals, which like our minerals get depleted in modern culture. Nettles boosts the metabolism and the immune system. I have used it in a tea to help my daughter mend her broken leg faster and it may be mama and child's best friend during growing pains. Nettles is used a lot as a tea and if well steamed or sauteed is a delicious alternative to spinach. Susun Weed talks often of overnigh...

I just hacked my garden all up. There is something about garden therapy that is so very healing. When I can control nothing in my life, I can go to the plants and find peace. I ripped down the old passionflower vines that are dying back. The blue flag iris has been divided, part was moved to another garden area and I trimmed the rest back with the old lilies. The rosemary and sage have been pruned. The poor tomato vine that didn't handle the wind we had a week ago is gone and in compost heaven. Everything weeded and in order. Passionflower at the first of the season Ripping and pulling and trimming....the things I sometimes want to do in my daily life. Ripping down the problems that can be so overwhelming I feel I can't breathe. Pulling out the anxiety and tension and tossing it away. Trimming the parts that I need to change to grow stronger. Letting go completely of things that no longer serve me. Knowing that after the work there is always some rest. The dreaming of ...

Back in January I came down with the flu and had a few bouts with kidney stones. Due to an unexpected series of events for our family, I didn't care for myself the way I normally would. I ended up in the hospital with no insurance and I want to finally share my experience. My family is not super well off in the ways of money. We never really have been. Insurance for my husband and I is a luxury. I know for some that sounds absolutely crazy. I was excited when Obama Care first came out. I wanted to believe that finally insurance would be affordable for us. It didn't work out that way. We are one of those middle cases. Somewhere in between poverty and middle ground. So just for me insurance would be over $400 a month. JUST FOR ME! This was the reason I became an herbalist in the first place. I knew we couldn't afford insurance but if I could keep us well and strong. If I could take care of the small things. Maybe the big things would be so few and far between that we c...

Five petals on the first flowers of Rue Rue (Ruta graveolens) has been speaking to me all spring. Inspiring me to learn how to heal and how to grow. As care taker of my garden she should definitely know about helping things grow and keeping those nagging pests like negative thoughts and beetles away! The next bunch of flowers around the first flower have 4 petals instead of 5 She is feminine and lacy while at the same time very strong. Rue reminds me of Mother Mary in that she is doesn't take center stage with showy blooms but nurtures the rest of the garden so they can shine and strongly supports them. It is even said that adding some of her leaves to compost will help it break down faster to provide yummy nutrients to your soil even quicker. My Rue plant as a wee baby Rue has been grown in gardens for a very long time due to its strong medicinal healing properties. It has been used for headaches, earaches, wounds, bruises, sprains, arthritis, relaxes smooth...

Gladiolas from the kids' garden Today was a beautiful solstice day! I love to roll with the seasons so I like to celebrate each of them in some way. So today we all started in the gardens! It has been unusually hot here for the month of June but some nice thunderstorms in the evenings lately have been helping to keep the plants happy! My youngest talking to the bees this morning on the Bee Balm  We had so much fun relaxing together! My husband and I drinking coffee, while laughing at one of our dogs, watching the birds, and doing a little pruning and harvesting. Harvest from the herb garden   The best part of the day was a short hike at Medoc Mountain. One of our favorite places to hike around here. It is always gorgeous out there! A brilliant blue dragonfly who wanted his picture taken!   My oldest, that was recently diagnosed with Crohn's disease, loves to hike but since her flare up she has been very fearful to attempt it. She did...

So much has been happening lately that I haven't found time to post. So I will give you a run down of all the excitement and hopefully be able to get back to a nice schedule from here on out! Florida Herbal Conference 2015   My Favorite Class Room The center of it all! At the end of February I was lucky to attend the  Florida Herbal Conference  thanks to some dear friends. I helped them run their booth, Earthen Moon , and they helped me get my ticket. It was a blast and a well needed break from the daily mom stuff. There were so many amazing classes it was hard to pick exactly which ones I wanted to attend. My favorites were To Hold Quiet with Kate Taluga, Iris Evaluation with Joanna Helms, Breaking Addictions with Leslie Williams, Inter-species Telepathic Communication with Ellen Kamhi, Planting Sacred Relationships with Willow LaMonte, and Scientific Validation of Botanical Medicine with Ellen Kamhi. Ok well that was all the classes I took and ...

Winter Solstice Sun Yesterday was the Winter Solstice. The darkest day of the year. The day for me started out like any ordinary day. Coffee, breakfast, and a brief check of what is going on in the world.  I will say I do not watch a lot of news or keep up on things. Maybe this is naive of me, but when I personally watch too much I feel overwhelmed and fearful. After all, most of the things on the news these days is scary and negative. Not to mention most of it is opinion driven so you can't trust it to be completely true anymore anyway. So I was scrolling through Facebook and headlines and I saw so much negativity. Even from people who are normally pretty positive. So I closed my computer and the family and I went into the woods. My oldest and I with a beautiful Cedar This day is the darkest, but that doesn't mean the bleakest. That big, bright Sun was shining so brightly as we stopped for a rest that I couldn't help but think that even though the worl...