Nurturing the Wild Heart

I took some time off from everything while we were in the big city. I felt oppressed and fearful there and it was hard to find inspiration and even a desire to come out of my hidy hole to play and chat with my plant family. Then we had an opportunity fall right in our laps which placed us right back in the mountains of NC that we LOVE so very much! We are laying down roots so we have called our new house Root House!  My youngest introducing Root House <3 I am still a bit overwhelmed with homeschooling our kids and trying to find time to dive head first into every topic that interests me (there are a lot of them), but I have been finding time where I can to go out and play. This weekend we went hiking and had so much fun creek stomping and digging roots!  I set out for the hike with the intention of finding Yellow Root ( Xanthorhiza simplicissima ) and Bloodroot ( Sanguinaria canadensis ). I had almost used up all my Yellow Root tincture I had made a few yea...

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...

We have been getting some pretty gnarly winter weather here in NC lately. Last week it was an icy mess. You couldn't even walk across your grassy areas because you might slip and fall. My kids however thought this was the best because they could "ice skate" on grass! It was bitter cold and our heaters never stopped to rest which had me a little nervous with our wallet getting a little too light shelling out money for fuel. Today it isn't as cold but it is snowing. Everyone around here isn't used to this weather and EVERYTHING shuts down. So most people are not happy with this newest development Mother Nature is throwing our way. It is hard because some people, like my husband, dad, and brothers, have to get to work even on the snow covered roads and the county is just not equipped to deal with snow or ice very quickly. This morning when I woke, even though I love snow, I found I was also less than excited to see the white stuff. So as I made a mad dash to the...