Nurturing the Wild Heart

I wanted this year to start off with a bang. I thought in the form of herbal wonders but I was mistaken. I wanted to post once a month at least here. Then the flu happened, the loss of our dogs, hospitalization with pneumonia, severe kidney infection, and sepsis, bouts of SEVERE anxiety, car issues, dental issues, bladder stones, sleep studies, abnormal paps, and the loss of my husbands job. Through all this I have managed to keep it together by always finding the golden lining in everything. Trying to not turn away from the light and fall into the shadows. It has been hard. But I am blessed with a bunch of beautiful friends and an amazing family to support me. THANK YOU  TO ALL OF YOU!!! Seriously, I could not have made it this far without you. My "I will always be a woman" mimosa This brings me to what happened on Thursday. I had an abnormal pap a few months ago followed by a biopsy. It came back with severe cervical dysplasia. So the doctor was going to do the LEE

St. John's Wort (Hypericum spp.) Anyone who knows me knows my biggest plant ally is St. John's Wort! I still remember the first time I really met this plant. I was on a plant walk with my class at Appalachia School for Holistic Herbalism. There in the middle of the trail was this plant saying, "Look at me all sunny and shiny!" Our teacher, Mateo, taught us how when you crush the flowers and leaves it will stain your hands red. The unopened flower buds have a ton of red juice in them! Using the doctrine of signatures, when a plant looks like what it is good for, that staining shows us it may be used to treat bleeding and the blood. The pin hole dots on the leaves and flowers also signify the treatment of wounds. It is well known for this powerful healing of cuts, scraps, bites, and bruises.  This leaf really looks like a bruise. Here you can see the tiny pin holes in the leaves. Lots of people use it for treatment of depression and SAD but I

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

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 years ago an

It is almost that time of year mamas and papas! Usually once the kids go back to school it isn't long until they start sharing things. Nasty things.....GERMS!! Don't panic though. There are some natural things you can do to boost up their little bodies so they are better protected and to take care of them at home if they do get a bug.  1. Stay away from too much sugar.   I know I sound like an evil person especially with Halloween right around the corner, but how many of us have had kids get sick right after a big holiday like Halloween or Christmas when they have had extra yummies. It really slows down the immune system. Not just candy and junk food but juice is another thing to limit or eliminate. 2. Try to introduce some good bacteria. The gut health of our country isn't very good as a whole. It can be blamed on any number of things from the chemicals in our water, our over use of anti-bacterial EVERYTHING, our over use of antibiotics not only in our own b

Recently, we had a very sudden move out of state and to a very big city. It was a very complicated situation but very necessary for our family. We had to say goodbye to all our friends and family so quickly. I also had to leave behind my wonderful gardens. I hope that who ever moves in will love them just as much as we did. I was able to take quite a few of them with me. A couple didn't make the transition and so I left because I felt like they would be happier there. It was such a whirlwind! I didn't have time to think until we got here and got unpacked a little. Then everything started to sink in. The beautiful Lemon Bergamot I had to leave behind. All of the plants that made the transition. I was doing a little blessing for them. It has taken me some time to adjust to all the traffic, sirens, pollution warnings, and the cockroaches left by the previous tenants, but I am getting there slowly. More and more I am refocusing on the positives to living here and adapti

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 didn't want to