Checking In, You, and Lavender Wand Recipe

 Corn in our backyard -- in December!  Art by Jane

It's been quite some time since I've posted!  Thank you for sticking with me!.

Just to let you know what's up with me and my blogs.  I've just started a new website and blog, Singing Deer Healing, which is devoted to sharing a soul-nourishing, imaginative, nature-connected life with children.  If you like this blog, you may enjoy that one too.

After puzzling how to proceed (eep, how many blogs can I keep going?), I've decided to continue this one.  It has become a focus for my chronicling my attempts to live a 'magic' life with my own children and my herbal medicine making journey. ... And I feel restful in this space :-).  I don't know how often I will write this blog ... it's probably going to follow a slower gait than, say, Singing Deer Healing or Jane's Medicine Tree (or a possible fourth blog I have in mind centered on  moms and culture), but I'm pretty sure I'll post once or twice a month.  So if that works for you, I invite you to continue reading!

 You
This is a great time for me to get to know you.  What do you love in life?  What is the greatest challenge for you right now?  What have you enjoyed in this blog?   Perhaps I'll just boldly ask "Why are you here?" :-).

What is your greatest wish for the planet?  For your home life?

If you had one message you could deliver to the world that would be truly heard and tended to, what would you say?

Please jot your thoughts in the Comments below.  I'm so delighted and honored that you're here! 

Lavender Wand Recipe 
Awhile back Lauren asked for cooking times and temps for this recipe.  Okay, Lauren, here's the whole recipe--finally!  It uses lots and lots of sugar.  I wonder if it's possible to vary the recipe successfully using honey?  Something for me to experiment with in the future ...  Anyway, here's the recipe.

Preheat oven to 150 F degrees.

In a pan, bring 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water to a boil.  Take 30 wands of lavender (do not remove from stem) and place the buds in the boiling sugar water leaving the stems out of the pan.  Reduce heat to medium high, and let boil for 10 min.

Put a thin layer of sugar onto a cookie sheet, to cover the entire sheet

Remove the wands from the sugar water (you can keep the sugar water to use in some other delicious way!) and place them on the sugared cookie sheet.  Spread the wands in a single layer. 

Pour 1 cup of sugar evenly over the wands (yeah, this recipe uses tons of sugar!).  Let set for 2 min.  Turn wands over and sugar again.

Take another cookie sheet, and place the sugared wands on it in a single layer. (save the sugar from the other cookie sheet and when it's cool, store it in a jar in the fridge to have lavender sugar on hand for baking, etc.)

Bake the wands for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool.

Enjoy!  Kids--and the kids in us--just love these enchanted treats!

 

Simpling My Life

Listening to the last audio in HerbMentor.com's Think Like An Herbalist course taught by Heather Nic an Fhleisdeir, I was struck by the notion that the whole thrust of my life in the past few years has been an attempt at creating a Simple. What's a Simple? Creating a medicine (be it an infusion, tincture, what have you) using a single herb. That sounds simple, but actually, a great deal can go into the process of choosing that one herb. You might (as Heather suggests) indulge in creating a list of gripes and complaints about your health, then list all the herbs you have available that would assuage those complaints, then circle three herbs that resolve the most complaints on the list. Then see which herb of which you have an abundance. You might choose that one herb as your Simple, because there are no coincidences. If you have an abundance of it, it may be a kind of "pick me, pick me!" or a "calm waiting for you to notice". (this is my interpretation of Heather's words!). Anyway, choosing a Simple is a personal and individual process. Two people with lists of similar complaints are likely to choose two different herbs as their Simple.

Okay, so I'm going about with my list in a mixed-up way. One thing I notice is the abundance of Rose in my garden, and in my jars (vinegar, tincture, dried ...). Notice, too, this bread which I made recently:

I used hand-ground spelt ...


And added rose petals and a bit of lavender from the garden, and some dried calendula and dried nettles.


Okay, the mix of herbs is not "simple" -- but I'd have to say, that if any herb speaks as a Simple in my life right now, it would have to be Rose.

So, my thought is: okay, backwards is fine. How about listing my complaints now, and then researching Rose absolutely thoroughly. With which systems of the body does Rose work her magic? What, where, when, why, how does she work? Is there something about Rose that might soothe my achy wrists and shoulder? (too much typing) I've never heard/read of Rose working in this way, but what if certain qualities of Rose might be just what I need -- a Rose salve for instance? The Rose might inspire me to -- ah, slow down and smell the roses (so I spend less time on the computer, and less time furiously pecking away at the keyboard). But some aspects might be particularly soothing and healing to my body in other ways ....

A trail of thought, reflection, research, and experience to follow ....

Anyway, back to the idea of "Simpling my Life". I realize that actually a huge amount of reflection, experience, research, living is bundled up into a Simple, and there lies its potency -- because the herb is just right, just what you need, the perfect ally. In the past years of shedding many possessions, sifting through my passions, moving home a few times, it has been about finding the one place, the one expression of art and purpose that bundles all-that-I-am, that nourishes my entire system, and allows me to offer my self in my most potent fashion. How far do I carry the metaphor of Simple? The answer: as far as is useful. In the end it's an intriguing exercise of thought, and perhaps practice. I might do well to attend as well to the art of creating effective Formulas (using a few herbs together), and see what light this shines on who, what, how, why, I can live my most soulful, purposeful life.