An Imbolc Blessing

A February bloom.
An Imbolc blessing.
A spark of blush.
A silent splash.
A glimpse of life to come.
A promise of Spring.

Peace. 🕊

Vitamin C Tea Blend

Today I'm sipping a version of a Vitamin C tea blend I used to serve at the studio. This base recipe is just that, a base that may be adapted to suit your taste, constitution, your whims, to what you have on hand, or whatever! 

So, here's that base...

4 parts hibiscus
4 parts rosehips
2 parts lemongrass
2 parts lemon peel
1 part cinnamon chips/granules
1 part ginger chips/granules

Now, when I speak of "parts" - especially when teaching, or blending in bulk - I speak of weight measures. If you don't have a scale, use volume measures. Either way, start with a small batch and adjust to your liking with subsequent versions until you hit your sweet spot. Know what I mean? Or, if you're like me, simply blend up a version without rigid measuring, which is exactly what I did today, replacing lemongrass for goldenrod, and using both dried and fresh ginger root for added heat.

I'm drawn to this blend today because it's cold and damp outside. Even with my fiery constitution I feel I need something today to warm me from the inside out, at least until the fire is stoked up, so adding that fresh ginger, and plenty of it (because I have it) will accomplish that. That said, I find this base blend - as expressed above - to be rather neutral, neither too heating nor cooling, and it makes a nice chilled beverage (as well as hot) in any season. 

Anyhoo... this is how I make a pot (about a quart) of this tea:

Bring fresh water to a boil. Place 5(ish) tablespoons of the blend in your steeping vessel (tea pot, canning jar, measuring cup, etc.) and pour the boiled water over the botanicals. Cover and let steep about 15 minutes. Strain it, serve it, be well, and enJOY. Or, as I most often do, make this - and other loose tea blends - in a french press. ::nods:: 

If you make more than you need in a day, refrigerate it, and use it up within 2 days. That rarely happens in our little hut, but it's nice to know it's an option.

As I go through my files I'll be sharing more of these "recipes" here. Keep watch.

Peace. 🕊

A Dark Winter Botanical Brew

 

Welcome to an herbal ramble...

I sip botanical beverages every day. I start most every day with the ubiquitous cup of Coffea arabica - coffee, my morning Medicine (some might say poison) of choice. Given the horrific history of this beloved botanical (among others), a history that's still alive today, I choose organic, fair trade coffee beans, grown in traditional ways, and I'm grateful for and honor the privilege to be able to make that choice, and invite you to do the same if/when you are able. But that's a ramble for another time, and that's not what's in this cup you see.

During the winter months I brew chaga (Inonotus obliquus) about once a month. Once a month? Yep, that's right. I take a couple/few chaga bits, which my spouse sawed into chunks from a chaga conk gifted by a friend from the land she stewards, and simmer them for several days, adding water every time I pour a cup. This can go on for a week, or more, depending on how much and how often I sip. Chaga is generous like that, and one-take adaptations of chaga brews feel disrespectful as well as selfishly wasteful. Anyway, as the days progress I add other botanicals suitable for decoction (that simmering process), and they vary, depending on what calls to me. This cup is chaga and codonopsis root (Codonopsis pilosula) which I added to the brew on the second day. Tomorrow I'll like add some of our homegrown, roasted chicory root (Cichorium intybus), and as the brew weakens I'll leverage the last of the fluids to make an infusion - a steeped beverage - with whatever leafy botanicals call to me in that moment. The spent plant matter is added to the compost where it continues adding value. Our rooted kin are so, so generous.

All these botanicals offer benefits in broad and specific ways, which is why I encourage folx to research and study and experience what is conventionally called herbalism - The People's Medicine. If you've studied with me, you know I recommend getting to know no more than three botanicals at a time. And by "getting to know" I mean not only intellectual research (heavy on actual herbalist sources), but experience as well; leveraging the botanical as food and/or Medicine, growing it, observing or getting to know its growing behaviors and preferences, and so on. So if you're called to start or renew your studies, this ramble offers three botanicals. ::nods:: That said, from a birds view... 

I enjoy brewed chaga for its appearance, neutral flavor, as well as its many medicinal offerings. It calls to me in winter because decocting herbals indoors is a winter practice for me, as it adds welcomed heat and moisture to our living environment. Plus, it's the cool seasons when sipping hot beverages throughout the day calls to me. I could drink chaga every day, I like it that much, yet once a month is plenty for reasons of respect for the botanical, respect for diversity, as well as medicinal considerations. I have arthritis, so I'm conscious of certain foods 'n' Medicines that might exacerbate the undesirable symptoms of that "condition," and chaga offers, along with other constituents, oxalates - some research indicates high content - which can, among other things, exacerbate arthritic symptoms. I've not experienced this with chaga, but it's part of my conscious awareness to respect the botanical and my body, and to do my best to make harmonious choices. Know what I mean? Plus I have a wall of herbs, and I want to honor most of them in my warming beverages.

As for codonopsis, it's a root I started leveraging less than ten years ago when I engaged it in a tonic formula inspired by the late Stephen Buhner, focused on respiratory and immune support, though it holds other values as well. I find myself often adding it to my cool-weather decoctions.

And chicory... common chicory root, harvested and gently roasted until dried, is a decocted beverage that I've long loved, like so many of our rooted kin that are classified as bitter herbs. A chicory root brew is often described as a coffee substitute, which inspires shivers in me since, aside from some of the bitter flavor it offers, like coffee, it tastes nothing like it, and offers no caffeine. I'll admit, though, that something about this brew must satisfy some receptor site that identifies with coffee and satisfies cravings. For me, anyway. 

And yeah, I do love coffee... the aroma of fresh ground beans, the scent of it brewing, the color and flavor, and yeah, the morning caffeine jolt all appeal to me in a deep way, and have since I was a kid who was only allowed to smell it brewing, and later when my Nono would make me a demitasse of warm milk with a splash of coffee, the love affair really took root. Yet, my physical constitution doesn't always appreciate added stimulation, so sipping a dark brew that offers some delicious bitters sans the caffeine is a welcomed warm beverage during the months warm beverages are enJOYed all day long. And that's why I'm sharing this tale of one dark winter botanical brew with you. 

I hope you will explore, learn, and perhaps brew one or all of the three botanicals I share here. And please, if you do, do your best to acquire them respectfully, sustainably, and with reciprocity, be it from land you tend, a local herbalist, or other source. ::nods::

Peace. 🕊

An Honor to the "New Year"

 

My new year occurs as October transitions to November, yet I acknowledge and honor to a minor degree the conventional "new year" of the collective: The flip to this current year most of us refer to as 2023 (CE). I mean, I have a new wall calendar, the fab Ricard Levins Morales Liberation Calendar, and I made a version of a creamy garbonzo bean soup for dinner, because: Beans. Eating beans on January 1st, like many of you, is a custom I grew up with, and one that I continue to actively honor for the broad and deep symbolism the bean/seed offers in this part of winter; symbolism and story that resonates deeply for me.

I started reviewing my saved 'n' leftover seeds from 2022 (and earlier), and am making decisions of what, if any, fresh seeds I desire to purchase. As a dedicated, flawed and evolving anticapitalist, I do my best to purchase less and less... and - at the insistence of my rooted kin - to stop treating seeds in all their incarnations as commodities. And that's likely a story for another day.

I also leveraged this collective idea of "new year" to do some deep indoor cleaning, as well as to burn some of our homegrown Artemisia ludoviciana to send prayer outdoors, in the form of blessed smoke to be carried through the air 'n' ethers to where it is intended, and most needed. A significant piece of that prayer was in honor of one of my sister-in-laws whose spouse passed on the first morning of 2023. 

I knitted, crocheted, and read some fiction. I continued reading my LANDBACK magazine from NDN Collective that arrived this past week, in the hopes that I may continue re-learning so that I may become a better ally to all my kin, Mama Gaia included (of course), as well as continue to do the work that I may become a better white person. ::nods:: 

So, like every day, the wheel turns with the "new year," life evolves with glories 'n' grief, blessings one and all. May all the days ahead treat you kindly, offer you genuine healing, and chasmic contentedness. 

Peace. 🕊

18-year Blogiversary Honor

Today, December 29th, marks the day I started to blog back on the edge of 2004. For reasons I don't really understand, I pause most every year on this day to honor the original intentions, reevaluate them, and assess my current 'n' forward intentions as I settle in with the fresh roots of winter. It's one of those odd days in which I give credence to the linear count of time. An odd day that also offers attention to the impending calendar flip, the march of linear time. Anyhoo...

Today - this 18-year blogiversary - feels akin to a spiral intersecting itself. I've been getting a bit of that feel lately. As I retire my business, yet continue the work that has always claimed me, I've considered returning to a regular blogging practice, a practice that may well replace the newsletter that has been a monthly ritual since - at least - 2013, the year I turned my attentions away from blogging. I consider this, and the meaning in the words I shared in my first blog post all those years ago...

"...this practice may simply allow me to organically explore the diversity of life, healing, spirit and energies that make up my being and offer me the experiences and opportunities that I am able to share with others - in the hopes to nurture holistic wellness and growth."

Not my best structured sentence, but the meaning rings through.

I'll be sitting with Nona Gaia, and with these words 'n' their meaning, words that still fill me, that still hold value, and that inspire me to feel as if I'm returning to a familiar, loving home that nourishes and sustains me, still... a home with deep roots, a home that holds a key part of the spiral of my being, my life, my journeys.

Stay tuned.

Peace. 🕊

Medicine, Furry Medicine

An unadorned cardboard box in a warm, safe space... seems so, so appreciated by this sweet little guy.

This cat was seen on occasion in November. We figured he was a local resident. But then, later in November, we saw him more frequently, and notice he had no collar. We would try to cajole him toward us, but he would scurry off. As November progressed, he'd come onto our deck as sunset approached, and would gaze through the sliding door window. We'd open the door, and off he would scurry. Finally, on a lovely, sunny late afternoon, late in November he came close to us, outdoors, rubbed against our legs as kitties do, and I was able to pick him up just long enough to discern that he was light as a feather, so skinny he felt fragile, before he squirmed out of my embrace and ran off yet again.

But he returned to the door, most every evening... looking in the window. At first, when we'd open the slider he'd sniff at the interior, but not enter. Then, during the last week of November, he'd enter. We'd give him water, which he imbibed with (what I perceived as a sense of) satisfaction. We gave him some of our home-canned fish - premium stuff - that he'd barely nibble. We gave him pets 'n' lovin' which he accepted until such time as he was ready to leave. We'd open the door, and off he'd go, disappearing into the night. I wondered if he had been abandoned, and suspect he was, for he was - tentatively so - accustomed to two-leggeds, bowls, and kindness. This continued until the evening of December 1st, when he came through that slider to shun the open door, and - it seems - to stay to make us his.

The 1st priority of December 2nd was all about getting food and litter. He knew the sound of the food bag, from which we rationed small amounts to this furry bag of bones. The following morning he peed, not in the litter box, but in the basket lined with one of my old shawls. The next day he peed in the litter box, and - finally - pooped, not in the box, but on the bedroom floor where he hard peed the day before. Thank the gods for hardwood floors. We put the poo in the litter box, which he was using for the liquid stuff, and around day five he relented, and is now using the litter box for all manner of waste.

He's an early riser. That first morning it was 3:30ish. We're early risers too, but anything before 4:00 am is too early, even for us. I explained this to him, and now he holds off his morning antics to 4:00/4:30, which is acceptable to us. 

His ears were a mess, and causing him discomfort, pain even, and I've been forced to man-handle him to address that. It's hard because he's so skinny (but finally filling in a bit) that he feels delicate, and I feel like I might break him. It's been slow-going, and I'm still at it, but we're making progress even as he shuns and runs away from me after every treatment. I tell him, "One day, you'll thank me."   

My spouse has declared his name as Sammy. I call him Zamee, SamZam, StinkyPoo, and a host of variations (much as I do with our hens). He responds to none of it. He's settling in, and has no interest in any open door. To me, he feels heavens' sent (much like our last dog, Halley Josephine). I am grateful that he found us, claimed us. We shall be Medicine to one another. ::nods:: 

 Peace. 🕊

December Blessings

As I sit here this morning with a sunrise dusting of snow on the earth, leaning into this month of December, the final month of our shared conventional calendar, I reflect on the challenges that November offered me, and project on the challenges 'n' delights that await me this month, as well as when December passes. 

November offered me mighty, holistic challenges; challenges of intellect 'n' intuition, will 'n' ego, heart, body, and spirit. Some of these challenges will be carried into the equanimity of winter, with its waxing daylight offered at the solstice, light that shall support me in seeing what needs to be seen ever more clearly. This feels fitting as I retire the business we call Walk in the Woods, LLC. 

While I'll continue doing what I do - teaching 'n' sharing what I can, throwing cards, chatting with the plants, and with you - I'll eventually have a fresh tempo of time 'n' space in which I'll invest in activities that may add greater value, support, and love to you, to all of us, and to all that nourishes 'n' sustains. While I anticipate a deep hush from me until spring, I'll still be here for you, and I invite you to reach out to me if need be... as I, likewise, invite you to respect this vital spell of hush. 

As I balance on this impending precipice, I recognize what a major life change this is for me. This realization holds out to me a synchronous verve of tension and harmony. You see, I've been Walk in the Woods since the early 1980s, first as a sole proprietorship, and 15 years later as an LLC. And as I reflect on that, I recall how I was doing what do, as a hobby, before any business entity made manifest... and here I am preparing to return to that transposable space. It is a spiral that conveys a sense of fulfillment, and it feels good and right.

So wish me well, as I wish you well as we traverse through the holidays of this season and head into the linear new year of 2024. And while you may not hear from me soon... you will... so stay tuned to join me in whatever comes next.

And, hey... mighty thanks to so many of you for the years of support and motivation. May it continue in the next chapter.

Peace. 🕊

Welcome, November... and Athbhliain faoi mhaise dhuit!

November welcomes us along with the Celtic new year. For me it is a sacred time of reflection, projection, rooting in the here 'n' now, honoring the Gaia ancestors of every age "n" kind. It is time for laughter 'n' tears... and for preparing for the darkest days of the wheel of the year. It is a time 'n' space that I relish. And...

We're still enJOYing garden harvests of collards, kales, mustards, rapini, beets, turnips, parsley, calendula, amaranths, peas, green onions, chives, marshmallow, horseradish, and more. We're still waiting to harvest our rutabagas, as well as our pole beans for seed saving, and we'll be planting the garlic, shallots 'n' spreading poppy seeds this week, or next. 

We're still enJOYing tomatoes as they ripen on the dining table. And there's still zucchini, peppers, carrots in the fridge, and so much put up, as we say, to nourish us through the winter, and the months and year/s ahead.

In this season our evenings are enhanced by candle light. I always recall and conjure the ritual of my Nono who would light candles on All Souls Day for all those who had passed into the Big Mystery. She would place each on the fireplace hearth with a prayer... a practice I engaged in my own way long before I was told this familial story. 

I look ahead into November and see the quiet, introspective, shadow work that took root as September delivered October continuing to evolve, deepen, and challenge me as we head toward winter. As we all make that journey - I pray that our steps are gentle, compassionate, caring and conscious of Nona Gaia, and all life that supports her... us... each other.

Peace. 🕊