One of my Favorite Books

My brother, the birder, gave me a copy of this book for Christmas a few, OK, a lot of years back.  In fact, mine is an earlier edition than the one shown here.  I love it, though.  It contains a plethora (cool word, huh?) of remedies divided into categories such as herbalism, aromatherapy, ayurveda, and homeopathy.  I like it for several reasons.  One is the beautiful photography throughout.  Another is that it gives instructions for using herbs in poultices, infused oils, teas, and more.  It even includes directions for making the Bach-style flower remedies.

The first half of the book lists the remedies and describes them.  The last half of the book lists common ailments and tells what you can do for them.  Finally, there is a great index that I have used more than once.  It has been a very practical and useful resource.

One of the best things, though, about this book is that it treats alternative medicine respectfully (as it deserves to be treated, in my humble opinion.)

Malva or Mallow....

My friend Melissa took this great, though scary, picture. If you'll notice, the snake is nestled in a vining plant with round leaves. The plant is in the Malva family, and is sometimes called "low mallow" or "cheeses." The name "cheeses" refers to the little round fruits that appear after the flowers fade. The fruits resemble the homemade cheeses of bygone years. It was considered to be something of a "cure-all" in ancient times. It has a lot of mucilage in it - it's in the same family as okra! Anyway, that gooey texture has led to it being used both externally, as a soothing salve, and internally as a cough syrup, etc.

Of course, if your sample is being guarded as well as this one, you might want to wait about harvesting it. :-)

Here's the Song: "The Wedding" by Michael Card

Western White Honeysuckle?

The previous owner called this unusual plant "peavine," but I've determined it to be a honeysuckle, probably Western white. It hadn't bloomed yet when I took the picture, but it is in bloom now, and looks a lot like this pic at the LadyBird Johnson Wildflower website. I've never seen leaves fused into a circle like these. Interesting plant, probably of interest to hummingbirds.

My friend and I are hoping to take in an herb walk next month. Won't give details, because I want to make sure there's room for us! (Space will be limited, and I want to be there!)

Daisies are blooming now, reminding me of our wedding anniversary. I found a video rendition of a song we had at our wedding. I'll try to post that as the next entry here.

Speaking of husbands, mine noticed a little snake resting in our blackberry vines. The petals have mostly dropped now and the plants are covered with hard little green berries. The little snake was brown and gray mottled. Could have been a copperhead, I suppose, but like I told my dear hubby, most baby snakes are colored like that. Anyway, it doesn't matter if we see a copperhead as long as we avoid being bitten by it, right?

I had an interesting writing assignment a few years back which consisted of writing care instructions for a variety of snake breeds which people keep as pets. It was awful! For several weeks, every hose, electric cord, and shoelace looked like a snake to me! Oh, the horror stories I read about people being swallowed by their python or boa! And according to my research, some people even keep poisonous snakes as pets! They call them "hot" snakes. Yuck, and more Yuck!!

The bottom line is, I don't mind snakes out where they belong, but I don't want them as pets, especially if they are "hot" or large enough to swallow me! But....there is coming a day! Just read Isaiah 11. Here are verses 8 and 9:

"And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea."

Rain...

(I'm in the habit of starting with a pic, so what you see above is some Dutchman's britches and other early spring posies I picked a couple of months ago. This was the first time I'd seen Dutchman's britches growing in the wild, as far as I can remember.)

May flowers and May rain... So much is going on in the wide outdoors. Our strawberries are starting to get ripe. The blackberries look great, but oh, my poor apple tree! I'm afraid it has fire blight.

From what I've read, it sounds like I blew it when I fertilized the tree with Jobe's tree spikes. Apparently, a fast growing apple tree is more vulnerable to fire blight, so it's better not to fertilize until you can tell the tree needs nourishment. Anyway, I haven't seen any oozing on the trunk yet, but the branch tips are curling down and turning brown. Yuck. Last night I pruned off the parts I could reach, using disinfectant on the nippers each time. There is still a lot I can't reach.

Oh, well. It's not like we will starve to death if we lose the apples. Not yet, anyway.

Here's a Bible verse... "And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat." (Josh. 24:13) I like that verse because the Lord gave us this property, and if we eat anything from these trees and plants, it will be without our having planted them. I think that's cool, and I give Him the thanks and praise for putting us here.

Fairer Still

Woke up with these words on my mind:

"Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands
Robed in the blooming garb of spring -
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing."

Of course those words are from the old hymn, "Fairest Lord Jesus." Here's a link that gives some info about the history of this song.

The woodlands have truly been beautiful as the trees have bloomed, each in its turn. We don't have any dogwoods around here, but the redbuds, which you can see above, were gorgeous a few weeks ago. The previous owner of this property planted them everywhere. I counted sixteen redbud trees in bloom just in the yard area, with more out in the woods.

Right now there are some huge trees with white racemes (long clusters) of flowers hanging from them. I think they must be wild cherries. The flowers are appearing before the leaves, so the trees look white. What is particularly stunning is when the trunks of the trees are all covered with Virginia creeper. Beautiful! Makes me think of a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It's Sonnet XXIX of her romantic Sonnets from the Portuguese. I've enjoyed the sonnet style of poetry ever since I was a starry eyed teenager in love with love. Maybe I'll share some of my own sonnets later on in this blog, but for now, here's Elizabeth B. B.

I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud
About thee, as wild vines, about a tree,
Put out broad leaves, and soon there 's nought to see
Except the straggling green which hides the wood.
Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood
I will not have my thoughts instead of thee
Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly
Renew thy presence; as a strong tree should,
Rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare,
And let these bands of greenery which insphere thee
Drop heavily down,—burst, shattered, everywhere!
Because, in this deep joy to see and hear thee
And breathe within thy shadow a new air,
I do not think of thee—I am too near thee.

Yarrow is About to Bloom

In wild plant news around the old homestead, I've noticed several yarrow plants about to bloom. That's what you see in the pic above. If you've never smelled it, you should. You'll never forget it's pungent medicinal aroma. It's a special plant to me because I carried yarrow and daisies when I got married. I always know our anniversary is getting close when I see the first daisies in May. Actually, I was looking for a daisy picture when I found this one.

I have a couple of types of bee balm that are about to bloom as well. At least, the purple type, which is sometimes called wild bergamot, is in bud.
It's an exciting time of year to go outside and visit the wild plants. I realized a long time ago why I like to study plants. My brother is a world class bird watcher, which is inspiring, but I am just too slow to ever find the birds in the trees. I love them and like to listen to them, but for cataloging and identifying, I like something slow. Rocks are too, well, un-alive, but plants - now there's something that's alive that I am fast enough to catch!

Lots of Rain and New Growth

My friend gave me some starts of plants a couple of days ago. Peppermint, chamomile, and day lilies all seem to be doing fine. The sad part is that I forgot to bring home the echinacea plants! You can see echinacea, aka purple coneflower, in the pic above. The root of some varieties of echinacea are dried to make the popular remedy for flu, colds, or other infectious diseases. Echinacea probably won't bloom for another month or so. I wish I had remembered those plants!

I picked a beardtongue (Penstemon) of some sort this morning, as the dew cooled my sandal clad feet. It was the first of those to bloom, although there are more in bud.

Out in the ditch by the mailbox, where we haven't mowed yet, I think I have some St. John's Wort coming up. Will have to wait on making a definite identification. I hope it is because I take St. John's Wort for depression. I'd like to try gathering my own for some home medicine making. One thing I tried several years ago was to make an infused oil from SJW. (I have a daughter with those initials! I'm not talking about her!)

All you have to do is choose a natural oil that's good for the skin, like almond or even just a vegetable oil, and put it in a clean jar with a bunch of SJW blooms. Put a lid on it and leave it in a sunny location for a few days. The sun will do the rest. The oil will take on a rosy red hue and a pleasant aroma. Strain out the flowers and discard. The oil can be used to massage tight, tense shoulder muscles.

(By the way, I am indebted to Craig Goodwin of Spokane, WA, for the photo. Stock.xchng is a great place to go for free photos.)