Found the Golden Eggs!

This was my favorite book to read the kids when they were small.  Anyway, I've been fascinated by the idea of golden bug eggs, and was thrilled to see these on a leaf of arugula:

Unfortunately, I couldn't photograph them so that you could see the golden metallic shine, but you could sure see it in person!  But I'm not going to bother with trying to hatch them.

In other plant news around the homestead, my passion flower vines just started to bloom.  The St. John's wort has been blooming for a few days.  It is very small this year and some has dried to a red crisp.  We had a hot snap a few weeks ago which I believe is probably what affected them in that way.  Anyway, both of these plants are good herbs for the mind.  I am trying tincturing in apple cider vinegar this year.  Have some St. John's wort tincture started and have some passion flower vines drying for the purpose of making tincture.

Generally, tinctures are made with alcohol, such as vodka, but as a recovered problem drinker, I'm not sure I want any vodka in the house.  According to one source, alcohol and vinegar bring out different constituents in the plants, so it's not necessarily true that alcohol tinctures are better than vinegar tinctures.  That would depend on the particular plant.

St. John's Wort is good for lifting mild depression, and passion flower is good for insomnia.  The way I understand it, dosing is the same for vinegar tinctures as it is for alcohol based tinctures, which is a half teaspoon 2 or 3 times a day.

I've been making tea in the evening.  I have lemon balm (another good relaxing tea), as well as applemint, pineapple sage, peppermint, spearmint, and anise hyssop.  I have a few blooms of chamomile, too.  Those are in pots, not wild plants.  I'm amazed at how nice they smell and taste.