Sitting with plants

Ask anyone who works with plants, and you'll find that we all have our reasons and rituals for spending time near the leaves, stems, flowers, and roots. For me, I first noticed at 18 that while living in the center of the city, if I didn't get out into the green for a week or more, I started to feel a little crazed and off-balance.
Being outside in the company of plants now, my mind wanders and ideas spring to life. I may have long internal conversations that work through long forgotten issues, and almost always I am humming a tune. It is calming, quiet, relaxing, and more than anything - real. No matter what mood took me outside, it will be lifted and more serene in short order.
So when I saw that Pam Montgomery was leading a day class at The Rosemary House on Plant Spirit Healing, I cleared my schedule and signed up. It was a delicious day! She was able to lend fact to a lot of what those of us attending were already sensing, and added intention and focus to everyday interactions with the world of green. I picked up a copy of her book so that I can get more involved in what was taught.
The day started with a table full of perfection from Nancy's Sweet Remembrances kitchen. She made the marscapone/pistachio strawberries that I fell in love with at their 40th anniversary celebration, as well as scones, and some sweet bread loaves. I was trying to resist, but could not. Fruit, teas, and coffee were served as well. I might add that she was hosting a shower at her tearoom in just a few hours, but everything went as smoothly as silk.
Tables and chairs were set up under the enormous cedar and holly trees, and I nestled in, feeling almost hugged by the trees. My friend Lorie, who never fails to crack me up while adding wise asides, was at my table, and it was an extremely pleasant surprise to find that Betsy (who often writes for the magazine) and Carol were at the next table over. Of course Nancy and Susanna were there - so it was great to see so many friends all at once! The weather was magnificent. The deep blue sky, early Autumn breezes... just beautiful. I'm so glad we were outside.
The morning discussion centered on plant intelligence and our relation to the origin of plants. Pam told us about several scientific studies, including the Gaia effect, in which plants have changed to take up increased carbon dioxide in order to maintain the environment. She talked about how proximity with plants releases oxytocin in humans, which explains the relaxing effect we experience in the garden, meadows, and woods. Lots of fascinating facts that verified those instinctual feelings.
We then wandered around the garden, looking for a plant that called to us. One of the first things I noticed was this plant growing from a chimney three stories up, but considering that we would be sitting with our plant...
I moved on to a lush, inquisitive hops vine. We spent 20 or 30 minutes with the plant of our choosing (or perhaps those that had chosen us), opening up to the personality of them, seeing the strengths, differences, specialness in the essence of them.
We broke for lunch (another delicious array from Sweet Remembrances), and then went back to work. One of the most amazing things that Pam shared, was that although people make this seem difficult and *hard*, it is not. "The plants do all the work," she said, "It isn't rocket science." So we just have to open up and allow them inside our hearts. We sat with our plants some more, and I will say that the hops and I had an interesting time together. I was shocked. I know how this sounds, but while *I* wanted to go in a certain direction, the hops had an entirely different idea - so that's where we went.
We all said our goodbyes, and I wasn't sure I'd taken away all that much from the class. Sleeping on it crystallized it. It was a wonderful, enriching class.
Many thanks to Susanna Reppert at The Rosemary House for consistently bringing in great herbalists to teach each fall! We are so lucky in this area to have such wonderful learning resources. In just a couple of weeks I'll be wandering down the road in the different direction to the Farm at Coventry, where Susan Hess will be hosting Phyllis Light for two evenings of Appalachian Herbal Healing.
Note: I snagged the picture of Pam from the Green Nations website, and the book picture from Amazon.

Herbal Candy

A Spoonful of Sugar - Making Herbal Candy
From The Essential Herbal Magazine July/August 2010
By Tina Sams

Update 11/5/16:
I no longer use corn syrup, but do add a "hunk" of butter (about 2 T) when adding the sugar.  It keeps the foaming down a little and also keeps the cooling candy pliable a little bit longer so that it's easier to work with.

A couple of years ago, Marty Webster wrote about making horehound lozenges, and the instructions were very inspirational for me. Before I knew it, all kinds of ideas were running through my head!
Oh, it started simply enough.... what about elderberry? Maybe something relaxing? Oh! And Holy Basil "on the go"!
All you need is a candy thermometer, a large, heavy pan, and an afternoon. A helper for cutting in the end helps too.
When I was a kid, one of my best friends was from a large farming family, and they had an interesting side business. They made hard candies in about 15 flavors. On candy making nights, I would often stay overnight and help, because many hands were needed. In their basement, they had a stove, and would set 4 kettles filled with sugar, water, and Karo syrup to boil. 

There was a ping-pong table (probably reinforced) that took up most of the room, and we were stationed all around the table with heavy shears. The table was dusted with confectioners sugar. The father would heave a marble slab up onto the head of the table. As the first kettle reached the right temperature, he'd pour the molten mixture onto the slab, and work it with paint scrapers. Then he'd add the color and flavor and continue to fold the sweet, thickening mixture together. Finally, he'd start to cut it into fat 1/2" wide strips, and toss them out to us to cut into bite-sized pieces. 

It had to be cut quickly before hardening, but those first few strips were soft and very warm. We would always sample a piece or two. Quality testing at its finest. By the end of the night, there would be bins full of candy, and a bunch of kids high on sugar.
These memories also inspired me. I'm sure that production set-up would not satisfy today's regulations, but it sure was fun.
The recipe I use is:
3/4 to 1 cup of strongly infused herbal "tea"
2 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup

I have not had a chance to experiment with honey, and I believe that one could use all sugar, but this recipe worked well for me. You may want to try a few variations if the corn syrup is objectionable.

To make the tea, I put the herbs, berries, etc., in a pint jar and covered with boiling water, allowing it to steep for several hours. Then I strained it and squeezed the dickens out of the pulp to get all the good stuff. If there is less than a cup of liquid, that's fine.

Put the liquid into a large (at least 2 quart) pan. It bubbles up a lot during cooking, so you need a lot of space.
Add the corn syrup and stir to blend. Add the sugar and turn on medium high heat. Stir only until the sugar is dissolved. Set the thermometer on the side of the pan, with the tip in the liquid, but not touching the bottom of the pan.
Let 'er rip!

While it cooks, grease a 10 x 13 glass cooking dish and put down plastic wrap or parchment on a surface where you'll be doing the cutting - probably 2' x 3' is sufficient. Sift confectioners sugar or cornstarch over the plastic wrap.
When the temperature of the candy reaches 300 degrees, turn off the heat and stir briefly.
Pour it into the baking dish. Have something under the dish to protect the counter from heat.
Wait a minute or two, and lift the edge of the candy to see if it can be lifted to cut. When this is possible, use scissors to cut a strip, and toss it out to a waiting helper who will cut it into pieces. This really is difficult to do alone, but it's possible. Keep cutting the strips until it is finished.
If the candy in the baking dish hardens before you've finished, you can place it into the oven and heat it, but it will probably stick to the dish. I've taken out the whole piece that is leftover, melted it in another pan, and repoured it into the original baking dish. Clean-up is easy, hot water dissolves the candy.

Here are the infusions I started with:

Elderberry Bits
1 cup fresh elderberries
2 slices ginger
zest from one lemon

Lemon Balm Bombe
3/4 cup freshly picked lemon balm
1/4 cup freshly picked passionflower leaves, flower, tendrils
1/4 cup blueberries
zest from one lemon
20 drops of lemon eo just before pouring into baking dish

Tulsi Twist
3/4 cup freshly picked holy basil
1/4 cup dried goji berries
1/4 cup freshly picked chocolate mint

Herbalicious Medley
juice and zest from one orange and one lemon
1/4 cup holy basil
1/4 cup elderberry
2 slices ginger
3 rose geranium leaves
sprig of lemon thyme
sprig of rosemary
sprig of lemon verbena
1/4 cup mint
2 pods cardamom

Lancaster Central Market

Central Market is something that I rarely give much thought to; it's always just been there. Growing up before malls and urban sprawl, going "downtown" was the only true option for shopping. Back then, I never wondered how long the market had existed or even gave much thought to the (at that time) horse-drawn carriages that brought goods into the city for sale, hitched outside the market house for the day.
Our county has many markets that have been in existence for decades - some for a century or more. Green Dragon in Ephrata is one that I researched for a paper in college, and that one has quite a colorful history - including a "roadhouse" period that has a fairly unsavory flavor. At one time, in addition to the Central Market we had Southern, West End, and Eastern Markets that all ran on different, overlapping days, ensuring that there was always good fresh foods available at any given time. The Eastern Market is in the midst of a revival, but Central Market has always been there.
In 1730, Alexander Hamilton included it in the original plan of the city, and conveyed personal property to the City of Lancaster in a deal that ensured that the market would always be there. It has run continuously from that time, with a building being constructed first around 1757, and then being remodeled into our outstandingly beautiful current market building in 1889. The Market House is under reconstruction right now, but the changes are internal. The building itself is about 1/2 block long and half as wide, surrounded by a narrow cobblestone alley on all sides that includes hitching posts that are these days used almost exclusively for our mounted police force.
I remember going to Central Market on rare occasions as a child, mostly for baked goods when we happened to be in town shopping for clothes. We lived out in the country and there was no scarcity of fresh produce and meat for us, and Tuesday nights found our grandfather at Root's Market towards Lititz for produce and donuts to bring home. Home delivery of breads and milk were also a part of life.
Later, my first job and apartment led me to spend more time at market. I lived a block away from market, and worked for a paper supply company a block in the other direction. Each market day, the owner of the company would walk to market and get orders for bags, cake or pie boxes, candy boxes, plates, plasticware, deli-wrap and foil, etc., and then those things would be delivered before the end of the day to the standholders. Nearly everything I ate came from the market, where standholders supplied beautiful produce, fresh meats and fish, dairy goods, and baked goods. At least once a week, I'd take home fresh cut bouquets of flowers for the apartment.
In the early 70's the big mall came to town, and nearly wiped the city out. I married and moved out of the center of the city, making trips into the market a special treat. It began a long, sad period of decline for the downtown area.
The 90's brought about an exciting revival for the City of Lancaster, with arts being the main focus. The town is now full of art studios, specialty shops, a school of art and design, music, theatre, and many incredible eateries. It is once again an exciting hub of activity, and I was so happy when our kids started finding reasons to go "downtown".
Central Market is still the jewel in the crown of the city. On market days (Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday), the city is once again teeming with shoppers. It is a real testament to the vision of Alexander Hamilton that this one vibrant part of our heritage has been the thing that seems to have held steady and given hope and purpose to the people who led us back to our town.
I try to get there at least once a month, although it is a special trip. There is nothing like the offerings of freshly prepared ethnic foods, specialty foods, organic produce and grass-fed beef, fresh ground horseradish, jellies, cider, artisan breads - and so much more - that are beautifully displayed for purchase. The homemade sauerkraut that families have purchased for decades to serve on New Year's Day with fresh pork and potatoes also from market, the fresh turkeys picked up just before the holidays (along with that tender celery for stuffing!), the smoked hams, the first strawberries, spring peas, green onions of spring - they all are part of what makes this place special.
If you visit Lancaster, visit the oldest continuously running market in the US. It is steeped in the work and life of centuries of good people, and is the heart of our area.

Big Doin's in the Country

Every year, I serve as honorary goal-tender at a very interesting wholesale show, helping my sister gather orders for her soap company. Anyone who creates their own product knows how difficult it can be to tell people how wonderful their stuff is, while it is much easier to talk up things in which one is not so personally invested. In fact on occasion, Maryanne and I will switch sides of the table when we show side-by-side, with her hawking my magazine and books while I sing the praises of her soap or lampwork.
A major local farm and garden supply company holds a combination wholesale show and customer appreciation expo, where many of their suppliers set up to talk face to face with the customers, allowing them to see new products and reps up-close, and place orders for the coming months.
Farmers come from the entire Mid-Atlantic region, and the vast majority arrive by Amish taxi - vans with hired drivers (many of whom look eerily similar to Yosemite Sam) - giving the horses a day off. The air is filled with excitement as people who rarely get to see each other catch up and visit. New babies to show off, young people shyly flirting, and groups of men and women (mostly separate) shooting the breeze, all while an enormous amount of shopping goes on. There are 2 main meals served during the show, and they are smorgasbords featuring traditional PA Deutsch dishes that are reminiscent of our childhood, just as the whole scene reminds us of family reunions of long ago. We are quite certain that we are related to a number of the people we talk to each year.
As with many of the most fortuitous events in life, we stumbled into this show several years ago, not even knowing beforehand that such a thing existed. We love it.
Even in just the past few years, we've noticed an expansion of organic options, as well as heirloom seeds. The non-organic products are still there, but the focus is quickly turning.
Some of the sights....
The company across the aisle from us had these great outdoor flames, sort of a miniature fire for the city dweller to use on a patio, or perhaps even a country deck. They were, unfortunately scented in citronella, jasmine, and (I think) vanilla. We suggested unscented and cedar as options we'd prefer, and the rep thought they were great ideas, although they were selling like hotcakes.
Next to him were gazing globes made in Altoona. Some looked like giant soap bubbles, and of course we liked them the best.
There were lots of garden tools - and a good bit of whimsy...
Yellow jacket and wasp traps that were actually pretty cool looking...
I loved the rainbarrels and outdoor sinks and pumps.
A seller of water garden supplies had some spectacular plants. I snapped these pitcher plants just after the lights were turned on in the morning, so they aren't open yet.
Outside in the lobby, a row of tables was set up to hold the hats and bonnets of attendees.
It was a lot of fun, and each year we win a few more farm markets over to trying handmade soap.
Between customers, we did some proofing and editing on the Nov/Dec issue of the magazine so that we can get it to the printer before the end of the month, and that should get finished up today. Maryanne's husband made another 8 molds while we were gone so that she is able to double daily production with not a lot of hassle.
Off to the next great adventure!

Slim Pickin's

We've had a hot dry summer, and the things I'd typically forage at this time of the year show a lot of stress. One way to look at it might be that they've been through the same challenges we've been through, so if I want to use them medicinally, maybe they are just perfect. Usually we try to find robust, plump specimens, but just maybe these stubborn fighters will be as good or better. Most of the things I use medicinally over the winter were gathered weeks ago, but I'm going to do a little experimentation this year to check this theory on myself. If you don't hear from me.... heh heh.
The calendula is going to seed. I picked the dry parts from the plant and threw them back into the garden where it would be nice if they came up next year (instead of all through the yard). The seedheads are often included when one purchases dried calendula as whole flowers. The first time you see the little seeds floating in oil, you'll think they are curvy little worms. Don't panic, they're just seeds. It is possible to purchase just the petals, but the resinous buds and flowers are most useful for salves and balms.

We have several patches of various mints in the field beside my house. My brother-in-law gives them a wide berth because he knows I use them for tea blends. Sometime in early July I asked him to mow them so they'd start fresh. He must have thought I said DON'T mow them, so it was only a few weeks ago that they were mowed. They are finally to a point where I can gather the tender leaves that make up a little rosette. I like to pick that part so there isn't really any stem to deal with after they're dry.

I gathered a small amount of passionflower to dry and send to a friend across the country. The tendrils of the passionflower plant fascinate me, and I always add lots of them to the mix, going on the Doctrine of Signatures - this batch is specifically for circular thinking that is keeping her awake at night, so the curly tendrils make sense. There were also a few nice figs begging to be lunch, so who am I to say no?

On the way back up the hill, I stopped and thought how pretty the chicory and the goldenrod look together. Behind them is a spectacular sage plant, and above them a still-bearing elderberry. The sunshine on them was perfectly autumnal.
The Sweet Annie is in just the right stage for wreath-making. It is also the stage that makes allergy sufferers miserable. Ah, but it smells sweet!

It's still hot out. The leaves are trying to turn, but the dry weather is just not helping. They may just give up and fall off.
Soon it will be time to dig some roots!
Beauty Berries - couldn't be more aptly named. The color is so unusual and... beautiful! They can be made into jelly, too.
1 1/2 qts beauty berries
2 qts water
Boil 20 minutes and strain
To 3 cups infusion, add 1 envelope Sure Jell and 4 1/2 cups sugar
Boil for 2 minutes.
Remove from burner and allow to stand until foam forms
Skim off foam
Pour into sterilized jars and cap

Going with the flow

It's been an odd week around here, and not your usual odd, either.
First, it's been the week of, "uh-oh, check the fuses." The list (so far, don't want to get too cocky, here) is: one running toilet, one broken water heater, one slurring stereo system, two empty propane cannisters (in the middle of a picnic), and an engine light glowing amber. Oh and when I switched the heat on the other night to take the chill out of the house, nothing happened.
There was a time that each and every one of these things would have thrown me into a tizzy. Having them all happen in one week might have sent me either to my bed or to packing my bags (and at one point there, I did speculate on both options), but instead, I'm thinking about how smoothly it is all going.
My brother-in-law Bob took on the challenges of the toilet and water heater in good humor, replacing parts in both of them within a day or two.
The stereo was old, and I just pulled out a portable cd player, slapped in some heavy blues, and went about my work in the kitchen - that always goes better with music.
I expected the one propane cannister to be empty, but it was a shock to find the second one was also empty. Still can't figure that one out, but while the chatter and laughter on the deck continued, I moved the food to a giant skillet in the kitchen to finish.
The engine light is something I've had checked before. It happens every time the car gets a new tank of gas - which is once every month or two. Eventually I'll wander down to the service place and they'll look at it, and reset it. Someday I'll just get it fixed, but it's hard to hand over the cash for something that isn't important.
The guy is coming over this morning to check the furnace. It's only a couple of years old, so it's probably something like a spider web or a reset button. Either way, it hasn't gotten cold enough yet to be a major problem, so I'm grateful to have found it now, because everyone knows these things usually happen on weekends in the middle of a blizzard.

The flip side of all this, is that the lid blew off my sister's wholesale soap business a couple or three weeks ago, and it's been a rare day without a couple of nice orders coming in. We've been making soap, cutting soap, trimming soap, wrapping soap, and delivering soap.
In there somewhere, I was invited to work on a project that is truly beyond my wildest dreams, and so far that's been great fun.
We're working on the Nov/Dec issue of The Essential Herbal, and it is coming along nicely (when, you might ask? oh... here and there), and By the Hearth is in the computer in great need of massage. The printer is going to love me! Subcriptions are up and show no sign of stopping, and sales of books, etc. (where you can also buy these soaps) have kept me hopping, too.
We have two shows in the next week - the only ones we kept on the calendar this fall - and we'll be ready for them.
And then it will be October - the busy season begins :-).

They say that it's all about perspective. This month, I'm learning a lot about perspective. It looks good from here!

Syrup for Coughs and Congestion

It's been about a week of sneezing and coughing, so I got pretty fed up with the whole thing today. Time to pull out the big guns. Oddly, elderberry just didn't do the trick this time. I shudder to think how nasty this could have gotten without it, though.
Today I made a syrup specifically for this thing that seems to fluctuate between my head and my chest. I got out some Osha, Licorice root, Elecampane, Wild Cherry bark, Ginger, and Lemon to start a decoction. A decoction is different than an infusion, because roots and barks need to simmer for a period of time, while infusions involve leaves and flowers that are steeped in boiled water for a few minutes. There is another, newer definition of infusions, but for our purposes, this will do.
I filled a small pan with water, and put all ingredients except the lemon in to simmer for 45 minutes. I added the juice of a lemon for the last 5 minutes.After it was done, I strained it out. You can see here that my favorite method of straining things is with a steel mesh strainer lined with fabric from an old tshirt. As shirts wear out, they are washed and cut into squares for this purpose. They work beautifully.
There was 2/3 of a cup of decoction, so I measured out 2/3 cup of sugar, and added a good dollop of honey. At that point, I also added 1/2 ounce of goldenrod tincture.
It all went back into the pan, and was brought to a boil for a few minutes before being poured into bottles.The decoction alone could be drunk without being made into syrup, and I will make some more for after dinner tonight. It's nice to have it ready to go, though.

this little herbie catches a bug

We're a week from the Nov/Dec publication deadline for The Essential Herbal, and of course the soap biz is crazy at this time of year, so coming down with a virus isn't good.
Last night I started feeling something going on in my throat, and took a good dose of elderberry with holy basil. This morning it was still there, so I repeated that.
And I got serious about kicking this thing.
My friend Betty Pillsbury suggested some sage tea. My pal Rosanne Tartaro said soup. Here's what I did....
First, I made a blend of tinctures:
elderberry
holy basil
ephedra
goldenrod
St John's wort
All of these are either anti-viral or will help with the head-clog, and very beginning of respiratory issues.
Then I started a big pot of ham and cabbage. This is something we ate all the time when I was a kid, and it is probably a standard PA Dutch dish. My grandmother and mother both loved cabbage, and passed that along to me. So far, the next generation does not share that love.First filling a big pot about 1/3 full of water, and then adding a large ham hock, I left that to simmer for about an hour until the meat came off the bone. To that, I added a nice chopped cabbage, a couple of onions, some turnips, and a few potatoes. That cooked for a couple more hours.
I went into the garden and plucked a nice sprig of sage, and put that into a pint mason jar, along with a slice of crystallized ginger and a licorice root stick, boiled water, and filled the jar, pouring the water over the herbs.Here's my lunch:It was really good, and it will be good again for supper :-).
I will continue the sage tea and the tincture blend every hour or so. This thing just cannot get a grip on me right now!
And now, to bed.

a fine late summer evening

I was enjoying the cool breeze blowing over the deck, picking **&%^&*& elderberries again, when it dawned on me that I could sit out here and blog. The sun is about halfway down, and after the mid-90's of today, it is very comfortable. In fact, this may be the most perfect evening of the whole summer. The new deck furniture, purchased in mid-July when the prices went down, has hardly been used. Soon it will be put away for until next year.
A week ago we were all along the beach and bay in Delaware looking for bayberries. It was 102 degrees. There were very few bayberries to be found, but it was probably because we weren't sure where to look - other than protected wildlife and or nature sanctuaries. We did find beach plums. This was the first time we'd ever seen them. Perhaps different plants taste different, but the ones we tried were very puckery - like they had a lot of tannic acid. They'd probably make wonderful jam, though.
Earlier today I wandered around trying to find proof that summer isn't over yet. No such luck. It was starting to become clear when cornhusks started flying through the air like giant snowflakes the other day. Farmers are cutting the corn all around here. The view is changing. The sky is a different color, too. But that's not all.
Walking past the garden, somebody was busy munching on what's left of the bean leaves. He looked at me in a sidelong manner, as if to say, "what are YOU lookin' at?"
The dogwood berries are getting to be a deep red, which usually does not signal that there's a lot of summer time left :-(.I totally missed my favorite stage of the hibiscus seedpods, when they look like they are made of leather. They must have hit that on the day we went to the shore, because they are right by the door, and never had that sturdy, shiny look.
Next up is the seedpod of Velvetleaf. I posted it earlier on the TEH facebook page as jimson weed, and Sue Hess discreetly clued me in. Back in the late 70's, there was a rash of jimson weed usage. I seem to remember someone trying to jump from the roof of the parking garage directly across from the police station.... ANyway... at the time I was out in a meadow with some kids, and someone pointed it out. Probably both plants were close together, and someone mentioned the barrel shaped pods. Hey, lots of things could be barrel-shaped-ish! So 30 or 40 years later, we got that one straightened out.
The Sweet Annie is high as an elephant's eye and covered with the tiny balls that will soon make those with allergies miserable. It smells wonderful to me.
The sea oats are drying in the sun, shimmering and quaking to the gentlest of breezes.It doesn't look like there was much proof of a lasting summer out there today. I will continue to look. Maybe down in the deep part of the woods, where the burning sun hasn't managed to cut through the trees and burn leaves. That's the real problem, you know. It isn't that summer is over, it's just that it's been so hot that the plants aren't handling it well. Poor things. That's what it is.

Accidental Dinosaur

This morning I was reading a thread on a newsgroup about which applications people have chosen to disable on their cellphones. Reading along, I can hear the drum beats, and know that it won't be too much longer before another piece of technology will enter my life and take away another piece of solitude.
Thus far I have managed to resist having a cellphone. My daughter was gifted with a phone by her father at the age of 10, and it never seemed like a great idea to me. For years it was mandatory to leave the phone on the dining room table overnight, because it came to my attention that her "little" friends would reach out and touch her in the middle of the night. Rarely did calls come through the house phone for her, and that meant that as her mother, I was not aware of just who might be calling.
It's been about 20 or 25 years since cellphones became available to everyman. At first it was mostly people who really needed to be connected, like doctors and emergency personnel. If you ventured to a mall, you might see some guy being very conspicuous while taking (or faking) a call, because at the time it was a status thing. Something to impress the ladies...
Now they are everywhere, and people are talking all the time. All the time! In the spring I was in Penn Station in NYC, and marveled looking around, seeing that almost everyone waiting for a train was talking on a phone.
Part of my resistance comes from the fact that I am some hideous combination of Luddite and Techno Junkie. Although job situations forced me to use computers long before the general public came in common contact with them, I resisted having one at home for years. As soon as I got one, somehow e-commerce followed within months, making it a daily part of my life. Okay, that was cool, but there was no way I was getting a laptop. The office was for work, and that would leave the rest of my life alone, right? Then my brother gave me a laptop as a gift one year, and I'm typing this on the couch, with Saturday morning coffee. Sigh.... and so it goes.
At least (so far) the business has thrived via email, the phone blessedly quiet.
I actually do have a cellphone. It was given to me during an extended family crisis, and in fact I did use it a few times. It is even charged. There might even be messages, but darned if I can find them. Once I tried to call home from the car during a snowstorm. It was someone else's car and operation of the windshield wipers was eluding me (see a pattern here?), but the little screen filled with strange characters. We don't know what that was about.
I'm afraid because of what I see happening to people. It may sound snooty, but it looks to me like people are losing their ability to be alone. In the grocery store, they need to phone a friend in order to choose a flavor of yogurt. Walking in a park, they can't enjoy looking at their surroundings without chatting with someone. In waiting rooms and restaurants, people have lost the ability to simply enjoy either the company they are in, or being alone. Apparently driving has become almost impossible to do without some kind of moral support. My daughter, on breaks from college has to be broken from the habit of constant texting in order to have a face-to-face conversation.
And the worst part? I know deep in my heart that all of those things would become my life, and I would be among the worst of the talkers. As it stands, I have long conversations in my head, alone in the garden, walking in the woods, or driving somewhere. Should something magnificent present itself to me during one of these times, there is the anticipation of telling about it later. I can work on how to describe it in my mind for a while. That will be lost.
Eventually I will have to learn how they work. Public pay phones are all but non-existent, and I am beginning to feel like one of the last hold-outs, so these days of solitude are numbered.
But I'll tell you what... I'm NOT getting an electronic reader. No way.

August and Autumn are spelled differently!

People, people! I know that it's been a rough summer with extremes of all sorts of weather, depending on where you live, but do we have to be in such a hurry to usher this season away? Yes, yes... I can smell it too, and feel the change in the air. The sky has taken on the characteristic hue of blue that only comes this time of year - but come on now. We still have at least another month or so before the lush greens start to change to golds and tans and browns.
On a little walk around the yard it was easy to pick up a few "pretties" that probably do foretell of the coming season. Elderberries, beauty berries, hazelnuts, fir cones, and a guinea feather or two...
The hazelnuts are one of the prettiest things out there right now. The way they grow in little tassels is just one of nature's masterpieces. Shades of pale green with a blush of pink - beautiful! The tassels hide behind the large leaves, and I bet we'll have to race the squirrels for them.
Out in the garden the Tomato Horn Worms are showing up. They creep me out. A lot. At some point, I'll take the tomatoes i want and then just stop going near them. Knowing that they are hosting their own killers, and the wasp eggs they carry will eventually lead to their demise.... just eewww.
Soon the brush will die back enough that we'll be able to walk deeper into the woods and find nuts and all sorts of berries and fruits. Every part of every season has it's own special gifts, so I won't wish for the end of this one quite yet.
Oh MY! While I was waiting for the pictures to upload, UPS dropped off a package from Roe at SunRose Aromatics. Roe is a sweet friend who knows I'm a bit of a patch at the moment. She sent several things that I'll talk about later, but this: Palo Santo essential oil!!! I took a sniff, and swear it was an out of body thing. Just for a second there, I wasn't on earth! Best to hit the Publish button before I float off again.....

august weekend ramble

We've been keeping our noses to the grindstone lately around The Essential Herbal, so this weekend it was time to get away and have a little fun.
Original plans for Saturday fell through, so we found ourselves preparing to head out to the Bead Fest in Valley Forge. Before we left, I checked Facebook and saw that there was an herb and rare plant sale on Route 23, posted by Sugarbush Nursery of Mohnton, PA. We decided we could swing by there on the way home.
Bead Fest was interesting - although there are only so many tables full of beads I can stand to look at before starting to get terminally bored. Finally we veered to the back of the building and found one of the glass companies that my sister was looking for - something about "double helix glass". Can't wait to see what she comes up with using them. Hopefully we'll be seeing it soon over at TorchSong Studio! The guys at the booth were pretty much fun to kid around with, and I wound up with several Elvis stickers (some art glass promotion) that I promised to plaster inside donut shops. The conference center was filling up, we had pretty much what we came for, so we were out of there inside an hour.
A quick few miles down the road, and we found the plant sale. Interestingly, both of our cameras cut out during the plant sale. Neither of us were able to take any pictures. There were some really nice plants there! Lots of woodland natives, shrubs, hostas, unusual evergreens, and then we got to Sugarbush. She had some gorgeous stuff, and I immediately scooped up some bottle gentian, and a pleurisy root/butterfly weed. As I was preparing to pay, I saw a pot holding just a small mat of green with a tag that said "bluets, Houstonia" and grabbed it! Spending a spring in VA one year, I awoke one morning to find that the entire yard had been transformed into a carpet of tiny blue stars - it was bluets. Later, Betsy May (a friend, and one of our writers) and I spent some time searching for these. I sent her the information immediately upon returning home!
Back on the road, we drove on past Susan Hess' Farm at Coventry - but the driveway was filled with cars, so we knew she was having a class and drove on.
Right up the road a few miles we saw a sign for St. Peter's Village to the right. It was well past lunch time, so we decided to see if we could grab a bite there. We had a really nice time sitting on the patio of The Inn at St Peter's, looking down over the granite boulders with a spring running through them. So well fed were we that we stopped in the village bakery and managed to leave without making a purchase. Looking back, it's hard to believe we could resist those magnificent confections!
Later at home, I cleaned a big basket full of elderberries to dry and gathered lots of lime basil.
Just hanging out for the evening with the guinea fowl....Molly went off to work at the Renaissance Faire this morning, but returned home at noon because of the weather and lack of a crowd. I told her to jump in the shower, and she could go along to The Gem Miner's Jubilee in Lebanon.
I enjoy this show more than a typical bead show because they have lots of nice specimens of rocks. Big geodes, unusual crystal formations, rare minerals, fossils, and some pretty cool stuff. I almost always find something that makes me feel like I discovered treasure. Today that treasure was strands of myrrh beads from Sumatra. They are beautiful, handstrung, smoothed by hand, and very fragrant. I bought all the dealer had - and it wasn't very much! They will be going on the website tomorrow. Molly got a nice green amber ring, Maryanne found a stone she's been looking for, and I also picked up some nice leopard jasper and a couple of tiny carved figurines that will go into a special little bag.
Tomorrow we'll get back to work on By the Hearth. Just one or two more articles to type in, and then it's going to get put into chapters, we'll insert pictures - and do a good bit of editing. Late September release date is breathing down our necks!