The herbs have been so abundant this year. I have used loads for cooking and tea etc.
Today I gathered some marigold petals to prepare calendula oil, saved some St. John´s Wort seeds (I have already prepared St. J´s tincture) and experimented for the first time making a vibrational flower essence from Mullein flowers. I really missed most of the mullein without realising what a valuable plant it was, so there were only a few flowers left on the tops of the plants - just enough to make a flower essence. Home made vibrational essence will be an interesting experiment, that I will try with other plants if I find this beneficial.
I am so pleased with myself today. Look at the lovely garlic I grew and just harvested. I have never grown any so good and large before, the individual cloves are fat and meaty.
Also, I never tried braiding them before. OK, my first attempts, so they were a little wobbly and loose but overall I am pleased with the effect. They look great hanging in the kitchen.
The whole kitchen smells of garlic now from the moment you enter the door. Making me feel hungry! I guess the smell will fade over time, or we will get used to it, but I must admit that the peach buns I made this afternoon could have done without the background scent lol.
I am hoping this crop will last us right through to next year, by which time I should have some more coming on. Am looking forward to garlic mayonnaise, garlic mushroom, garlic with roast potatoes etc. etc.
I found this piece at http://rainbowcrystal.com. It sums up perfectly a deep seated problem I have with making decisions that I am now treating with this Bach Flower Remedy:
Scleranthus: Back and Forth
For a Scleranthus person, two choices is too many, and they tend to make firm decisions which don't last long.
Mary, for example, has to choose between two houses. One is a beautiful old farmhouse by a stream, with neighbors within shouting distance, and stores nearby. The other is a recently-built A-frame in the woods, in which there are no immediate neighbors and it's a long trip to the store.
She has visited both houses several times. When she's at the farmhouse she's certain she wants to live there; the same thing happens when she sees the A-frame. When she's at neither place she can't decide.
One of the Scleranthus characteristics is that the individual, like Mary, tends to be attracted to opposites. If it's a choice between jobs one might involve much interaction with other people, while the second involved solitary work. If a choice of spouses or partners is involved one will be an angel, the other a devil.
Ups and Downs
Similarly, the Scleranthus person may be prone to mood swings from joy to misery. Physical imbalances may also result from these emotional fluctuations.
The Scleranthus person's immediate problem is that he has become an either-or kind of person who's shut off the possibility of a more inclusive reality. The deeper problem is that she allows herself to be swayed by circumstances, having stopped listening to the voice of her higher self or soul.
Scleranthus opens up this connection. If Mary, the house-hunter, were to take Scleranthus she might hear the voice of her deepest self say, "Tally up the benefits of both houses and look for a home which blends the best of both."
In this and many other ways, the well-balanced Scleranthus person opens up to a world of richness and variety.
Our cherry tree has been giving off resin, which I collected when I pruned the tree this week. I want to use it in home-made incense but I can't find anything about the properties of fruit tree resin, either healing or magickal. Anyone give me a clue?
The standard advice with essential oils is never to use them undiluted on the skin, with the possible exceptions of Lavender, Tea Tree and Chamomile which seem to cause no problems for most people. However, I have found that, throwing caution to the wind, Peppermint oil is a powerful healer undiluted on my face no less.
I forget how I came to this discovery. It must have been in desperation one day when I had a terrible migraine and thought I was going to vomit. I dabbed it on my temples and under my nose and felt the freezing menthol contract my throbbing head and ease the nausea almost instantly.
In the last week, it pulled me out of feeling absolutely ghastly twice. The first time, something I'd eaten had made me liverish and my gall bladder was contracting and causing awful pain. I was literally rolling around in agony. Then I dabbed some neat Peppermint Oil on my forehead and my hands and gently rubbed the painful area until I could control my breathing and relax, causing the contractions in the gall bladder to subside.
Then last night I seem to have caught a chill or some bug whilst I had been outside pruning trees. I had been stood for a while by the bonfire gazing at the flames, then when I looked away, my vision was disturbed with flashes and flickers like the flames were still there. It gave me an instant migraine and nausea. I went in to lie down because I thought I was going to pass out. My husband said I was white as a sheet. The pain and feeling of sickness just got worse and worse and I started to shiver. I tried the old Peppermint trick and put myself to bed. I had to renew the oil a few times, as it seems to be the instant freezing effect that has the most benefit. I put it directly on my temples, on my nostrils and my hands, which I held gently on my stomach. It took a while for the symptoms to ease but it stopped me from throwing up and I was all better after a night's rest.
Treating myself like this, I can avoid taking any kind of tablet, which I would more than likely not keep down anyway. It is a good example to back up the argument that EOs are very powerful and not a "soft" treatment. I haven't found anything else that works as quickly or effectively.
If anyone thinks they would like to give this a try, I would warn you that the menthol freeze can be quite uncomfortable and may be positively dangerous if you have more tender skin than me. However, I have not found that diluting this oil is anywhere near as beneficial when I need it for emergency first aid.
I would be interested to know if anyone else uses EOs neat and in what circumstance.
