It's always wonderful to have a weekend where there are no major commitments screaming at me and I can just bumble along for two days doing what I fancy.
Today I went out into the garden - probably the first time in three weeks as we've been away for the last three weekends. I wanted to photograph some St John's wort and snowdrops, but my camera batteries decided to die on me, so I went and got the fork out of the shed and decided to attack some docks instead. Of course, once I'd got the fork in my hand, I started digging - which was probably a mistake, but the soil nearest to my hawthorn hedge was just perfect for digging. Four feet away at the edge of the bed it was wet and sticky.
There were lots of creeping buttercup, willowherb and hedge woundwort to excise from the soil and I may reduce the amount of golden rod and moon daises I have, although I want to really do something with the golden rod this year as, so far, I've only dried it and not actually tried it out on coughs and stuff. It's difficult to experiment with a herb when you don't suffer with the ailments everyone else is. My office is air conditioned and there have been the most horrendous colds, flus and hacking coughs being passed around during the winter. The woman who sits next to me has just gone off sick for her second bout of something nasty this year, but she won't try any of my herb tea, even though I've offered it to her.
I also decided to gather some bramble roots to make some infused vinegar with egg shells. I was wondering why all the American herbwives were waxing lyrical about bramble root vinegar and it's astringency with diarrhea, as it's not something I've come across this side of the pond. Then I actually read about it in Joyce Wardwell's book, so it must be one of the home remedies they've kept up with in the wild west. (I'm betting that all the qualified herbalists will now rise up and proclaim loudly that they always recommend bramble root vinegar to their clients after raspberry leaf and chamomile tea!)
So, having worn myself out digging (it doesn't take much!), I came back inside and made up two four ounce jars of St John's wort oil into salve with one and a half ounces of beeswax. The smell from the oil was just wonderful, even though I was using oil infused in 2006. The wax smelled really nice too.
Then it was time to cook dinner, so I made a smoked haddock kedgeree and some nettle and vegetable soup with black cardomon, garlic and ginger for tea.
The bramble root vinegar is now sitting in my hot cupboard. It always seems such a privilege to work with roots. I've been doing quite a lot these past few months with nettle and dandelion roots and now bramble. Roots help you see the plant from an entirely new perspective. It's as if by working with the hidden parts of the plants they are sharing a totally different part of themselves. The aerial parts may be beautiful, colourful and spectacular shapes or odours, but roots somehow reveal the essential nature of the plant, which can be missed if you never dig down deep to experience it.
Having told you what I've been up to today, I think I'll go and liquidize the soup, rub my ankles with some of the new salve and then curl up with a herb book on the sofa.
What has everyone else been up to?
Sarah
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