Took a walk around the yard today, as I was extremely happy about the sun finally being out for once, and because things are starting to spring up all over the yard, which I'm also super excited about! I took lots of pictures of everything that had been popping up, as well as ended up gathering some Usnea to tincture. Read on...
Found some wild onions that Justin ended up throwing in some soup he made tonight... A great source of Calcium, Magnesium and Potassium!
(best soup EVER by the way. thanks baby!)
These tiny little wild violets have actually been out for over a month or more and they are quite beautiful for their size!
The Yarrow is springing back to life and I can NOT wait for the gorgeous white blossoms!
Birch! <3 What more to say?
Breathtaking Crocus'!
Plum Blossoms!!! There are SO many buds getting ready to explode! There's going to be TONS of plums this year! Can't wait for fresh plums and jam, and pie, and, and, and....
I have no idea what these guys are, but I can't wait to find out! I love the way they're starting to unfurl...
The next few pics are just of my favorite spots around the yard... Smurf huts, log paths, and little red lanterns...
And finally, I paid a visit to my favorite tree friends, the Hawthorn, and decided to pull off some of the dead branches that to me seemed to be weighing them down. They didn't fruit last year, and I am talking to them and tending to them however I can, to encourage them to provide me some flowers and fruit this year. In the process, I discovered that a lot of what I pulled off was pretty heavily covered in Usnea, so I started collecting...
I had a little helper by the name of Kitten Ocifer!
One of the younger Hawthorns was a bit unhappy about me picking at it, and gave me a little love bite.
It was well worth the finished product though! One of the first tinctures I've made in a few months now, and it feels good. As you can see, I left a bit of the Hawthorn bark that came off with the Usnea, as an added bonus to the medicine.
Hawthorn Usnea! <3 <3 <3
Thanks to my handsome partners question below, I've decided to include some information on the plants I'm talking about using in this blog, including Usnea and Hawthorn. According to Kiva Rose, Usnea's great for "rebalancing bacteria and eradicating infection throughout the mucus membranes, from mouth to lungs to gut to urinary tract and on." She goes on to say that, "The energetics of Usnea are cooling and drying, and it is broadly indicated for nearly any infection (especially those of the mucus membranes) with symptoms of heat, or heat with moisture. It seems to have the strongest, quickest effect on the lungs and bladder and is often used for infections associated with those organs. Even very serious infections such as pneumonia can respond very well to a strong Usnea tincture." And also that, since it's a cooling drying herb, it's best not to use on someone who's already very cool and dry by nature. You can read the whole article here if you are so inclined. I was personally researching cures for boils and cysts, when I found several suggestions for Usnea as an aid for this on several websites and within some of my books, so I will let you know what level of success I have with this particular usage for it. I also read pine pitch salve, and plantain (which I'm thinking to combine) which I'd like to make sometime soon as well, and will let you know how that works out also.
Hawthorn, which is the tree where most of the Usnea I collected came from, is considered sacred in some mythology, and a tree of the Fae Folk. It is best known for it's effects on the Heart (think "Heart-thorn". I do), and is very grounding and healing in that respect. A friend recently went through some pretty traumatic health ordeals and was in the hospital and rehab for several months. One of the complications of everything that she was going through was an increased heart rate, for which they put her on some sort of blood pressure meds, which she was having an adverse reaction to. She started taking Hawthorn tincture, and her heart rate started to slowly decline into the "normal" range after several days of use. For more information about Hawthorn, check out Herbalist Darcey Blue's lovely monograph about it here. It's a lovely tree, which I have much affection towards!
Hope you found the information informative! ;) Take care!
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I didn't even see that you had made a tincture! AWESOME! What is Usnea good for ?
ReplyDeleteYep! Check the shelf! ;) And thanks for asking what it's good for... Maybe that's something I should focus on putting some info out on in my posts... Gonna go make an edit! Thanks baby!
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