Good Afternoon my dears,
I hope you all had a wonderful Summer Solstice, I've been a little burnt out after Faery Fest so we just took it easy this year. I am rather excited for Lughnasadh in August though! Hopefully I'll be celebrating it with my beautiful friend Monsta who has just jumped feet first back into the path, I'm really looking forward to teaming up to work with her and lots of witchy discussions ♥
This leads me rather nicely to the outing we took yesterday to join my friend Hannah on one of her herb walks. She graduated as a herbalist from the same university that I went to and I now work with her as well so I was really happy to be invited.
It was an amazing walk, I learnt a lot, especially in identifying herbs that I'd only ever seen in my books before. It was quite funny because as we walked around Hannah would first ask us if we knew what the specific herb was. Most times I would try and answer and although I didn't get the exact herbs right I always identified the plant family they were in correctly!
I also took my camera as I was told I would be introduced to a Faery herb I would love, so I took some photos of the whole outing to share. I rarely take my camera into town so it's always nice when I have it with me.
Hello there Tiny Owl Prince! Extreme Close up!
I don't usually take the Bathroom Mirror Photo of Doom but I've been feeling a little sensitive about my face lately (there are some truly horrible pictures of me out there right now!) so I wanted to prove that I can look human!
The first herb we met was Lady's Mantle, something I've had growing in my garden for a long time but never actually identified.
We came to an area that used to be a proper Herbalist Garden. Though it has long since changed hands it still has a lot of herbs growing in it.
Here is Lovage, with leaves that apparently taste of celery! I don't like celery so I didn't try it, also because Hannah told us that the taste will stay with you all day.
A rather large, old Rosemary plant. A tip here is that, because the plant is so oily, it's best to use it fresh instead of dried. When it's dried it loses a lot of it's flavour and goodness!
This is Lemon Balm, a really good herb to use when you're feeling stressed or if you've had a particularly hard day. Just pick some of the fresh sprigs and steep it in hot water for 5 minutes or so.
Sweet Woodruff, this is one I've always wanted to see but never encountered.
I think everybody knows this fiend! Of course it's Nettle. I have a little bit of a soft spot for Nettle because it has so many great uses and I think it can be overlooked because it's a bit scary.
This is the Faery Herb in all her glory, it's White Deadnettle! White Deadnettle looks like the regular Nettle but it actually has no sting in it at all so it's perfectly safe to pick. It has these amazing white flowers that look like little robed figures and if you turn them upside down they make faerie shoes! An old folktale says that faerie's took to hiding their shoes inside the flowers of Deadnettle because people would be scared away from picking them. You can also suck the nectar out of their flowers, they've very sweet.
Lots and lots of Yarrow which is great for stopping bleeding. Hannah informed us that if you have a nosebleed you can stuff some sprigs of yarrow up your nose and it will very quickly make it stop. However, paradoxically, it also has the power to start a nosebleed if you don't have one because it interacts with the mucus membranes on the inside of the nose.
After the walk and talk was done we all went for tea together. Actually it wasn't at the place pictured at all, I just really like the sign!
A shop had these amazing old fashioned animal teddies. I love the owl!
and the mouse is adorable too.
A pretty shop window on the way down the hill.
The place that we went to for tea was a health shop with a massive range of teas. There are two places I've been lately that have had so much tea, I've been in tea heaven! I picked up some Yogi teas that don't have Cardamom or Cinnamon as a main ingredient, all the ones I've ever found always have those in abundance and I can't stand sweet tea so I was really excited to find ones without it so prominently featured!
The Lipton teas are from a new shop that has just opened at the bottom of our road. I'm not entirely sure about the Sencha since it has pear as a main ingredient but I love the White tea with Rose and Violet, it tastes like what I always think perfume should taste like!
The Bojenmi is my favourite tea of all time, from the Chinese Supermarket. I thought they'd discontinued it because I couldn't find it for a long time, I'm so happy they have it back now!
On the way down the hill we stopped at the magic shop and I picked up two new pots of Tiger Balm, one in red (for heating) and one in white (for cooling). I have to say this is one of the main tools in our medicine cabinet at home, it's perfect for if you have joint ache.
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