It has been quite long since we’ve updated our herbal blog. I wouldn’t say things have stopped on my end – oh no, quite the contrary. But for a while, I felt like it had stopped. Well, I had experimented with my menstrual cramp tea, I had done my steams and masks with good results, drank Valerian to sleep better, and I had drunk Black Cohosh tea for my tinnitus (which I've sadly fallen behind). I got to a point where I felt a little lost with the herbalism. I had the mentality of, “Well, I’ve done what I set out to do, and now what?” instead of realizing that herbs are really a lifelong practice. When problems or situations arise, we now have the knowledge to turn towards our herbs and learn from them, as opposed to the huge rush of information we gained at the beginning. It’s probably like any relationship: fun and intoxicating to begin with, and then it levels out into a deeper relationship that takes hard work (but still fun of course!). So with the gain in knowledge from herbs, I turn to it more often when I am need.
Since I last wrote, I have traveled to San Francisco and spent time with my very good friend – Liv 4 Potions. Together we made a moisturizer and I have to say – it was a lot easier to make a moisturizer than I thought. Gladstar’s directions made me intimidated, so I’m glad that I had Liv there for the first time. The hardest part was finding all the ingredients, which thankfully, her store in Berkeley had. I’m not sure I’ll have the same luck when I go to my natural store in the area. Overall, I think the moisturizer is great. However, it’s very, very moisturizing with just a bit being needed for the entire face. It also doubles as a body moisturizer, but I have only used it as such once or twice. For me, the most noticeable part of the moisturizer is how deeply it penetrates. At times, when I use the commercial moisturizers (and I don't get cheap CVS ones), when I wash my face in the morning, if feels like a slight layer of film coming off. It’s as if some part of the moisturizer just protected my face but didn’t sink in. I never have that feeling with Gladstar’s moisturizer and my face is left feeling so soft. The only con I have of this moisturizer is when it gets very hot in our apartment - it turns more oily than solid. But that is to be expected and also happens with my lip balms, so it’s not so negative a point that I would never make it again. Au contraire! I will continue making it and can’t wait to see the effects it will have on my face in the dry, dry winter here.
Secondly, I had a Spa Night with my mother, sister, and sister’s friends. I actually felt quite accomplished as I took over the whole spa portion of it. We did a scrub, steam, mask, and foot bath. It went well. I tried to do recipes that anyone could do at home but it was a lot of food recipes, so I think next time I would definitely have more herbal recipes as well. Herbal recipes have more of an allure to them, even though the food ones work just as well.
Right now I am working on a bruise and sprain compress. I bruise easily, in fact – I bruise so easily that all it takes is crashing into a door and I will bruise. I have always tried to be an elegant woman, but honestly, I’m not. I need to accept that. When I was younger, I believed that when I was older I would turn into a graceful woman that walks around very mysteriously but beautifully, and commands attention and respect with just her presence. Ha, I am probably the opposite. I am not graceful, walk with a slouch (really trying to work on that!) and my presence is bubbly and energetic, rarely silent. Tangent. So with my un-mysterious, un-graceful woman qualities and bruises all over my body, I found a recipe in the Hoffman book for an Arnica compress. It was the only book out of our three that had something and he praises the use of Arnica for bruising and sprains. Arnica is in the same family as sunflowers and is a bright, yellow, happy flower. You make the compress by making a tincture first, and then gradually straining until the liquid is pretty much clear. Taking the liquid (mostly rubbing alcohol + Arnica), you heat it up and place it on your bruise. The tincture takes two weeks to create. I have to leave it in a warm place and shake it daily…this is the process I am in now. Most of the time I have placed it on our window sill to let it soak up the sun, but lately, since it’s been cloudy I have put it back into the bathroom since it’s our warmest room. Gladstar talks about the different qualities of herbs steeping in sunlight vs. moonlight and though I’m not sure I believe that soaking herbs in sunlight produces good, happy energy…it is the warmest place to leave my herbs while I’m out. So this is my new project of the moment. I will be interested to see if it speeds up the process of healing my bruises. Right now I have a killer, huge bruise from where I was kicked by a horse last week. It doesn’t hurt anymore, but it is very ugly. My wrist has also been hurting for a week or two, leading me to believe I have a slight case of carpel tunnel syndrome. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I’ve changed my computer mouse to my left hand and it has helped. Anyway, we will see how this goes and if it really does help bruises.
Lastly, I finally found the recipes for UTI’s! I was strolling along in Hoffman’s book, reading about the urinary section because my friend has had a really bad problem with UTI’s for the past couple of months. And again, I felt like I had missed something because how could both Gladstar and Hoffman not have a recipe for UTI’s? They are so common and prevalent (or maybe just for me haha). As I am reading through Hoffman’s urinary section, I start reading about Cystitis. And lo and behold…it sounds exactly like a UTI. Off I go to the omniscient internet and Cystitis is a UTI! I was so happy because herbalism hadn’t failed me. I quickly go to Herbal Healing for Women, flip to the index, and there it is! Cystitis! And there, there is a recipe. Gasp. It was under the pregnancy section, which I remember skimming through but not reading in depth. Apparently it’s very common when you’re pregnant. Great. Anyway, I have bought the ingredients for my friend and I’ll have it ready within a week. I will also keep some for myself for when I get one again. I can’t remember the exact herbs that are included in the tea, so I will have to write about that next time.
I still want to try to start making my own tea. I’m so behind on that part of herbalism. I meant to ask Liv questions and learn a bit from her when I was in San Francisco, but I forgot. I even forgot to try some of her homemade teas...bad luck. Ugh. Liv – you should send me some samples of your tea and tell me what’s in them.
Oh, I also read Liv's book Thyme of Death. I love how you put all the references/quotes in this blog. I think it's kind of cool to see how our little herbalism adventure started, after all, with a book that we both read :) I did like the book too! And usually I don't like murder mysteries because they can be very gory, bloody, hacking up body parts, etc...but this was just the right amount of suspense while still letting me sleep at night.
Ok – so that’s my updates on herbs. Stay tuned! If this UTI tea works well, I think my friend will be really, really happy.
