| You Are a Green Crayon |
 Your world is colored in harmonious, peaceful, natural colors. While some may associate green with money, you are one of the least materialistic people around. Comfort is important to you. You like to feel as relaxed as possible - and you try to make others feel at ease. You're very happy with who you are, and it certainly shows! Your color wheel opposite is red. Every time you feel grounded, a red person does their best to shake you. |
The Mar/Apr '08 issue of The Essential Herbal is finally "put to bed" and safely at the printer. It has a specific theme and that theme led me to do some research into Victory Gardens of the 40's.
They were considered to be delicious vegetables. Over the years, we've come to see them as just weeds. People can and do starve to death, lost in the wilderness, while lying upon FOOD. They just don't know the plants that could sustain them. Many wonderful recipes can be found in the book Wild Foods for Every Table, on our website.
But at least I did get to walk around outside a little bit. Just for a few moments. Molly got a new camera for her birthday, and I got to play with that. The snow from Wednesday is still here and there, so I was surprised to find blooming chickweed and a couple of dandelions. There were also lovely buds on the lilac tree. They probably won't make it to spring, but will be replaced with other growth in a couple of months.
The row of lavender starts right behind the Bergarten Sage. All are holding up well. I'm anxious to see what kind of crop they bear this year. Last year was a pretty good year, considering it was the first bloom for all of them. Imagine how many wands we can make this year. I wonder if we can teach my brother to weave lavender....
While Molly chattered with her father, I sat at the table separating the petals from the roses that arrived on my birthday last week. My friend Laura surprised me with them, and since they started to wilt yesterday, it seemed like they would do well to become a potpourri - maybe with some of the lavender and sage and lemon verbena that will come from the garden this spring.
It takes a while to adjust to the palette and start seeing beyond the cast off leaves. First to become visible are the maroon heart-shaped leaves that drifted down from an ornamental birch in the yard. They are leathery and shiny. Maybe the shine makes them more easily seen. Next would be the stands of garlic mustard. Nothing seems to conquer that, as it pushes up through the leaf covering. The hips on the wild roses are gone, but the stems are vibrant green. I'd passed the barberries without even noticing them, even though their bright red berries reaching out across the water now look ridiculously bright. The deer must not have figured out how to get out to them yet. Surely the birds will find them soon.
Eventually, I started to notice that there was a substantial matting of chickweed beneath my feet as I got closer to the creek bed. Ferns waved, and every so often violet leaves made themselves known.
In the autumn, there was a discussion of Holy Basil on the Essential Herbal Yahoo! list. Mostly, we talked about the reported effects it may have on cortisol production, stress, weight, and such. That was enough to send me out to the garden to harvest my beautiful plant. Into a series of mason jars went the leaves. They were covered with a high alcohol content vodka, where they stayed until a couple of weeks ago.