35 weeks pregnant not far to go......

Hello all! My posts will not be frequent here in the next few months. Getting close to the end of my pregnancy. Plan on enjoying the time with Tony, Ella and the new baby, It goes by so fast!

The pregnancy has gone very well. I have the usual heart burn, shortness of breath, trouble sleeping, some back pain from an old injury & ligament pain. Other than that, no high risk signs, the baby moves frequently and seems like he is big for 35 weeks. I have had more than one comment "are you sure you are not pregnant with twins?" I am all belly, bigger than I was with Ella. I have had frequent Braxton Hicks contractions, especially after a lot of walking or other activity. A few nights back I had contractions every 5 to 7 minutes for about 4 hours. They are uncomfortable but do not increase in intensity- just a steady tightening and pelvic pain similar to menstrual cramping.

The peach twig tincture Kiva sent is working wonders for the heart burn. I found it is also very soothing, if I am supposed to have mood swings now, I haven't had any.

Enjoying nourishing myself with good food, herbal infusions and teas. Small frequent meals seem to work best for me right now since there is not a lot of room in there.

I am enjoying resting when I can. Ella is a hand full but likes to take at least one nap during the day.


Right now I am without a camera. We are planning on buying another soon. A real bummer because I have been on a few outings where I could have taken some really good plant pictures. Large leaved Avens is in bloom up here right now.

I will keep you all posted on my progress.

Secrets Talking With Flowers

My Grandma Johnson taught me wonderful lessons and traditions. She loved to write poetry. Grandma would make me handmade books of poems with cut out pictures. I can still feel the love, time & intention she put into these books when I pick them up to re-read them once again. She sent me many cards and letters, they always seemed to arrive just at the right time & and she always knew exactly what to say. Grandma had wonderful healing medicine. There is something about having hand written letters and poems, people don't handwrite letters much anymore. The internet, text messaging and phones in this busy life have shifted priorities. I feel blessed to still have these letters and poems. I just ran across this one today as my Mom and I were cleaning out one of our dusty old bins from storage. Grandma wrote this poem in 1980.

Secrets

When I was young and my brothers worked
I played alone, you see
And often times pretended that,
The flowers could talk with me

The daisies with their faces bright
As yellow as the sun,
Always kept their secrets
and would never tell a one.

The violets would shyly whisper
My lover would be true blue,
Then hide their little faces
In leaves all wet with dew.

The roses were as bold as brass
Their heads a flaming red;
And many a secret we exchanged
Before it was time for bed.

But if I wrote them here, for all to see
A secret no longer they would be;
So its much more fun to keep them hidden
and locked away
In the golden memories of yesterday-

Copy write Sally Leslie Johnson 1980

Dandelion Garden

Ok, I know everyone talks about dandelion this time of year but I just had to share. Our house is in a neighborhood, but we are lucky enough to have a 10,000 square foot lot. We have a good size approximately 300 square foot garden space that the previous owner grew vegetables in. We knew the previous owners gardened organically, and the soil is excellent!
The neighbor peeked over the fence and said," Wow you have a lot of work ahead of you, your garden is covered in weeds"! To his horror I'm sure, I started explaining how delighted I was to have soooooo many wonderful dandelions, my plans for dandelion wine, using the root for medicine, how we have been using the leaves & flowers for food, et. At first he laughed, but when I continued on and he realized I was serious, he had this blank look on his face, one of shock and surprise I guess. Before I could start talking about the blackberry, mullein, and various other "weeds" and my plans for their use, he interrupted with- "well I better get back to work ummm, nice talking to you"!

Celebrate National Wildlife Week with your family!

National Wildlife Week april 19th-27

Green hour encourages parents to give their children a "green hour" each day. Time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world. The green hour website has tons of ideas and inspirations to support families who want their children to connect with the earth. Check it out!

This years theme is get outdoors! This week you and your kids should watch and record the wildlife you see. (You can download a watch list that has flora and fauna local to you! And if you're in need of a thorough wildlife resource be sure to check out enature.com.)
Meet outdoors and share your stories with others!

Here are some great sites for wildlife ID/ getting outdoors for parents and kids

Wildflowers

Bugs

Urban Birds

Kids Gardening

Looking for Green minded holistic child care? Check out Holistic Nanny
Enjoy!

Purple & White Wood Sorrel Flower

So I was reading Wildman Steve Brill's site. I ran across wood sorrel. He states that the white flower with purple stripes is quite rare in America.
A few days later I am walking through the park here in Sandy and what do you know........
The pics didn't really pick up on the purple that well, but the stripes were purple. Cool

Stonecrop Family Field food and Remedy

Stonecrop Sedum species can be found on rocky hillsides just as the name implies. The common species here in the Pacific Northwest is Broad leafed sedum spathulifolim and Creamy Sedum oregonense both look similar, the one above is Creamy Stonecrop. Most of the leaves are light to medium green in color, some outer leaves may be red, these are the older leaves. Later in the season around May or June the plant will send up a shoot of yellow little star shaped flowers, they look beautiful against the rock face. In the snow you can look for the dried shoots against hillsides & find the plant underneath, it will stay juicy throughout winter. The entire plant is edible, and would be great in a survival situation, or as a trail food. It would make an interesting addition to a wild food salad. It tastes bland, slightly like a cucumber. If your throat is dry from a long day of hiking, the Stonecrops muciaginous and juicy nature is very soothing.
The plant is slightly astringent & muscilaginous. It can be used for externally for cuts, scrapes, stings and minor burns, making it very useful as a field remedy. Break apart a leaf and apply it directly to the effected area as needed.
Native Americans used a decoction of the root for sore throats and eye irritations. The roots are creeping rhizomes or stolons (roots that creep above ground).

Resource Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West By Gregory L Tilford

Bleedingheart dicentra formosa Pacific Northwest

A few Bleedinghearts dicentra formosa are showing their blooms early. Bleedingheart is one of the first plants I remember my Grandpa & Grandma pointing out to me as a child. The unique shape of the flowers made it an easy plant for me to identify. Bleedingheart likes moist soil and is common on the foothills of the mountains here in the Pacific Northwest. The flowers range from pale to deep pink. The leaves resemble ferns and are just beautiful. When crushed, the bleedingheart smells a little like poppy, they are in separate families but are pretty closely related.

Bleedingheart is one of the plants I want to practice with more this year. I felt a strong attraction to it recently, my mother suffering from an undiagnosed autoimmune condition they think may be fibromyagia or polymyalgia rheumatica.When her symptoms got worse and she was having to take more pain medication, this plant kept coming into the forefront of my mind. She is getting of the medication, I am thinking this plant will be an excellent asset for her.


A third generation curandero friend of mine Charles (Chuck) Garcia
uses bleedingheart frequently both for himself and in his herbal practice. When I asked Chuck for his thoughts on bleedingheart he replied enthusiastically that he absolutely loves the plant. I wanted to share some of his incite. I plan on working with the plant more, look for more from me to come in future blog posts.

Chuck prefers using and making a fresh root tincture 1 to 2, in 150 rum, using anywhere from 10 to 30 drops.
Internally he has found it effective for the aftermath of accidents, attacks, trauma, especially if the after effect is a continued racing heart or the beginning of an asthma attack. It can be useful for quickly induced depression caused by the former. It breaks the cycle of grief-shock, and allows the person to function. He has used it on himself when his mother suddenly passed away and he was barely able to function the week before her funeral.
It can also be used for the type of trauma that causes the body to have hyper sensitivity. Clothes feel like weights...and wool feels like a hair shirt.
He has combined this with California Poppy tincture to help trauma victims sleep.
It can also be used topically, though it may take a bit of time to kick in. Some can be put on cotton ball and inserted it around an abscessed tooth. While the root of yarrow acts much faster, Bleeding Heart goes deeper down the nerve. It can also be used on painful surgical scars as a liniment.

He has found it to be a stop-gap for clients with fibromyalgia and RSDS (like himself) who have to wait for months or years to get effective narcotics legally to deal with the pain.

It tends to slow down the heart a bit...so he tends to watch the effect of first time users and try to gauge how slow their heart should go.
For tachycardia clients, he adds- this is a godsend.

Chuck also adds that Moore writes that it is an appetite stimulant and tonic for those who are coming out of a long term illness, but he has never found it to be so.

Thanks to Chuck for his wonderful incite on this awesome herb!

Reference Plants and Animals of the Pacific Northwest, by Eugen Kozloff