MyHerbCorner

Posts Tagged ‘animals’

Finally the end of winter is in sight here in New Zealand and we share the excitement with many other live forms like this special ‘copper skink’ which you can find only on the North island of New Zealand.

Copper skink’s are life bearing which is fascinating (at least for me)

On my walk not far from home I meet a lot of sheep who are also enjoying the warmer days

Sometimes I just have to stop and awe at the many different cloud formations…

… or listen to the sound of the many little creeks we have.
Here are a lot of goodies in sight for a herbalist

When I went up to the summit I was amazed over the 10 minutes walk through a broom field.

The broom is so high you can’t see anything and I was just surprised of the quiet surrounding. not even a bird was near, only a bumblebee or two.

I am looking forward for the broom to bloom which should be in one or two weeks.
Then I will bring a bottle of water, my ‘flower essence making bowl’ (which I use only for this occasions) and a dropper bottle half filled with Schnapps to make a broom flower essence

How exciting to be surrounded with walls of yellow broom (not to mention the insects and bumble bees… guess I will bring with me some plantain in vinegar as an first aid just in case I got stung)

Until then I will enjoy the colour of my newly made calendula tincture

It will go into my face cream which is very nice.
Calendula tincture is also great against acne or other inflamed skin problems, just wipe your face with a cotton ball and some tincture after cleaning the face with water and oatmeal (or here another simple and great face wash)

It was a wonderful weekend and I felt and saw so many changes.

Our little pink baby bunnies changed into cute furred rabbits within 10 days

They are still cuddled in in their nest but I assume they will hop around very soon
Christoph made a ‘slide’ in case they want to go in and out of the hutch (see pictures here)

Another marvelous change was the observing of our monarch caterpillar transforming into a chrysalis!

My husband made a video which you can see with some more pictures on this link.

I felt a changing not only in the colder mornings and colourful leaf display in the garden,but also with the morning dew on our plants.

I wonder what effect this beautiful water drops from the rose might bring.
Do you think they have the same effect like a Bachflower remedy?

At the moment I am so drawn to flower remedies…
I used and loved leafy medicines for years and this is the first time in my life I really feel a change in this habit.
Instead of the love for plantain and dandelion greens I seek calendula flowers, roses and other blossoms.
I want to make flower essences and try out their beautiful magic.
Maybe this all has to do with a personal change of feeling free…

This weekend was marvelous.
Aileen was helping me to peel out our kidney beans…

… of course she loved the pink ones the most (they are big and pink before they change to a dark colour while shrinking due drying)

We had a funny conversation about the beans after Aileen was asking me what the white spots on the beans are.
My answer was “That are the beans belly buttons!” (What would you have answered?)
Of course this lead into a discussion you can only have with a curious 7 year old

Christoph also called me out into the garden because he saw something moving while he was mowing the lawn.
It was a praying mantis

On my other blog are some more pictures of the mantis (click here if you like to see the underside of a mantis

And did I tell you we have Baby rabbits?

You can find more pictures on Benny’s blog if you like.

Why yellow?

After collecting a lot of seeds from flowers for next year (like green bell, petunias, marigold, Mignon dahlias, red salvia and so on) I enjoyed a book in the garden.

The kids were playing with the rabbits and I soaked up the autumn sun.

Closing my eyes I inhaled the wonderful autumn scent and listened to the wind who was making an incredible waterfall sound by rushing through the tall gum trees surrounding our property.
Our poplar trembled her beautiful golden leaves…

… and I recognized all the yellow poplar leaves we just gave the rabbits before. They like to eat them (click here for the link to ‘their’ blog :- )

It seemed as if I was surrounded with a lot of yellow things today even my jacket was yellow

The book I just purchased from trademe must have had a yellow cover too…

It is faded but the most important thing (which is inside the book) is more then interesting. The book is called ‘The Home Herbal’, by Barbara Griggs. It was first published 1982 and my hardcover book was published 1986.
What makes it interesting for me is the fact that this book starts like herbal books today (nearly 30 years later)!
She refers that people are ‘now’ starting more and more to take herbal treatments.
For me this is thinking food, because why are there still so many people using and suffering (or dying) from side effects of chemical treatments when there was already a change so many years ago?
And why are there still doctors using only chemical treatments instead of integrating healthy diet and herbal treatment?

Ok, my husband is also one of those ‘pill’ lovers but since we are together he more and more ‘trusts’ my herbal medicine
He still gives me one of ‘these’ looks when I come with a tincture when he tries to rub Voltaren gel or other bought thing onto my sore back BUT he always takes my comfrey tincture when I swap it with his ‘aggressive gel.’
He also drinks sage tea when he gets a sore throat and rinse with my self made myrrh tincture if he has gum problems.
BUT he just had a flu shoot yesterday which I completely refuse… I wouldn’t do that in a million years!
On the other hand things like tetanus is a must have shoot if you work in the garden.
There are things which can be prevented naturally (like my beloved echinacea tincture once a week instead of a flu shoot) and things you can’t prevent with herbs like tetanus or polio.
Everyone has to decide for her/ himself and I hope more people start to trust natural remedies but in a healthy approach.
It is irresponsible if people don’t get a tick bite shoot if they live or visit a place were there is a danger (like parts of Austria)
I have seen people suffering the worst and even die because they were bitten by a tick. That really can’t be prevented with herbs!
Live is such a precious gift and we should protect the body from harm with as much as natural approaches as possible but there are limits where we should be thankful for the immense scientific wisdom.

Gosh, I think I lost it now…
Guess it is better I get me some lemons from the garden and keep up thinking for my self… by the way, our lemons look like yellow Christmas balls

We have such a lot of interesting animals in our garden like wetas or this female stick insect.

Others like praying mantis are clinching on the windows at night

But  yesterday when we were working outside something fall onto my husbands head and when he looked around he saw it was a caterpillar of the Emperor gum moth!

We moved her into the jar with the 2 cocoons and then during the night she spun her cocoon!
Please click here for a post on the other blog with some more pictures and words.

It’s just a fantastic place we live in!