a month with heather Even stories that veer into strange or difficult directions once had an ordinary afternoon when no one imagined how things would unfold. An afternoon in September 1987 sitting amongst heather under a pale sky on the North York Moors. A young mother with my nine-month-old daughter, pregnant with the next daughter, … Read more
a month with comfrey There is a strangeness to spending a month with a herb that cannot be taken internally. Cannot? An extraordinary tissue-healing herb, he contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids (associated with liver toxicity) so currently EU (and other places) restrict it to external use. Certainly he is a knitting herb, so I’d be wary of … Read more
a month with self heal Self healHeal allAll healWoundwortHook healHeart-of-the-earthCarpenter’s herbSicklewortBlue curls I have spent this month with Prunella vulgaris, Self heal. She is a member of the mint family and all about adaptability. She likes shade, but will grow in bright sun. She loves well-drained, loamy soil, but will grow in a wide range … Read more
a month with calendula Marigold — growing up the film Hans Christian Anderson was on the TV — a story that weaves its only fairy tale tangentially around a life. What I remembered from the film was the ‘ Inchworm’ song, a critique of a busy business mind always measuring and quantifying rather than observing … Read more
A journey with yew, hawthorn and hazel I’ve been walking the maze in the garden here at Reagh with Adam. The maze is large and the deep hedges are of yew and hawthorn. At its centre a single hazel tree. Trees are sanctuaries … They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach … ancient … Read more
a month with motherwort Leonurus cardiaca is lion-hearted. She fills the heart with lion-courage and signals this in the prickly thorns that surround her soft flowers. There is fire in this courage — look at her leaves — like tongues of flame. But she doesn’t heat the body. Her fire is alchemical — transforming what … Read more
a month with linden Linden or Lime Blossom, Tilleul in France (Tilia cordota), a herb of softness, circulation, quieting the over-bright heart, has walked with me through April. She is a herb who does not push, but invites. A tree of gentle yielding strength — broad-crowned, heart-leafed, fragrant in June. She carries a cool-moist temperament, … Read more
a month with white willow I once had a willow tree in a vicarage garden. She was beautiful, lush and strong. The children climbed into her limbs. Her leaves hung down in streamers of pale lime-green that glimmered light-washed, silver in the sun. Cool of colour and of touch. Her roots were deep and spread … Read more
a month with cornflower Once cornflower blue pigment was mixed from lapis lazuli. Vermeer used it in preference to cheap azurite in paintings such as ‘The Girl with a Wine Glass’, ‘Woman in Blue Reading a Letter’ and ‘The Virgin in Prayer’. It’s one of those vibrant, mind-clearing blues. The sky in Northern light on … Read more
a new year month with woad I’ve spent this first month of the year with woad, a herb that is all about cooling and purification. His leaves are long and blue-green, his flowers small and yellow and his seeds like tiny black tongues. He tends to grow around the edge of fields, around a metre … Read more