Heart Cards

I had 2 pull up twice today - apparently I'm meant to have both....

Believe in yourself - you're are a good person...

Reclaim your power and regain your freedom...

Black twinberry (Lonicera involucrata), found in moist forest, clearings, and river banks (and in abundance along the Juan de Fuca trail), is not the choicest-tasting berry of the bunch. They have been named 'monster food', are purported by some to be posionous, and taboos have been developed against eating them. A Kwakwaka'wakw belief held that eating the berries would render a person unable to speak, and some Interior nations purported that it could drive a person crazy. The berries are eaten by other mammals and birds in large quantity though, and have also been named 'raven food' on the coast and 'grizzly berries' in the Interior.

The deciduous shrub, a few metres high, can be recognized by its paired flowers which look like little yellow bells growing in fused bracts. They produce shiny black berries that are about 1 cm across. While it may not make for a nice snack, the plant still offers an eclectic assortment of other values (beyond, of course, its immeasurable integral worth). People with hair have rubbed crushed berries on it to counter dandruff or greying, while people without hair have rubbed the same on their scalp to counter baldness. Some whalers drank a tea made with twinberry bark to ease the afflictions of enforced sexual abstinence, and new mothers have rubbed this same tea onto their breasts to stimulate milk flow.

Leaves and sticks can be boiled and applied to swellings, sores, scabs, and broken bones; chewed leaves were applied externally to itchy skin, boils, and gonorrheal scars; and a decoction of leaves or inner bark was used as an eyewash. A tea from the berries is said to cleanse the stomach and purify the body, and the crushed berries themselves produce a black dye. The stems have been used as building and crafting material (sometimes adorned with the aforementioned black dye) and the hollow stem makes for a nice drinking straw. Perhaps the most common human use associated with black twinberry is as an ornamental plant, due not only to its aesthetic appeal but to its resistance to air pollution.

Heart Card of the Day

"Remember the Magic within You!"

Blackberries

Blackberries need no introduction to most of us, especially this time of year as they're ripening and making our strolls through the woods that much tastier. The tall shrub with big thorns and . . . tri- or 5-foliate leaves (i.e. with 3 or 5 leaflets) are Himalayan blackberries, Rubus discolor. They have a lot to offer- they're everywhere, the berries are big (1-1.5 cm thick) so it doesn't take long to fill up a bucket, and being an invasive species they spread quickly and there's less concern about over-harvesting. The native trailing blackberry (Rubus ursinus) are common as well, though not quite as abundant or evident. They crawl along the ground, and have smaller thorns, smaller (but just as delicious) berries, and smaller trifoliate leaves. Males and females are on separate plants, so if you find a nice patch of blackberries with a distinct lack of berries, it could be a male bush.

The berries are of course wonderful to munch on, toss in a smoothie, make a pie, preserves, syrup, wine (try it as a base for mulled wine in winter), and who doesn't love a nice blackberry buckle? But let's not stop there. The stems of blackberry are edible raw or steamed.... needless to say it's advisable to scrape off the thorny skin, then enjoy raw or as a potherb. Tea can be made from dried leaves; most recommend waiting until they are getting dry and red to harvest them. Leaves and roots have been used to treat diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, fevers, hemorrhoids, excessive menstruation, and mouth sores. Some Nations have used the berry juice to stain wood, hides, and other materials. People have made fibre and twine from the stems, some communities have reportedly used large piles of thorny stems as barricades for protection, and the Coast Salish Nation has used trailing blackberry stems as a scrubbing cleanse before spirit dancing.

Blackberry lime-ade
4 cups blackberries + some for garnish
1 cup sugar
1 kaffir lime leaf (crushed) or 1 tablespoon grated lime zest
1 green cardamom pod, lightly crushed
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 8 -12 limes)
Thin lime slices, for garnish
2 cups ginger ale or sparkling water
Ice cubes
Squeeze the juice out of the blackberries through cheesecloth and set aside. Combine sugar, 1 cup water, lime leaf and cardamom in a small saucepan and boil. Simmer for 10 minutes or so, until you get a thin syrup.Remove the lime leaf and cardamom, allow the mixture to cool, and then chill it. Combine the blackberry juice, syrup and lime juice and refrigerate. Stir in the ginger ale when serving it, and garnish with lime slices and blackberries. Kick back, soak in the sun, smile, and enjoy...

Caution: Avoid wilted leaves; make sure they're completely dry if you use them for tea, and even then don't drink too much of it as it can irritate the bowels and stomach.

Magic Happens

this picture is a full moon over the Himalayas that a friend posted on her facebook

and it reminds me of this the first full moon of August...the Sturgeon Moon..

The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month.

A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze.

It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.