Fig Poultices for Breast Health

Fig Poultices for Breast Health
jessica and katee, i hope you both see this:)

You’re Busted Lady!…Not!

so yesterday i played nanny/granny to dylan all day. at 3 we went to meet lily and evan, and breven and brodie, as dylan had not seen them for awhile. after letting them all play awhile,  i brought dylan to his house and lily came home with me for for some private mama time. when i brought her home around 6 i was itching to be outside some more. lily and i had worked on closing up most of the ventilation holes on the hives and blocking the wind from the underneath sides. it has been getting so cool at nite. well, i decided to just drive out west of town and see what i could see. i soon spied some lovely native aster growing. now the bees LOVE asters, and i thought cool, think i will stop and dig some up to transplant. so i get out and get my shovel (i always carry a shovel lol)  and was happily digging an aster up, when a county police car pulls up behind me with his lights on! he gets out and asks me what i am doing. i tell him i am digging up a native aster. he looks at me weird, talks in his shoulder microphone and then asks me again what i am doing, but this time with a look of confusion. i say”i am digging up a native aster to transplant into my yard. i am a beekeeper and i just thought i would bring my bees home a present as they love asters.” he still looks a bit confused, but talks in his shoulder mic again and then says, well for me to be careful as it is a busy road, and he gets in his cruiser and departs! afterwards, while driving back to town it occured to me why he had shown up lights ablazing…. without thinking about it i had chose to go digging within site of the guard towers of our local prison! i wonder if they thought i was going to dig a tunnel?! lol hmmmm wonder what they will think tomorrow when my friend val and i go just a bit further up that hill to harvest sunchokes!!!lol

big herbal and honey hugs to all who visit comfrey cottages!

A Wonderful Surprise! Angelica!

the right side of the pic is a plant i was really hoping would show up! angelica! i like to stick to working with herbs that are either indigenous to my area or those easily grown here in central illinois.  to the left of the angelica is black cohosh, which is a native species here. i had planted these angelica seeds in this spot, near the black cohosh, way back last spring. well we had such torrential rains on and off all spring and i never saw a thing growing where the angelica was planted, aside from some grass, that i thought they had washed away. imagine my surprise and delight when they finally appeared within the last month! i have always wanted to grow angelica. such a lovely name, and such a history of culinary and medicinal uses angelica has. anti-inflammatory properties, lowers fevers and acts as an expectorant, digestive disorders and bowel complaints are some of the medicinal uses for angelica. for culinary purposes the stems may be candied, cooked with rhubarb, tart fruits and berries to reduce acidity.  and many other lovely way. plus the leaves and seeds are aromatic and may be used in pot-pourris.

such a weird year weather wise, with much more rain than usual, and much cooler temps also. hopefully these plants will overwinter well and i can transplant them to a couple spots in my gardens next spring! i have been quite alot of second flush blooms with these wetter, and cooler days also. i had some echinacea, beebalm, st. john’s wort, verbenas, feverfews, etc put out some lovely second displays of flowers recently!

big herbal and honey hugs to all who visit comfrey cottages:)