JANUARY WALK IN THE WOODS, part 3 of 4

This is Usnea. I have been using it for immune system as well. I had been using it in infusions, but I collected enough to make a tincture.

This is a different type of lichen, you can see it is flatter. Usnea is round & when you pull it apart it has a tiny thread inside. Both kinds will often grow on the same bush. I find it most often on Ocean Spray shrubs.

This is lungwort. It doesn't grow on the ground, here's where it came from:

If you look way up in this maple, tree you can see lungwort growing on its trunk. I am able to harvest it when there

is a strong wind & some blows down. Or last year a raven was nicely making a little project out of clearing an

entire branch of a maple tree in yard. He came back each day & was very intent on getting every bit of moss

& lichen off the branch, so I had all kinds of lungwort tossed down to me. I have used it in rubbing alcohol along

with usnea for itchy skin conditions like eczema & acne. And I have used the lungwort in infusions for lung problems,

and right now I am making a tincture of it. It smells really earthy -- both the plant & the tincture. It seems to stay

happily green moist lying on the ground in our rainy weather, as soon as its brought inside it dries out very quickly.

It feels very much like toad skin.

This is a Barred Owl, he & his mate are in our yard frequently. They are very active during the winter & have their babies probably around this time of year. This photo was taken in the late spring. Sometimes we get to see one or both of them during the day.

One thing about having owls in the yard, they tend to wake you up in the middle of the night with a loud shriek.

They will also swoop out of the tree & knock you in the head if you are wandering around unsuspectingly!

Part 4 of this January walk in the woods will be posted in a few days.

If you have questions or comments on herbs, plants & remedies, please join my herbal forum.

http://dragonflyherbals.proboards.com/index.cgi

4 of us sending distance healing on the forum

We have a group of four of us sending each other distance healing on the reiki forum now. My students & I have found that many people sending reiki energy for a common purpose, in this case healing & manifesting goals, is very powerful! So nice to do when its difficult to get together in person.


Anyone else with at least level 1 reiki can join in at:

http://dragonflyherbals.proboards.com/index.cgi

JANUARY WALK IN THE WOODS, part 2 of 4

Yellow dock seeds. I harvest these in the early fall to put in infusions for immune system. They are easy to

harvest, you just slide your hand up the stem to collect them. However, there tend to be a lot of spiders on

the stems, might want to give the branch a shake first.

These 2 photos were taken in the summer. I did see several eagles today though, just didn't get a picture of them. They seemed to be doing a lot of aggressive flying around after each other today & later in the day 2 of them were chasing each other through my yard.

Wild roses & hips. I generally harvest the hips in the fall, they are pretty soggy at this time of year.

Rose hips. I actually prefer the rose petals over the hips. I make a rose petal tincture to use for pain relief that tastes wonderful.

Holly & its red berries.

Leave & a bit of ice. It is just cold enough for there to a bit of ice, although our snow from last week is gone.

Yellow cedar & snow from mid January. We went up on the trails & looked at all the little animal footprints in the snow. An easier way to know what kind of animals are walking about in the woods -- when you can see their footprints.

Red Cedar -- Thuja. I use the ends of the branches to make a tincture for immune system.

Part 3 of this January walk in the woods will be posted in a few days.

If you have questions or comments on herbs, plants & remedies, please join my herbal forum.

http://dragonflyherbals.proboards.com/index.cgi