Wishing you a healthy and happy New Year!

Bird feeders and bellies are filled up with holiday goodies...

You know by my sidebar that I very admire the work Greg Mortenson does for schoolchildren in Afghanistan - I just finished reading his latest book 'Stones into Schools' - another fantastic read - and this time I finally wrote him a letter (small) and enclosed it with a money order (small) that came from a large jar with a year's worth of pennies - all those small amounts add up, right!? What if we all brought in our pennies and forwarded the money to a cause close to our hearts? I wish you all a healthy and happy 2010!

Things to do in a small country town

Look what came through our small country town this morning - the torch is off to Beautiful British Columbia - perhaps my dad and sister will get to see it over there... Seeing all the young children made me think of other family wintry activities to do such as:
-watch birds at your birdfeeder,take photo's
-make a 'manifestation' poster for the new year,
-go snowshoeing, skiing, skating
-'force' amarylis bulbs, grow sprouts in a jar
-take a class on healthy eating (such as my Healthy Digestion class in Jan.)
-exchange a smile and open a door for a stranger!

I'm a 'Published Author' !

My article about my upcoming Healthy Digestion class was published in the 'Tone' Magazine, December issue, on Page 26! If you would like to know how to make your digestive system happier using herbs and healthy foods, send me an email and I will get back to you with information about the next scheduled class!.

'Star' of the Craft Show!

I want to start the week off with a note to say 'thanks' to those friendly people that stopped at my craft show booth yesterday to have a chat or a laugh. I was very proud of my mom who had unique seed bead jewelry for sale - I got the feeling that the 'Star' of the craft show was this beautiful necklace mom made with a ribbon closure in the back - a very happy young lady with pink boots purchased it for a night out on the town!

Come into my herb workshop!

The guys put in the four windows in the front, only 3 more to go - and those double doors you see will be the entry of my herb shop - doesn't it look awesome! I met some very friendly people at the craft show this weekend and would love to invite them to the workshop next year...

Craft shows coming up!

I did a small set-up in my living room to prepare for the upcoming Christmas craft shows - would love to meet you at Cairine Wilson Secondary School in Orleans this Saturday, Nov. 21. Then next Sunday on Nov. 29, I will be at the Canterbury Community Centre in Ottawa. My mom will also be there selling her beautiful European seedbead jewelry!

Read and then eat...

Have not had much time to read lately, however, while I was having my lunch the other day - the video made for a perfect 'partner'. I also picked up the book from the library - has anyone else seen the movie or read the book? Would love your comments!

Marvelous morning muesli

On Saturday morning, made a batch of swiss-style muesli to go with any kind of milk or yoghurt and fresh fruit - good wholesome oats surrounded by nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and wonderful scent of cinnamon...recipe from Mark Bittman's book 'Food Matters' - listed as one of my favourite books!

Summer berries on our first wintry day...

Woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow so decided to bake muffins with delicious summery blueberries using a new recipe from another book by Edward Espe Brown - 'The Tassajara Recipe Book'. All these books I have mentioned lately are from my local library - what would we do without our libraries?! Now it is time to cuddle up with a good book, a hot muffin and a cup of herbal tea...

Wise Child lives with the local wise woman

A young homeless girl, Wise Child, is sent to live with the local wise woman, Juniper, in a place that might be Scotland, and at a time that might be the Middle Ages... Wise Child learns Latin, mathematics, herbal and healing lore, and a bit about the making of magic.
If this book sounds interesting, there are two that follow: Juniper and Colman (Wise Child is my favourite). I found them in the 'teen' section written by Monica Furlong.

Growing sprouts is fun and easy!

Sprouts are inexpensive and easy and quick to grow - makes for a fun project with your kids as well! Ann Wigmore, author of 'The Sprouting Book' started growing them many years ago to relieve her colitis symptoms and she states in the book that by eating sprouts and greens, she healed her body of colitis and arthritis!.

Long, but lovely day in the kitchen

Look what I created on one crispy day - beautiful plain and poppyseed whole wheat breads - I tried a new recipe from the Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown - was delicious, worth the time it took!

Also, made an autumn-coloured Fall Pinto Bean & Yam Soup from the book 'The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook' by Alissa Segersten - you should have smelled the house! Some of the good digestion ingredients were pinto beans, garlic, onion, yams, carrots, cumin, and paprika. It tasted absolutely heavenly and luckily there was a little bit left over for lunch the next day...

Moving the gardening fun indoors...

These pictures were only taken 1-2 weeks ago and you wouldn't believe how different the garden looks already after a couple of nights of frosty temperatures! So frosty that I created some gardening fun indoors today - I put up some alfalfa sprouts and then made blue elderberry syrup for the upcoming winter colds. The recipe is in Rosemary Gladstar's book 'Family Herbal' - she makes it very clear to never eat elderberries that haven't been cooked first - good to know! The finished product makes a beautiful colourful addition to my fridge...

You are never going to guess where I was last week...

I attended a fabulous week-long workshop taught by Rosemary Gladstar at Sage Mountain Retreat Center in Vermont and met wonderful new friends from all of the USA. We were taught a variety of subjects by Rosemary and her assistant Amy in the yurt, and were fortunate to listen to guest-speakers as well, including Ann Armbrecht, who created the just-released film 'Numen' - the Nature of Plants (a film about the healing power of plants). All the notes I took will keep me very busy for the next few months and all the warm memories created will stay with me forever...

What just happened on the roof...

The guys have been working real hard to get the forest green metal sheets on, but the project that slowed them down a couple of days was the designing and building of three cupola vents which will support our weathervanes - you can see a couple of them on the photo. What you will not see on the photo is Mike's incident with the roofing air nailer - standing on the roof and hanging on to ropes, he accidently fired a roofing nail into his knee. A quick trip to the hospital, followed by a long wait and various X-rays, the doctor was able to remove most of the nail - so now Mike has been ordered by the doctor to take it easy for a few days...

First things first...

Thought I'd better get a blog in before my birthday...speaking of birthdays, how do you like my Bali Angel my mom bought me in Montreal - isn't she beautiful? Once our herb workshop is built, she will be my 'welcome' angel when you enter my herbal shop - I just love her!

Our youngest son had his first back to school haircut again last week, and our oldest son bought his very own first (used) truck - what excitement! Also, the building inspector came by to do his first inspection on the workshop - we can continue building - yippee!

yellow everywhere...

During this week, I took some pictures of our sunflowers and went on a couple of healthy bike rides with my youngest son - we saw lots of goldenrod growing in the neighborhood (even he recognized this plant!). We are trying to get a few more rides in before his yellow schoolbus shows up at the door - speaking of yellow, I made the pizza recipe in Barbara Kingsolver's book 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' and decorated the pizza with an interesting combination of pepperoni, pineapple, yellow peppers, and herbs - yum!

It's been a green week!

You could call me crazy, but I just felt like knitting again - I am only a beginner knitter, but I decided to knit myself a nice cozy wrap in 35C (hot!) weather in a beautiful leaf green colour.

Speaking of green, I harvested some green beans for dinner and freezer. If you look closely at the photo with my green beans, you will also see some gorgeous swiss chard, which I will start using in future green smoothies - here is a photo of my very first green smoothie made with mango and baby spinach - it was quite tasty!

...a kitchen filled with herbs and folk remedies...

...she is drawn to Miss Babineau, an Acadian midwife with a gift for healing and a kitchen filled with herbs and folk remedies...

What an opening of an interesting novel by Ami McKay - the title of this novel is "The Birth House" with details regarding the Halifax Explosion, the midwifery tradition, knitting socks for soldiers during World War I, and - to me, the most fascinating - stories of herbal medicine and women's wisdom!

After hours of weeding in my vegie garden, I was rewarded with a first harvest of green beans! I made a delicious spicy potato & green bean salad from recipe in book 'ExtraVeganZa' by Laura Matthias. Then in the evening when I went for a stroll just in the back of our property, I found some beautiful pink-purple flowered plants with purple stems - used my trusty library Peterson Field Guide copy to find out it was sweet Joe-Pye-Weed.

Treasures to be found in your back yard...

Our roof is going on the workshop - Mike and our 'big guy' came down this steep roof with very achy calf muscles...

From green to pink to ...lift-off!!

Thought I would update my readers that out of those beautiful 3 robin's eggs, 3 pink darlings came out, and then sadly Mike found one baby on the cement floor one morning... The two babies grew quickly, and then luckily one night, I climbed up on the ladder just in time to take photo of the only bird left - ready for take-off the following day!

City of Art

We saw Art Galleries and artists working or selling their works on the street - from lithographs, coloured photographs to miniature paintings. The architecture was impressive with the height of the doors at the Court House and the numerous churches, especially the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. What an amazing city to share with family and friends!

Fabulous French friends

My wonderful friend Linda from Quebec played 'tour guide' for mom and I - she drove us to Montreal where we saw amazing homes with curvy staircases, pots of plants and bicycles everywhere...my mom said she thought she was in Amsterdam (both my mom and I are born there).

Above is a photo of a restaurant in Old Montreal - what a wonderful idea to present your pots!

Rain, more rain and rainbows

We all know how much rain we have had this summer, but look at this beautiful rainbow my hubby and I saw when we returned home from a weekend gathering with herbalist Gail Faith Edwards and friends in Maine. It was great to ask Gail questions in person, to meet new friends, and learn more about herbs! (and yes, it rained in Maine also)

Home Sweet Home

When we returned home from our family fishing trip, we found momma robin had been busy building her own new home in the rafters of our workshop! We had to carefully move the nest and we are keeping a close eye for the new babies...

herbal helper Maisy

When I was creating my herbal mix for a digestive tincture this morning, I found my new friend Maisy was very willing to help and supervise... I think she liked the scent of the chamomile flowers that went into the bowl. I told her we now have to be patient for about 6 weeks and let the herbs blend properly with the alcohol, and then we can try some of the tincture in a drink. (but I believe she should have some chamomile tea instead for her little tummy).

Isn't Maisy adorable? I picked her up a few days ago at Ikea - we had an immediate connection. Many of her sisters are waiting at Ikea to be adopted...

Valerian loved by butterflies, bees, and beetles

I hope I am wrong, but I have been closely supervising and admiring my valerian beauties out in the front herb garden, and have seen not only butterflies, and bees, but also beetles!!! So ripped open my gardening books and not sure if these are potato beetles or cucumber beetles - need to do more research! They better not do a lot of damage....

Celebrations all week long

Celebrated our first harvest of rhubarb this week with a yummy rhubarb strawberry crisp dessert...then as you can see my oldest son happy as he and younger brother walked home with 5 Awards that they received at their High School Awards Night - Honor Roll and Construction Technologies related - and we also attended Sea Cadets Annual Review over the weekend. They both worked hard and we are very proud of them (even our 'pup' gave a congratulations hug).

New addition to the Herb garden

Finished planting my new 'babies' into the ground - a few hundred that is - I had lots of 'help' from the mosquito's and black flies. I am waiting a few more days to put my basil in since last year we had a 'surprise' cold night and that took care of the basil... I love the way my new bird bath looks in the 'pollinator' section of the Herb garden - it was a mother's day gift from my three guys!

Beautiful bees

Last weekend saw tons of bees - I kneened down to take a close look at their busyness and beauty and realized I love all winged creatures...

Walls are going up

Guys worked real hard this weekend putting almost all the outside walls up - while they were busy building the workshop, I was busy building the vegetable garden and the herb garden...

Mosquito Shop

All the men have been working hard on getting our 'workshop' up - they are now putting up the sheets on the outside - not easy considering the mosquito's and black flies are trying to tickle them! I worked on the back garden area the last couple of days cleaning up areas where old firewood was stored (yucky bugs underneath, not the useful bugs), cutting the grass for the first time, transplanting some mullein and red clover, and I have been talking nice to my herb and veggie babies that are still in their trays waiting to be transplanted in the gardens...the weather has been iffy at night time and even dropping to freezing temperatures - hopefully all my plants will find their new 'homes' this upcoming week!

Black Tulip Beauty

Here is our oldest cat watching over the beautiful black tulips that are in our front garden - looking at both the cat and the tulips makes me feel at peace...

Spring beauty

Gorgeous 'look at me' tree

On my way to pick up my son from his Sea Cadet activities last weekend, saw this beautiful tree and just had to stop driving so I could take a picture...let's hope I can get this photo on my blog for all to see...

Where did the month go?

Last day of the month already! With transplanting my 'babies', looking for my outdoor nettle plants, creating new snacks for a second-son-in-braces, building our workshop space, and baking up banana chocolate 'swirl' muffins and fruit cobbler and other daily life activities and 'necessaties', I found some time to start reading Made from Scratch: Discovering the pleasures of a handmade life by Jenna Woginrich. I am very interested in the self-sufficient lifestyle, so I am really enjoying this book so far!

Beautiful Burgundy

My herb seed babies are coming up nice on my growing racks so I want to make sure they get a perfect spot in the garden - that is why I am sketching out some garden designs... I also took several photographs of my valerian plants that are coming up outside - what a beautiful burgundy colour!

Doodle Stitching and Drawing

I have definately caught the doodle 'bug' - I am both drawing in my sketchbook, which I have not done for many years - and I have enthusiastically reviewed an embroidery book by Aimee Ray called 'Doodle Stitching'. I have always been interested in embroidery, and now I have new project ideas to work on, and my small sketches in my sketchbook cover a variety of topics from dog biscuits (yes, I tried to draw the herbal dog biscuits I baked for my pup!) to garden design. I am planning to embroider a project with a herbal bouquet on it...

Blue Chalk on Dog

Well, we've been sooo lucky with the weather the last few days - not only do we have tulips coming up in the front garden (March!) but we started to work on our workshop in the back - my big guys put down the sill and I helped with cleanup and putting down chalkline but accidentally let go too soon and chalked the dog as well - oops! She was pretty good about it and simply 'washed' herself in the muddy pools surrounding the property...

My Ottawa, Ontario area herb farm is a sanctuary of healing for plants, humans, animals, birds, butterflies, and fairies. My husband Mike and our two teenage boys and I are in the process of building a multi-purpose workshop - 'The Herb and Fly Workshop' - where we plan to provide both informative and productive classes that cover topics from medicine making to flytying.

Mike is a fly-tying specialist serving the Ottawa Valley - he teaches fly fishing, fly-tying, and sells materials and tools. He is scheduled to teach 'Fly Fishing made easy' starting April 22-May 20 through the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

You can reach Mike at mikesflyshop@xplornet.com and to receive information about herbal workshops, contact Yvonne at fullerharvest@xplornet.com.

Grow with joy!

We've got seed trays in the fridge!

I am passionate about growing herbs from seed, harvesting, and creating herbal products that are all natural and do not harm Mother Earth.