At last, the weather is lovely! After a week or longer of grey skies, rain, chills, humidity and clamminess, we finally have blue skies and sunshine and some heat! It is wonderful. We have been eating outside, reading outside and catching up on lots of work now that the rain has stopped.
At this time of year, the Roses are all coming out and there are lots of buds on the Apothecary Roses so there will lots to harvest for tinctures - for the heart - and for infused oil for the body. I also dry some Rose petals for tea. The Hydrangeas are also just about to pop and their flowers will add more colour to the garden. The wild Valerian that grows at the front of the house has been giving us beautiful colour for the last couple of months or more but now it is time to cut it back and we will have another blast of colour from that.
Summer Solstice is such a beautiful time. The long days mean I am often working in the garden until around 9pm or 10pm - as it is so light, it is easy to lose track of time. Here on the west coast of Ireland it never really gets dark at mid summer. This is a perfect time to be harvesting herbs from the herb garden and preparing medicines for the year to come. As a Solstice special offer, all of my herb courses are available with 20% Off for the duration of June, use the code Substack20. I think it is more important than ever that we become self-reliant in terms of our health and best place to turn is to Nature.
Hoping you have had a wonderful weekend, to take time out to just be! Being is more important than doing and is something I have to re-train myself into. Being gives us the chance to recharge and to look afresh at our beautiful natural world and to ground ourselves which is always beneficial.
