plants

That Awesome Rainy Day
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That Awesome Rainy Day

Hail Brave Hearts

It’s a stormy day with the thunder crackling.  Lightning lights up the sky and the torrents of rain fall heavily.  Lucky us.  The rain with it’s magical nutrition, watering all of the earth.   A day when we can pass on watering the outdoor flowers and lawn and let nature take control and provide the much needed moisture.  Fabulous rain, taking that chore off our hands and providing a day of indoor retreat instead.

It’s a delightful day of inside pleasure.  The canning, pickling and jam making is on the list.  Pies, muffins, breads and cookies all come to mind.    It’s a wonderful day of baking and cooking, sewing and playing board games.  Inside goodness awaits us, while the rain falls and takes the stifling heat from the air, bringing cooler weather for different activities.  Run like the wind, cycle the roads and trails, the cool will only last for a few days, before the summertime heat sends us back to the beach to play.

Meanwhile, the house fills with the smells of fresh baked pies.  These rainy days are filled with blessings.  No more need to run to the beach to catch that last swim in the lake before dark.  Today is the rainy day of thunderstorm pleasure, when we reach for the recipe books and head to the larder.  These are the fabulous days, when there’s no place like home.

The berry patch has been abundant this year and the freezer has been filling with a variety of garden choices.  The delectable treats oozing with goodness, waiting to be consumed.  The baking tins come out of hiding, being prepared for the best of the best in garden baking.  Raspberry, white chocolate comes to mind.  These are the days of the happy chef and the smiling participants in the joy of cooking.  Lovely. It’s always clever to keep a supply of garden goodness for those rainy days.

Stinging Nettle Cake – Skovkær (nordicforestfoods.com)

Let it pour.  Let the rains come down in buckets.  Let the Earth take care of the watering and let the plants soak up the goodness of the water.  Let it rain, so that puddles form and the water splashes on our rain boots.  The thunder rolls in, lightning lights up the sky.  The heavens display a crackling of light and sound.  There’s an awesome display of power in thunder and lightning that sends a communication of awe in the uncontrolled weather.  Dark clouds billowing, rain descending.

🔴 Heavy Rain and Thunder Sounds 24/7 – Deep Sleep | Thunderstorm for Sleeping – Pure Relaxing Vibes – YouTube

Lucky are we to have a fine shelter, with garden delights to occupy our days.  There’s so much indoor goodness to attend to.  These chores are not chores.  These are a special gift of time.  A time when being forced to flee the inclement weather is a fine gift of welcome time.  Time to spend on the pantry.  Tine to fill up the cookie jar and prepare the fine feast.  Time to sew that garment and make gifts for our friends and loved ones.

That welcome storm.  The Earth needs the nutrients of the water and we need to rest and refresh ourselves.  Baking, sewing, spa.  It’s a rainy day.   A day for a treat.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

August 20, 2023

 

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National Herbalist Day

Hail Brave Hearts

Enjoy the nutrition of the land and the many medical marvels that it reveals.  It’s a new day dawning for the Herbalist.  A day of worthy mention.  National Herbalist Day!  Wow!

The subject matter is superb.  Now that spring is here, the welcome backyard medicine cabinet is opening it’s doors.  New spring teas from fresh shoots, leaves and plants.  Lovely.  Fit for any larder, the beautiful abundance of natural goodness is in your yard.

The most obvious, killer weed, that notorious Dandelion.  Awesome!  The nutritional value of this plant is a keeper.

Plantain, St John’s Wort, Daisy and many more.   A special day for those of us, who seek natural remedies for those aches and pains.  I’ve been lucky with Nettle, Red Currant, Apple Leaf and Rose Hips, but these are just a few of the many natural wonders of the wild world.  Home made salves and soaps, fragrance and tea.  Natural healers to boost energy, to calm, to induce sleep, to improve circulation and help achy joints and achy pains.  Your garden is an Earthly delight.  Those pesky weeds, so hard to get rid of , might freshen your breath, improve your eyesight, add luster to your hair and make it shine.  The self indulgent gardener might even find a cure for what ails themselves.  There are many good gardening books which will help to plant an herbalist garden.

But are natural remedies important?  They are, if you want them to be.  Do they actually provide cures?  Yes, they do.

To quote Chris Dalziel at Jobillee Farm.  who has a  book Growing Abundance, the Garden You Harvest in a Week.

Monday is National Herbalist Day!  It’s a day to acknowledge the herbs that keep us well, help our gardens grow better, make our food taste better, and give us abundance.  Its also a day to recognize the herbal mentors in our life.

Who taught you about using herbs in the kitchen, the garden, and the apothecary?  Did you learn from a mother, a grand parent, a neighbor? Are you self-taught from books and the internet? Did you take a class? Or are you just beginning to learn about herbs as an adult?

Learn about Plantago major — Plantain

I love teaching children about herbs.  My 2 year old granddaughter knows to look for plantain (Plantago major) if she gets a bee sting or a mosquito bite.  “Plantain” comes from an old French word meaning “sole of the foot”.  It grows in compacted areas, where the footprint of humans or animals have compacted the soil.  Its a healing plant for the soil as much as it is a healing plant for us.

Often plantain is the first herb that people learn to use.  It can be an “a-ha” moment, when you hand them a leaf and tell them to put it on the “ouch”.  Relief is fast.

I’ve had the privilege of introducing plantain to tough motorcyclists, stung on the hand while riding, hikers, farmers, beekeepers, wee toddlers, and grumpy teens, mowing a lawn. Plantain is just one of the many gifts that God gives us to nourish and heal us.
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The Power of your Garden

Hail Brave Hearts

Good health to you.  It’s all around us, in the food we eat, the daily exercise that we do, our social and spiritual interactions, education, work and play.  Heal us.

In the past centuries of homesteading natural healing was common sense.  To find the elements of medicine in our natural world, to relieve us from the threats of  common illnesses.  The day’s work must be done.  The days work cannot be left unattended.  A day off with illness was appalling for people who relied on the land for their survival.  Day after day after day, toil and work.  A days work was never done.  Plant your crops, tend to the animals, forage in the forest, sheer the sheep, knit your blankets, chop the wood, stoke the fire, day after day after day.

Salves and ointments sooth sore muscles.  Extracts and tinctures to ingest for your health.  Medicines from the great wild, from flowers, trees and grasses.  The soothing forest, the healing plains, find your medicines in the wildlands, there are cures out there.  A fine flower like Lungwort, a pretty daisy to ingest, a mighty spruce for your winter tea.  Plant your garden with healing remedies, to bolster the immune system against the constant threat of life threatening illness.

Plant your garden well, with vitamins, minerals, essential enzymes, herbal remedies.  Plant your garden to keep yourself healthy and to make you well.  A prized patch of Queen Anne’s Lace, showy Chicory for breakfast tea or coffee,  The careful selection of medicinal plants.

7 Evidence-Based Benefits of Wheatgrass (healthline.com)

The life of a homesteader in early Canada was filled with trials and tribulations.  A community of people, reliant on their courage and expertise to survive in a harsh, sparsely populated land where wildlife and livestock, collide.  The peace of the people, although essential, is not enough.  The forest and the land are filled with deadly surprises.  The forest and the lands are filled with healing and cures.  Venture out into the land, for it’s remedies that will save you.  Care and caution every day of your life, for what lurks in the shadows of the trees and tall grasses.

Hunting for wildlife is shared between wild predators and hungry humans. Livestock must be saved.

It’s an interesting life of essential skills and education.  How to build a house, how to build a fence, how to forage in the forest, what to plant, where to plant it.  Soil conditions, weather patterns, cold, stocking up for the winter, how to dry food, prepare meat, basic first aid,  sewing.  The list of requirements for homesteading goes on and on.  Build your cabin in the woods, beside cool waters, on fertile land.  A society of far flung people, a few kilometers apart, being the next door neighbour.  A neighbour right there, right beside, to help out if necessary.

In our minds that neighbour lives a long way off, but to an early homesteader, it was close by.  Their health and vitality was different from ours.  Cure yourself, you awesome human.  Plant your garden well.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

December 6, 2021

 

 

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Those Divine Weeds

Hail Brave hearts

Still exploring, still living that awesome adventure, still looking forward to the next great day.  Still working those muscles, still struggling with pain.  Not so!  Your diet could save you.

On and on the canoe is paddled, on and on, those muscles work.  Through rapids, portages, endless days on the water, trap the fur, bring it home, make a fortune for that clever, illustrious businessman.  Be the vehicle to their desires.  Work your body, your mind, your spirit to the bone.  Leave your loved ones, travel with courage, bring home that cherished dime.

The difficult life of the courier de bois, the homesteaders that followed them and the settling of Canada.  The price that was paid in life and livelihood, as the courageous Canadians make their way into the great wild.  Survive you must.

The land takes it’s toil and exhausts us.  The strain and stress of this life is full of great challenges.  There are dreams of gold but hardship is plenty.  Tell us your secrets.  How did you survive?

In the great wild, there is plenty, if you know what to look for.  There was game to catch, fish in the streams, fruit, berries and edible plants along the way.  Some of this is medicinal and works to cure that obvious.  Vitamin C for scurvy, vitamin A for your eyes.  The long days of sunshine gleaming off the water, the eyesore from reflections from the water without sunglasses, the sunburn, the pain of it.

Somewhere in the wilds of Canada is medicine for all of this.  Salves, ointments, tinctures, treatments for cuts, bruises, scrapes and burns.  Somewhere there are treatments for pain, vision loss, inflamed joints, sore muscles, pulls and sprains.  Somewhere there is treatment for disease and mental impairment.  Our healing is abundant and our forefathers prove it.  Somewhere in the great wild nutrition is abundant and the natural world gives us relief from aches and pain, from disease and keeps us well.  Somewhere in the wild, there is food that will save us, if you know what to look for.

 

Lambs Quarters:

Why was Lamb’s quarters used as an herbal remedy?
The plant was used traditionally as an herbal remedy for eczema, rheumatic pains, gout, colic, insect stings and bites. Also a decoction made from the herb was used to treat tooth decay. The sap extracted from the plant stems was used to reduce freckles and treat sunburns.

Lamb’s Quarters Uses in Cooking and Benefits as a …

http://www.herbal-supplement-resource.com/lambs-quarters-he…
See all results for this question
Why is it important to eat lambsquarter leaves?
Lambsquarter is an important source of food that can be considered a key staple, while at the same time it is also an extremely valuable medicine. When the leaves are chewed into a green paste and applied to the body, it makes a great poultice for insect bites, minor scrapes, injuries, inflammation, and sunburn.
  • https://www.joyfulbelly.com/Ayurveda/ingredient/Lambs-Quarters/267

    Lamb’s quarters contains more protein, calcium, and vitamins B1 and B2 than cabbage or spinach, making it a wild edible fit for Pop-Eye, our favorite green vegetable hero. It is also rich in iron, phosphorus, and vitamins B1, B2, C, and A. Lamb’s Quarters warms your mouth, is slightly salty, sour, and mildly spicy.

  • Lambs Quarter – Wild & Edible www.thegypsythread.org

    https://www.thegypsythread.org/lambs-quarter-wild-edible

    2021-07-27 · Internal uses range from treating diarrhea, relieving stomach aches, and for scurvy (due to the high Vitamin C content.) Lamb’s quarter tea is also known for decreasing inflammation and increasing circulation. Lamb’s quarter poultices are said to relieve itching, swelling, and relieve burn pain.

    Yarrow

    In short, Yarrow has the following medicinal uses:

    • wound treatment
    • stops bleeding
    • digestive herb
    • diuretic
    • anti-inflammatory
    • anti-spasmodic
    • anti-catarrhal (removes excess mucous from the body)
    • diaphoretic (reduces fever)
    • lowers blood pressure
    • stimulates blood flow in the pelvic area (especially the uterus)
    • antimicrobial
    • used for hemorrhage
    • used for treatment in pneumonia
    • used for treatment in rheumatic pain

    Purple Aster

    • Principally used in the cure of rheumatism in the form of infusion or tincture; recommended, however, in hysteria, chorea, epilepsy, spasms, irregular menstruation, etc., internally; and used both externally and internally in many cutaneous diseases, the eruption occasioned by the poison rhus, and in the bites of venomous snakes.

      Wild Asters medicinal uses | V I Farms

      Are there any medicinal uses for wild asters?
      Wild Asters medicinal uses. The warm infusion may be used freely in colds, rheumatism, nervous debility, headache, pains in the stomach, dizziness, and menstrual irregularities. This, together with A. cordifolius, has been compared in value with valerian. Aster aestivus …is recommended as an antispasmodic and alterative.

    •  Aster aestivus…is recommended as an antispasmodic and alterative. Principally used in the cure of rheumatism in the form of infusion or tincture; recommended, however, in hysteria, chorea, epilepsy, spasms, irregular menstruation, etc., internally; and used both externally and internally in many cutaneous diseases, the eruption occasioned by the poison rhus, and in the bites of venomous snakes

    • Aster Plant Uses – Learn About The Edibility Of Aster Flowers

      https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/asters/edibility…

      2020-08-30 · The flowers and leaves can be eaten fresh or dried when eating aster plants. The Native American people harvested wild aster for a multitude of uses. The roots of the plant were used in soups and young leaves were cooked lightly and used as greens.

       

    • Daisies

    The Medicinal Herb Daisy The herb may be used for loss of appetite as it has stimulating effect on the digestion system and it has been used as a treatment for many ailments of the digestive tract, such as gastritis, diarrhea, liver and gallbladder complaints and mild constipation.

    Wild daisy is a plant. The parts that grow above the ground are used to make medicinal tea. People take wild daisy tea for coughs, bronchitis, disorders of the liver and kidneys, and swelling ( inflammation ). They also use it as a drying agent (astringent) and as a ” blood purifier.”

    The young flower heads or buds can be added to salads, soups or sandwiches; or the flower heads used to decorate salad dishes. The leaves can be eaten raw despite their bitter aftertaste, but are better mixed in salads or cooked and might be used as a potherb. The buds can be preserved in vinegar and used in cooking as a substitute for capers.

    Nutritional profile

    It is both an anti-inflammatory herb and a vulnerary (improves circulation) herb. Drink daisy tea for the plant’s health-giving and restorative properties. A modern study of wild edibles used during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–95) showed that daisies contain 34 mg of vitamin C per 100 g.

    Common Thistle

    The roots have been used as a poultice and a decoction of the plant used as a poultice on sore jaws. A hot infusion of the whole plant has been used as a herbal steam for treating rheumatic joints. A decoction of the whole plant has been used both internally and externally to treat bleeding piles.

    Save yourself, with the delicious, nutritious weeds of the wild!  Our great ancestors had nothing else to eat.  The knowledge  of the food value and medicinal value of these weeds offered to us by the aboriginal people of Canada, saved us then and could help us now.  Eat, drink and be well.

    written by Dr. Louise Hayes

    August 22, 2021

     

Just for Us
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Just for Us

Hail, oh Bravehearts

Riches and wealth.  Beauty and majesty.  The great land calls the people and with hope and skills they come.  Oh glorious day, of sunshine and warmth, of bedazzling beauty as the meadows show off their colorful flowers and the trails entice us into the spectacular wonder of the great wild.  This is our life now, to venture and wander, to fill our eyes and souls with the beauty of the Earth.  The powerful planet, the life force of creation.  Awe and wonder, the fabulous views unfold.  Yet another meadow, yet another waterfall, yet another hill to climb, scene to photograph, animal tracks, and animal sightings, more and more of the great wild, more and more of the awesome land.

Our strength in numbers protects us as we pass.  The delight of the wild lands inspires us and keeps us moving. More to see, more to do, so little time and yet so much to gain.  The joy of this great wild place, where the unending view is the beauty of the Earth.  Fabulous planet, with your majestic mountains, the lakes and wildlife, so abundant and thrilling.  Another tumbling, unpolluted river.  Another viewpoint with a sight of endless wonder.  Lovely to behold. Our days journey is a quest for that unspoilt view, the treasure that we long for and the right that we demand for the preservation of this.  No development, no interference, only the trail along the rolling hillside carved by the hand of the great Earth and the creation of this almighty one.

A place to breathe.  Here is the domain of the planet.  A place where those fortunate few travel to explore and to enjoy.  The breath of the Earth is fragrant.  It’s multitudes of flowers wave and nod to us, greeting us with dazzling color and spreading forth blankets of charming, beauty as the variety of color and species lines our path.  This is the world that we care for, the world of the great wild, where the planet’s creations are protected.  This is our  home and we care for it deeply.  Here is where the world is at peace, where we cast aside our worries and wander along the paths of fragrance, color and beauty to a destiny most wonderful.  Again, we are not disappointed.  The breathtaking wonder of this awe inspiring land fills us with joy.  It’s marvelous.

Still that same old view, the view that explorers and adventurers chose to protect.  The view that created a marvelous protected wilderness area.  The view of the brilliant planet as it shows off its dazzling brilliance and welcomes us with awe and wonder.  Here is God’s land, a land for only that creative force.  A land that reminds us of the wonder of nature, the need to protect it.  The bees, busy in their daily routine, the variety of plants seeking their hold in the soil, the outcroppings of rock and the rushing streams.

That same old view, that greeted the wandering spirit so many eons ago, has remained unchanged, just for us.  Just for us, to stretch our legs in the vast eternity of the great planet.  Just for us to share this vision, to keep it for us and to leave it untouched.  Just for us, in our part of heaven, here in the great wild, of our great planet.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

July 23, 2016

Early Spring
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Early Spring

Hail, you brave almighty ones.

Praises, you awesome ones, praises to this great good Earth.  The warm spring days welcome us.  Come out of your houses and feel the warmth of those special sun shining rays.   The spring, with it’s special power, it’s newness, it’s creation, it’s splendor.  It is beauty that we crave and beauty surrounds us .  The joy of living, of life on the planet, of the simplicity of warm breezes, cool lakes, shelter from trees, magnificent flowers.  The joy in their hearts as the nesting birds sing, the fondness of animals as they gaze at their offspring, the brilliance of flowers as they burst from their buds.  The magic of the planet casts it’s wondrous spell and spring has captured us once more.

Glorious days of sun filled splendor, rays of shining gold sent to us from heaven.  The lights is with us for hours  now, the dark of winter is cast aside and the joy of spring fills the air.  Fragrant gardens, song filled skies, colorful meadows and deep secrets hiding in the forest.  It is the season of growth and birth.  A season of wonder and delight.  The Earth spreads the word to us, welcoming us into it’s great wonder.  It is the beauty of this great planet, that brings us so much joy. Joy and discovery.

Those same old trails change each day, a new bud, a  new animal track, viewpoints, water rushing, an early spring with so much to see.  The water entices us and we’re swimming in April.  So much goodness, so much sport and  so much fun.  It extends our lives by weeks this year, everything is early.

An escape from the bustling city to the quiet of the spring filled country, a dazzling day on a mountain bike, exertion and strenuous activity to liven the muscles and tone the body.  This great country’s past time of escaping to the beaches, the trails, the forest, the mountains, the campgrounds, the parks and the great wild.  Escape to the wonder of the natural world, the world filled with surprises and unexpected pleasures.  A roadside pull off with big horn sheep playing close by, a view of an eagle with egrets on its nest, that great  horned owl peering at us as we walk along the trail. The views of spring time meadows, of glaciers and mountain tops, of long endless grasslands and still pristine lakes.  We protect all of this.  This is ours to keep.  Our cherished escape to the great beyond, the fabulous parks , the wilderness and the joy of being.  That wholesome success of a day of play, of the unpolluted water and the clean, pure air.  Those days that take your worries away and fill your lives with that sense of wonder.   More, we want more. More of this life of athletic fun, of hikes and photos, of swimming and riding.  More of those rugged climbs to test our endurance and strength.  We want more.  More of this vast land with it’s unique species and more of the beauty of our scenic wonder.  More of the wonder of the natural world and more of the healing of this great divine. This is our awesomeness, these special, protected places, these is our secrets, that we quietly share.

We are old here, but we are still young.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

June 11, 2016

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The Great Good

Good Day, you awesome human

Praises, to you and to yet another wonderful day.

The great planet has intrigued us yet again.  Fishes that look like elephants, white lions, new butterflies, imagination, creativity, brilliance.  Oh to be you, great mother Earth, with all of the gifts of creation.  The milleneums roll past with their constant changes, destruction and war, pestilence and strife, pollution and pesticides, garbage and waste, plunder and greed.  Still the Earth rolls on,with her magnificence and power.  Oh, great awesome one, with skills so immense, it’s unthinkable!  Power and might, life belongs to you.

Praises, fabulous creator, the life blood belongs to you.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthpicturegalleries/9753208/New-species-found-walking-catfish-Beelzebub-bat-and-two-legged-lizard.html

Hurling through space to seek your place in the universe.  Tiny by comparison, but with a mission that must be fulfilled.  Life forms on all of your surfaces.  The new, the unusual, something superb.   A new life, the unknown again, awakening our eyes to the new adventure.  So, great human, you’ve been everywhere, done it all, there’s nothing new now.  The oceans explored, space travel accomplished, the pinnacles of mountains reached.  Where to now, for the mind and body of man?  Where now, for the spirit to call us?  All feats accomplished, all stones have been turned.  All quests fulfilled.  The power of the human, so mighty and intelligent.  Technology, engineering, development and creativity.  A unique and special mind, controlling the planet, bending and twisting, changing and developing.  A constant pursuit of knowledge that intrigue and curiosity propels.  What is that?  How does it work?  How do we make that brilliant, special interest our own creation.  How to control the planet and make it’s mysteries our own.

The fabulous planet spins it’s own wonderful web of mystery and intrigue.  Do we know it all?  Have we found and conquered it all?  Rest in peace oh great creator, you are the most blessed.  Times change, the weather hurls it impact at us,  driving blizzards, scorching sun.  The heat is warming the surface and the snow melts from our yards.  Global warming encroaches and trees start to bud.  The awe of creation is still your magic.  Creatures rise and creatures fall. The age of the dinosaur and the age of man.  The unknown belongs to you.  Where will you take us, in the magic ride? New environments?  New creatures to discover?  New landscapes to present themselves and to challenge our bodies and our minds.  As the surface is blasted with war torn madness and the oceans fill with plastics and waste, we scramble to stop the doom of the planet.  Whose doom is it anyway?

The sun rises and sets in regular motion, the moon follows it’s path across the sky, the waves pound and crash as the tides roll in and out.  Regular, like clockwork the natural process continues.  We take it for granted, it’s always been there.   Oh, and praises, human for making a garbage can, somewhere to put the constant refuse.  Garbage dumps and pile high, rotting stench,  another kind of pollution.  So much destruction for the great mother to bear.  All of her children, her marvelous creation, secumbing to the blast of wanton wastefulness and recklessness.

So this is us, the human, so awesome and brilliant.  Will you save us great planet?  Or do you other designs.

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

March 12, 2016

 

The Awakening
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The Awakening

Good day all of you Brilliant ones!

Here is today, a day of awesome splendor.  A day when the world shows off it’s beauty and thrives in the warmth of brilliant sunshine.  Here is today, a day for you.

The Earth is warm and sends it’s healing power to you.  A healthy life of intelligent pursuits, carrying you forward towards your goals.

The rejuvination of  springtime, when all of the world awakens to the early morning sunshine and the warm, streaming sunshine pulls you from your restful slumber, into the dawning of the new day.  Warm and inviting, the world awakens and the call of the wild sings to the planet.  Songs of joy, of cheerful living, songs of love to nest and nurture, songs of gathering to keep themselves together.  Sing for the joy of being, of happy pleasure, of grateful life.  The dark cloak of nighttime vanishes with the dawn and today the Earth reveals yet another of its wonders.  Another new flower pulls up its showy head and waves to the world, and nods in graceful elegance.  I have bloomed.  Here I am!  It is me!  I have bloomed.  And with this showy, colorful, fragrant blossom,  we are saved.  Saved from extinction, saved from being a mark in history, saved from devastating loss.  Here I am!  It is me!  We are saved.

Again and again, the showy blooms rise to meet this glorious day.  Again and again their colorful attire sparkles the landscape with dots of beauty.  Reds, yellows, blue and white, the showy dainties cast their spell on the landscape and fill it with the colors of the rainbow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwI2u23LRx4&spfreload=10  secret garden, first day of spring, by Andreea Petchu

Hail to the great planet,calls these precious  dainties of life.  Brilliant and bold they rise to the morning sun and wave and dance to the playful tunes of warm breezes.   The life that fills the planet with color, scent and beauty.  Flowers in a spring meadow, surprising with their brilliance.  Cold resistant and sturdy these fragile, adaptive plants fill the forest, the meadow, the plains, the mountain with an array of color, variety, design and interest that cheer the soul of horticulturalists, botanist and curious amatures.  The world swells with the awakening of spring and the wonderful plant life that we fortunately find.

A tiny, brilliant dot of a violet, tucked away along a path, blue clematis, paintbrush, strawberry and primrose, the competition for finery is unmatched in these species.  Lovely day and lovely findings.  The wild has awakened with the dawn of this day and splashes its paintbrush of color all across its land.

Lucky for us, this day, as we stroll along a mountain path and breathe the clean, pure air of mountain sunshine and rejoice.  Today the world shows off her glorious inventions and the variety and beauty of her landscapes saves us once more.  A day of simple, grand design as the planet entices us from our beds and our secure homes.  Come into my garden, calls the great, good Earth and smile at the day that welcomes you.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

June 4, 2015

It’s Only a Tree
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It’s Only a Tree

Good Day Bravehearts

The forests of our country are a milestone of preservation. Intact lands, intact lives, intact preservation. The delicate balance of satisfying the needs of competing interests while we grow and prosper, but still fulfill the needs of the great land. The earth cannot survive without the large expanse of lands and environmental protection has called us all to be watchful of the contamination and ruin of the earth. Another mountain of preservation destroyed, another hard fought victory to win. It only takes a few minutes to destroy, what has taken a milenium of earth years to build. A forest, brought down by over harvesting. The balance of the environment overturned. The delicate marshes and the songs of the birds, happily existing in the structure of an ecosystem, so uniquely contrived and so exquisitely orchestrated. The balance of life in the land of the great wild.
The fabulous wild, where the predators roam and quietly, stealthily stalk their prey. A harvest of the weak to strengthen the strong, and to cull the over abundance of grazing and browsing prey. The forest needs the predator, to save it’s new growth, and to take a stand for the preservation of large landscapes.
The balance is superb! The forest thrives and the lives of the living, fill their world with the earth songs of their making.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BickMFHAZR0 The Most Amazing Thing About Trees.

The joy of the wild as it sings the song of the earth to us, the great human. Save us! Only in saving the great wild, will the human be able to save themselves. The preservation of the forest, for our own clean air, for oxygen, for shade, and the protection of the soil. The trees are a necessity. Food, shade, warmth, air, environmental protection and decoration. The varieties are immense and all so different. Large and small with canopies for shade, or strength for wind protection. A tree, such a common plant, so needed and so fragile.
Our houses, from their wood. Furnishings, flooring, cabinetry, whole fields of study from the common tree. Carpentry, logging, forestry, massive business enterprise and international trade. Wealth from wood, paper from by product, our logging industry employs thousands.
Hail to the almighty human, for ingenuity and invention. Your awesome minds and clever imaginations save you there, but lack of foresight is the curse of the human.
Oh brilliant ones, you cannot stop your thinking. The wide expanse of knowledge becomes you and the perpetual motion of time turning to wealth propels you. No poverty there. A world without end. It has to be.
So, brave hearts, as the world turns and another day is upon us, the call from the wild is more urgent and compelling.
Come! calls the great land. Visit and explore. Come to the luxury, to the beauty, to the serenity of the wild! Come to the adventure, to explore and discover. The earth sings, oh great human, don’t be the last.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes
July 1, 2014

Breathe
by

Breathe

Good morning, you awesome human

Breathe! Do you feel it? The breath you take, filling your lungs with life giving oxygen. No small miracle to dismiss or ignore, the life giving oxygen passes through your airways into your lungs and saves you once more. Breathe! The powerful breath of life giving force that sustains you.
They say that there is less oxygen in the world today. That the force of the natural world has declined and that the air that we breathe is no longer as fresh and nutritious as it once was. Air, with nutrient rich oxygen that fills our bodies and blood stream with it’s vital life force. Air, that rejuvenates our brains and fills the mind with nutrient rich oxygen. Air, so commonplace, so taken for granted, so needed and precious. Air, a simple natural substance that we die for.
In the world, the deforestration of the forest has hacked its way to less wildlife habitat, less jungle and forest, less vegetation and less air. Air pollution contaminates the air we breathe and causes disease.
The great planet, with its intricate web of life, looses it’s diversity as species cry in mortal danger from habitat loss and planetary destruction.
The polluted waterways suffocate the aquatic species that call it their home. The raging torrents of rain, fill the lakes and contaminate the soil with polluted droplets of water. The rich bio-diversity of the planet declines and the numbers of species fall to dismally low levels. The awesome, creative planet is plundered, and it’s richness of life forms perish, in the assault of human over population. 7 billion. 7 billion, and rising.

http://www.wizetime.com/trees-it-takes-22-trees-to-produce-enough-oxygen-for-you-to-breath/

The great forests that swept the massive landscape are harvested and vanish in the wake of plunder. Plunder for wood, for clearing the land, for penetrating the tangle of un passable vegetation. The forest lies at the brink of its own starvation. Fewer trees, less vegetation, the wild flowers nod their brilliant heads and their abundance declines with over picking and habitat loss. Fewer flowers, less fragrance, less colour and life in the forest. Another trampled flower, too delicate to withstand the weight of an intruder. Trampled, crushed, gone.
The brilliant earth, cast it’s creativity as far as the eye can see. Streams and mountains, forest and plains, the painstaking effort to fill the planet with life and wonder.

http://www.arborday.org/trees/benefits.cfm what is a tree worth?

Awesome planet, of wonder and life, your forests thrive with the wealth of the living. Trees for oxygen, animals to protect the wild places, flowers for the beauty of the earth. So powerful! The creative energy of the earth is the life force that saves us. Awesome planet, so wonderful to behold.
Still, the needs of the human are high. More hunger, more habitation, more pollution, more space for us. The forest can’t sustain the needs of the human. Too many bodies, too many stomachs to fill, too many lungs for air.
What is a tree worth, in dollars and sense? For the amount of air that we breath in a lifetime? So commonplace, not a penny to charge and worth more than all of the money that your bank accounts can provide.
Air. Clean, unpolluted air is provided to you, by the great planet, free of charge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1M894GH4q4 movie The Right to Breathe.

Air, oh awesome human. Fresh, clean air. It’s to die for.

written by Dr Louise Hayes
June 13, 2014