Dream Gates! (by Robert Moss and inspired this post)

The tree that leaves me with no trace
Of yesterday or the human race....


I find that my 'new' life is a part and wholly for me. (or,,,
The whole life is for all.
My life is a part and a whole for all.
We share this life in all of it's mysteries and novelties.
It's lows and it's highs.

Dreams uncover mountains of life.
The fear, the celebrations, the let downs and the up lifts.
They are all together a part, and a part they are all together.

©Allisonians Please ask me for permission to use my photos or writing

Dinner and a good book! ©Allisonians

Christmas Cactus Heaven!

Here is my lovely Christmas Cactus! I have just purchased it... Wow, is my best comment! ©Allisonians

Blueberry Heaven! Sept/Oct Tasks 2013

I am back at the LPL and have got the Thoreau book I mentioned yesterday! All that talk about berries got me thinking. I looked in the deep freeze and sure enough there were blueberries. I don't go out in the mountains far enough for huckleberries. When I was a child up in Auburn, we could go out of my back door and find enough for a pie in 15 minutes. That beautiful cedar forest exists no more, but

my memories do. And blueberry is close enough for me. I also made Gingered Carrot Puree YUM~~~ ©Allisonians

Wild FRUITS, by HENRY DAVID THOREAU WRITTEN IN THE mid 1800's

Wild Fruits By Henry David Thoreau Published in 1999, Norton and Co. NY, NY This is a wonderful resource into the life/livelihood/acitivities of David Thoreau's young life. He died at the age of 44 from TB which they say was a common ailment of the time. He speaks of the Huckleberry and it's whortleberry family. There are wonderful descriptions and drawings. I am not a member of the LPL, but am using their internet today. So, I had a little time to look in my favorite section. the 500's. There is where I found this wonderful book. His sketches and notes published after his death are a wonderful portal into the life and times of the mid 1800's. He had presumably started a surveying busniess that cultivated into a love for botany. By mid-November he'd build a scaffold in his hat to carry specimens and carried a botanical guide. In here, spring 1951, his 'Common Place Book' was born. I didn't get very far in the book because my turn is here. I don't have lending privilages, but will see if my home town card with help. It's worth an ask, but I do have plenty at home. I am studying on my nutritional needs ©Allisonians whortleberry family http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whortleberry

Baby Cleavers! I have found cleavers at my newest haunt on the Cowlitz~

baby cleaver

ye ol cowlitz

looking north up the ye ol cowlitz

©Allisonians Please ask me for permission to use my photos or writing

A Sunday

Oats tea
Lavender wash
Went to the River
walked with the dog,
Walked around the neighborhood
Frozen, bright
       Day
Frozen black night.

©Allisonians

January Tasks that I have going, but not a completion;
My ally this year is dandelion, and my new earthly neighbor and friend Dock, and plantain galore.
I  am also sub-studying Prunella, cleavers, chick weed, marshmallow, mallow, cayenne, lady's mantle, evening primrose and honeysuckle.,.. and all of the earth's inhabitants that she reveals to me..
for now,,,
Working on gathering items for imbloc gift exchange...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
note to self; find your string! :D
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I made Gypsy Fire Water mash/salsa 12.27.12

This is my version;
I use~
Onion, horseradish, ginger, garlic, cayenne;
 I use my blender and have learned that you blend the toughest parts first(horseradish and ginger)(I also add the acv to help it blend together.)
 Cover with REAL apple cider vinegar(acv), read your labels or make your own...
Bottle this in a good size bottle. What I mean by 'good size' is an appropriate size to fit your mix. I usually leave a few inches because I can ladle it out without spilling and I can add to it if I want to...
    As Lisa, my friend that taught me this says;
  Use any amount and quantity that stikes you! Then it makes it your own, customized. Many friends  and colleagues use all sorts of other ingredients, but I'll let them tell you about it. Please leave your GFW version and link if you'd like. thanks and. Please comment with your combination(s)! Thanks!
Lastly and most importantly;
To Store and Usage;
Refrigerate 2 to 4 weeks, but I use it right away too. So I make sure to make enough mash and vineger to have the fire water too.
At 4 weeks(I, personally, have waited quite a bit longer and even left it as mash water mix)
STRAIN the mixture and Bottle the liquid, I GUESS you can discard the mash, but I use it! It's amazing stuff

{I can't add photo's or I would here. Once I can add photos again, I'll add them to this,, wish me luck}

~~~BUT~~~
I, myself, use the mash right away and after it's sat. I have used it up to 4 to 6 months old. It is amazing. I just always scoop out what I need. I go to the refrigerator with my cup and don't even take the mash water out of the fridge ever, or only for the moment. It's kept at the refrigerated temperature always.
It is good for so many things, marinade your food, use as medicine... I added it too my gravy tonnight. You play with it and you will see!

I made a tiny bit of dock/tequila tincture to honor my new land/space on earth. It is very good too. Dock is a wonderful herb and easy to find information on. I will publish more in the spring...
There are many varieties of GFW and tincture/elixirs etcs..
©Allisonians

It's not my recipe! It's the Gypsy's, but I am one step closer to the Gypsy spirit for using it! It is good.

I just found the tasks in my spam folder. I am soo glad I looked. It seems to be placing things there randomly, ahhhh the mysteries....By and by

So Theoretically;
I happen to be looking into skin and blood issues on my own, as I was born with eczema and we are dealing with some acne issues as well. We started some spiritual and are working on diet and research. Will tell as this information gathered is put into one place :D. Cheers. :D Interesting, for sure. :D

Researching Some herbs for psoriosis as well(which I believe some might help with eczema as well, I am cross referencing for my own use here) (there being severel considerations, health, diet and mental state, climate, history)
©Allisonians Please ask me for permission to use my photos or writing

Ah February~~~In my space grows cleavers, Chickweed and Nettles AND MUCH MUCH MORE~~~evening primrose, dandelion, prunella GALORE

As soon As I read them, I was instantly transcended to a time (or two) where I first discovered these greatest of God's gifts. This memory(s) it has not been of conscience consideration other than that it happened. I took my Mom for granted a bit. Her constant complete love was so constant that it felt like air, which is also easy to ignore until it smells funny. :D
My Personal History of Nettle
My Mom taught us about nettles when I was nine years old. We'd moved from the suburb to the country, my mom's mom's old farm. We went into the wonderFULL woods and picked nettle. As she showed us the known sting, she told us when we made it for dinner it would taste like spinach. We discussed the sting and how the water took the sting out as it was boiled. I remember it clearly, it was such a lively, interesting discussion. I am glad to have had it. We took our magicla nettle home and put into a pot of boiling water and wah lah! It was delicious! I haven't had that magicla nettle fresh much since, but am determined to harvest it ASAP!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY CLEAVERS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well my cleavers was a gift of last season! It was the funny kind without words. I looked up the herbal info and it was something I needed on all levels and then I found it and it was like instant love(the kind of childhood puppy love), strong and innocent. Purity, that I was drawn to like something I cannot put into words. I hung it out like a wreath(it stuck together so well that way and in fact when wound came up very well too!) and would look at it in a kind of awe. The kind of awe of knowledge that my ally would bring. Here I am with my big bountiful bag of my friend now and I am transformed and my life has taken a turn that somehow is connected, yet I haven't had the benefit of the herbal use yet. IDK...just had to say...


I think I ran across some cleaver burrs out in the woods today, but bigger than mine from last year. I will have to keep track. I know there is more than one kind of burr plant(?)(I thinks I will just keep an eye on the spots I was in).


I trod out into this new ancient woods as I am getting over my well loved woods. Moving on and bringing some of mine with me. So I was clearing out  a spot for my transplants and ended up with little burrs. No plant. But I have photos here of some I harvested last season! And had to quick make me a cup of cleavers tonight as I read my months plans! I love cleavers if I hadn't made that clear. When I grab into my HUGE bag of bountiful cleavers, I get a little bit stung, little pricklies really; and it, oddly enough, reminds me of a nettle sting. I call them kisses, really. Natures little kisses. Nettle is a BIG kiss. :D


I just had to share because upon reading the tasks I had to jump up for my latest and greatest! I was instantly inspired. I thought, aw I've got this. It's not exactly it, but it is close enough for me.

 It speaks volumes to me when this kind of taste is acquired. The Helpful regime of little natural creatures(plant style) is something to be reckoned with


 I will get into the chickweed briefly here. I was introduced to chickweed sometime back (5 yearsish). I searched and searched and by and by I found some around the light pole when I was dropping off lunch to my daughter at high school! I grabbed some. Then the next spring it was annoying my mother-in-law, so I weeded it out of her trough planters and tired to get it to grow. I should of just ate it all, but wanted to make it grow. It didn't. not so far.  But I love it too, and will continue looking around for it.

~~~

What I, myself, am most interested in is what comes in of it's own accord! I have been looking around for years because of it. I heard a saying about 17 years ago that says, 'everything you need is in your own back yard.' Even those who might not have a back yard, something that you notice growing around where you live is what is meant.


So, I have dandelions galore, found evening primrose this year near by; red clover, self heal(prunella vulgarus), herb robert, St. John's wort, plantain broad and narrow leafed, off the top of my head. I am truly blessed.


©Allisonians Please ask me for permission to use my photos or writing. Thank you! :D

The Mighty Columbia RIver with the majestic Mt. St. Helens in the background.

"On a Day of New Beginnings
And The same day of letting go;
I do sail with imagination to the place(s) I want to go!"
Allison :D


Roll on Columbia, Roll On!

©Allisonians Please ask me for permission to use my photos or writing

PHOTO IS MINE~MY HYDRANGA TWIG TRANSPLANTS. {the parent plants are right behind them not in photo} I found this article from Kiva Rose and wanted to share it. It's About Herbal Diversity. By Rena A.D.

©Allisonians Please ask me for permission to use my photos. THANKS~~~

Design Thinking For The Creative Herbalist

   "I don’t have the answers. But answers don’t matter all that much: it’s the good questions that count. Ask yourself the powerful questions. Question your assumptions, evaluate your frameworks.
    Most of all, design who you are from your heart’s passion and values. After all, you’re the creator of your life, legacy & practice." Rena A.D.

I am a Proud new Apprentice! 3 Cheers and here is my guide to success for this day Today:

‎©Allisonians PLEASE ASK MY PERMISSION TO USE MY PHOTO. THANKS~

49: INTUITION
A: Trust your intuition. It is true and accurate for this situation.

50: FOLLOW YOUR VALUES
A: Your morals and values should guide your days. Make sure you are only acting in a way you believe to be ethically correct....

13: TRUTH
A: Trust your inner guidance in regards to this situation.

Very much indeed a good way to go on this old year. 3Cheers~~~:D

Thanks to Sarah at Springfield Sanctuary! Santuary Much! (Tee-Hee)
HAPPY NEW YEAR! :D

~~~~~PARADISE FOGGED 12.21.11 ~~~~~~~~~~ HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE~~~~~~~~

When you come upon paradise and cannot stay....

Believe you can....

When the darkness is past because it's the shortest day..

Know you are there...

My Friends advise me to feel...

This one is bliss...

©Allisonians PLEASE ASK MY PERMISSION TO USE MY PHOTO. THANKS~

The Leaving of a Hill

Here
I
Leave
Lovingly

©Allisonians

The Color Green

I have a dream and the color green is a big part of it.
I have a balance with nature and green is the key to it.
I have a desire to expand and to grow.
I have a deep and dark green soul.
Life has that particular and overt ebb and flow.
From dark, to light
From stark to bright.
Dark days until you can not wait.
An intensity that is sensed only once that first green of spring warmth is felt.


Green is powerful, green is deep, green is prosperity on the best knoll.
Don't you think? Or should that be a statement. :D


©Allisonians

Loowit Mountain; this land is Our Land,,,

Oh that mountain, she does call me, but I don't want to go just yet.
Oh that mountain, she does sell me to my own I can depend.
Oh that mountain, friendship utters, how do you get from here to there?
Oh that mountain, she does know just where and why and when.
©Allisonians (only the words are mine)

the photo is 'ours'...Thank you to   http://www.citypictures.org/data/media/237/Mount_St._Helens_and_Spirit_Lake_Washington.jpg


Mount St. Helen's has been one of the biggest mysteries of my life.

Here is an article from a near by paper aka TDN;
 here is the link;
http://tdn.com/news/local/article_8eac8632-f471-11e0-8f95-001cc4c002e0.html

and the link that brought me there;
http://swwdc.org/#PubTalk

and let us not forget her official site;
http://mountsthelens.com/

Here, here for baby steps, backwards steps and sideways glances, face plants and the like; Sharing an article I don't know the whole story on, but took the below excerpt from the below linked article. Pease OWL

so, Reading further, this is Hindu infulenced. I like what I read, but had to go to bed and shall be very busy for some days and shant be able to get back to it, so,,,,I blogged it like the 1000, or 610 so posts of the same nature just... Waiting for me to get back to them to read up....someday...over the rainbow...I like it under the rainbow myself....Here's the beginner blogger, Michael West's quote, I took from his blog. Link below...AD

A step in the right direction is taken when one recognises that as human beings we are all in the same boat, rowing across the same ocean. The destination we each have in mind is a distant land called Happiness. So the behaviour of person X is determined by what he perceives will deliver him to the Happy Isle. Person Y’s behaviour is similarly governed. The point of difference is a problem of perception alone; the route we each perceive will take us to the Happy state.


Link;

http://www.advaita-academy.org/blogs/MatthewWest.ashx

I also read somewhere lately in McLaren's book that the emotion of happieness is temporary(not to be confused with the land of happiness state of mind) and that she explains that it helps us with our emotions on a whole and on and so forth. So,,,I'm thinking as I read this, hm~yeah~sounds good. If I knew, I'd give the page #, but now you'll just have to read it for yourself. LofE please


Hugs and such,
Allison

:D

http://youtu.be/DJvhWAyaU5M


©Allisonians

Disclaimer; My journeling is for referencing my journeys into information and knowledge; and to share these insights publically, all feedback is most valuable and much apprieciated..

{Disclaimer; my blog is a public journal, it is only a reference tool for me and entertainment level, at best. I do not claim to be expert, but ONLY to be interested in the subjects I post. I have my bias' that should be evident, and know that you all understand this when reading. I appreciate your help where information is wrong or dated or anything else that make you go "hm". It is so exciting to hear from you about things I do not know about. I hope you all enjoy visiting and understand that I am not a professional, I am an interested citizen working on living a life and communcating interests I see and some needs that I feel compelled to voice. I apprieciate all the feedback from my readers. A special thank you to KaronV for her careful insights, profound guidances, her clarity, special kindnesses, and integrities.

 Please be consulted before trying any new herb or considering them first} and always remember to smile....tootles.


Thank you for the prompt. I am human and such.

I always try to be integral. I always biobliphy my information. When I add the Title, author, publisher and date, it is because it is excerpted directly from the text. I do add my thoughts and do make typos, but edit them as I see them, as well. When I add my person thoughts I use brackets or italicize it for clarity.

Thank you  most kindly, again, for visiting and for all of your insightful feedback.

Ciao and Cheers,
Allison of

©Allisonians

Orcas Island Ferry Landing Time-Lapse High Resolution

Winter Wonderland

I have found myself singing Christmas Carols a time or two of late. We've had the most beautiful weather I have ever seen. With it's stories of close calls and close quarters. All in all it was a wonderful time to see the world slow their perspective pace down and just enjoy the ride.
Here are a couple of my photo memories.
Peace!

Full ON! Douglass Fir

Before the storm. Bare Honey Suckle, same doug fir tree in background from the above photoed tree.

The first pass, honey sucke's cute! Still see the doug?

Full ON now our honey suckle is fabulously ART! and no doug;/

The most beautiful snow drop in this area. We walked in it that night! It was so peaceful and the snow was so soft and cushioned beneath our feet! Talk about your zen moment! WoW, is all I can say, it's tacit, ya know

We ate snow icees for a couple of days! Most delightful treat!

Snow Treat

1 cup of fresh white snow

Add any preferred beverage or sweetener

Suggestions; honey, maple syrup, brown sugar and cinnamon, tea, mashed fruit, berries, yogurt, soda

Oh yeah, and coffee,

or one of my new found yummies, blackberry root tea. Sounds weird, but it's

~~~~YU-UM-MY!!!~~~

ENJOY!

©Allisonians Please ask me for permission to use my photos or writing. thank you for visiting. Wishing you were here. Allison