Spring tends to evoke maladies of the lungs, especially in those who are of pitta - kapha constitution. Something of the watery-warm thaw creates a synonymous action in our bodies. Of course it isn't the only way in which our bodies bring us back to the awareness of the fact that we are inseparable from all life on Earth.
A simple elixir of Earth's healing herbs can bring us healing and relief in our lungs, whether a viral and swollen throat or painful, persistent, spasmodic cough.
Lung Elixir
To a 1 Quart size mason jar add:
1 Tbsp Cloves, dried
2 Tbsp Elecampane root, dried (double for fresh rt)
4 Tbsp Wild Black Cherry bark, dried (double for fresh bark/twig)
6 Tbsp Cinnamon bark, dried chips (if you have fresh cinnamon you are lucky!)
1/2 Cup Ginger root, fresh sliced (1/4 cup if dried rt)
Fill the jar of herbs 3/4 of the way full with brandy or alcohol of choice.
Fill the remaining 1/4 of the jar with god local honey.
Apply label with details and record in your herb journal or calendar.
Variations can be made to your liking, for example you may want to add a little fresh turmeric if you tend to get bronchitis or if viruses set into your muscles and make you ache all over.
If you're making this for your children, you can add dried elderberries and reduce the amount of ginger and elecampane to improve the taste and add the immune and lung strength of elder.
If you have a favorite lung herb, of course you can be as creative and intuitive as you wish. If this sounds like too drying of a remedy for you, add it to a demulcent mallow, violet, sassafras leaf, or elm infusion and sip it that way. Remember that our mucilage carries our antibodies, so befriend the good snot and keep it working. And remember too how slippery cinnamon can be.
If you need immediate relief, these same herbs at approximately 1/4 of the recipe can be steeped in 2 quarts simmering water for 30+ minutes and drunk as an effective decoction.
Allow one moon (month) for the extraction of your elixir to take place. Sing to it, shake it, admire the changes. Set it out in the full moon to absorb the healing powers of the water element.
Use small amounts in hot water or tea as needed.
Happy Spring
They honeysuckle vine is drenching the path in perfume. At high noon you might catch me pacing back and forth to indulge in the succession of notes.
The yellowest bee I've ever seen! Oh, and the pretty chives.
The profusion of Roses has begun. Laced by the red clover, silver artemisia, and various herbs in green variations, my wild garden is looking better each year. Despite the fact that I hardly tame it :)
This weeks rescue, two little birds who knocked themselves into shock by flying full speed into the picture window. The kids ran top speed outside to ensure they didn't become our cat's dinner. They held them safe until they came to and flew off. So sweet!
And .... without a photo, I'll tell you that we have a family of what we think is coyote. Perhaps it's a silver fox, we're not sure, since I can't seem to find online audio, but the pups keep me up with their strange 'bark' from about 1am to 2am. My son identified the scat at the edge of the yard, noting the fur and 'tail' of it.
Calendula bramble; Mystery plant number two. Calendula like flowers on a rubus style branch growing up and over from the ground. ?
This is the amazing plant. It's the St. Johnswort (Hypericum Perforatum) that began growing in my garden, independently, in other words I didn't plant it, two years ago. Each year there have been a couple more stems of it. But this year, the stems grew RED. ?! I've never seen red stems on SJW although it makes sense, but I've also never seen a stand of SJW actually change colors like that. WHen I crush a peice of stem - it's clear, not red like the bud. And it's beautiful, just beautiful.
Every year I adore the vibrant blossoming of the celandine. I don't talk much of it, I think I take it for granted. But I shouldn't ... it's an unsurpassed topical cure for plantar warts and can also be taken in small amounts internally to help combat retro-viruses. As the yellow stem sap indicates (as in: bile) it's also good for boosting the liver and gall bladder's function. Extremely bitter to the taste, we are well warned not to over do the use of this medicine. 
I've been internally dancing between these two very primal, indelible needs. The need to be invisible; the natural disposition of the human in a vast world, of the mother serving child, of the changeable human nature in a society that wants identity. Novelty becomes novelty. The name, the choices of smell, of visual reference, of color and vocation, they all anchor who you are. Who you are attracts the right audience. Your whole brand become an essential player in what you believe and what kind of life you want for yourself. Your life, way of life, becomes a spell cast unto the universe.
The Earth turns in her growing skin, uncomfortably like a first sip of wine or a first kiss. The sun glows down, seducing the green from slumber, like a dance from Baubo. The snow, on it's way down to the roots, turns an ugly shade of slop, sticking angrily to our pants and boots, as if to stamp her adolescent complaint on our day. The ground melts and freezes, melts and freezes, obeying the shapeshifting weather. Mother in her round power soothes her belly with bird songs and wintergreen leaves crushed under paws. She breathes up the birch sap with each contraction, giving flow to life and anesthesia to winter's sting. She sings up a grand Menarche in each Maple trunk, and releases the snowdrop munchkins from hiding. She hums the bears awake and cracks the chains of early dusk. Grandmother drum keeps the veil thin while Spring becomes. 
Bleeding Heart. Truly one of the most moving and vulnerable looking flowers in the whole plant Queendom.
