Everybody loves a jack-o-lantern. Not nearly as many know the origins of this seasonal decoration, which has become an incredibly common element of the final harvest celebration of the year. You may know that celebration as Halloween. Or if you follow the Pagan calendar, perhaps as Samhain.
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Every year pumpkin spice season rolls around and I’m torn between the desire to indulge my great love for this seasonal flavor with a tasty hot beverage or two, and the more level-headed decision to skip the unnecessary sugar, artificial flavors, and dairy products that are commonly a part of these sweet treats 😉
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Do not build your lifestyle around your career. Rather build your career around your lifestyle. Otherwise you expend all of your energy building another man’s dreams.
Expend your energy designing and orchestrating the realization of your own dreams. Sounds unreachable? I get it. It always sounded unreachable to me as well.
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So you want to learn a little bit about mullein. I wouldn’t expect anything less – She is marvelous!
Mullein is a member of the Scrophularia family. Her botanical name is Verbascum thapsus.
This plant has a rather majestic appearance. It is biennial and grows to be quite tall in it’s second year. Much of the time that I spent with mullein in the wild was in Northeast PA. I regularly came across plants there that towered over my 5’9″ height.
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If you saw my last post on a ground cherry recipe, you know that I had no idea what this fruit was when I grew it in my garden this year. But it has turned out to be a winner and I’m pretty darn thrilled that I gave it a shot!
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My son loves cheesecake. It is probably his all-time favorite dessert. He used to have an insatiable sweet tooth. But these days he tries to stick to healthier food. He’s not great at it, but he takes it seriously, so he gets better and better at it all the time! And I want to support his efforts, so I made him a ‘whole food plant based’ cheesecake for his birthday ❤
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Fall is when we need our inner-industriousness to be at peak performance. It is time to harvest and store all of the proceeds from our spring planting. Time to put away enough sustenance to last us throughout the upcoming winter season.
If you are not a gardener, you may be thinking ‘But Diane, I have no harvest to process. And I will simply purchase my ‘sustenance’ at the local supermart this winter’. I get it. This is the way the bigger part of the world turns.
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When I chose botswana as the healing crystal I wanted to work with for this post, that choice required a trip to the local crystal shop! Can you say BONUS? Who doesn’t want to HAVE TO make a trip to the local crystal shop?!?! 😉
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I bought an Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherry plant this spring at my local garden center. I had absolutely no idea what it was when I found it. It sounded cool. So I took it home with me ❤
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Mushrooms always fascinated me. I was always telling myself that I would take the class, do the walk, and/or read the book. But it rarely happened.
And then one day, I shut down the procrastination and I set about the business of learning more about these fungal wonders 😉
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You have to love it when you decide that you’re going to tackle learning how to make a dish you adore, and it comes out right the first time around! That shit feels good ❤
My birthday was just a few days ago. And I wanted to have the best shrimp scampi dinner EVER to celebrate!
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Most of the time I lived in California, I had a wormwood plant by the door of my home. When I moved across the country, I gave my well-loved door guardian to my oh-so-sweet, young neighbor. She loved plants, and I knew she would provide a good home for my beloved wormwood friend.
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It has been many moons since I was introduced to sumacade. I can’t even recall who first shared this herbal knowledge with me. But I can see myself standing in the production room in the back of my herbal shop, brewing up this tasty summertime treat for the very first time. And that, like most all of my herbal firsts, is a fond memory ❤
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I’ve been an avid Law of Attraction (LOA) practitioner for about 8 years now.
I first learned of this universal truth 14 years ago. I dabbled with it a bit here and there for quite some time (well, 6 years if you do the math). But I didn’t develop a consistent application of it in my life until 2012. It was then that I realized I was spending endless hours studying LOA and not very much time applying it in my daily life.
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Chanterelles are easily the most known wild mushroom out there. It seems that just about anyone who has ever had even the slightest interest in foraging mushrooms has heard of these fabulous little woodland treats.
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We all have rules we live by. Some of us may be more cognizant of them than others. But we all have them nonetheless. You’ve heard people state them many times.
“Don’t compare your insides to someone else’s outsides.”
“Don’t mistake making a living with making a life.”
“Get comfortable in your own skin.”
These, and several others, are all ‘life rules’ I respect. And I actually employ them pretty regularly in my own life. But they are not the ones that have had the most impact on me. You know, the ones that literally took my breath away for a few moments when I first heard them. Like really heard them.
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I grew up with the notion of potato latkes, known as potato pancakes in my hometown area, being classified as fair food. If there was a fair or a carnival in any one of the local towns, there was sure to be potato pancakes there.
When my Mom remarried, after my fathers passing, she married a man who made one mean potato pancake. And I was pretty thrilled to have this fair food become a part of my in-home menu. No complaints from this girl. I could eat them every night 😉
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Elderberries and I are great friends. My Grandma and I used to pick them at the edge of our property when I was a little girl. Those memories are a bit blurry for me, so I don’t recall what Grandma did with all those berries we picked. But I’m willing to bet she created something very similar to what I’m about to share with you today.
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There are herbal popsicle recipes galore on the internet. And I’ve made more than my share of them. Many that I absolutely loved. Most with herbal material, or chunks of fruit in them. The addition of these ingredients adds a great deal of eye appeal to the final product, for sure. And it’s often very tasty as well.
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There is something about the heat of a sunny summers day. Something that is a little hard to put into words. And yet seems to be clearly understood by both the plant and the animal kingdoms.
I like to think of it in gardening lingo. The seeds have been planted, and now it is time to just relax a bit and wait for the harvest to come. There is some maintaining to do, of course. Things will need to be watered and weeded. But, still, the next event that will require a significant bit of energy from us is the harvest.
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There really is nothing like homemade bbq sauce. Making it yourself is the only way to go. It is so much better than anything you can pour from a bottle picked off the supermarket shelf.
If you don’t already have a recipe you love, or even if you do, I’ve got one for you that’s going to make your tastebuds sing 😉 And I can’t imagine a better time to roll it out than just before Father’s Day! You’re welcome Dad!
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When I was a young woman I cleared out an old estate with my relatives. I will never forget that old house. And the strewn about belongings of the clearly extraordinary woman who had lived her life there. She was no longer walking this realm by the time I stepped through the front door of that house. But when I walked back out that same door for the final time I felt as though we had become friends.
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Rose quartz and I are very old friends. She’s stuck by my side through the last decade or so. And I am mad grateful for her loyalty. Every single time I turned to her she came through 😘
She is renowned as a stone for the heart. All matters of the heart. Both energetically and physically. She safeguards this life-giving entity which resides in our chest, and promotes its overall well-being.
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Lavender was one of the first herbs I ever worked with. And, if I’m honest, I have to say we were not very good friends at the start.
I was manufacturing a personal care product line, and selling it both online and at open air markets. I felt as though I needed to carry a lavender line. It is a very popular scent and a well-known therapeutic oil. People love it!
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Morel season is upon us once again!
I’m not sure how excited that makes you but it literally makes me squirm in delight!
I have kept an eye out for these little beauties for a few seasons now. A couple of years back I decided to start taking baby steps toward becoming a reasonably competent mushroom hunter. It’s for sure something I aspire to be good at 😉
The obstacles I am facing are time and a places to hunt.
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I’ve wanted to get my hands on fiddleheads since my enamoration with wild food first began. If you are among those who don’t know about this delectable little spring treat, please allow me to enlighten you 😉
A fiddlehead is the furled frond of the young ostrich fern. They appear in the spring and are harvested as a vegetable. As always, it is important to ethically harvest this tasty little gift from Mama Earth, as you don’t want to affect the population of the species.
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There are a plethora of ways to show Mama Earth how much you love her. We pretty much know most of them well, right?
Conserve water. Cut back on your energy usage. Produce your own energy. Compost food waste. Reduce/eliminate plastic usage. Plant a tree. Use chemical-free cleaning and personal care products. Recycle everything you can. Reuse everything you can. Shop at resale stores. And many, many more.
Still, while I support ALL of the many ways we as humans can show our love and support for this amazing planet that sustains us … it is my opinion that there is one thing which 100% trumps all other practices.
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Allergies hit me hard this past week! I was pretty much down-for-the-count!
At first, I didn’t quite catch on to what was happening to me. I thought I must be getting the flu. Back on the east coast allergy season hasn’t started yet. This is my first spring here on the west coast – so it really snuck up on me. I was taken completely by surprise 😉
Gosh, it’s only the first week of April!
Once I realized that my suffering was caused by seasonal allergies and not some sort of nasty cold or flu, I started rummaging through my cupboards in search of an herbal remedy.
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I’ve really been checking some things off my hope-to-do list since I’ve started the Bohemian Apothecarist Lifestyle Blog! And if feels GOOD!
Today, I’m going to share my experience creating stunning, naturally dyed Easter eggs with all of you. This is something I’ve always wanted to do. And now that I’ve done it, I feel like it’s for sure share worthy. I know I will never dye eggs with chemical laden dyes again. This process was incredibly easy. It will be my new go to!
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“Everyone thinks they have the best dog. And none of them are wrong.”
~ W.R. Purche
I was surfing the web the other day looking for some creative ways to spoil my pooch! He’s the king of my castle (as you may know by now), and I want him to live just as royalty does.
My research taught me two things. First, there are a whole lot of people out there who want to teach others how to pamper their canine companions. And second, the suggestions they make are not really about spoiling your best friends at all.
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One of the most beneficial things we can do for ourselves is to more closely align with the ways of Mama Nature. As her seasons change the rest of the natural world aligns with them. We humans seem to have lost touch with this phenomena over time. And it would be in our best interests to reconnect with it.
The spring season is so clearly a time of renewal and rebirth. The animals are birthing their young. They become more active as the days grow warmer. The flowers are beginning to ‘strut their stuff’. Tiny little buds are forming on the trees. And we see fresh new life popping up throughout the plant kingdom.
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Being an Irish woman from an area with a dense Irish population, I have a love for soda bread ❤
This delectable treat would surface in every store around St. Patrick’s Day back home. And I always made my way through a loaf or two before it disappeared from the store shelves. I told myself every year that I would get a good recipe and make my own so that I could always be guaranteed the best loaf ever! But it seems that never really happened. Until now. That is. Until now!
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Like many people I have a canine family member who is spoiled as can be. AND I wouldn’t have it any other way.
My canine is an Olde English Bulldogge. A breed known for their sensitive stomachs. And also often having skin-issues which are related to food.
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“When you settle a share of land, first plant an Elder tree, then make your home there.” ~ T. Elder Sachs
The beautiful Lady Elder is considered a Queen among herbs. She is believed to watch over her fellow plants and the spirits which reside on the property that sits under her charge.
As seen in the quote above, T. Elder Sachs recommends planting an Elder tree on your property before you begin to establish a home there – with that I wholeheartedly agree!
Of course, if you are already settled in to your property – it is not too late, it is never too late, to make a space from which Lady Elder can reign 😉
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We all work with (command) energy. Every single day. Every single one of us.
It can’t be avoided. We are made of energy. Everything that exists is made of energy. And energy is attracted to energy of the same frequency as itself. Therefore, we are perpetually manifesting our future.
Once we have a firm grasp on the reality of this situation, we begin to understand that we will fair better in life if we choose how we use our energy and the energies surrounding us.
Do we want to allow our thoughts and emotions to manifest physical people, situations, and objects in our life at the whim of our subconscious? Or would we rather discipline ourselves to consciously choose what manifests in our lives?
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I’m not sure if you’ll agree with me or not, but I think it is safe to say that the larger part of the population has struggled through at least on Valentine’s Day. There are so very many expectations placed on us with this holiday. Perhaps, much of that is due to the commercialization surrounding it in our society.
I, personally, think that the grandest gesture one can make for their significant other on this special day is to lift the pressure of ‘coming through’ for them in some way. Whatever way would hold significance for them. Which, incidentally often eludes their partner!
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I regularly make my own herbal capsules, and I thought you might be interested in the what, why, and how of it 😉
I have a sort of love affair with this task. It is a very edifying process for me. I find the repetitive nature of the work meditative, I like the feeling that making my own remedies gives me, and I feel healthier (more alive if you will) when I am taking good care of my body. When I make remedies for those I love, it feeds my inner-nurturer. It all feels good, indeed!
If those are not enough reasons to spark your interest in making herbal pills, here are a few more for you …
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When I headed out to the local crystal store to pick up a stone to spend some time with, I fully intended to buy a piece of rose quartz. And I did. But sitting close by that stone was a pretty little red jasper heart. And I knew I had to have it. That kind of inner-knowing you get that can’t be ignored.
So I picked it up and told myself that I would work with that stone after I ran my little ‘3 days experiment’ with the rose quartz.
But when I got in the car and started to drive back home it was the jasper that I couldn’t put down. So I held on to her. I rubbed her between my fingers. Shifted her around in my hands. And held her close to my heart.
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Never, in a million years, did I think I would be that person who bakes a cake for their dog on their birthday. But here I am, being that person indeed.
AND this guy right here is the one who transformed me into that person ❤
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Each day presents us with an opportunity to improve upon who we were the day before. Perhaps the version of you that walked this earth yesterday was a little less warm, vibrant, and energetic than you would have liked them to be. Or it could be that they were even warmer, more vibrant, and abounding with energy than they have ever been to date. And, of course, there are all of the measures and variances in between those two extremes.
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New Years and I have been in a bad relationship for as long as I can remember. I have never considered her a friend.
As a young woman I recall that just about everyone I knew would be looking forward to their new years holiday plans with anticipation. I was never very excited about mine. I tried to feel good about them. I really did. But I just couldn’t muster up even one little ‘give a damn’.
I’m sure this was directly related to the fact that each time I did try to go out and join in the festivities, I found myself even more disappointed than the last.
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If I’m 100% honest I have to say that I hate to see 2019 behind me. It’s been one stellar year for me. I have experienced exponential growth and gathered a bounty of blessings over the past year. I’m really one lucky girl.
But 2020 is coming. And it will undoubtedly hold its own special set of gifts for me. I have developed a strong and disciplined thought life. And I’ve become a bit of a pro at mastering my emotions. So, in light of the fact that our reality is created by our thoughts and our emotions, I’m in a great spot to receive endless abundance in the coming year.
HEY!! Maybe I am ready to kick 2019 to the curb! Out with the old. In with the new. Bring it on 2020!
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There is an Olde English Bulldogge in my life who has 100% stolen the keys to my heart. Because of his presence I am changed forever ❤️
One of the many ways I show my love for him is by staying on top of his diet. I like to be sure that he eats top quality food. So that he stays as healthy as possible.
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I’ve always had a thing for after dinner mints. Dessert is too much after a meal. BUT a little mint to tease the taste buds is just right!
Mint is known to settle the stomach. As are many herbs. The original idea behind having a bit of candy made with this tasty herb after a meal arose from that tenet.
Sipping on a cup of peppermint tea, after an evening meal, is a pretty common occurrence in my household. It’s just plain good for you. This Apothecarist highly recommends it 😉
However, for Christmas this year I wanted to make the after dinner mint experience a little more special than that. Like peppermint patty special.
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Making the effort to ebb and flow with the natural cycles of the seasons is paramount for good health. Our bodies are designed to follow the patterns of Nature. Even the smallest adjustments to honor these patterns just make damn good sense!
Winter is a season which calls for more quiet time, deep inner reflection, and more than the average amount of nurturing. Perhaps even a little pampering every now and again ❤️❄️❤️
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Hey Everyone!
I’ve been working on a plant based stuffing recipe for a few weeks now. I’ve always had the best stuffing recipe ever. Like over-the-top frickin’ fabulous. It is my favorite dish on the Thanksgiving dinner table.
My recipe has sausage in it. And I’ve been trying to be more mindful of eating processed food. So I thought it would be fun to make a whole new recipe. A plant-based recipe. Fit for a Thanksgiving feast. Even though I won’t be making a full holiday dinner this year.
I volunteered to work for the holiday. And quite honestly I don’t cook a big dinner most years anymore anyway. Too much work for this girl. Particularly when I am the only one who really enjoys it in this house.
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Everybody wants to live a better life. It really makes no difference who they are, what they do, or what circumstances they live with every day. They want to alter their lives in a way that meets their deeper needs. They want it to be better than it is.
They want to have stronger, more stable relationships. They want to be respected, appreciated, and admired. And they want to feel that the way they’re spending their time and energy is purposeful.
Attaining these goals can seem impossible. When faced with the task, many people simply shut down intellectually, physically, and spiritually.
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I imagine that people who know me would say that I easily accept change. But that is far from accurate. Forcing myself to avoid resistance of change has been a coping mechanism of mine for many years now. One born from an unhealthy belief that I was unable to mold the world around me. That I had to simply accede to what life brought my way.
Embracing change did not come naturally for this girl!
It did come though. I managed to cultivate the skill (it is a skill you know), with just a little change of perspective and a whole lot of patience with myself.
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Hey Everyone! So glad you decided to join me here @ Bohemian Apothecarist 🤗
If you know me then you know that I have had other blogs in the past. And each of those ventures were meant to financially contribute to my life. And they did. I consider myself fortunate for that.
The creation of Bohemian Apothecarist has a bit of a different purpose. I intend to use this ‘interweb’ space to share bits and pieces of my life journey with those who care to walk through this little portion of it with me.
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