Whilst searching for great places to visit and explore in England, I discovered the Brimham Rocks. Situated on a hill overlooking Summerbridge and Lower Nidderdale, Brimham Rocks are a series of fantastically shaped Millstone Grit outcrops, sculptured by erosion during the last ice age. Although technically outside of the Yorkshire Dales national park boundary, Nidderdale has been designated as an “Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty” and has every right to be included in any definition of the “classical” Yorkshire Dales.

There are many variations of rock formations, caused by the Millstone Grit being eroded by water, glaciation and wind, most of which have achieved amazing shapes. Many of the formations have been named, though some imagination is required and the correct viewing angle is helpful. Examples are The Sphinx, The Watchdog, The Camel, The Turtle and The Dancing Bear. If you wish to enjoy the view, the property is open all year around; typically from 8 a.m. until dusk. These are indeed quite fantastic works of art formed by nature and adding a beautiful and wonderous image to the landscape of Mother Earth.

As we stroll through our little town, it is fun to talk about the different gardening styles in the neighborhoods. Some lawns just seem too perfect to be real. I began to wonder why people seek such perfection, when the loss of such valuable healing herbs such as the Dandelion (Taraxacum Officinale) is the cost. Most people do not seem to realize how amazingly nutritious and healthy these so-called weeds truly are. Everything has a purpose; it is up to us to find out whether this purpose is truly beneficial to us as whole, healthy human beings.

For instance, did you know the entire plant is edible? Its true! I’ve always loved their bright yellow flowers, and I am happy to learn they are little powerhouses of healing. I remember a snatch of conversation, and writings of old which mention “Dandelion Wine”. From the roots to the tips of the leaves, these little beauties serve many healthy purposes, and are enjoyed around the world to this day. So next time someone looks upon this wonder of nature with disdain, which is actually one of Mother Earths finest specimens, perhaps they should have a little more respect.

Interesting Facts and Lore about Dandelions

In Wales, they grate or chop up Dandelion roots, two years old, and mix them with the leaves in salad. The seed of a special broad-leaved variety of Dandelion is sold by seedsmen for cultivation for salad purposes. Dandelion can be blanched in the same way as endive, and is then very delicate in flavour. If covered with an ordinary flower-pot during the winter, the pot being further buried under some rough stable litter, the young leaves sprout when there is a dearth of saladings and prove a welcome change in early spring. Cultivated thus, Dandelion is only pleasantly bitter, and if eaten while the leaves are quite young, the centre rib of the leaf is not at all unpleasant to the taste. When older the rib is tough and not nice to eat. If the flower-buds of plants reserved in a corner of the garden for salad purposes are removed at once and the leaves carefully cut, the plants will last through the whole winter.

The young leaves may also be boiled as a vegetable, spinach fashion, thoroughly drained, sprinkled with pepper and salt, moistened with soup or butter and served very hot. If considered a little too bitter, use half spinach, but the Dandelion must be partly cooked first in this case, as it takes longer than spinach. As a variation, some grated nutmeg or garlic, a teaspoonful of chopped onion or grated lemon peel can be added to the greens when they are cooked. A simple vegetable soup may also be made with Dandelions.

The dried Dandelion leaves are also employed as an ingredient in many digestive or diet drinks and herb beers. Dandelion Beer is a rustic fermented drink common in many parts of the country and made also in Canada. Workmen in the furnaces and potteries of the industrial towns of the Midlands have frequent resource to many of the tonic Herb Beers, finding them cheaper and less intoxicating than ordinary beer, and Dandelion stout ranks as a favourite. An agreeable and wholesome fermented drink is made from Dandelions, Nettles and Yellow Dock.

In Berkshire and Worcestershire, the flowers are used in the preparation of a beverage known as Dandelion Wine. This is made by pouring a gallon of boiling water over a gallon of the flowers. After being well stirred, it is covered with a blanket and allowed to stand for three days, being stirred again at intervals, after which it is strained and the liquor boiled for 30 minutes, with the addition of 3 1/2 lb. of loaf sugar, a little ginger sliced, the rind of 1 orange and 1 lemon sliced. When cold, a little yeast is placed in it on a piece of toast, producing fermentation. It is then covered over and allowed to stand two days until it has ceased ‘working,’ when it is placed in a cask, well bunged down for two months before bottling. This wine is suggestive of sherry slightly flat, and has the deserved reputation of being an excellent tonic, extremely good for the blood.

The roasted roots are largely used to form Dandelion Coffee, being first thoroughly cleaned, then dried by artificial heat, and slightly roasted till they are the tint of coffee, when they are ground ready for use. The roots are taken up in the autumn, being then most fitted for this purpose. The prepared powder is said to be almost indistinguishable from real coffee, and is claimed to be an improvement to inferior coffee, which is often an adulterated product. Of late years, Dandelion Coffee has come more into use in this country, being obtainable at most vegetarian restaurants and stores. Formerly it used occasionally to be given for medicinal purposes, generally mixed with true coffee to give it a better flavour. The ground root was sometimes mixed with chocolate for a similar purpose. Dandelion Coffee is a natural beverage without any of the injurious effects that ordinary tea and coffee have on the nerves and digestive organs. It exercises a stimulating influence over the whole system, helping the liver and kidneys to do their work and keeping the bowels in a healthy condition, so that it offers great advantages to dyspeptics and does not cause wakefulness.

Harvesting this Medicine Plant

All parts of the plant contain a somewhat bitter, milky juice (latex), but the juice of the root being still more powerful is the part of the plant most used for medicinal purposes.

Only large, fleshy and well-formed roots should be collected, from plants two years old, not slender, forked ones. Roots produced in good soil are easier to dig up without breaking, and are thicker and less forked than those growing on waste places and by the roadside. Collectors should, therefore only dig in good, free soil, in moisture and shade, from meadow-land. Dig up in wet weather, but not during frost, which materially lessens the activity of the roots. Avoid breaking the roots, using a long trowel or a fork, lifting steadily and carefully. Shake off as much of the earth as possible and then cleanse the roots, the easiest way being to leave them in a basket in a running stream so that the water covers them, for about an hour, or shake them, bunched, in a tank of clean water. Cut off the crowns of leaves, but be careful in so doing not to leave any scales on the top. Do not cut or slice the roots or the valuable milky juice on which their medicinal value depends will be wasted by bleeding.

The roots are generally dried whole, but the largest ones may sometimes be cut transversely into pieces 3 to 6 inches long. Collected wild roots are, however, seldom large enough to necessitate cutting. Drying will probably take about a fortnight. When finished, the roots should be hard and brittle enough to snap, and the inside of the roots white, not grey

The roots should be kept in a dry place after drying, to avoid mould, preferably in tins to prevent the attacks of moths and beetles. Dried Dandelion is exceedingly liable to the attacks of maggots and should not be kept beyond one season.

**Note – As always, this is not intended to diagnose, treat, or otherwise cure an existing illness… always use good sense and consult your health care provider or naturapath before attempting to use anything new, especially if you are unaware of any potential allergies and such.

Summer in Oregon was quite unusual this year. Although I love all seasons, I truly feel this summer was not a true summer as I remember in past years. Not only did it hail in June, just the week before that it soared up to nearly 100 degrees! Then we proceeded to jump between seasons all summer long. Although we did experience several heat waves, which lasted a few days here and there, I must admit to noticing the confusion in my garden. My plants and flowers, although healthy, were not as profuse as previous summers.

Nevertheless, my daughter S and I enjoyed many precious moments amongst the green and colourful space we created. In this we have succeeded in creating our own healthy, personal environment. This is where we would escape to when we just wanted to enjoy peaceful moments, either reading, sharing a meal, beading, playing games, studying and completing homeschool assignments, practicing Qigong (a healing art for inner health and vitality), sharing stories and Dreams, or simply sitting quietly enjoying a lovely sunset. As always, we invited nature’s fairy creatures to visit our garden, so the energy was very sweet. Truly our garden is a place to find peace and tranquility in a life full of unsettling challenges.

We all need a quiet place in which to find our inner peace, and help us to focus on the important things in life. Too many things occur which serve to unsettle us, and bring anxiety and stress, which can lead to dis-ease and illness. It is so important to create or find our own space in which to absorb positive energy, while releasing negative energy, sending it to where it will disperse safely into the universe without harming others. This is a good time to remember our blessings, dwelling upon that which is good in our lives. We can then set goals and visualize all we wish to manifest in the now, as well as the future. It does no good to dwell upon the past, so why waste precious time? All there ever is, is now, so let’s just make the best of it!

Gardening Tip

Have you got a great natural gardening tip to share? I do! I would like to share a tip I learned from my grandmother many years ago. Try adding gelatin to your plant water. I usually add 1/2 tsp to a half gallon container or 1 tsp to a gallon container of water. I like to water with this delightful treat twice a month… your plants will simply love it!

Here is a time-line I found interesting to make note of. I would like to add to, and update this list as I investigate further. Yet for now, I thought this would be good to share with fellow tree lovers…

1850 – California admitted as the 31st state of the United States of America. Initial settlement of Humboldt Bay and construction of a primitive sawmill.

1850s – The great San Antonio-Morage redwood forest of the East Bay hills with the largest coast redwoods was completely logged off and nearly eliminated.

1852 – The first legislative initiative to protect California’s trees. Assemblyman Henry A. Crabb’s resolution to ask Congress to preserve all redwood lands fails in California legislature.

1864 – Abraham Lincoln signed an Act to preserve the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias by giving them to the State of California, and creating the first such park in the nation.

1872 – Nebraska “Tree Planting Day” which becomes Arbor Day, recognizing the importance of trees.

1875 – Centennial Tree, once claimed to be the largest tree in the world, is cut down by John McKiernan.

1886 – California legislator, Joe Russ, dies under indictment for Timber and Stone Act fraud. Tens of thousands of California timberland acres were illegally assembled into vast industrial timberlands through fraud and sometimes with foreign ownership.

1890 – Creation of Sequoia National Park, Yosemite National Park and General Grant National Park.

1890s – A.P. Hill displays photos of California old-growth redwoods in an effort to prevent their destruction.

1892 – The Sierra Club is founded by John Muir. Jesse Hoskins protects 90 acres of old-growth Giant Sequoias by homesteading and residing in the base of the Hercules Tree.

1891 – Congress passes the Forest Reserve Act empowering the President to create “forest reserves” (later known as national forests) where logging was totally banned to protect water.

1897 – Timber lobbyists slip in “Organic Act” budget rider, which opens Forest Reserves to logging, mining, and grazing.

1900 – While still Governor of New York, Theodore Roosevelt urged the Federal government to purchase of both North and South Groves of Calaveras Big Trees.

1901 – 1,437,260 Americans petitioned for the Federal purchase of Calaveras Big Trees, Congress failed to act.

1902 – Sempervirens Club successfully lobbies the California legislature to set aside the area of old- growth redwoods that became Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

1903 – William Kent borrows money to purchase Muir Woods to save this Marin County old growth from logging and a reservoir. Nero Tree was cut down by promoter John McKiernan at Mountain Home.

1905 – The Humboldt Chamber of Commerce, managed by George A. Kellogg of the Pacific Redwood Shingle Company, petitioned the state legislature to create a public redwood park “to be forever maintained in its primeval state.”

1906 – Theodore Roosevelt establishes the Monterey Forest Reserve.

1908 – President Roosevelt establishes Muir Woods National Monument of old-growth Redwoods on land donated to the Federal government for that purpose by future Congressman William Kent. 2,000 Eureka public school students petitioned Theodore Roosevelt and the USFS asking “that representative groves of these trees should be preserved for ourselves and future generations of children.”

1909 – Congress finally creates the Calaveras Bigtree National Forest, but fails to protect the South Grove.

1914 – Carson Woods proposed as a national redwood park by Congressmen Raker and Kent, supported by women’s’ clubs. Bill died in committee. Carson Woods were logged.

1918 – Save-the-Redwoods League is formed to preserve ancient forests that are quickly disappearing.

1924 – After its failed maneuvers to block park supporters, Pacific Lumber began clandestine logging on Dyerville Flat (Founders’ Grove) destroying the area for park purposes. Laura Mahan stood in the fall path of trees being cut while her husband alerted county officials and the press and took legal action.

1928 – California voters approved funds to establish a State Park System and allocated six million dollars in state park bond funds for acquisition of parklands.

1931 – J.D. Rockefeller Jr. and the Save-the-Redwoods League rescues the old growth of what became the Rockefeller Forest.

1954 – South Grove of Calaveras Big Trees, scheduled for logging, was finally purchased with public donations, including a $1 million donation from J.D. Rockefeller Jr., by the Save-the-Redwoods League after the Legislature repeatedly failed to act.

1955 and 1964 – Logging destroys the slopes above the Rockefeller Forest, which erode, and collapse, wiping out 800 old-growth trees previously believed preserved by donations.

1960 – Avenue of the Giants Parkway, a narrow sliver of old growth, dedicated in Humboldt Redwoods State Park after 40-year-long acquisition progress by the Save-the-Redwoods League.

1964 – Donald Rusk Currey cuts the oldest living tree on earth, a 5,000 year-old Bristlecone Pine.

1974 – Congressmen John and Phil Burton introduce a bill to enlarge Redwood National Park to 132,000 acresžthe bill fails.

1988 – FORESTS FOREVER is formed to create and promote the Forest and Wildlife Protection Initiative on the November 1990 ballot, which narrowly failed. Corporate industry spent over $16 million to defeat this citizen initiative.

1990 – Activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney are victims of a car bombing in Oakland.

1996 – 1033 people arrested in protest of cutting the ancient trees of Headwaters Forest.

1997 – October, Non-violent forest activists have pepper spray poured into their eyes. November, 8,000 people attend a rally to save Headwaters Forest in Stafford. December, Julia “Butterfly” Hill climbs up into the magnificent old redwood, Luna, for a two-year treesit.

1998 – March 15th Governor Gray Davis makes the promise that if elected governor he will ensure that “wetlands are preserved, rivers are clean, and all old-growth trees are spared from the lumberjack’s ax.”

1999 – Two of six groves in the 60,000 ac. Headwaters Forest are purchased with a buffer area totaling approximately 7400 acres. David “Gypsy” Chain is killed while trying to protect old growth sacrificed by the Headwaters deal.

2002 – Sue Moloney of the Campaign for Old Growth embarks on a 52 day “Fast for Old Growth.” John Quigley goes up into “Old Glory” to protect this old growth Oak from the saw. The battle to save the remaining old growth trees of California continues.

The Carpathian mountains, which stretch southwards across seven countries and over 200,000 km2, from the Danube in Austria to the Iron Gate Dam in Romania, are home to 16 million people, most of whom live in rural communities. The region is also the last refuge in Europe for thousands of bears, wolves and lynx.

People and predatory animals have been living side-by-side in the Carpathians for millennia. Farmers using traditional methods have developed protection systems that lead to a harmonious coexistence: shepherds sleeping with their flocks at night; deer and boar populations are maintained in the forests as prey; inhabited villages marking the limits of the carnivores’ roaming.

Indeed, the biggest threat to the Carpathian people’s traditional life, and to the survival of wildlife, is not predatory beast, but predatory man. Privatisation of forests since the collapse of Communism is leading to overlogging. Deforestation, due to climate change, is also occurring, threatening wildlife habitat. In some areas, poaching is out of control and the traditional nature protection methods practiced by livestock breeders are under pressure from the difficult economic situation faced by most Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

In addition, five of the Carpathian countries will join the European Union over the next few years. The prospect of EU accession will see new economic development in the region. Roads, factories and hotels could ruin the Carpathians unless a comprehensive system of habitat protection is established. New nature conservation standards are needed in the eastern Carpathian countries—the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine—if wildlife and traditional communities are to be preserved.

What I find most interesting on this planet is the natural scenery. For some reason I am fascinated with the beauty I find all around me in nature. Perhaps this is why I find it so distressing to see such wanton disrespect for the natural world. When I travel through the forest and river paths I am filled with such wonder and a certain exhilaration. To think of the scope of brilliance and imagination that went into creating this earth is absolutely amazing. The science in nature is abundantly brilliant! I just wish to capture each breathtaking scene to the smallest detail. First with my eyes and my senses, then with my camera to share with others, and to remind myself at a later time of my finest moments traveling along the Earthly paths.

One of my dreams is to visit the homelands of my ancestors… Ireland. I want to visit the green Isle and really see it from the locals point of view. Tourists may visit key attractions, but I am an explorer by heart, and wish to adventure ‘off the beaten path’, so to speak. I believe I would have to actually live there for a few years to see for myself what wonders the lands hold in store for me, and to even come close to satisfying my curiosity. Ireland is a land full of mystery, as well as a rich culture and history. I know for certain that I will attain my dream of visiting the mysterious places of my ancestors in this lifetime, and I am very excited to hold this dream close to my heart.

For now, I will indulge in viewing the stunning countryside through the eyes of a friend, and brilliant photographer, Jordan Clemments. The images in this post are courtesy of Jordan from his website at Irishviews.com.