what's your favorite latin name for an herb?
right now mine is definitely
OPLOPANAX HORRIDUM (devil's club)
i really hope i see one of these somedayyyy.
love,
nicole (kind of drunk in a coffee shop that feels like the inside of a ship)
p.s. does anyone wanna move to the bay area with me next year? i might be goin to herb school!!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
in the club
Sisters and brother!
I just ran across a file in my itunes that made me laugh and miss you all so much...
"if we close our eyes, it could just be me and you..."
<3 thanks for the smiles...
lyss - i hope you're rockin' the fiddle right now...
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
my trip to the natural doctor in mexico
...and on the Eighth Day, I hungered.
i know these posts of mine describing my central american health can be a bit self-indulgent, but this one will make you laugh. *sneak preview: i vomit at a waterfall and get a shot in my rear!
also, to make up for it, i will share a sexy poem that is slightly related to the topic at hand.
(unfortunately, i couldn´t find an official translation in english. but if you want you could probably google translate it.)
so. it has been more than a week that i have been sick with an intestinal bacterial infection. i confess. i had become complacent--even lazy, overadmiring street food and eating with unwashed hands. but then i vomited, publicly, while enjoying a nice day at a waterfall, and for a week i wasn´t hungry, so i didn´t eat.
finally, eight days later, i awoke with a craving for cake. i´m a lucky girl with good friends so no sooner was my wish expressed, it was granted, thanks to my good friend jessica, who whipped up a chocolate vegan cake in mere moments. after the cake, i went to the doctor. but first i had to find him.
a friend had drawn a map in my journal of where to find the office--through a door between a clothing store and a music store. i found the door and began to ascend the stairs when someone asked me what i sought. when i told him, he said, "he´s not here, mi amor. he´s there, behind the cd store.") perfect! another opportunity to browse the bootlegged reggaeton cds. but, my priorities straight, i instead breezed past enrique iglesias, prince royce and pitbull and up the red staircase to the clínica medica naturista.
i found him (not prince royce), the only person in the office, a calm, intelligent médico naturista in a white linen shirt with a sunlit office full of herbal tinctures on glass shelves and white walls with faded posters. he took my temperature under my arm, asked me what i´d been eating (the culprit, he surmised, the fresh coconut water (and, sometimes, fresh bacteria, too) i´d grown so fond of--sold in plastic bags with ice and a straw from trays balanced on ladies´ heads at the bustling market).
he asked me how i´d been feeling, if i´d taken any medicines (i´d taken hp´s willow/meadowsweet for the fever, and i´d even let my doctor friend give me a shot in the rear to reduce the inflammation of my stomach. apparently butt shots are all the rage in mexico.) but, wanting to avoid antibiotics, i opted for another route.
then he listened to my intestines (which were probably quite talkative), and, after a few friendly questions about what i was doing in mexico, gave me some herbs (tinctures) and a list of foods to avoid, including a stern admonishment to avoid all street foods ("no bolsitas de agua de coco!" he wagged his finger and smiled), which i know i must oblige, at least until i feel better.
THE HERBS
(take 25 drops every six hours in 1/4 cup of water)
Castellia (Castellia Texana)
Ceratophillia (Chaparro Amargo) Castella Emoryi (CRUCIFIXION THORN--ay!)
i´m not sure what they are in english. one of them smells like valerian.
*EDIT: i went back two days later to have a chat with the doc. he was watching tv (either a documentary or a telenovela, i couldn't tell...) when i came in, and politely turned it off and invited me to sit down. we chatted for twenty minutes about herbs, mexico, tourism, health, and i even schooled him on all the vegetarian restaurants in the city.
i asked him to clarify his doctor's handwriting so i could decipher exactly what the herbs are. ceratophillia is chaparro amargo, native to northern mexico, but still don't have much more information about the other.*
FOODS TO AVOID:
beans, radishes, cauliflower, watermelon, melon, raw salads and uncooked vegetables, papaya (but the seeds are okay!), spicy food, and, in capital letters, ALIMENTOS CALLEJEROS (street food)
the entire thing--consultation, tinctures--cost less than fifteen dollars, which, though a lot of pesos, is pretty good considering what natural medicine can cost in the us.
so, for one week, this is my treatment. in seven days´ time, i will comment on my condition. it certainly feels good to be hungry again!
a few words of wisdom.
--the shirts at the local vegetarian restaurant
(i eat well, i feel well!)
--a favorite saying
(for everything bad, mezcal! for everything good, the same!)
may you be well, and hungry.
xoxo
i know these posts of mine describing my central american health can be a bit self-indulgent, but this one will make you laugh. *sneak preview: i vomit at a waterfall and get a shot in my rear!
also, to make up for it, i will share a sexy poem that is slightly related to the topic at hand.
Tengo hambre de tu boca, de tu voz, de tu pelo
y por las calles voy sin nutrirme, callado,
no me sostiene el pan, el alba me desquiciar,
busco el sonido líquido de tus pies en el día.
Estoy hambriento de tu risa resbalada,
de tus manos color de furioso granero,
tengo hambre de la pálida piedra de tus uñas,
quiero comer tu piel como una intacta almendra.
Quiero comer el rayo quemado en tu hermosura,
la nariz soberana del arrogante rostro,
quiero comer la sombra fugaz de tus pestañas
Y hambriente vengo y voy olfateando el crepúsculo
buscándote, buscando tu corazón caliente
como un puma en la soledad de Quitratúe.
(Pablo Neruda, Soneto XI)
(unfortunately, i couldn´t find an official translation in english. but if you want you could probably google translate it.)
so. it has been more than a week that i have been sick with an intestinal bacterial infection. i confess. i had become complacent--even lazy, overadmiring street food and eating with unwashed hands. but then i vomited, publicly, while enjoying a nice day at a waterfall, and for a week i wasn´t hungry, so i didn´t eat.
finally, eight days later, i awoke with a craving for cake. i´m a lucky girl with good friends so no sooner was my wish expressed, it was granted, thanks to my good friend jessica, who whipped up a chocolate vegan cake in mere moments. after the cake, i went to the doctor. but first i had to find him.
a friend had drawn a map in my journal of where to find the office--through a door between a clothing store and a music store. i found the door and began to ascend the stairs when someone asked me what i sought. when i told him, he said, "he´s not here, mi amor. he´s there, behind the cd store.") perfect! another opportunity to browse the bootlegged reggaeton cds. but, my priorities straight, i instead breezed past enrique iglesias, prince royce and pitbull and up the red staircase to the clínica medica naturista.
i found him (not prince royce), the only person in the office, a calm, intelligent médico naturista in a white linen shirt with a sunlit office full of herbal tinctures on glass shelves and white walls with faded posters. he took my temperature under my arm, asked me what i´d been eating (the culprit, he surmised, the fresh coconut water (and, sometimes, fresh bacteria, too) i´d grown so fond of--sold in plastic bags with ice and a straw from trays balanced on ladies´ heads at the bustling market).
he asked me how i´d been feeling, if i´d taken any medicines (i´d taken hp´s willow/meadowsweet for the fever, and i´d even let my doctor friend give me a shot in the rear to reduce the inflammation of my stomach. apparently butt shots are all the rage in mexico.) but, wanting to avoid antibiotics, i opted for another route.
then he listened to my intestines (which were probably quite talkative), and, after a few friendly questions about what i was doing in mexico, gave me some herbs (tinctures) and a list of foods to avoid, including a stern admonishment to avoid all street foods ("no bolsitas de agua de coco!" he wagged his finger and smiled), which i know i must oblige, at least until i feel better.
THE HERBS
(take 25 drops every six hours in 1/4 cup of water)
Castellia (Castellia Texana)
Ceratophillia (Chaparro Amargo) Castella Emoryi (CRUCIFIXION THORN--ay!)
i´m not sure what they are in english. one of them smells like valerian.
*EDIT: i went back two days later to have a chat with the doc. he was watching tv (either a documentary or a telenovela, i couldn't tell...) when i came in, and politely turned it off and invited me to sit down. we chatted for twenty minutes about herbs, mexico, tourism, health, and i even schooled him on all the vegetarian restaurants in the city.
i asked him to clarify his doctor's handwriting so i could decipher exactly what the herbs are. ceratophillia is chaparro amargo, native to northern mexico, but still don't have much more information about the other.*
FOODS TO AVOID:
beans, radishes, cauliflower, watermelon, melon, raw salads and uncooked vegetables, papaya (but the seeds are okay!), spicy food, and, in capital letters, ALIMENTOS CALLEJEROS (street food)
the entire thing--consultation, tinctures--cost less than fifteen dollars, which, though a lot of pesos, is pretty good considering what natural medicine can cost in the us.
so, for one week, this is my treatment. in seven days´ time, i will comment on my condition. it certainly feels good to be hungry again!
a few words of wisdom.
"¡¡como bien,
me siento bien!!"
--the shirts at the local vegetarian restaurant
(i eat well, i feel well!)
por todo mal...mezcal!
por todo bien...también!
--a favorite saying
(for everything bad, mezcal! for everything good, the same!)
may you be well, and hungry.
xoxo
Sunday, March 27, 2011
this place.
hey babies, i just found the most inspiring and beautiful thing i've seen in so long...i think i am in love!
dorilandia.com
midnightapothecary.blogspot.com
dori midnight is a radical witch healerrrrr and she makes all kinds of magic things like charmed honey and her own tarot cards and i am just thinking of all the things i wanna do but somehow cannot find the energy to in this long damp winter. thinking about finding meaning in everything, nurturing your power, the sacred things that give you strength. how you can use herbs for their "material" properties as well as the invisible secret magic of them, and how both are equally powerful and valid, i just read the andrew weil article jaime sent me, everything is coming together in a weird sparkling way.
also...i found another herb school in california, why do they get all of them down there? sheesh. new life project, starting an herb school in washington?! anyway, it's called ohlone herbal center and it's in berkeley and looks pretty amazing......ohlonecenter.org
i love all of you, and miss you, and hope you are well!
xxxxxxxooooooo nicole
dorilandia.com
midnightapothecary.blogspot.com
dori midnight is a radical witch healerrrrr and she makes all kinds of magic things like charmed honey and her own tarot cards and i am just thinking of all the things i wanna do but somehow cannot find the energy to in this long damp winter. thinking about finding meaning in everything, nurturing your power, the sacred things that give you strength. how you can use herbs for their "material" properties as well as the invisible secret magic of them, and how both are equally powerful and valid, i just read the andrew weil article jaime sent me, everything is coming together in a weird sparkling way.
also...i found another herb school in california, why do they get all of them down there? sheesh. new life project, starting an herb school in washington?! anyway, it's called ohlone herbal center and it's in berkeley and looks pretty amazing......ohlonecenter.org
i love all of you, and miss you, and hope you are well!
xxxxxxxooooooo nicole
Flu lessons
I've had the flu or something the past few days, and have learned some things that seem useful - thanks flu! When feeling weak or achy, boneset helps me feel strong and relieved of pain (thank you sCarrie for the tincture!). Maybe a little too much so, because then I think I have energy to do things, and that is not true! When feeling tense and overheated, yarrow helps me feel relaxed and cooled, like being wrapped in comfort - thank you yarrow! All makes me think more, as I've been thinking already, that the seeming need to understand things in a scientific way is seeming funnier and funnier to me when contrasted with personal experience. And in reality, how medicinal plants work is admittedly beyond scientific conception, because only a select few isolated constituents have been proven to do things in even the most studied plants. They're simply too complex for science to fully grasp the interaction with the human body. So why science? Well, ok, yes, it helps to understand things (at least partially) in that way too, and to communicate in an understandable way to the wider culture. But for me it's just far easier to accept that boneset gives strength, yarrow gives comfort, and I give them appreciation (and hopefully some help propagation help).
Hmmmm.....
Hmmmm.....
Monday, February 28, 2011
cough cough
hey friends.
what do you know about lung health?
i am writing to ask for some guidance/advice/ideas. i just got back from quetzaltenango, guatemala, a wonderful place but a city polluted with diesel exhaust and the dust from a nearby active volcano. hot during the day's sun, and quite cold at night. and now i have (my third) bronchial issue in four months. (remember portland/seattle in november? or mexico last month?) it's productive and rumbly, but still small.
a fellow traveler and i mused recently about the connections between emotional/spiritual conflicts and their manifestations in physiological illnesses. a friend pointed out that this could be a dangerous thing to accept too wholeheartedly, as it could lead to needless blame for circumstances beyond one's control. still, i wonder what it means to have such sensitive lungs in an otherwise quite hardy body (nice curves too). its persistence reminds me of my own struggle with holding onto things (mostly emotionally, not materialistically), and with rushing myself--rushing myself to make decisions, and to get better, for example, often neglecting giving myself time to recover and rest.
anyway, i am only traveling with one book, and it's not about herbs or healing, so if you have any ideas (food, herbs, color meditations) about both how to treat and prevent this, i'd be happy to hear 'em.
grande love, scarrie sann
what do you know about lung health?
i am writing to ask for some guidance/advice/ideas. i just got back from quetzaltenango, guatemala, a wonderful place but a city polluted with diesel exhaust and the dust from a nearby active volcano. hot during the day's sun, and quite cold at night. and now i have (my third) bronchial issue in four months. (remember portland/seattle in november? or mexico last month?) it's productive and rumbly, but still small.
a fellow traveler and i mused recently about the connections between emotional/spiritual conflicts and their manifestations in physiological illnesses. a friend pointed out that this could be a dangerous thing to accept too wholeheartedly, as it could lead to needless blame for circumstances beyond one's control. still, i wonder what it means to have such sensitive lungs in an otherwise quite hardy body (nice curves too). its persistence reminds me of my own struggle with holding onto things (mostly emotionally, not materialistically), and with rushing myself--rushing myself to make decisions, and to get better, for example, often neglecting giving myself time to recover and rest.
anyway, i am only traveling with one book, and it's not about herbs or healing, so if you have any ideas (food, herbs, color meditations) about both how to treat and prevent this, i'd be happy to hear 'em.
grande love, scarrie sann
Sunday, February 20, 2011
nicole gets athlete's foot: the year's most compelling drama
about a week and a half ago, one of my toes was feeling weird and itchy and hot. when i looked at it, it was really red and the skin was peeling off. after some internet research, i discovered i probably had athlete's foot (tinea pedis). gross! i decided to try some essential oils to get rid of it, since it is a fungal infection. i had some eucalyptus and clary sage, which apparently & luckily are some of the most anti-fungal essential oils of all.
at first i mixed them into some drops of the only oil i had, organic canola oil, and put it on my toe twice a day, then covered it with a bandaid. within a few hours the itching had been greatly reduced. also i took some goldenseal tincture the first day, but forgot to after that. after a few days i had an intuition that the canola oil probably wasn't helping very much, oil being so prone to hosting molds. so i just started putting one drop of each essential oil on my toe. within a few days my infection had vanished. raising my fist to the night sky, i rejoiced, crying out - A POX ON YOU, LAMISIL A.T.! ONE MORE VICTORY FOR HERBAL MEDICINE!
at first i mixed them into some drops of the only oil i had, organic canola oil, and put it on my toe twice a day, then covered it with a bandaid. within a few hours the itching had been greatly reduced. also i took some goldenseal tincture the first day, but forgot to after that. after a few days i had an intuition that the canola oil probably wasn't helping very much, oil being so prone to hosting molds. so i just started putting one drop of each essential oil on my toe. within a few days my infection had vanished. raising my fist to the night sky, i rejoiced, crying out - A POX ON YOU, LAMISIL A.T.! ONE MORE VICTORY FOR HERBAL MEDICINE!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)