by Krista | Jul 8, 2013 | Bits 'n' Bobs
The sun was just coming up through the trees as I bustled about putting together my medieval medicine booth at the Abbey Medieval Festival this past weekend.
I hung herbs and amulets, medieval mittens and coin purses, and assembled the various medicines and concoctions I’d made. Somehow the woodsy location right next to a Viking encampment was the perfect setting.
I’ve studied natural medicine for many years in an effort to help myself get through health issues doctors were unable to help me with. I’ve learned so much and found numerous things that have helped tremendously in bringing about healing and renewing my strength and energy.
Over the past couple of years I’ve focused on medieval medicine, curious to learn how they took care of themselves in an age when doctors were only available to the rich and wonky religious beliefs hampered even the most basic medical advancements.
I had so much fun studying that the head of our medieval group volunteered me to give two lectures on medieval medicine at the festival.
Oh boy.
It sounded like a good idea at the time until it hit me that I’d actually have to stand up in front of strangers (yipes!) and talk! I hoped to high heaven that my mind wouldn’t go completely blank at first glimpse of their expectant faces.
I tried not to think about it as I set up bottles of medieval anesthetic and a rather delicious treatment for digestive disorders, rolls of linen bandages, and a great block of beeswax used to make healing salves and ointments.
Bit by bit my jitters calmed as I brewed pine needle tea (the vapors are brilliant for easing congestion), carefully assembled quail eggs (the whites are perfect for smearing over open wounds to seal them from bacteria), and arranged some rather lethal looking surgical instruments like a bone saw, tooth-puller, and scalpel.
At last everything came together and I settled myself in to await my first customer.
Much to my delight, my fears fled once we got talking. All the lovely bits of information I’ve been treasuring and using all these years flooded back as I was peppered with questions.
I met the most wonderful people – folks from Switzerland and Germany who shared medieval recipes passed down through generations, lovely Aussies who introduced me to native Australian berries, roots, bark, and herbs that I’d never even heard of, herbalists from all over who were fascinated by the medieval treatments and how they were similar, if not identical, to ones being used today.
When it came time for my talk I was prepared for maybe 5-10 people who would find medieval medicine interesting. I was stunned when over the two days over 100 people showed up to learn, clustering around the booth afterwards to ask questions, share information and experiences, and give me great ideas of things they want to learn about next year. I also got to meet the President of the Queensland Herbal Society and I will be speaking at their monthly meeting very soon.
So fun! 🙂
It was such a great experience and I am so glad I faced my fears of failure and forgetfulness and stumbling over my words. It was worth every jitter.
My far the most popular medieval concoction was the medieval deodorant I made. It really is quite divine, looks so pretty in a clear, glass jar, and smells fresh and clean and absolutely wonderful.
If you don’t fancy mixing up your own deodorant but still want to choose a natural remedy, try rubbing chlorophyll-rich leaves such as spinach, Swiss chard, or parsley under your arms, or slice a lemon in half and do the same thing. They all work brilliantly. Or use a combination of patchouli and cypress essential oils. Patchouli takes care of any odor while cypress whisks away wetness.
Have you faced any fears lately? I’d love to hear about it. 🙂
Medieval Deodorant Recipe
Ingredients:
1 part white wine vinegar
1 part water
fresh herbs such as sage, rosemary, peppermint, bergamot, and lavender
essential oils – add one-two drops each of the essential oil that corresponds to the fresh herbs you use
1 clean glass bottle
Directions:
- Pour everything into clean, glass bottle, seal then shake vigorously. Store in cool, dark place until ready to use.
- Apply with cotton ball or decant into a spray bottle and apply that way.
by Krista | Jul 4, 2013 | Bits 'n' Bobs
“The ocean was the best place, of course.
That was what she loved most.
It was a feeling of freedom like no other,
and yet a feeling of communion with all the other places and creatures the water touched.”
Ann Brashares
It is a gorgeous winter day – a day so warm I’m clad in sundress and sandals and loving every second of it.
Today is a bustling day of all sorts of projects because tomorrow I head for the Abbey Medieval Festival with my dear folks. I get to give a talk on medieval medicine and herbs, and after being nervous as all get out, now I’m excited. I’ve been brewing potions and mixing salves and ointments and my kitchen smells of beeswax and licorice root with a tang of vinegar.
So as I pack and brew I will leave you with some images of a few of my favorite spots in Gozo and Malta – on the water, of course.
Wishing you a beautiful weekend! xo
“It is life, I think, to watch the water.
A man can learn so many things.”
Nicholas Sparks
“When you sit in silence long enough,
you learn that silence has a motion.
It glides over you without shape or form,
exactly like water.
Its color is silver.
And silence has a sound you hear only after hours of wading inside it.
The sound is soft, like flute notes rising up,
like the words of glass speaking. ”
Anne Spollen
“They both listened silently to the water,
which to them was not just water,
but the voice of life,
the voice of Being,
the voice of perpetual Becoming.”
Hermann Hesse
“The places where water comes together with other water.
Those places stand out in my mind like holy places.”
Raymond Carver
“Where the waters do agree, it is quite wonderful the relief they give.”
Jane Austen
xo
by Krista | Jun 30, 2013 | Bits 'n' Bobs
“The woods call to us with a hundred voices…” L.M. Montgomery
Hi lovelies! I’m writing you today from my sickbed where I’ve been hunkering down for the past couple of days as I weather the latest virus to come my way. Good heavens. 🙂 I cannot wait for the day that my dear ol’ self does NOT put out the welcome mat for every illness that moseys past.
Before this latest beastie invaded, I was feeling better and stronger by the day. And one glorious but cold morning I hopped out of bed before sunrise, determined to watch the sun come up from the woods behind our house.
I bundled up to the hilt, grabbed my camera and called my dog Luna and headed out through the fields just as the sun inched over the horizon.
One moment the world was gray and shadowed and the next it was a golden fairy land.
I kept stopping in my tracks and sighing happily. I still can’t believe that this is my home, my very own spot in this world. How I love it.
The light dazzled my eyes and buoyed my spirits. The exertion soon made the cold a fleeting memory and each intake of breath was clean, crisp, and invigorating.
Luna was in heaven, leaping and dashing about, startling kangaroos, wriggling with happiness every time she raced back to me.
Soon I reached the shelter of the bush.
It was exquisitely peaceful in there, quiet and solemn as each dip and hollow awaited the arrival of the sun.
I loved being just one step ahead of the sunrise, watching the golden light slip around tree trunks and through grasses.
Some moments of illumination glowed so brightly I felt like I was in a different world. I wouldn’t have been one bit surprised to see fairies dancing or woodland creatures sitting down to a morning cuppa.
I hiked down to the dark part of the bush and settled myself down against a fallen log to watch the sun rise over this last bit of darkness.
It was lovely sitting there in the shadows, alone in the forest, with time to think about things that sometimes get shunted to the side in the busyness of feeding goats and writing articles and trying to keep on top of laundry and new recipes and medieval projects.
I know I won’t always be sickly (at least I hope not!!), but I am now, and I’m finally in a place of peace about that. It’s OK to be a slow-mover, a tugboat, as my friend Mozzie calls it. Now is not a time for grand plans and massive to-do lists. Nope, these are Tugboat Days where I focus on one thing at a time.
Just one.
That’s how I get through each day – especially the awful, pain-filled ones – I just do one thing. I put away the dishes Bear washed. Then rest. I put the fixings for curry in the crock pot. Then rest. Write an article, rest, edit photos, rest, put laundry on the line, rest. That’s how it has to be right now. And the funny part is, I’m getting more done than I ever did when I was running around like a crazy woman.
Maybe because I’m doing the things that really matter. I don’t have the strength or energy to get bogged down in extra stuff. My days are distilled down to The Most Important.
And you know what? I quite like it. I’m learning to thrive as a crawler through life, as a tugboat woman. Going slower gives me time to really take in each experience, to notice things that would otherwise be a blur, to be able to deal with small issues before they become big ones.
I know I’m not the only one going through Tugboat Days. Some of you dear folks are also slowed by illness, others by children, tight finances, relational upheaval, all of the above. If you’re in Tugboat Days, I just wanted to assure you that you’re not alone, that it’s not going to be like this forever. It’s OK to move slowly, to putter away at the things you can handle and let the others go until you’re able to tackle them. It’s OK. And if you ever need a shoulder to cry on, I’m only an email away. xo
As I sat in my shady hollow, the sun crept closer and closer, shimmering through grass heads and leaves until finally it burst through in wondrous splendor.
Wishing you a beautiful week. xo
by Krista | Jun 25, 2013 | Bits 'n' Bobs
Sometimes it can be downright difficult finding restaurants that are delicious and healthy. Thankfully there are places like Amphora that not only serve nutritious, scrumptious food, they also provide inspiration for making these things at home.
My friend Elizabeth introduced Bear and I to this wonderful little spot in St. Lucia (Brisbane) last weekend. I immediately fell in love with the serene interior: cool white linens, turquoise chairs, and shuttered windows letting in a soft glow of light. I felt like I’d been transported to springtime Greece instead of wintry Australia.
Amphora is a BYO (bring your own) restaurant. We’d anticipated this and bought two bottles of wine for our celebratory meal. Alas, we managed to leave them chilling nicely in the fridge. 🙂 Thankfully there was a wine shop just around the corner, so Bear nipped out and brought back a bottle of Riesling and nestled it into the bucket of ice our waitress provided for us.
Then we examined the menu, oohing and aahing our way through it as we read descriptions of pork loin breaded with rosemary and macadamia nuts and duck glazed with berry sauce. We couldn’t settle on any one thing, so we ordered a myriad of items via the Mezethes Platter along with a starter of fried Kefalotiri cheese with caramelized figs.
I’d never heard of Kefalotiri cheese, but it was fantastic – firm and salty and perfect with the sweet caramel figs. Swoon. I will definitely be picking some up the next time I’m at the Greek deli.
And then the Mezethes Platter arrived. Oh. My. Word.
This is my kind of eating. A massive platter filled with little bites to share – each one distinct in flavor, texture, and even temperature.
We ate our way through tender calamari (I confess I judge a restaurant by whether their calamari is like rubber or velvet), dolmades, slices of chorizo, smoky grilled peppers and eggplant, fried haloumi, salty feta, savory meatballs in tomato sauce, fresh veggies, and warm pita bread to dip in tzatiki, hummus, baba ghanouj (eggplant dip), taramosalata (fish roe dip), and skordalia (potato and garlic dip).
The dips were especially wonderful and I’m excited to try making the latter two at home soon.
It was all delicious and such a lovely meal to linger over, visiting happily and sighing contentedly over each bite.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, our waitress brought us complimentary Turkish delight to go with our coffees. Soft, gooey, with just a hint of roses, it was a splendid bit of sweetness to end the meal.
With full bellies and beaming smiles, we lingered long over our coffees: Long Black, Flat White, and Cappuccino.
Should you find yourself in Brisbane craving beautifully prepared Mediterranean food, give Amphora a ring. Reservations are vital.
Amphora
Address: 36 Hawken Dr, St Lucia QLD 4067
Phone:(07) 3870 0788
What is your favorite restaurant to go to for inspiration?
by Krista | Jun 24, 2013 | Bits 'n' Bobs
“There is a privacy about {winter} which no other season gives you….
In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other;
only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches
when you can savor belonging to yourself.”
Ruth Stout
Sometimes you don’t have to go far to feel like you’re in a different world.
It happened to me this weekend when Bear and I arrived at a Brisbane appointment 30 minutes early. He settled himself into a sun-filled cafe with a cuppa while I happily meandered through the wintry Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mount Coot-tha.
The light was exquisite, soft and hazy yet blindingly bright. It was a welcome respite after the dark skies and pelting rains of winter storms back home.
It is the dead of winter here yet I didn’t even need a coat! Just a wool pashmina tied snuggly around my neck, warding off the chill from the shady spots as I ambled from one sunny space to the next.
Since it was so early I had the place to myself for the most part, my own private winter garden awash with golden light that shimmered and glowed through leaves and petals.
Sigh. 🙂
In places where the sun hadn’t reached, blossoms were aglitter with tiny dew drops.
And these jeweled beauties were a piece of winter this Northern Hemisphere girl recognized: poinsettias.
I was startled to realize I’ve never actually seen them growing in a garden before, only potted in cellophane wrapped planters and delivered as gifts at Christmas time. It was lovely to see them in their natural form.
The wonderfully peaceful Japanese garden was a-flower with azaleas – in winter!! My mind boggles. It is so different from the winterscapes I grew up with in Canada.
I love these stately fellows, at once dignified and whimsical with their ramrod bearing and flashy petals.
And I love how cool and fresh these blooms are. They give me hope that Spring is on its way.
It was a gorgeous stroll and I felt all glowy myself after such beauties and soul-stirring light.
I found Bear in the cafe with our friend and we settled in for a good visit as we basked in the sunshine streaming through the open windows.
It was my kind of winter morning.
What is your favorite memory from your weekend?
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