“Earth Wisdom” by Glennie Kindred

October 21, 2012 at 9:50 am (Book reviews)
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I bought this book at Herbfest 2012 in July because I was attracted to the chapters on the different well-known trees, their symbolism linked to different mythologies, their medicinal proprieties as well of the practical uses for esch wood.

On reading the book it struck me that beyond the wonderful pen and ink drawings and the tre chapters, there was a hive of intersting information related to ancient earth lore and different ways of putting these ancient practises into use in our lives today.

Much of the information including earth’s cycles, ancient celebrations and ways of connecting with all this were not alien to me but this book put all this info into a good concise order. I will definitely use it as a reference bookwhen i need to know something about one our ancient eart festivals or how to plant a certain tree from seed or xhich wood to use to make a sacred walking stick or wand…

Thank-you Glennie for putting all this down in a satisfying, logical and clear way accompanied by your beautiful drawings.

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Practical Herbs by Henriette Kress

October 21, 2012 at 9:46 am (Book reviews)
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Practical Herbs by Henriette Kress.

I had visited Henrietta’s blog, Henriette’s Herbal on more than one occasion when looking for information or when surfing the web to see what was going on the English speaking herbal world. I then bumped into her again when Herbalistes sans Frontières went on line and our Webmaster advised me to do things like Facebook and social networking. It was then that I decided that I really wanted to read her first book…so I excitedly ordered it from Amazon UK.

The day it arrived, as I took the package out of the letterbox I was surprised at how thin and small the book felt. I had been waiting for a big, thick book as there is so much information on Henriette’s blog, I thought that her book would be the same. Once out of the box, however, the cover and feel were really pleasant, a small but beautiful book.

Anyway I got my teeth into it straight away (always a thrill to get my hands on a good herb book written in English) and the initial reaction about size quickly disappeared. The first chapters are packed with practical information about making herbal preparations, from picking herbs to all the different ways that they can be transformed into medicines. However hard I tried it was very difficult, to find anything that had been left out, whilst reading it I thought it woudl be great to suggest to my students as a hand book (pity it isn’t in French). Being avery practical herbalist myself, it is evident that all the information is tried and tested and gained from first hand experience. Read the rest of this entry »

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Sex and the Intelligence of the Heart by Julie McIntyre

October 21, 2012 at 9:33 am (Book reviews)
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  “Sex and the intelligence of the heart” nature, intimacy and sexual energy by Julie    McIntyre

  Edited by Destiny Books

 Nikki Darrell a great Irish herbalist talked to me about this book and by the few words she used to  describe it I instantly wanted to read it.

I have since read it twice, the first time, quickly, as I do with most of the English books I get my hands, its as if I am craving English words, English thoughts, so once I get my hand on a new book there is nothing stopping me. The only snag is that I get the feeling of the book and the overall message but in my fervour I miss a great deal of the details and subtleties, sometime later I come back to the book with a calmer attitude and read it again.

This is a book about sex, ecology and the inner self and manages to touch on many deep questions that concern us all. Julie’s honesty and they way she reveals her inner path are remarkable, I felt as if I was listening to a good friend chatting about her feelings. Read the rest of this entry »

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