St. Patrick wasn't Irish, he wore blue, not green and there were no snakes.
​But there were vampires and leprechauns and witches. Oh my!

In celebration of St. Patrick's Day, I'm using my alphabet prompts to learn more about all things Irish. I'm only doing one or two topics per letter, even though I can think of many more for some.. Even so, be warned. This will be a long post. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Let's start with something light and fun! Ha!

A is for Abhartach, the Irish Vampire. 
Even though Dracula, the character created by Bram Stoker, is most often associated with Transylvania, in reality he may have been based on an Irish king, Abhartach. He was said to be a dwarf and considered to be evil and feared by all who knew him.
He was a very jealous man and was suspicious of his wife, convinced that she was having an affair. While spying on her from a high castle window, he fell to his death. The entire kingdom was relieved.. They buried him upright, apparently the correct burial position for royalty, and enjoyed a peaceful night's sleep. One. Just one.
Because the next day, he rose from the dead, and demanded that all of his subjects slit their wrists and drain their blood into bowls. Well, you can imagine they were upset, so they traveled to the next village seeking help from another king, Cathan, who came, killed him and buried him once more. 
You guessed it. Up he came, ready for yet another snack.
This continued until Cathan decided to seek help from a saint who explained there was no way to kill someone who was already dead!
His suggestion was to bury him upside down, cover him with thorns and ash branches, and top it off with a huge boulder. As far as we know it worked, and peace returned to the kingdom. He served as inspiration for Stoker's Dracula, and all lived happily ever after!

A banshee is a terrifying, wispy, floating specter with a piercing scream who warns of a coming death in the family. First reports were in Ireland in the 8th century. This alarming figure, usually female, varies in age from a young maiden to an old woman. Some families were reported to have their very own banshee, possibly having been a family member who had passed. They were known for their  keening,  mournful singing and wailing, as they lamented the death of loved ones. 

,​King Lir, Bobd Derg, was left with four motherless children, one daughter and three sons, when his wife Aoibh, the queen, unexpectedly passed away. The king decided to marry Aoife, his wife's sister,

The Hoverter Sholl Box  Huckleberry
(Gaylussacia brachycera)
​

 Can you name a plant that covers 8 acres of land, is 1300 years old,
will protect you and bring you luck as  you enter the new year?

Gender: Feminine
Element:  Water
Planet: Venus

My quest to find an herb worthy of being featured as the first  in a series for 2021 unfolded magically! My daughter Mycenea self quarantined for 14 days,  as did  I,  so we could be  together for Christmas. We spent a lot of time outdoors, and one of our favorite jaunts was to visit the Hoverter and Sholl Box Huckleberry in Perry County, Pennsylvania.  

The box huckleberry is a member of the acidic soil loving Ericaceae family, which include azaleas, rhododendron, trailing arbutus, cranberries and blueberries, among others. Unlike the giant Sequoias and the Bristlecone pines, known for their their age, the box huckleberry is only about a half a foot tall. It covers the forest floor and can easily  be overlooked. 

The box huckleberry and blueberry are often confused, but there are differences. The blueberry grows  in clusters, and the box huckleberry, as well as the huckleberry, has more singular berries, with occasional small clusters. Though the skin of all of the berries are blue, the blueberry is white or light green inside, and the huckleberry and box huckleberries  have a deep red violet or purple inner flesh  with  a tendency to stain. 

There are several folk names for the Huckleberries, including Blaeberry, Whortleberry, Bilberry and Hurtleberry. Bilberry is a folk name for the Blueberry. It gets confusing. Fortunately, scientists use Latin names to provide clarification. We are referring to the box  huckleberry (Gaylussacia brachycera) in this case. 

There were two box huckleberry plants in the area we visited. One, at Losh Run, is thought to be over 13,000 years old! Bristlecone pines, at 5,000 years old, were considered to be the oldest living organisms  on earth, yet the box huckleberry is significantly older. The age is determined by the rate of growth, approximately 6 inches a year, and was calculated by the size of the plants.

The Losh Run Box Huckleberry, which at one time covered an area of about  100 acres, nearly 10 times larger than the Hoveter Sholl, was damaged by a forest fire in 1963, then partially destroyed during the 1970s due to road construction of  U.S. 22/322. The remainder is in an area difficult to access.  

The younger plant is estimated to be 1,200 to 1,300 years old, and fortunately has been  in a protected area as a National Natural Landmark since 1929.  The 8 plus acre box huckleberry, named because its leaves resemble boxwood, is situated within a 10 acres area in Tuscarora State Forest with a quarter mile path around the plant. Twenty-seven stations along the loop give an educational overview. 

The  Hoveter Sholl  plant was discovered in 1845 by Spencer Fullerton Baird, a professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle. He was a naturalist and later became the first curator of the Smithsonian Institution, advancing to become the second Secretary of the institution. 

The box huckleberries were almost forgotten until 1948 when Dr. Fredrick Coville, a graduate of Cornell University working for the Department of Agriculture, determined the plants, one covering over 8 acres, and the  other  nearly  100 acres, were each individual massive plants! The  relict species, miraculously surviving the  ice age, is considered self-sterile, and reproduces through a system of root stalks.  

This remarkable plant has not always been well revered. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry  Finn is probably the most well know of the  huckleberries, and in an  interview in an interview  in 1895, Twain said he used the name to  indicate Finn was a boy “of lower distraction”  than Mark Twain. 

A more positive huckleberry reference was featured in the song Moon River in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It is beautifully explained by Jessica Dang, Single Girl Dinner. “For years I had no idea what it meant: "My huckleberry friend." It hung in my mind. I searched Paul Varjak's relationship with Holly Golightly for the answer. Theirs was a mutual adoration laced with innocent flirtation; there was a certain playfulness that freed them from being neither friends nor lovers."

On New Year’s Eve,  the residents of  New Bloomfield, PA traditionally  assemble to  pay homage to their oldest resident. They lower a huge huckleberry from the  courthouse  clock tower at midnight  to pay tribute to this humble herb. This  year’s pandemic will prevent the assemblage, but they will hopefully  meet on New  Year’s  Eve next year  to  honor this enormous, ancient plant. 
​

As  you enter 2021, I  wish you  the blessings of  huckleberry! May  you  gather magic and find luck and  protection in “berried treasures”,  I’m  hoping there will be unexpected   blessings and virtues all around you. And may  each of  you  find a  ‘Huckleberry friend”! 

 “Everyone should have a huckleberry friend at one point or another. 
It is an experience that showers your life with magic for as long as it lasts,
whether it be for a couple of weeks or a couple of years.”
​
 ~  Jessica Dang, Single Girl Dinner, #SingleGirlDinner
​

Hoping you are all safe and well. These times are unlike anything I could have imagined. I've been filling my time with morning journaling, meditating, taking walks, talking to family and friends and working on projects. This week's focus was mostly on finalizing my Taurus herbs, all under the influence of the planet Venus. All are feminine - of course - and most are the element water, with a few of the earth. 

 The first collage layer was made by ripping papers I painted and textured, and glueing them to the base. 

Next I chose 12 of the herbs associated with Taurus. I added the common name and Latin name, the gender, deity and element associated with each herb, and a painted image of the herb. The final step was the power or powers of each herb. 

This fall I'll be teaching my Enhancing Your Life with Herbs course, a six week session, for the Renaissance Institute at Notre Dame University of Maryland for the fourth time. I painted 200 herbs to  illustrate the course. I'm hoping to update it with these layered herbs for the zodiac session. 

Words are so powerful.
Last night I found this note from one of my participants. It warmed my heart and reminded of how fortunate we are to be able to lift up ourselves, and each other, using 26 little marks!

As I consider the power of words, I'm reminded of one of my favorite insights on resources - a quote taken from an advertisement  to promote local libraries.  

​Roger von Oech, author of A Kick in the Seat of the Pants and A Whack on the Side of the Head, shared his perspective from an advertisement for a library

“At your local library they have these arranged in ways that can make you cry, giggle, love, hate, wonder, ponder, and understand.

It’s astonishing to see what these twenty-six little marks can do. In Shakespeare’s hands they becameHamlet. Mark Twain wound them into Huckleberry Finn. James Joyce twisted them into Ulysses. Gibbon pounded them into The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. John Milton shaped them into Paradise Lost.”

What can you do with these 26 letters to honor yourself? I challenge you to arrange them in a way that will inspire and delight!! Make a gratitude list, write a thank you note to yourself, capture your treasured memories in a journal, write a poem or a song! Be kind with your self talk! Use affirmations. 

If we use our words to inspire and nurture ourselves in the same way we use them to honor others, our entire perspective about who we are and what we can accomplish will change. We will step into a whole new world of miraculous possibilities!
​

Two days ago I posted about violets, and since then I've been working on a project in honor of this delicate flower. She has such versatility, presence and power. Her impact is really rather remarkable considering she only blooms for a short time each year. This little herb of Venus has influenced history, brought beauty and romance into our lives, and inspired Shakespeare, among others. 

.​Dr. Frederisk Franck is an author, artist, and oral surgeon but even more notably, a spiritualist.  He sees the sacred in the everyday beatify of life, and uses seeing and drawing as meditation. ​He worked  with Dr. Albert Schweitzer in Africa to provide services to those in need.

Hiroshima - The Unkillable Human
This sculpture depicts a man's silhouette flashing against a wall when the nuclear bomb was dripped.
One of Dr. Frederick Franck's sculptures in the Peace Garden in Harrisburg, PA 
​

First, we passed his sculptures at the Peace Garden in Harrisburg along the Susquehanna River several times when I visited Pennsylvania recently. I've painted his sculptures numerous times over the years - with vibrant spring and summer floral plantings, the earth tones of autumn, and stark black, grays and whites of winter. All were given as gifts over the years, but the photos above will give you an idea of the power of his work,  
The Peace Garden was created in 1990 by the Harrisburg/Hershey chapter  of the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). The garden was created in response to a speech given in Hiroshima by Dr. Bernard Lown, President of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which earned a Nobel Peace Prize. The garden features three sculptures that remind us of the devastating destruction, yet also acknowledge the continuation of life and the human spirit in spite of inhumane decisions. 

Second, I'm including several of his quotes in my overview of my course on Exploring Rainbows this spring. He makes a differential between looking and seeing, and notes that we would fall to our knees in horror if we really saw what was on the evening news.
​We have become desensitized, but that's another post. ​

Third, his book practically fell off the shelf when i was in my office today. Books have frequently jumped off shelves to get my attention - in bookstores, libraries, my own book shelves. One even saved my life and that is not an exaggeration. When books jump,, I pay attention. So for today's treasure, I am sharing my long time love affair with the work of Frederick Franck. 

If you aren't familiar with his work, I suggest you consider looking him up. And if you really see his messages, instead or merely looking at his words, you'll see life in a whole new way. 

Roses are used in both of the projects below. Rose hips are scented with blue spruce oil in the first, and rose potpourri is used to make the lace rose sachets in the second. Both are wonderful remembrances of time spent in the garden in the summer, collecting rose buds (and rose hips) while ye may!

​Each rose sachet is made with 

• a nine inch circle of lace
• 3 Tablespoons rose potpourri
• 20 inch lengths of satin cord or satin ribbon

Place potpourri in the center of lace circle. Gather the top, keeping edges even. Tis with ribbon.

​The sachets make wonderful Valentine girts.