A visit to the Cotswolds

Davina Wynne-Jones surrounded by Snake's head Fritillary.
Saskia Marjoram also surrounded by Snake's head Frtillary



The fairy circle at the bottom of Davina's garden.

In the spring I went to England to visit an old friend, in the 8 or 9 years that we had been out of contact our paths had been going along the same route, Davina Wynne-Jones is the owner of 'Herbs for Healing' (www.herbsforhealing.net), where she grows medicinal plants for sale and runs workshops on transforming plants into natural cosmetics etc.
I was really excited about visiting her new venture, all the more for the fact that we had been close friends in the past and I had even lived in a yurt on the land where she now has her garden.
As I drove into the land, it felt good straight away and what a wonderful garden it is, in a rather magical way one is drawn in through the commercial plant selling area, down through the medicinal plants carefully laid out in long beds to the enchanting fairy circle, where the energy of the plants dominates. We had a great day visiting the garden, catching up with each other and the added benefit was meeting Saskia from "Saskias flower essences", Saskia currently lives on the garden site and as well as helping Davina run the garden she also has a flower essence business making really great flower essences (www.saskiasfloweressences.com ). So the three of us went off to visit the famous Snake's head frittilary meadow near Cricklade, I was lucky to be visiting at the moment that they were in flower. What an amazing site, thousands upon thousands of Fritillaria, both pink and white varieties, we sat ourselves down in the middle of it all and let it all soak in, three witches in a magical spot........until the warden turned up and asked us to keep on to the path.

I left the Cotswolds the following day full of herbal friendship and exchange....not forgetting that both Davina and Saskia will be among the first members of Cross-Cultural herbalism or Herbalisme sans Frontiéres!!! The UK section of HSF has seeded.

Update

Elpm members on a medicinal plant course in the 'Haut-Loire' region of France.
Sabine, an ex-herbalist student proudly show off the Gentiana lutea (Greta Yellow Gentian) with its precious root, a great bitter tonic for the digestive system.
You probably thought I had disappeared and was never going to come back to this blog again......another blogger that started out with good intentions but then faded away into nothingness. Well no, here I am again or now I should say, here we are, as the blog is now going to act as a communication tool for Cross-cultural herbalism or "Herbalisme sans Frontières" as it is known here in France, until our website is up and running. Since getting back from south America, the setting up and putting into place of our new organisation has advanced. We have our first new members, the seed group has begun to take form with different people active in different countries and our first newsletter is in the process of being put together.
In the messages that I will post over the next couple of weeks , I will profile on members I have visited, the seed group team and our trip to Herbfest in the UK to get things up to date, after which I promise to update regularly. The group photo is an ELPM summer medicinal plant course in the "Haut-Loire" region of France and the other is Sabine an ex ELPM herbalist student proudly holding up a Gentiana lutea (Great yellow Gentian) with its precious root, a great bitter tonic for the digestive system.