I took myself off to my friends woodland yesterday. We cooked lunch over the camp fire and had a lovely wander around. The very first woodland anemones has popped up. The daffodils are still out in bloom and you can just see the carpet of green leaves for the bluebells are coming up just in front of them. Some of you here have visited here when I have held my Wild Women of the Woods days during Spring through to Autumn. I have plans for this year’s outdoor gathering for some Sylvotherapy. Watch this space! 😎

Have you ever had a family member, friend, or client you're doing a consult for, say they hate or cannot stand the aroma of Lavender essential oil? I have, and personally, I find it funny because the blends that I make for them, often contain Lavender in them, are some of their most favourite formulations I have made. For example, I have this Diffuser Synergy I make for Insomnia. Nearly half of the bottle is Lavender essential oil, around 4mls. However, the addition of Petitgrain and Vetiver provides a heady depth, so that the Lavender is not the prominent fragrance, but the Petitgrain and Vetiver are. I ofc have four other essential oils in this formula, which I won't share here, simply because I am getting very good results and feedback from it, and it's one I am looking into selling as a pre-made synergy for a future online shop. I would love to know, do you have any tricks or a combo/pairing of essential oils that mask the aroma of an essential oil that a client or even yourself does not like?

A very regular client of mine came for a back/neck/shoulder massage to be finished with Reflexology today. Her blend was Benzoin, Palmarosa and Wisteria. I was in heaven..... client fell fast asleep after she turned over for her Rx!😂 What's been your favourite combo recently?

Friday 13th remains a lucky day for me! This is my unashamed plug for my new book which is now available on Amazon! Woohoo! This is the back cover.... "Very often there is a confusion in the healing benefits of a herb and the resulting essential oil which has been extracted from the plant. Assumptions are made that if the herb does 'x, y, z' then the resulting Essential Oil will do the same. This is not always the case. By herbs, I mean plants which are used for their healing properties as in herbalism, not just the botanical group called herbs. There are many Essential Oils which, in the past, were not readily available to the general public, only to qualified Aromatherapists which are now accessible to everyone. Some of these Essential Oils are classified as hazardous, or toxic, are on official poisons and hazardous lists such as the NHS holds. In some cases I question and often shake my head as to why they are even extracted from the plant material at all. This always makes me think of Jeff Goldblum playing Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park saying "They were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they never stopped to think if they should." I want to point out, I am not a herbalist. My knowledge about the herbs comes from an Aromatherapy perspective, where we do look at the original plant to better understand the chemical components that are present in the Essential Oils. Some will even delve into the Doctrine of Signatures and more. Herbalists will often reverse the learning process or compare their herbs to the Essential Oils. For the public, the biggest mistake made is people thinking, for example "Well, I eat garlic to help my circulation and cholesterol, that's natural, so the essential oil is natural and must be safe." No, that does not follow, in fact quite the opposite is true in many cases. With this in mind, I decided to look at many available Essential Oils which are classified as hazardous or toxic and compare them to their herbal use for better understanding of which should or should not be used as Essential Oils.

I don't believe it and don't understand what has happened! I had finally finished my Poison's book this morning and was ready to upload it to print. I had saved it...... but it hasn't! It's still there on my desktop, but an older version from way back in January! All the work I have put in over the past few weeks is not there! Can anyone help please..... I am heartbroken!