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! 😎

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.

After the fortnight I've had (booted off Facebook, tumble dryer packing in, turns out it was just the fuse, and losing my new book document, then found), I'm looking forward to my swapsie session with @Ewa Skabek this morning. It will involve Reflexology and Crasnio-Sacral Therapy and of course plenty of smellies! ❤️ My little munchkins (grandchildren) bring me no end of joy. It was my grandaughter's 3rd birthday yesterday, but I'll be seeing her and her brother Saturday afternoon. I often get told off by my daughter for behaving like a big kid...... do I care? Of course not! 😂 My other self-care is taking myself off to a private woodland owned by a good friend, where I run Wild Women in the Woods every summer. I love the woods, the campfire and cooking and eating outdoors. 🌲 I'm also happy as a pig-in-muck when I'm investigating new oils. I've investigated and written about some 250 EO's over the years and I have another 20 odd I'm going to be looking into over the coming months. It's not just the chemistry stuff, I look at that as the oils A&P, I'm more interested in their personality, like finding out what really underlies a clients issues. What do you do for self-care?

Good morning tribe! I like the K.I.S.S. principle, as such I have made a new tab ^^^^ up there. In it you will find full details of the various courses and classes I run, whether they are in person or via zoom or a blend of both. You will find classes suitable for novices and therapists alike. It's an easy, one click search, of all classes, and will be added to, so check back regularly. Same applies to all the other topics you can see in the tabs. They do save you just trawling through all the post on this front page. Have a look, you might find something you would like to attend and take part in. I'm not a mind reader, so if there is a subject you would like to learn more about, give me a shout and I'll see what I can do. If you would rather a 1-on-1 private class with me, then have a look in Classroom (major tab) and you can arrange that with myself. Thank you. Rainbows, Jane x

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!