Summer plans

Summer is always a busy time. Gardens call us to tend and harvest, but time is really short because we find ourselves travelling across the country nearly every weekend for a two-three month period. Most of this travelling is for fun, but there will be some work involved as well. If you would like to see what the Sanctuary herbs are looking like at the moment, go here.

There are lots of herbal opportunities. Maybe I shall see some of you during our travels. Here is the itinary.

3-5 June Exmouth Kite Festival. If you are in the area, Sky Symphony and other kite teams will be performing next to the rugby club overlooking the estuary. I'm offical tea lady and emergency ground crew for the kites, but I shall be taking time out to wildcraft fennel and yarrow and would love to have herbal conversations with anyone who cared to visit.

12 June (Sunday) Mercian Herb Group visit to Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire. Come and join us on a visit to the historic gardens. Further details can be found here

18 June (Saturday)Springfield Sanctuary workshop on Herbs for the Menopause. There will be oppotunities to make ox-eye daisy flower essence (to help women come to accept the menopause), mugwort and motherwort vinegar and tincture (bring empty jar jars and some vodka and cider vinegar) and meet herbs which can support women through this life event. I'm also offering some energy healing practice at the end of the workshop.

29 June (Wednesday). During my week up in Newcastle for work, I'm taking the opportunity to offer a herb talk to Newcastle Carers, so as well as delivering bereavement training to staff, I shall be taking a basket of nettles, rose elixir, hawthorn vinegar. chickweed pesto and other goodies for people to sample. Should be fun!

1-3 July I'm in Lincoln with the Ageuk Carers Helpline staff training in bereavement and then we go to Winterton where Sky Symphony are performing at the local agricultural show. Let's hope the team are following the antique tractor demonstrations and not the heavy horses!

9 July (Saturday) Springfield Sanctuary Exploring Herbs workshop. July is always a wonderful month to visit, because so many herbs are in bloom along with a wealth of herbs to harvest.

15-17 July Festival at the Edge Possibly one of my favourite festivals - a mixture of fantastic storytelling and folk music. This year will be especially fun as friends are coming with us and Sam Sweeney, Tom Bliss and Nancy Kerr and James Fagin are all performing.

22-24 July. Herbfest 2011. I still can't quite believe I've been asked to speak at this prestigious herb conference at its new venue, Croyden Hall in North Somerset near Dunster where Chris' sister was married last June. Rosemary Gladstar - one of the leading American Herbal Elders - is the keynote speaker and the lovely Glennie Kindred will also be talking about Zen and the Art of drawing. My two talks are both on Saturday afternoon. I'm presenting on "Becoming a Kitchen Herbwife" and "Using vinegars in Herbwifery" which basically means we'll be talking about playing with herbs in your kitchen, wildcrafting, growing and tasting and making things. I'm harvesting and drying a mountain of Swiss mint as we speak to use in some way.

28-31 July Warwick Folk Festival Although this is very close to home, it's held in the grounds of Stephen's old school and we usually take the caravan down and camp. I'm especially looking forward to the Spooky Men's Chorale on the Thursday night and lots of other old favourites. This is the weekend that Richard and Laura's baby is due, so we may be down in Woking instead!

Several people have told me their blog posts for the May blog party will be a little late, so I shall be posting on Monday instead of today.