Soo… ddjjyamissme???

I know, I know… my crown as blog-mistress is not just tarnished. It’s trashed and bent out of all recognition, lying lonely in a field somewhere, intriguing some curious magpies - sigh... Just like Terry Wogan and his “other listener”, I shall be searching high and low for my “other reader” (I’m assuming at least one of my parents will have kept the faith..). I thought I’d better do another posting before tomorrow, in case it got mistaken for an April Fool (the April fool number I pulled on the 30,000 inhabitants of Murayama City in Japan has doubtless left me with bad karma on that front for all eternity.. but more on that another time!).

So what have I been up to?.. No photos since the field trip to Wisley I’m afraid, but I have been taking some baby steps towards tackling a key skill deficit with respect to my future career in herbal medicine, my distinct lack of ‘green fingers’!

Firstly I went out and bought myself the latest equipment for the lazy botanist, a flower press… that takes just 5 mins to press and dry plants! The secret is that you stick the whole contraption in the microwave, so you can kiss goodbye to stacks of yellow pages and weeks of thumb-twiddling while the specimens dry to (usual dubious) perfection. I tried it out on some flat-leafed parsley first, and bar a slight hitch with a piece of root that got a bit charred, it came out fine (and without setting off the smoke alarm ;)

Secondly I’ve started growing about 8 different varieties of herb from seed, courtesy of the “sow n’ grow” system for dummies! I just poured warm water over a tray full of what looked like a load of small brown circular discs. These then promptly swelled up into little “oil drums” of soil, about 6cm high and 3.5cm in diameter. They seem to be held together with some sort of gauze.. Anyway, all I then had to do was press a few seeds down into the centre of these little drums with my fingers. The miracle is… some of the seedlings have actually started coming up! If I can manage to keep them alive to adulthood I can use the little puppies for my botany assignment – hey hey ☺ (yes I’m afraid the poor things will live and die purely for science, but I promise to treat them humanely and maybe some of them will eventually be allowed to progress kitchen herb status ;).

Besides developing green fingers, I’ve been pretty busy on the music front, with another fabulous jam session with the ‘old bankers’ on 16th (of which the highlight was certainly our gender-bending rendition of “Sunshine of Your Love” by the Cream courtesy of our fab base and guitar players and yours truly on vocals.. at the very bottom of her range!) and at the other end of the musical spectrum, a (mercifully) successful performance of Mozart’s mass in C minor on 24th with my choir, London Docklands Singers. We actually got a smile out of our tireless (and surely saintly!) conductor, AC, at the end of most of the movements, even if we were flying by the seat of our pants somewhat in the “Osanna”.. Never a dull moment I can tell you ;) Thankfully we arrived safely at the end of this great work without anyone losing their shirts, let alone their trousers (I am assuming this “flying by the seat of your pants” thing is a North American term?)! You guys (OK assuming I have one more reader..) should really try to make it to our next big one in November. We’ll be doing the Verdi Requiem in Southward cathedral with two of Andrew’s other choirs. It should be a blast – literally! ☺

However, the thing that’s been keeping me away from the blog the most though, is the small matter of an essay on Herbal medicine I had hanging over me for waaaay too long! I finally turned it in last Sunday and felt like I had finished a prison sentence! I hope I’ll get used to this writing lark soon, or the next three years could be quite testing!

Anyway, I have just got back from 24hrs in the lovely Wiltshire countryside and feel thoroughly windswept and full of the joys of Spring. However, as it’s Saturday night, I’m off to remove the more obvious clues to my recent bucolic jaunt (I’ll have to stop chewing this piece of straw for starters ;) and prepare a more urbanite look for the next-door-neighbours’ housewarming tonight. Yes, I am finally as old as our neighbours at no. 34, who for as long as I can remember have been a succession of 30-something couples playing house in the burbs for the first time – yikes.. how did that happen? ;)

No more cold turkey!

and I don't mean frozen leftovers from Christmas day..

after nearly 20 days of enforced deprivation, I can once again feed my internet "habit" anytime, anywhere thanks to a brand new wireless router and internet provider that answers phone calls in under a minute (hallelujah - where have these people been all my life!?). In effect, the internet "drip" has been reinstalled in the vein, and all is sunshine and smiles again at 36YR :)

Of course the main usage will be for my studies and research on coursework and the restoration of service has been very timely, as I have several deadlines coming up before the end of the month!

You may be pleased to know, by the way, that the quality and effectiveness of time spent on campus improved dramatically towards the end of the week (I struggle to imagine how it could have deteriorated!), culminating in a lovely day out at RHS Wisley Gardens on Saturday to look at medicinal herbs "in the flesh" so to speak, before they are processed into teas, decoctions, tinctures etc. 6 weeks in to the course, I am finding the subject matter (i.e. Botany, Anatomy, Physiology, Histology etc.) more interesting than ever and am inspired to do the mountain of reading that will be necessary for me to pass the first semester. Wish me luck and watch this space..


View from the Herb Garden at RHS Wisley Gardens


Our tutor talks as through some of the main medicinal herbs


Hamamelis virginiana (Witch-hazel)

University of .. Chaos?

Well, it's day 2 of the seminar week for the distance learning "underclass" that is year 1, BSc Herbal Medicine.. Yesterday we spent 2 of our 6 hours of study moving through a succession of deficient or double-booked classrooms (I kid you not!). Our tutor's comment was that the last seminar he'd done was held over a weekend so it was fine as he and his students had had no competition for the rooms... huh???! Like.. what are we - chopped liver??

This morning I am sitting in a computer room in which all the computers seem to work apart from the one our lecturer needs to show her slides.. I suppose I should look on the bright side - more time to check email - very academically stimulating.. ;)

Popping up for air..

Well.. it seems there's no chance of web access at home for another week or so, so it's just as well I'll be spending the whole of next week in London :) It's my first week of seminars for the Herbal Medicine course. i.e. I get to feel like a real student for a whole week! It's not quite 9 to 5 but close, and to top it all off, I get to stay with N&R and their beautiful new baby daughter all week :) Then on Saturday (10th March), I've got my first field trip to Wisley gardens in Surrey and I'll be sure to take my camera.

On a separate note, my Yoga lessons are still going.. but numbers are dwindling. As Terry Wogan so often says, "Is it me?"... ;)