Mrs ERJ
Mrs ERJ continues to ease into retirement. She asked if sleeping a lot was normal. It was normal for me.
She is reading much fiction. I will ask her to write a guest post sometime in the future. She is really enjoying Historical/Christian fiction.
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| Spearmint on extreme left. All other bundles are catnip. |
One of the little side projects that sprouted out of Mrs ERJ's reading involves medicinal herbs. We are starting in a very modest way. We are drying some spearmint and catnip on the clothes line. After much consideration we opted for tying the cut stems into bundles, leaving the twine long and then tying each bundle to the clothes line with the long end.
I am post-cynical regarding herbal medicine. I look at Ebola. Modern medicine can do nothing more than offer supportive care while the patient's immune system either heals the patient, or fails and the patient dies. A warm cup of tea with a dash of sugar....that is supportive care.
Belladonna
Belladonna finds herself frustrated by the opposite sex. She is in good company with that.
Bella is also discovering the disadvantages of being brutally honest. For a few years now we have been cautioning her regarding comments that are unkind. She would dismiss our comments with "Well, its true!" The social dynamics of medium sized groups swirl like leaves on the wind. Comments she made back in June made their way back to the person she was "observing". Feelings were hurt. The observee lashed out. Not pretty.
I think this is a lesson that everybody learns. Better to learn it in high school than to learn it when you are forty.
Kubota
Kubota really seems to be finding himself in high school. It is a much bigger pond. Part of the growth is because "grades count". Another part is that the impressions he makes now will stick with him for the next four years.
Interesting... I'm not a fan of herbals, it's almost impossible to get real data on them...
ReplyDeletePrimum non nocere. First, do no harm.
DeleteJames Duke has an interesting database here ==> http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/
Of course two different plants, from different seed strains growing under different conditions, harvested at different stages of growth will have wildly different concentrations of active ingredients.
We once took Belladonna into the E-room. She was just a little tyke at the time. The problem was diagnosed as dehydration. She had a sore throat and it hurt to swallow. Duh! At that point we should have taken her home and plied her with Gatorade. Rather, they did not want to release her. They shredded her arm trying to run an IV.
Kids, in many cases, are really out-of-tune with their bodies. Stupid video games and electronic entertainment pretty much cuts their head off at the neck.
So I mostly agree with you. But if adding flavor to warm water gets patients to drink more, than that is almost always a good thing.
Thanks for commenting.