Permaculture & Earth Activist Training in May

Wow! I got this notice from Starhawk last night. If you've ever thought about getting training in Permaculture, this 2-week course looks phenomenal! I think I'll start saving my pennies.

Earth Activist Training

Radical Sustainability and Regenerative Activism

So much more than a permaculture design certification course, Earth Activist Training (EAT) weaves the principles of permaculture, earth-based spirituality, and regenerative activism into a captivating curriculum that blends classroom lecture and experiential exercises with practical, hands-on learning opportunities.

May 3-17, 2008

a SOCIAL PERMACULTURE Intensive

Instructors: Starhawk, Margo Adair, Bill Aal, and Charles Williams
Manzanita Village, Warner Springs, Southern California, USA

In this course with a special focus on social permaculture, participants will learn ways to collaborate and build just and enduring alliances across social divides, as well as skills to build personal, interpersonal and community resilience to sustain themselves through hard times.This two-week residential intensive is a permaculture design certificate course.Curriculum includes: Water harvesting, graywater, bioremediation, natural building, cob, plant guilds, alternative energy, sustainable forestry, plant propagation, soil fertility, compost and mulch, consensus, facilitation, alliance building, alternative economics, direct action, strategy, issues of power, privilege and creative collaboration, Applied Meditation combining work with intention, intuition and mindfulness, energy shifting and ritual creation.

Sliding scale pricing:
$1700, if you have abundance in the form of money
$1500, if you are working and solvent
$1200, if you are scraping by
* work trade and scholarships available—please visit our web site for additional courses, updates and to register http://www.earthactivisttraining.org/ 800.381.7940 (USA)
Hear the teleseminar with Starhawk and Bill Aal at: http://www.InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=1863759

Labyrinth Tour coming to visit Herbs from the Labyrinth garden on April 20

Quite a few years ago, I put a lot of effort into establishing a labyrinth committee at the Unitarian church here in Lancaster. We painted a Chartres Cathedral style labyrinth on a 40 foot square canvas, that is still used there. Later we had a seven-circuit Cretan style labyrinth inlaid in the floor in one of the rooms on the lower floor. I'm no longer active there, but the labyrinth committee is still going strong, holding monthly walks on the first Sunday afternoon of each month.

This year, the labyrinth committee is organizing a tour of local labyrinths on the afternoon of Sunday, April 20, and they will be visiting my garden & walking the labyrinth here. It won't be covered with snow by then. In fact, there should be lots of new green life by then. If you'd like to get more information & register for this tour, you can call 717-393-1733 or email dre@uuclonline.org

Ants Away!

I live in a house that is more than 100 years old. It’s a brick house with a stone foundation and window sills that are nearly a foot deep. I love my house. Apparently, I’m not the only creature to love this house. Every late winter, tiny little ants begin to emerge from their mothers’ nesting places in the stone foundation. Some of them mistakenly make their way into the house instead of outside into the soil. I have to admit that I’m not pleased by this behavior. For years, I’ve been making an herbal ant repellent spray, tweaking it every year. It’s always worked well, but this year it’s working incredibly well! To repel ants and keep them from coming into your house, spray this along door frames, windowsills, the edges of the hearth & wherever else you see them traveling. Ants leave a scent along their trail so that other ants can follow them. This herbal spray will interrupt their travels & they don't like the way it smells at all! Distilled water and cider vinegar infused with Peppermint & Tansy, pure essential oils of Peppermint, Clary Sage & Black Pepper. A 4oz cobalt bottle with a mister top is only $9.95.

Free Online Issue of The Essential Herbal

My friend, Tina Sams, publishes a wonderful herb magazine, The Essential Herbal. I have written columns for her, but it's been a while, since I'm so busy with the new shop. Anyway, she's offering a free issue (online) so you can see what the magazine is like. It's a paper magazine usually - not an ezine - printed on recycled paper & with soy ink. It's not glossy - it's real. It's down to earth. It's full of useful articles on a wide range of topics to appeal to herb lovers. I look forward to reading each new issue as soon as it comes out & then I save them so I can reference them later. We sell them at Radiance, our shop in downtown Lancaster, and on the Herbs from the Labyrinth website, including back issues. You might even decide you want to subscribe!

Exotica Bath Products on Special this Week!

What could be better than a warm, relaxing bath on a cold winter day? A warm bath infused with our Exotica Bath blends. Exotica is the name for our secret blend of pure essential oils that we scent bath salts and oils with. Our exquisite bath salts are divine unrefined grey Celtic sea salts and Dead Sea salts. Pour the bath and body oil into the bath water or massage it into your damp skin when you step out of the shower.

Choose a tube of salts (enough for several baths), or a gorgeous bottle of them to put on display in your bathroom. The recycled green glass bottles are from Mexico and a closed with a natural cork stopper.

The bath and body oil comes in a beautiful cobalt blue glass bottle - 6oz, tall and slim.

And, this week only, save $2.00 each on all Exotica items when you order through our web site.

The Green Zone (or will Herbs from the Labyrinth be on Television?)

A while back, summer actually, my friend Annie Goeke called me & asked if she could interview me for a pilot for an idea she had. Annie is co-director of the Earth Rights Institute. Anyway, of course, I said yes! The idea is for a series of short spots that would run between shows on public television, sort of like public service announcements, but a little different. The series is tentatively called The Green Zone, and it will focus on environmental issues and Green living. Hopefully, it will be picked up soon & you'll be able to see them on a television station near you! In the meantime, film maker Andrea Campbell of Natural Light Films brought me a dvd so I could post the pilot interview of me & my gardens online! Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3yNQN6-vN0 Let me know what you think!

Dyeing Silk Scarves with Elderberries

I have had so much fun over the last year dyeing fiber (mostly silk) with a variety of plants and other natural materials. Cochineal beetles come to mind. Anyway, my latest dyepot was with Elderberries, and it gave me the most wonderful soft taupe color. It's a lovely cross between gray, brown and purple. Here's a photo taken my my friend Maryanne. I love the dyepot process - I never know exactly what will come out. There are so many variables, including what the water might have in it! I only dyed scarves in the Elderberry pot & gave many of them away in a "swap" organized by Tina & Maryanne for The Essential Herbal. Sometimes, I dye other things, too, including rayon sun dresses & wrap around skirts. One of my favorites is silk camisoles. Here's a photo of scarves,camisoles & even a couple of parasols dyed with a variety of plants. That's my apprentice Jen on the left, my friend Linda from AvalonBlue in the center, & me on the right. What a day we had!

You can go to my web site to see what we have on hand now. There are quite a few silk scarves & I'm thinking that they would make excellent holiday gifts. These are lovely Habotai silk scarves, dyed using a variety of natural materials - onion skins, madder root, logwood, brazilwood, tansy, usnea, and of course elderberries.

As I said, I do love the dyeing process - it's always such a magical experience. I never know precisely how each scarf will turn out, and I always am awed by each one. The size of the scarves is approximately 8"x54", a perfect size for wearing around your neck. Another of the things that I love about natural dyes is the color - it's sometimes subltle, sometimes strong, but they all "go" together! You could wear any color scarf with almost any other color & it would complement it beautifully.

I also use one of these scarves to wrap each of my decks of tarot cards, too. In my experience, the silk helps to keep them "clear". I don't use runes myself, but if I did, I'd wrap them in silk before placing them in their bag, too.