Earth Prayers from May

~ 12th May ~

There is a thinness, like glass, to the gaps between the clouds, and as the swifts rise up through them it seems they could go on through, on and on until the limits of the unknown. I wonder, my chest heavy at the thought, what it must feel to be so limitless. As they disappear back down behind the dark row of rooftops I long for their freedom, the sheer thoughtlessness of their cross-continental migrations. What could there possibly be between the limitlessness of swifts and me? That is a space I pray to open, a gap, cloudless, between all that could be, a space of ascension.

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Distilling Lemon Balm

It was my first distillation for months, and the most welcome return to heart. The day started early with our journey to Phytology, a magical nature reserve in the heart of urban London. After a reluctant start, as if I were waking up my herbalist bones after a long sleep, I tingled with excitement as I carried my smallest alembic across central London on a clear, cold spring morning.

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On Andalusian Gardening: The Hidden Link in the Chain of Horticultural History

At Cordoba, in the 9th century, the gardeners of Abd el-Rahman I built the first botanical garden on European soil.

It wasn’t until over 600 years later, that the same was attempted in Christian Europe.

The first tulip came to Europe via Turkey to Spain, 500 years before it was taken to Holland.

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