Bathed in a wash of yellow blossoms, the valley reflects the spring sunshine in the abundance of forsythia and daffodils. Our orchard is abuzz with butterflies and bees drifting amongst the fragrant plum blossoms. While harvesting nettles in the rain this weekend, lightning bolted, thunder rumbled and that familiar joy, rising up like a golden sunrise, washed over me. Winter’s muted palette has transformed into spring’s exhilarating rainbow of colors and the accompanying call to shake things up. Spring’s arrival has been amplified by a powerful eclipse season culminating in last week’s extraordinary solar eclipse. All of this wild spring energy prompted me to make you a playlist, linked below in the SEASONAL SUPPORT section.
Spring is intrinsically a time of change, while exciting it can also be destabilizing. I am so lucky that every day I get to support amazing people to solidly expand into new ways of taking up space in the world. My northstar belief is that we can quiet our sabotaging inner dialogue and develop positive voices to keep us moving steady on our course. I am so grateful to have the honor of partnering with people to achieve their goals through embracing positive intelligence, embodiment, meal planning, botanical support and habit building.
Collaborative Coaching
This winter I built a new comprehensive coaching package (including collaboration with my medical team for lab testing if necessary, discounted supplements via Fullscript, meal plans and a gift from my herbal apothecary). If you hear a whisper, or a shout, nudging you to explore working together, set up a complimentary chat with me through this link to my personal calendar. Anyone from this community will be gifted a sweet spring discount, just let me know when we speak that you are a newsletter subscriber.
Two Opportunities to Commune in Nature Together
Here are two opportunities for free and sliding scale opportunities to connect, in person, with each other and nature.
Seed Starting
This is Earth Day weekend and on Sunday April 21st, from 11-1, I will be presenting a workshop at the YMCA in Kingston’s outdoor farm space, in collaboration with SOIL to SOUL. The event is free and you will take home a potted seed after we come together to explore herbalism in support of our transition into spring. Register for Sunday’s class here
Earth Kinship Workshop
This second opportunity is a very special one that I am hosting at Dreamkeeper Farm next Friday April 26th, from noon to 3:30, with Miki Aso. Earth kinship is our innate ability to listen to and directly relate to the more-than-human world. In this introductory workshop, you’ll be guided through meditations, imaginative prompts, plant interactions, sauntering the Land, reflection, and sharing to reconnect the living memory of kinship with Earth that lives in each of your cells. Spots are mostly filled so I am opening this up to you, my newsletter community, with the remaining three spots. Tuition is tiered from $40 to $120 dependent on financial access. Please respond to this email if you want to join us for a potluck and nature kinship immersion.
Seasonal Support and Weedy Recipes
How can we support our whole selves during this beautiful transitory season?
- Move our bodies: Take walks in the woods to visit spring ephemerals such as ramps, trillium, dutchman’s breeches and lady slipper orchids.
- Dance Parties and music making sessions: I made you a Spring Playlist. LISTEN TO IT HERE
- Eat our weeds: Garlic mustard, nettles, violet, field garlic and dandelion leaves are just a few of the plentiful plants that can be harvested from unsprayed and clean wild spaces. Some of these lovely plants are easy to find on the edges of garden beds and the marginal spaces where lawn and meadow meets woods. Here are some links to past recipes for foraged spring greens: FORAGED SPRING ROLLS, PIZZA, POTATO, MUSHROOM & NETTLE SOUP WITH HERBED BUTTER.
Nettle Infusion Smoothie
6 ounces nettle infusion
2 ounces plant mylk (optional)
½ banana
¼ cup frozen passionfruit
¼ cup frozen berries
1 handful of your favorite greens
4 TBSP collagen protein powder (I like Vital Proteins and Garden of Life OR if you prefer a vegetarian source of protein I love Manitoba Harvest Hemp Protein
Enjoy-so yummy and invigorating!
