Learn to Make Your Own

Willow Basket

Sat 21st June in Hollyfort, Gorey, Co. Wexford

Your instructors: Alan and Kate Burrows, of Westcountry Willows, who have been working with willow for many years.

Learn to Make Your Own

Willow Structure

Sat 25th April in Hollyfort, Gorey, Co. Wexford

Your instructor: Danu Gilna Duffy, a permacultureist who has been working with living willow for many years.

Island Resonance

I went for a walk yesterday to one of my favourite places in Grá Nádúr. The lane from the Community Field to the Sactuary Field and across the River Bann to the island in the river.

Crampbark High Cranberry Viburnum opulus Caprifoliaceae This is an invaluable medicinal plant from our native flora as well as being very beautiful. I find just sitting with the plant to be so calming and soothing, especially when its lovely white flowers are open.

What is a Herb? A herb is a plant that is valued for its culinary, medicinal or health-giving properties. Herbs can be used in cooking, made into medicines, into products to clean the house, to keep the garden healthy or for skin care.

None of us has escaped the influence and colonising ideas of the Empire, capitalism and patriarchy and the journey to authenticity can sometimes feel arduous but then there is the fun and joy of rediscovering all sorts of forgotten treasures and meeting wonderful allies in the work...

The original vision of forming the school was to deliver quality training from the enthusiast to the community herbalist and on to the clinical practitioner level.

We are fully committed to ensuring that this vision continues to be realised.

Careful planning of the variety of plants you include can make your garden attractive to wildlife and actually increase the biodiversity in your locality.

Traditional mead is a natural ferment similar to a wine made with honey water and yeast. It is usually made using wild yeasts although it is possible to get cultured yeast from home brewing suppliers.

The vagus nerve was for a while thought of as ‘just one of the cranial nerves’. ‘ Its very name implies it is a wandering vagabond of a nerve, meandering around the body to nearly everywhere (not the adrenals, though) and doing this in a vague manner.

A beautiful day on Mount Nebo in the autumnal sunshine. This is a favourite walk of mine, up the beech-lined path to the top of Mount Nebo, which is less than a mile to the west of our place in Hollyfort.