ciao

practical application: maple magic

Today was a downright magical Outside day.  J. took a floating vacation day once he saw his work-load could handle the time away from it.   Spent the morning composing and then headed outside with intent to rid the back of the field of several dozen Russian Olive trees.  It took him three hours using his bow saw.  We'd discussed Bea's recently texted all-caps reminder:  NO UNNECESSARY ACCIDENTS and agreed there would be no chain saw activities until further notice.  Just to be safer than sorry.

When we were heading back from our on-site review in the field we both noticed the beautiful flowers on one of the two maple trees that stand as guardians of the little path made shadowy by the hemlocks that line its southern side. 

Today's essence bowl was filled with flowers from the tree on the left.  Had to pull down the branch used to take flower portraits in the first image because I'd taken most of the reachable flowers for the bowl a few hours earlier.  I set the bowl on a wooden folding tray relatively near the tree but closer to the center of a steady four hour light-connection in that part of the yard.  As I settled the bowl into place I realized the tray was made of maple wood.  

Going back to the early learning days of getting to know flower essence healing & illumination properties via simple keywords - the Maple medicine spirit is all about balance.  The mid-day's sun lit these beautiful red flowers so they glowed in a beckoning way.   I realized at once this was a perfect essence for this time and also a perfect choice to create a practical application addendum to the part one and part two of the flower essence Nuts & Bolts posts.

***after the mother stock was safely delivered into the house I sat down to see what Molly Sheehan had to say about this essence.  Saw she'd created a wonderful blog post about it back in '06.  Reading through it - I remembered seeing it soon after it was published.  Also reflected we'd lived with a completely different kind of maple tree then. ***

Here's a picture to match the written description of my full working tray for essence bowl collection:

When the bowl was in place I came into the studio.  Could see the tray perfectly from the back window.  Hadn't been up here more than two minutes when I was felt drawn to look.  Saw the little woven cloth I placed on the tray for photographic aesthetic reasons had flipped up into the bowl.  So I got an opportunity to follow my own advise about hustling things along while apologizing to the flowers.  Couldn't hardly say I was new at this but am definitely new to working with that cloth in this way.  I put short wooden framing pieces on either end of the cloth because they were at the bottom of the studio stairs and quick to grab as I rushed to the tray. 

from here on, if I stick with the cloth which I rather liked as a nestling cocoon for the bowl, I'll put sticks or small-medium stones on either end.

As I was settling everything with my back to the east I felt a sudden awareness of benevolent attention.  Creeping along behind me - powerful but kind of muted in the earth.  Maple trees have extraordinarily long roots that travel just below the ground and often partially above it.  I became aware the roots of the tree were right there beneath my feet.  It seemed they were inviting me to sit against the trunk after I'd returned the bowl flowers.  To be there together as three energies:  tree, mother stock and co-creative human.  I silently accepted and was further invited/instructed to shake the first 5 reps of the awakening process right there with my back against the trunk of the tree.  And the returned flowers nestled within a slight hollow in the adjoining section of the trunk.

And so it was.

Look at the vibrancy of the returned blossoms.  Had the sense the flower medicine spirit had infused the flowers themselves as they basked in the sunlit bowl. 

  Maple trees are blooming all over the property and well beyond...

eta - regarding nuts & bolts . 2

I really need to apologize for a HUGE oversight in part 2 of this information sharing.  Have added a cleaned-up version of the following guidance to the text but thought to post this separately for those who've already read that post. 

During the organizational prep - right before or after you label your mother stock jar - you need to add your stabilizer of choice to that jar.  I like a 30-60 ratio : stabilizer to mother stock.     For my smaller bowls that works out to roughly a finger's worth of stabilizer in the bottom of a half-pint canning jar.   Large bowls need two fingers.  My six inch bowls settle nicely with one and a half.

Some people bring a jar with brandy into the field with them.  That way they aren't ball parking.  They can see exactly how much mother stock liquid is in the first straining bottle and add a precise proportional amount of stabilizer to the mother stock bottle.

I don't do this simply because it would be one more physical object for me to keep track of, potentially drop multiple times, and just generally serve to lessen the buzz of co-creative thrall I feel when I prep as much as I possibly can in advance.

Note:  If I get outside and find a bowl's evaporation rate is greater than I expected I pour the surplus brandy into the ground or distribute it among other mother stock bottles-in-waiting. 

Essence Coalescence - nuts & bolts part 2

Bronze Fennel bowl from '06 just prior to straining.  Notice the water is filmy with a layer of flower pollen.  This illustrates why I advise triple straining prior to adding this liquid to its brandy stabilizer.  Any trace of pollen or other organic matter will hasten spoilage - sometimes within a matter of just a few months.

 I left out an important detail in part one of this mini-series:

 after you've filled the bowl with flowers and adjusted the water level set it in a place where you know it will get four hours of uninterrupted sunlight.  If you're taking your best guess - make time to check your hunch every 45 minutes to an hour and adjust the bowl's placement if necessary.  If you need to do this keep the bowl in sunlight as you move it if you possibly can.  If you can't then just hustle the bowl right along to its next resting spot.  Explain you're new at this.  Flowers are endlessly compassionate and capable of adjustments we can barely fathom.  Add to which you're doing this for you and those in your circle - not to mass produce the most assiduously pristine essence in order to keep the product radiant and maximize each drop of every mother stock.  So far as I know there are no free-range flower essence police who make surprise inspections in the average person's dooryard. 

do your best and let nature intelligence do the rest!

AND NOW IT'S THREE HOURS LATER

Harvesting & Stabilizing Mother Stocks

I advise beginning to organize yourself at the hour 3 mark especially if you've never done this before.  The more organically you connect to the flower medicine spirit(s) involved, solar energy in a lesser-explored dimension, or the simple beauty of dropping out of NOW in order to go deeper into timelessness - the more spaced out you are in the linear sense.  This is true, objectively, even though you're also quite likely feeling as grounded as you ever have.   You may have powered through your time of doing whatever you've been doing with electrified focus and heightened consideration. Even if you perceive nothing at all happening you will still embody your own elastic potential to be both totally present and totally cosmic right at the same time.  That's why you need some lead time to keep your body and brain in strong linear balance with your heightened experiential awareness.

Ground & Stabilize - specifically by eating something.  Innumerable energetic healers and flower alchemists advise choosing solid nutrient dense food that is literally OF the ground.  During parts of the summer when weather forecasts suggest I'll be preparing multiple essences for a few days running - I prepare a platter of chilled steamed carrots dressed very simply with tarragon, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.   These are easy to grab as finger food right before I head out the door with my collection materials.  If I've allotted more than 15 minutes to eat something I'll heat up and mash part of a yam with some freshly grated ginger root.

important:  don't have any honey, fruit, or fruit juice!!  This will lead to your central and sympathetic nervous system vibrating extra fast due to the higher frequency range it's accessing via your part in the alchemy process.  Super-quick response time is wonderful to watch in a hummingbird but not so kind to your jacked-up neurology.

Prepare Your Materials

 I advise assembling everything you'll need on an easy to carry tray or within a small cardboard box.  I usually do this about halfway into the fusing process just in case I misjudged available supplies and have to make creative adjustments.   Once you've assembled the material supplies listed in Part 1:

Prepare a label for the container that will hold the stabilized mother stock.  Include the name of the flower.  Indicate it's a mother stock and when you've prepared it.  I also include solar and lunar astrological information:

The jar above contains a blend with 11 different flowers.  On the other side of the bottle I've attached an additional label with everything named.

Attach your label(s) to the jar.  I use standard issue Avery labels which often resist strong adherence to the glass jar so I also use washi tape to keep the label in place without being time-consuming to remove when need be.  

After you label your mother stock jar add your stabilizer of choice. I like a 30-60 ratio : stabilizer to mother stock.     For my smaller bowls that works out to roughly a finger's worth of stabilizer in the bottom of a half-pint canning jar.   Large bowls need two fingers.  My six inch bowls settle nicely with one and a half.

Some people bring a jar of their chosen stabilizer into the field with them.  That way they aren't ball parking.  They can see exactly how much mother stock liquid is in the first straining bottle and add a precise proportional amount of stabilizer to the mother stock bottle.

I don't do this simply because it would be one more physical object for me to keep track of, potentially drop multiple times, and just generally serve to lessen the buzz of co-creative thrall I feel when I prep as much as I possibly can in advance.

Note:  If you get outside and find a bowl's evaporation rate is greater than expected - pour the surplus brandy into the ground or distribute it among other mother stock bottles-in-waiting. 

 *******

Your bowl's remaining liquid will be strained 3 times.  That's why you have 3 containers and 3 sets of double layered coffee filters per essence.  The same funnel will be used for all three strainings.

This part of the process will be a different kind of mindful work from what you experienced in the preparation phase.  You're excited and involved in something you couldn't have done by yourself. And on the other extreme - the more you've done this and progressively learned how to self-calibrate the more you're also testing your edges each and every time just as you would with yoga, lucid dreaming, or any other mind-body-earth-cosmos activity.  Your consciousness is expanding and WANTS to grow farther and farther.  This ephemeral imperative is under-storied with internalized experiences that quite often defy words or even inner categories you can recognize.

***

practical insight:  If they've been well-strained and are lovingly maintained mother stocks that are stabilized with unflavored oak barrel aged brandy can last for years.  Vinegar and red shiso stabilized mother stocks will need replacing on a very regular basis.  

Everyone finds their own way with this part of it but let me spare you one particular intuitively based heartbreak: I began my alchemy adventures stabilizing everything with Grand Marnier.  I thought it would be a lovely experience for the flowers' vibrations and also human recipients of the essences.  Each and every one of those mother stocks spoiled in record time.  In a few unwelcome cases - in just a matter of weeks!

***

As you head outside make sure you bring with you: 

*a hat to protect both your crown chakra and your central nervous system - especially if you weren't wearing a hat when you prepared your bowl.  Your crown center needs protection because it's open and actively receiving light-filled energetic information of a very powerful wattage.   The sheer quantum mechanics can be too much for your subtle bodies' electrical circuitry in many of the same ways that time spent hat-less in full sun may overload your cardio-vascular system.

a hat.

A HAT.

*Water for yourself to drink as you work unless you're very well hydrated in advance.

***

If you have the luxury of time prior to collection - plan to sit with your essence bowl for just a little while.  Leave your imprint on the landscape which is leaving its imprint within your collection bottle.  be as one with all.  center in that oneness.

when you're ready to break that perceptual flow

sit on the ground or a low stool with back facing a north or east orientation from the bowl.  This insures your shadow won't fall on it during the straining process.  I pick it up in both hands unless it's very small.  Hold it up towards the sun and say Thank You before beginning the straining process.  This is what feels right to me although prior to moving here I didn't have the privacy to always feel comfortable doing it.  Do what feels right to YOU within the process of disconnecting the bowl from the path of the sun's light

Work slowly and carefully.  Place a pair of coffee filters in the funnel and slowly pour the bowl liquid into the funnel.  Try to get as much of the liquid into the funnel and fully strained into the first designated container before tipping-in the flowers and remaining liquid.  Let all of the plant matter strain for a moment.   As you watch the remaining drips of liquid fall in the glass shift your eyes to the general landscape.  Notice tiny sparkling ways you may feel a part of it more completely. 

Once I feel confident most of the liquid has strained into the container I gently place the first set of filters into the emptied bowl.  I then strain the liquid two more times.  At the point of the third straining I'm moving liquid into my labeled mother stock. 

I hold the bottle up towards the sun and say a second thanks.  Then I shake the bottle with a vigorous yet respectful motion for a count of 77.   Once I'm back in the house and better grounded I will continue to shake the bottle for another ten reps of 77 shakes - plus 7 additional shakes.  This means the mother stock has been blended and called into activation by YOU with a total of 777 shakes. 

This is the point, out in the field, where people want it to be a joke or something they can bargain past.  Some protest with a lot of conviction and swear they could never.  Nonetheless.  It's how I learned, it's what I swear by, and it's also why I think hypersensitive alchemists pick up a bottle of Sparkling Lotus essences, widen their eyes and exclaim WOW.  It's exquisite numerology and is worth the repetitive motion unless your shoulder/something else is damaged in ways that would prohibit it.

that said ...

If the mere idea is just too much of too much for you - consider using a rule of thumb I've been seeing online within newer alchemist's tip sheets.  Shake the bottle until it begins to feel heavier and more substantial.  Put the mother stock in a safe and special place out of direct light.  Make sure the bottle isn't making direct contact with other bottles and won't be handled vicariously.   I usually wait about 72 hours before preparing a greatly diluted stock bottle from the mother stock.  So I'll cover those instructions in a separate post sometime next week.

evening primrose bowl from '18 simply because it's bright and beautiful.  Plus a lady bug do you see it?

 a crucial part of this entire process is the final action of reciprocity.  Return the flowers from the bowl to the base of the plant(s) where you collected them. Take all the coffee filters and squeeze their remaining liquid directly onto the plant.  I sing at this point.  Usually in spontaneous sustained tones but once in a memorable highlight of deviation I was returning California Poppy flowers to their patch at SL2 when I suddenly heard myself chanting we're going going / back to Cali Cali.  

That was a very fun day and now I chant at length to each season's Cali Pops as they love to be called.  I have re-worded a lot of the GBTC verse lyrics so they apply and actually want to come out of my mouth.  Flower medicine spirits and attendant nature devas are inherently very playful.  When they get a bead on who you are they may entice you to come out of yourself and be joyous with them in all sorts of unexpected ways.

This is the SL2 colony of California Poppies that pulled a song out of me I didn't even realize I'd absorbed.

***

additional details

*I love to take what remains of the wet coffee filters and wipe them on the back of my neck, pulse points, the palms of my hands, or soles of my feet.  Then I like to go back to the house and paint with watercolor for an hour or so.  To record my initial impressions of flower wisdom and personal insight in this form without words.  They come later.  First comes drippy and ever-eloquent color in its most flower-like form.

*Because you've spent a chunk of time actively or passively moving energy in a way that involves several forms of Other intelligence and multiple vibrational frequencies you may ping pong between feeling like you're mainlining coffee to feeling like you could remain motionless forever.  Both extremes will temper themselves within a few hours of grounded activity.   

pro-tip: sometimes your physical reaction will depend on the specific flower medicine and its strongest range of influence on the human form.

*I've observed at a strictly anecdotal level that those of us with muscular pain often hurt a lot more prior to sleeping.   After that there's often a blessed dip in pain level that lasts for a number of days.   Sometimes far longer for those with a diligent yoga/body-working routine. 

*Keep a small jotter notebook or a few folded scraps of paper and a writing/drawing implement close at hand.   You may have sudden flashes that you want to record before they flash right out of your memory's reach.

essence preparation - nuts & bolts .1

  The picture above shows an essence bowl set upon a battered wooden TV tray.  It's sitting within the midst of our evolving sanctuary garden and the bowl is full of Bottle Gentian flowers.   Took the pic just before harvesting and processing the mother stock there in the later summer of '18. 

To successfully make a flower essence you need the following atmospheric elements:

* A sunny day with no/virtually no clouds.  

* Temps somewhere between 60 and 80 degrees.  You can push it to 85 degrees if you have to but setting out bowls in downright HOT weather insures your flowers will fry rather than fuse.  Remember the sun heated glass will in turn heat the water.  It's always going to be significantly warmer for the flowers in the bowl than the air temperature feels against your skin.

* Time in which to keep track of time:  4 hours worth.  You don't have to stay right there, obviously, but you do have to remain aware of the ongoing project (I set both my stove and phone timers) - keeping special track of any sudden/cloudy shifts in weather. 

6 inch bowl of coltsfoot flowers nestled into a stone wall adjacent to the site of the colony where the flowers were harvested. '07

on the material plane you need:

*A pair of small sewing or herb-cutting scissors/snips that remains dedicated solely for harvesting essence preparation flowers.

*Unflavored brandy* to stabilize the harvested mother stock.  I use E&J specifically because Matthew Wood favors it.  Equally specific: he does as much due to the brandy being aged in oak barrels.

* you can also use brown rice vinegar or a red shiso decoction

*THREE size-proportionate glass containers (I use half pint canning jars) per essence preparation. 

*SIX coffee filters - unbleached preferred but we're all pinch-hitting these days - per essence bowl.  You can use paper towels in a pinch although many shed pulp that defeats the purpose of straining.  I've had better luck layering two or three pieces of white tissue paper.

*ONE funnel (large enough to accommodate a coffee filter containing liquid and soaking wet flowers) per essence.

* simple CLEAR glass bowls dedicated to essence preparation and nothing else*.  no pyrex.   I have fairly shallow bowls that are 3, 4, and 6 inches in diameter.  I also have the 12 inch diameter version of the same bowl.  All were purchased at a dollar store 18 years ago after an essence making friend grasped how perfect they'd be for our purposes and tried out the smallest bowl size by preparing an amethyst elixir.  We had the type of friendship that involved excited phone calls when great bargains of vast consequence were discovered.  In short order she'd picked me up and we were on the way to the store so I could purchase a set of my own. 

*if you don't immediately know that you have a bowl or bowls that might work - consider what you're currently unable to recycle due to the pandemic.  Look for short glass jars with wide mouths such as small spice/herb jars or clear glass containers from non-toxic beauty products.  Wash and clean these jars thoroughly.  I like to leave them to dry in the sun.

4 inch blend bowl set upon the breastplate of our natural stone fire pit on the summer solstice '15

[I removed the ant drawn to the meadowsweet in the bowl - and swiftly transported it to a shaded recuperation site - after noticing it through the camera lens]

Additionally - many no-pick flower alchemists work with taller wide mouthed jars that allow for submerging full-peak flowers still attached to the plant or bush.  Have done it sporadically with larger plants bearing flexible flower stalks - mints, bergamots, comfrey, a white lilac flower branch, a spray of flowering quince, etc.

re-imagining tip - I have made an emergency-status essence with just two key lime flowers* and spring water placed in the hole of a plain glass candle holder.

*lime flowers have a special affinity for cleansing the auras and emotional/psychic bodies of healers/teachers/leaders/activists.  At the time of my emergency improvisation I was working between 5 and 10 hours a week with a group of self-described 'disaffected yet enraged' teenagers.  Although I could say tons more I don't think I really have to ...

3 inch verbascum essence.  Two 4 inch blend bowls in the southern bed of my former garden '07.  Note that rather than removing each motherwort and yarrow flower individually, I plunged the flower heads upside down into the bowl's water.  Never did it that way before but I'd observed a friend embrace the method to great success and was glad to try.

and of course you also need

appropriate water.  Avoid tap water that is highly -inated with much of anything.  Some people boil such water if it's their only option then set it in the sun for an hour or so to regain vibrancy.  I don't use our well water because it's very hard and overly endowed with mineral deposits.  This messes with the fusion process and tends to produce mother stocks that spoil in relatively short order or simply feel heavy rather than sparkle-bright.  I collect water especially for this work from a friend's wellspring and when that's gone I break out my yearly purchase of two 12 ounce water bottle six packs from a local source.  Each bottle is enough to fill a few essence bowls at one time. 

How to Proceed:

for Phase One of this process you'll need your bowl,  an easy-pour container of appropriate water, your designated scissors/snips and a well-balanced softly focused mind.

Your intention and practical goals will be centered on preparing the bowl for its four hour sun and water fusion process.  This involves filling the bowl with enough water to hold the flowers you'll collect and then gently adding enough water to allow turning some flowers upside down.

[note:  if you select a large tree flower or something huge like a peony, artichoke, lotus, or dahlia you may need to raid your pantry for a relatively shallow clear glass prep bowl. If you don't have one  - or something else that feels like a strong choice - you'll have to deconstruct the bloom a bit in order to get all of it submerged in the watery bowl.]

GROUND AND CENTER 

breathe deeply a few times. 

If everything within your experience falls into place super easily you may get very spaced out and not realize it until you move back into more normalized and familiar activities. 

Approach your chosen plant.  Ideally you'll already have some type of personal alliance with your first few choices for essence preparation.  This intuitive self/flower guided selection method will make the experience more meaningful in ways that are both universally profound and intimately unique to any given individual.  The experiential commonality is one of cosmic union and coalescence.  It's a lofty plane to seek on any given sunny day in today's world but it starts very simply with cellular connection. 

Notice where the sun is in relation to your chosen plant.  How is the light falling, specifically, on the flowers you'll harvest for your essence bowl?  Make sure that you approach the plant and position your body so that you're not blocking the sunlight's passage.  Throughout the rest of the harvesting and setting in place process you want to keep from blocking the sunlight's path to the bowl and flowers within it.

Above I'm harvesting blueberry flowers so they fall into a six inch bowl.  My left/receptive hand cradles the bottom of the bowl and I'm careful to keep my fingers free of casting shadows on the water's surface.  what's not completely clear in this picture is that I've pivoted my entire right/dominant arm from the shoulder through to finger tips in order to avoid casting any shadows. But look directly below this sentence:

You'll most likely be standing up to harvest tree and bush blossoms.  For lower plants or ground creepers you'll be crouched/squatting, on a gardening stool, or sitting on ground.  You aren't 'supposed' to touch the flowers.  Snip the blooms with just a bit of stem left attached to the throat/base of the petals.

Old schoolers such as myself will recommend making any necessary adjustments or retrieving flowers that miss the bowl by using a leaf pinched between thumb and forefinger to shield the petals from touching your fingers.

If the flowers are large enough to consciously manipulate in a timely way make sure some blooms are face down in the bowl while others face upwards.  I push things around with the tips of the scissors - really saturating the flowers so they'll settle into the water for the 4 hour fusion process.

tip:  It can be surprisingly hard not to reflexively 'arrange' the bowl as if it were a flower vase.  In my teaching and mentoring experience there's nearly always relatively adamant in-person resistance to turning flowers upside down at first because the results aren't as visually pleasing.  What the bowl looks like is immaterial to how it feels vibrationally once the entire process is complete.  To that end it's worth the time and suspended judgement to patiently saturate each flower enough to make them heavier and harder to disturb.

note:  sometimes flowers will not cooperate with being saturated to the point of heaviness.  They sometimes won't seem to  stay right side down, either - as was my experience with the cherry blossoms below.  Do the best you can to inter-mix their orientation.  speak to them if you sense it might help.

If the flowers are small, like blueberries, you either want a proportionally smaller bowl OR the time and patience to fill a larger bowl's surface.  I went with the latter choice because my inner sense was that I might not have another opportunity to work with blueberry flowers in this way.  So far that instinct has proven itself correct.

six inch bowl of weeping cherry blossoms in the southern garden bed at the old place '06

If you have a very large flower such as a Lily you can cut it apart right there at the bowl while it's submerged in water.  This structural mangling is hard to do - at least for me.  But I did put that aside last summer in order to work with a Mona Lisa Lily.  The medicine spirit urged me forward and as I did what needed doing I reflected on several well-known flower alchemists who routinely shred all the flowers before placing them in sunlit water. 

note:  according to Richard Katz & Patricia Kaminsky's remarkably gifted updating of the Doctrine of Signatures applied to flower reading rules of thumb - bell shaped/nodding flowers speak to the mind and soul needs of those who tend to be introverted in life and work practice.  People who are not selfish or socially unskilled but almost supernaturally wise in honoring their need for isolated space and distance in which to do their intentional/healing/creative work.   Blueberry flower essence relates specifically to the needs of those who are undergoing a sense of internal transformation that demands Cathedrals of One's Own even if that sense of inviolate sanctuary is largely metaphorical given our collective experiences of the moment.

[eta: since publishing this post I've come to realize that I conflated the Twelve Windows of Plant Perception with snippets of several Blueberry flower essence profiles as well as my own Blueberry reading notes.  I left it stand rather than editing in order to avoid confusion for anyone revisiting these posts over time.  The paragraph as I wrote it 'from memory' also illustrates the way combined knowledge follows a memory river of sorts.]

3 inch bowl of cardinal flowers elevated on a wooden tray placed beside the bed where the cardinal flowers were harvested

This seems like a good place to push the pause button on an info dump point of view.  If you've already co-created essences and would like to talk about it please comment or email if you're so inclined.  

*****

Consider your options for making a flower essence.  What plants/trees/bushes do you live with that have flowers which evoke something soothing or cleansing for you?  What is coming into flower (looking at jude...) that calls to your soul and heart in an overwhelming sort of way?

  You might also consider what plants/trees/bushes you live with that consistently evoke a sense of balance, unique familiarity, comfort or insight.   Read something about their flowers even/especially if you believe you're too familiar to need this step.

3 inch birthday bowl 2015 composed of offerings from the tiny strips of garden space lining a short brick walkway beside our porch.

as you think about this endeavor and look around your landscape's options for working with specific plants - remember that sometimes it's the in-person flowers that are magnetizing and sometimes it's the energetic vibration of the overall plant that leads to exploration/examination of the flowers it makes.

~~alternatively you can research flower essences more generally here online and match your intentions to the healing and illumination properties of a particular flower~~

I'll write the concluding portion of this how-to post on Wednesday or Thursday and schedule post it for Friday.  Part two of the flowers' transformation process covers the nuts & bolts of how to turn the alchemized bowl's contents into a mother stock.

  3 inch bowl of blended flowers spontaneously collected on the morning of my birthday in '11.  It's a particularly lovely remedy that I still work with off and on.

If such an inspirational self-care endeavor is viable for the place where you live consider preparing a bowl of whatever's freshly bloomed and feels beckoning on your solar return day.   I've been doing this off and on (it often rains that day) during the decade we've lived here. I find it a wonderful way of celebrating both my life force and the landscape's floral bounty just south of mid-summer.  These gifts often serve as constitutional remedies that last all year and well beyond.  The birthday bowl essences nourish and soothe me as time passes in a way that always prompts deeply layered gratitude and respect for the healing properties - and extraordinary sentient intelligence - of flowers and all they hold.