Herbal holiday part3:

Originally I had a number of herbal adventures planned for this part of our journey. We were to spend 5 nights in Hong Kong and this was going to be the fun bit - the non family part of the trip. YAY!

The Hong Kong Tourism Board runs a free Chinese Medicine Class that I was eager to join and then there is an entire street on Hong Kong Island that is dedicated to Herbal Medicine . I was planning on finding all sorts of interesting herbal news for you guys but life had other ideas.

Firstly, I like to say that the fertility tea I told you about worked. Yay!

And then I have to tell you that on our second day in Hong Kong I suffered a miscarriage. Definitely NOT yay!

I would like to thank Dr Lucy Lord and the staff of the Matilda International Hospital for the fantastic care I received.

Needless to say, my plans changed. I spent a lot of time in the hotel - where at least I got my herb fix by indulging in the beautiful herbal toiletries the maid brought every day.

You know how sometimes hotel toiletries can be quite horrible, well this stuff was great! Yuzu bergamot body wash and body lotion, mint thyme shampoo and conditioner. Yuzu is a small citrus fruit found in Asia (in case you wondered).

If I could get these products in Australia and I wasnt inclined to make my own, I would definitely buy them.

Another chance for herbal exposure arose when I first ventured out of the hotel again. I was searching for a chinese herbalist (with fluent English). I managed to find one…sorry, no idea about business name or address….although I would find them again Basically I explained my situation to them and in no time I had a freshly brewed decoction in front of me which i was told to drink as hot as possible. The lady behind the counter also gave me some more to take back to the hotel. That evening was the first time I felt I had enough physical energy for a proper outing and so we went to the night markets. Unfortunately I did not find out what was in the brew, nor did I take any pictures but that evening was the first time I felt I had enough physical energy for a proper outing and so we went to the night markets.

The next day we flew home.

Stay Herbal!

Herbal holiday part 2:

From Frankfurt we flew to the UK. We stayed in a gorgeous little Dorset village called Mudeford. Temperatures were 10 - 20 degrees warmer than Germany which made outings a little easier.

Unfortunately we didnt get to do too many outings since this part of our journey was dedicated to family (and Christmas and New Year’s celebrations).

But on one occasion we drove to Corfe to visit the 1000year old castle there. I was totally in my element since I love all that olde worlde stuff, and Corfe village is to die for. Of course I would hate to be there in summer when it would be overun with tourists. As it was the middle of winter, the pubs were still very busy at lunch time but it was pleasantly quiet in the streets and in the castle grounds.

Young Harry under the sign to Old Harry. I still have no idea who or what Old Harry is, but there you go, it makes a good photo opportunity.

You can see the Castle ruin in the background but if you cast your eyes down towards my feet - lovely arent they? - you’ll see that I am standing on the edge of a herb garden. The usual suspects of rosemary, thyme, sage, marjoram, lavender, bay and probably more I couldnt see from where I was standing. Lovely old plants that were well tended, it was lovely to see so much green in an English winter. Unfortunately there was no signage that I could see to give me a clue as to why this garden was there. It was next to the Information Centre for the castle and the darkish blob just above the bay laurel was a recreation of a peasant’s hut that was being built with time true materials and methods, so maybe it belonged to that.

This sign was attached to one of the castle buildings. As usual I focused on the herbal side of things and was impressed with the trouble they go to to preserve the plants that are already there (see close up).

That was about the extent of herbal holiday gossip from the UK. Stay tuned for part 3 - Herbal Holiday - Hong Kong.

Stay Herbal!

Hello herb lovers,

Finally, the pictures are uploaded, resized and ready to go.

Our trip (over Christmas & New Year) started in Germany. As I mentioned before for me Germany is herbal heaven. People know about remedies and use them freely. Doctors and pharmacists dispense herbal based medication instead of or to complement standard drugs. Across the road from our hotel there was an Apothecary and in both of their large display windows were rows upon rows of products based on herbal medicine. It was brilliant!

Apart from wanting to catch up with my sister who lives in Frankfurt, our reason for staying in Frankfurt was the famous Christmas Market. In a previous post I mentioned the herbal lollies I bought there.here is a picture of what I mean:

Every different colour a different herb or combination of herbs. The menu on the wall tells you what they are and what they are traditionally used for. Heaven!

We were in Frankfurt for only three days, so much had to be squeezed into a short time. Regardless of what the temperatures were.

Even if it was -9 degrees Celsius at 9am. Yep, thats a MINUS! Harry had never encountered cold like this. But he didnt mind at all, busily admiring his “Elmo” gloves.

The freezing cold didnt stop us from wandering all over the city to explore. Of course I managed to find signs of herb use everywhere - from the stalls selling herb infused mulled wines to mistletoe being on sale in preparation for Christmas celebrations (approx. AU$5.00 a bunch). We had snow on the day we left for the airport….almost a white Christmas

Stay Herbal!