With the Mother so busy already, bringing forth new growth, and new life, leaves and buds and blooms bursting everywhere, hurrying to catchup on what they missed over the winter, how could I not hurry and join all this effervescence?

My beautiful irises are ready to pop open their buds, and they have soooo many of them. The herbs for smudges, and potions, and oils, and teas, are already planted, and some of them have started to show their first shy shots. Mint has taken over one side of my front-yard, plenty enough to start moving in the backyard and start getting it all around the fence. I don't understand why some people complain about mint being so aggresive. For me it's like I never have enough of it. In a place like Oklahoma, where fleas and mosquitoes and tics run rampant, and with two dogs, I want all the mint I can get, it is such a strong repellent. And then let's not forget the smudges: smudges that have mint in them are the best for prosperity, for cleansing, and for protection. And the potions and teas? Everybody around seems to have at one time or another some kind of stomach flu - and there's nothing that can cure it better than a strong mint decoct. Yea, give me my mint at any time.

My books are coming up nicely. Still quite a bit to work on a few images and names of plants. What has always baffled me is this huge number of people out there who are "expert herbologists", they can give you a lot of advice on medical and magical use of plants, backed up by countless links to various online articles and books, but they wouldn't recognize a plant if it wasn't in a labelled box on a shelf in the grocery or herb store. Oh well. I'm not saying that books or articles are bad, we all have to learn somehow, but, 1. don't give me the "oh I'm the mighty know-it-all guru" when you can't make the difference between a camomile leaf and a dill leaf and 2. the plant in a box on a shelf does NOT have the same properties and is not as potent as the one that has been planted at the right time, harvested at the right time, and prepared at the right time.

Enough said. Back to my garden.