Today a nature story. My sister and her husband rescued a golden lab/Rhodesian ridgeback. Jake had been abused and slowly has begun his resocialization process. They usually walk Jake in the wooded parks north of Seattle where tall cedars grow densely and birds nest. One day last week my brother in law Ed was walking the dog when Jake came upon two fledgling crows on the forest floor, and quickly dispached them. Immediately the canopy came alive with screeching crows. The crows dive bombed the dog and Ed, then chased them all the way home where they squawked in protest until the woodpeckers ran them off. In the ensuing days they started screeching at Jake and anyone who walks him- my sister, the neighbor, or my nephew. Even if they avoid the park the birds will try to run them off. None of Jake’s people are welcome in the woods any more, even without the dog. Crows remember and they hold grudges.

Several years ago I attended an herbal conference, the Green Nation’s Gathering where the Wisconsin ethnobotanist Keewaydinoquay Peschel spoke about her years as a medicine woman.  Specifically she spoke about  how she used plantain to

poultice bee stings in those who might be subject to anaphylactic shock, glass stuck in the neck, bug bites, even skin conditions.

One story she told stands out among all others.  She had been lecturing about plantain to her ethnobotany class, and the mother of one of her students sat in on the class. Three years later she received a box from Florida. “I don’t know anyone in Florida she said.” The box was a present from the mother of the student. She had been gardening with her friends and all three had been bitten by a spider. Read the rest of this entry »