I have been unwell the past month. A vigorous cold turned into an earache, followed by sinusitis. It has been unpleasant to say the least, and despite 18 days of antibiotics (which I generally avoid taking!) I feel that I am only now starting to turn the corner and make the journey towards recovery.
One thing I've missed while being unwell is my foraging sessions in the forest near my house. Being exhausted has meant that even a short 15 minute walk left me feeling worse shattered. As a result, I have turned focus in on my garden, at what I could forage and encourage to grow in my immediate surroundings. A sort of turning inwards if you will.
As such I was pleasantly surprised to see that the calendula seeds that I harvested from a plant growing in a crack by a wall in my neighbour's front garden have found a crack at the edge of the lawn in my back garden to call home. They are such bold, beautiful, strong plants.
I had collected the seeds (with my neighbour's permission of course), last summer and scattered them all around my garden. Despite my haphazard sowing in various locations, I find it telling that they have once again tied themselves to space at the edge, a sheltered position from which to boldly emerge. This is no doubt where they are happy.
Their smell is so evocative, a fruity smell of summer. They are a member of my favourite plant family, asteraceae, cousins of the daisy, dandelion and chamomile. These flowers are distinguished by having a composite form - so each apparent flower head is actually made up of made up of multiple small flowers - disk flowers in the middle, and ray flowers round the edge (ie petals).
Calendula flowers are edible and as well as being anti - inflammatory, antifungal and anti bacterial, are also lymphatic. [1] They are high in anti-inflammatory flavonoids and encourage lymphatic flow helping the body to get rid of toxins. Although this isn't the ultimate variety for mecidinal purposes, it can still be used.
As per my recent experience with evening primrose, I can't help but marvel that nature provides just what we need to return to strength at at a moment of weakness. The poetic irony being that I can't quite bring myself to use the one flower that has bloomed. It gives me such strength to smell it and admire it, I think I'll have to wait for more to bloom before actually using it. In the meantime, I'm using cleavers - or 'sticky willy', another herb good for lymphatic system, to help my recovery. More to come on this shortly!
References
The Handmade Apothecary: Healing Herbal Remedies,by Vicky Chown and Kim Walker, page 107.
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