Lucy Blunden Botanicals & Pholiage

06/09/2026

You've done it. Back to school. Well done.
Now what?
Noticing all those digestive symptoms you've successfully (or otherwise) been ignoring all summer? Mentally noting the nearest toilet. Choosing transport and venues based around toilet stops?

💩I hear you. If you've had enough, get in touch to see how I can help.
💨I am a Medical Herbalist and I love working with the gut. Talking poo, farts, burps... funny toilet humour except when you're the butt of it. 🤣

Seriously though. If it's time to end the pain and discomfort, the clothes not fitting, the food restrictions, there will almost certainly be a herb or two to help with that.

04/09/2026

Is it me? Am I officially getting old, now? 2 Customer Service experiences one after the other. Please don't waste your time reading them! It's so boring. 😆 Skip to the end. That's the point of all this!

At Asda Hemel to collect items bought online. Told it might take up to 20mins to get the bag from the back. OK....... Then it arrives. Much quicker. Phew.
Told I can't just take it as they need to do something. Then proceeds to serve all the customers in the queue who arrived after me and haven't just been standing around waiting... I guess the idea is to get me to start wandering around the store and buying things I don't want?
Instead it just annoys me. 😠

Howden Insurance brokers office in Hemel. 'Please come in' on the door. All CS operatives on the phone when we enter. No one signals they'll be with me soon. OK. Two women finish their calls and begin talking to each other. I have caught one of them's eye. Nothing. No acknowledgement. No signal of 'with you in a minute'. Waited several more minutes. Nothing. We left. Won't be going back. 😠
Was about to insure my violin with Lark, a subsidiary of Howden... not so sure now.

What's happened to customer service?

And, what's happened to me? Why am I taking it personally? Why do I feel as though I am irrelevant?

I clearly need to do some work on not being noticed/prioritised appropriately!! 😂

These are incidences which arise a lot. A space where we feel something ought to happen and something else does. It's a great opportunity to observe yourself and listen to your inner monologue.

And, then once you realise it's eating you up and no-one else, that's the signal to do some tapping. Dig into the story behind the emotional response.

Which early incident in your life began this response?

It's rarely the event itself which holds all the charge. It's the story behind it and where it started from. Imagine being free from the chuntering annoyances which get you riled up and reactive...

That's what EFT is so good at! 💕And, that's why I love working with it.
Emotional FREEDOM Techniques... the clue is in the name. 😗 💋

03/09/2026

Back on the school run today?
Already flustered, hot, sweaty and yelling at the kids despite all your self-made promises not to?
What's got it started again? Shoes not on? Teeth not brushed? Books/bags/ties nowhere to be seen?

I feel you. I loathe the pull back into the rigid and relentless routine. So much time in battle.

But it's not with them, is it? It's in us. 😣
We're being triggered...
So, what is it we don't like? Being late? Feeling we might be told off?
Which early and troubling set of feelings is lying under the surface ready to rear up again.

This is where I love EFT. We get to explore those early, young feelings. We get to unpick them with tapping in a way which is non-threatening, non-challenging and doesn't require an upsetting re-visit.

Get in touch if you would like to drop some of your triggers and leave them back in the past where they belong. I love working with people like you who know that just making a promise to themself isn't necessarily going to end the behaviours they dislike. Best intentions or not. 💚💚💚

02/09/2026

28/08/2026

It's FLOCCULATION, doncha know!?
Say whhaaaaaat?

Yup, not only do I have to learn medical terms, Latin plants names but I also have to know about and understand words like flocculation. What it it?
It's something you may come across in your medicine... it's not frogspawn, but it is...

"Flocculation is the process by which fine particles suspended in a liquid clump together into larger aggregates (called "flocs") and settle out or separate from the solution, rather than staying dispersed as individual particles."

There's a flock of flocs in my medicine.

Basically clumps of preciptated solids from your tincure in the solution. It looks and, if they get big like in this bottle, can feel a bit uuurrggghhh in your mouth BUT, it's totally harmless and actually part of the medicine!

WEEEEEIRD!

21/08/2026

Well past its best... for medicines, for the bees... even for its scent.

Herbalists harvest lavender just before the majority of the flowers open. They are looking lovely and purple but they aren't open flowers. At that time, they still retain all their essential oils which is where a lot of the medicine is. Once they open, the oils are lost to the skies.

Talking of skies, Last year, I made some absolutely HEAVENLY lavender glycerite. I use glycerites more with children as they have a sweetness they are more likely to tolerate than the alcohol of tinctures. 🚸🚼

19/08/2026

I've just done an interview for a radio show! WOO HOO!
MarlowFM are putting out our chat on Monday, 31st August...
Totally in my happy place. Talking about herbal medicine and how I practice.
Aimiably and extremely professionally helped along by the marvellous, Emily Guiver, also part of newly .health who has a monthly show on parenting and when there is an extra Monday in the month, she talks with other healthcare people.
I am one of those lucky folk!

Why the apparently random tree picture? Well, outside the studio is a whole bevy of Linden/lime trees full of the chocolatey-tasting seed right now. 🍫😂

17/08/2026

This week I have been working on a bespoke tea blend for a local doula, Catherine Rose-Bloom of Nourish & Bloom.
Catherine asked me for something to support her new mums which would give them a moment of pause and also support their bodies as they readjust post-partum.

I have devised 'Nourishing the New Mum Tea'. It's not a fancy name. A lot of my teas have a play on words like Sereni-Tea. I felt that woudn't be right here. New mums don't have time to work out allusory names, they just need to know it's for them. Now.

The blend is absolutely lush, full of nutritive herbs which are supportive to body and mind. I am so excited to hear how the 3 women, who will be gifted the teas this weekend, get on with it. 🤱👶🏼👶🏽👶🏾👶🏿👶
VERY EXCITING!

I love to collaborate so, please do get in touch if you have a tea-need for your clients. 🍵

15/08/2026

Are you in love with mugwort? I think I am! I watch it waving at us from the waysides throughout the late Spring and Summer periods as it grows and grows. I love its tall spires and waving, frondy greenness. It's darker than its cousin Wormwood who is much more silvery and grows into much larger plants.

Elisabeth Brooke's description speaks of mugwort's properties assisting in finding clarity and helping decision making, so it was an absolute no-brainer for inclusion in many of my Pholiage Intentional Tea Blends. It made the cut for 3/6 of my first tranche of tea blend development!

Elisabeth also speaks of countering negativity, depression and feelings of hopelessness by enabling a re-connection with inner strength and wisdom.

POWERFUL HERB!