Ginger Nettle foraging

31/05/2026

29/05/2026

Venison bone broth — slow, simple, and proper restorative.

Learned this kind of cooking from my granny — the sort of woman who could stretch nothing into a meal for half the scheme and still have folk leaving fed and sorted. No waste, no drama, just making things do what they’re meant to do.

Bone broth’s one of those old foundations that still holds up:
– long-simmered extraction from bones, giving body and depth
– collagen and gelatin for that rich, almost silky mouthfeel
– easy, gentle nourishment when you don’t want anything heavy
– warming, grounding food that feels like it resets you a bit

Then the wild bits layered in — nettle, cleavers, birch polypore — more for function than anything else. Nettle and cleavers doing what they do in the background, and birch polypore adding its own bitter, medicinal edge and a faint potato-like note if you’re paying attention.

And there we have it

Bone broth à la Bambi.

29/05/2026

27/05/2026

What you’re hearing is what happens when light is allowed back into a woodland. Last year, a stand of dense Forestry Commission trees came down—uniform, dark, and lifeless beneath. Now the canopy is broken, the sun reaches the ground, and the place is waking up again.

More light means more understory. More insects. More habitat. And that means birds—lots of them.

I jokingly called this “Ornitho Audio Therapy” in the video (completely made up, by the way), but there’s something real in it. It’s not far off what the Japanese describe as Shinrin-yoku—forest bathing. Not just being in nature, but actually taking it in through your senses.

No narration needed at first. Just let the land speak.

⸻

17/05/2026

Fear not that which is unknown.

16/05/2026

16/05/2026

Comfrey — the “bone-knit” plant that refuses to stay in one box.

In herbal medicine, comfrey has long been used as a powerful topical ally for bruises, sprains, strains, and slow-healing tissue. Traditionally known for supporting repair in skin, connective tissue, and deeper structural layers.

Herbalist Susan W**d often describes comfrey in a way that points to its broader systemic influence — not just “one system herb,” but one that seems to speak to multiple layers of the body at once, especially through tissue repair and regeneration pathways.

Then there’s the controversy: pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs). The modern “bad science” narrative often flattens the conversation into fear-based conclusions, despite comfrey’s long historical use in external applications and nuanced traditional preparation methods. The reality is more complex than the headlines suggest.

This isn’t about ignoring risk — it’s about separating nuance from noise, and tradition from oversimplified modern framing.

Always use responsibly. Topical use is where most modern herbalists stay grounded.

16/05/2026

Birch polypore.

Most people know it for its traditional uses — plaster fungus, antiparasitic properties, and its old name, the “razor strop fungus.”

But the birch tree itself has this, what I would describe as a kind of magical ability, to produce mushrooms that carry significant medicinal activity.

Birch polypore has been shown to have immunomodulatory and immune-supporting effects.

Chaga, another obligate birch fungus, contains polysaccharides that have been widely studied, along with betulinic acid — both of which have been investigated for their biological activity.

Alongside horse’s hoof fungus, you start to see a wider birch system emerging — a group of fungi all connected to the same tree, all with significant medicinal relevance.

Through the doctrine of signatures — which for me is a lived interpretive framework for understanding plant and fungal form — the structure of birch polypore itself resembles clustered cellular patterns, something I find meaningful when considering immune function.

And the birch tree itself is part of that medicine too.

18/01/2026

I do love the irony of the universe sometimes.
Spent years expertly do***ng school(6 months was my longest record un captured), Especially when it was "solo talk" time, iwoukd be miles from the school.The FEAR was real.

Now I spend most of my time with my nose in books, studying, taking notes, writing essays no c*nt will ever read and I'm now activly making a living from standing in front of groups of people.

Thank you, old me
for when we were wee
You kept me safe
From things un seen
But now my beards grown
With blue cloak adorned
And we walk with the fear
As compas to the dawn.