The Apothecary’s Apprentice

Ummm – that would be me!

Perhaps it’s best to start by saying what I am NOT!  I’m not a botanist, bio-chemist, horticulturalist or any other ‘-ist’, for that matter.  In fact I haven’t studied chemistry or any branch of biology since I was fourteen, when I gave them up to pursue a curriculum consisting almost entirely of arts subjects.  You’ll appreciate from all this that I’m not coming at this blog from the standpoint of a scientist, and I make no scientific claims regarding any of it.  What’s more, the science only interests me to the extent that I need to understand the alchemy of what will and what won’t combine.  That aside, all I want to know is – does this stuff work for me?  If so, that’s proof enough.

So that’s what I’m not.  What am I, then, and who am I?

Well, around 25 years ago I went to my GP following a debilitating series of tension-induced headaches.  It didn’t take very long for me to work out that Western medicine, marvellous though it truly is for many conditions, didn’t have the answer for stress-related disorders.  Thus began my lifelong interest in complementary and alternative therapies, and over the years I’ve tried many of them for various ailments and disorders.  Alongside this I’ve amassed a small library of books on herbs, edible flowers, soapmaking and the like, together with a herb patch and a useful collection of essential oils that I dip into now and then when I need them.  Prior to starting this blog, although I wished I had a better grasp on this subject, all I really did was to dip in to the topic every now and then.

For a number of reasons – not least being that the tension headaches have recently returned with a vengeance! – in January 2010 I resolved to devote more time to learning about how to use herbs, flowers and vegetables to enhance my health and wellbeing, and that of my family.  In doing so I am very much ‘The Apothecary’s Apprentice’, starting pretty much from the beginning and looking forward to seeing how far I can develop.

I share my life with my husband, two teenage sons and one golden retriever, and we live on the Isle of Wight, a diamond-shaped island with a year-round mild climate just off England’s south coast.  Apart from dabbling in herbs, cooking with the seasons and blogging I enjoy a range of creative pursuits including photography.  You can see more of these other aspects of my life on my main blog, Postcards from Wildwood .  Unless otherwise stated, all the photographs you will see on these pages are my own.