#echinacea

Are you a lifelong learner? Continual learning is good for our brains! 

Publishing with a hybrid publisher taught me a lot. ✍️Authors I know who have traditional publishers sacrifice control over how their book looks; how they’re marketed & positioned; & they give up a lot of control over the content they create. For example, if a traditional author decides they want an audiobook, they can’t go off & create one on their own—It goes through the publisher.

I spent months learning how to write a book. I didn’t know there was a process. Each week, besides writing, fellow authors spent hours in live workshops & met with editors & coaches. ️ It was harder than the math class  I was required to take last summer, which nearly killed me.

In my weekly meeting with my editor, I told him NDP reminded me of the quote, “Give a man a fish,  & you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, & you feed him for a lifetime.”

The authors in my cohort were empowered because we had the support to learn how to do everything. ‍Our books perform better than the average first-time indie author. NDP showed us how to avoid the mistakes inexperienced authors make. NDP taught us to publish like a second-time author.

If you think you have a book in you, maybe consider checking out New Degree Press (or something like it). The winter cohort has begun, ❄️but maybe it’s something to think about for spring. Authors are international , & workshops & meetings are scheduled across 19 time zones. It’s amazing.

I’m not saying the experience was perfect, but it was perfect enough to get my book published & perform well! 

This post is what marketers call “UGC,” or user-generated content. UGC is powerful because it’s unpaid, authentic & trustworthy. If your friends share products or services because they like them, it’s likely UGC. (I learned that at Bellevue College!)

Happy weekends to you all & thank you again for your support! 
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Photos: #summerflowers #echinacea #echinaceaflowers #chrysanthemums #lavenderlove #seattlegardens #RainierValley #firsttimeauthor #NDP #newdegreepress #indieauthors #indieauthorsofig #UGC
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(at Rainier Valley, Seattle)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CTY_OjFrIjg/?utm_medium=tumblr

“Echinacea purpurea growing with wild bergamot”

                                Elderberries!

I was out riding my bike when I came across these elderberry shrubs. I noticed that most of the berries were very ripe. Only a few clusters were immature. I didn’t have my foraging gear with me at the time so I had to go back for them and I knew I couldn’t put it off. I had to act right away.

When I went back I managed to get a good amount. I picked the whole clusters not the individual berries. So when I got home I had to process them to get the berries off the stems. To make it easy some people freeze them first. I have never tried it that way. I used the fork method. That’s when you use a fork to comb through the clusters knocking off the berries from the stems. That worked very well!

There are many recipes to choose from and I’m sure they all have their place. I made a very basic elderberry syrup which consists of 2 parts elderberry tea (decoction) and one part honey (raw is best) I mixed that with 1 part 100 proof vodka. You can use any type of alcoholic drink, brandy, bourbon, etc.. You just have to make sure that the final product has at least 20% alcohol if you want a super long shelf life. Without the alcohol the syrup will have a relatively short shelf life. With the alcohol the shelf life becomes almost infinite. 

I went one step further with the vodka. I used the 100 proof vodka to tincture the echinacea then mixed the tincture with the syrup. It’s a very popular combination. Both elderberry and echinacea boost the immune system, but echinacea is an antibacterial, and elderberry is antiviral so you have all of the bases covered. The echinacea doesn’t seem to affect the taste too much at all.

Flu Busting Echinacea and Elderberry Syrup

Echinacea

Echinacea fights inflammation, bacterial and viral infections.  It is good for the immune and the lymphatic systems.  It is helpful for allergies, colds, flu and other infections.  You can read more about echinacea for colds here. 

Elderberry 

According to Nutritional Healing, elderberry fights inflammation and relieves coughs and congestion . It enhances immune system function, lowers fevers and soothes the respiratory tract.  It is very effective against flu viruses.

All Photographs by Gary Cremese

Echinacea paradoxa

July heat, road side dolostone glades, and a Missouri species and wide barren endemic that didn’t fall into the same collapse as many other cedar glade adapted species fell into, luckily this species does not fit into the plight narrow endemics now slowly coming back from the brink of habitat closure in other states faced. 

It’s always nice being able to see barren species in-situ for the first time in person and catching these at the end of anthesis was lucky. 

As it goes, Bush’s/MO/ Paradox yellow daisy, dolomite glade flower, found it’s self suitably in the south eastern portion of MO among the many Dolomite barrens in exposed south facing hillsides of the southern Ozark Range. These habitats were preserved by natural dry balding and 100 % natural fires for quite some time before active fire suppression became an issue. Lightning strike fires are fantastic and were once extremely common in the hills of the Ozarks, because of this, indigenous peoples and woodland bison genocide didn’t prohibit the growth of these barrens for quite some time, unlike the rest of the united states, which was ecologically connected with these interactions. 

As for disjunction of core 

Oklahoma’s southern most mountains and a small barren network in one county of Texas are the only other places to see this, and in those counties, it is fairly rare.

Captured this scene just as the sun was slipping down below the treeline.  Wanted to savor all these beauties since the season’s first frost is near.  So far it’s only glanced us… flower on guys … flower on !!!

October 15   ~   Catharpin, Virginia

And they keep on flowering …   Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea with Coreopsis tripteris just coming into bloom.    

Late August - Catharpin, Virginia  

A very wild woodland edge mix showing some mid summer color.  This is what happens when you plant a few things and let nature do her thing for the most part.   Coneflowers, Monarda and River Oats have created their own composition to the delight of butterflies, hummingbird moths and bumblebees.  

Early summer and already a too long stretch of over 90 degree days.  

Good bye to the soft pinks, lavenders and dark purples of May, hello to the strong colors of these summer perennials getting ready for a long summer show. 

Early July     Catharpin, Virginia

Early June already and time for the first of the echinacea to appear in the landscape.   This is Echinacea pallida with her long drooping petals dancing through the garden at dusk.

~Catharpin, Virginia - first week in june

Wild Flower Eater

Gouache on paper, 2021

by Kelly Louise Judd

Swallowtail Hand

Block print, 2020

by Kelly Louise Judd

The Good Wolf

Gouache on paper, 2020

by Kelly Louise Judd

Drawing for Hunter Organic Growers Society, 2015

Have to treat the body good! #pukka #elderberry #echinacea #organic #tea #healthy #health #immunityboost
https://www.instagram.com/p/CcoEbojO07z/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Before the flower blooms.

John Francis Peters 
https://www.facebook.com/JohnFrancisPetersArt/

♥ Echinacea harvest  ♥