Celebrating the natural world with Claire Mullan, Strathearn's own Hedgerow Hippy.

What a treat - a trip to Claire's Herb Hut at Cultybraggan Camp (Comrie) to learn about her 'Herb of the Week'. This week, we were finding out about Tilia (Lime Tree Flower), all the while relaxing in a truly glorious part of our world.

Most often views are vast. To appreciate this one you'll need to swap your binoculars for a magnifying glass and look closely.

Claire's self-seeding (with some starter-planting to get it going) herb garden has turned into a meadow, and she's only four summers in. It's a small corner of our planet, but cherished - and vast in variety of indigenous* Scottish wildlife.

Even better, Claire is a fully-qualified herbalist and knows how to (sustainably) gather the different parts of her plants (and indeed wild plants all over the region) which she prepares as medicines for her patients.

Today's herb Tilia is a calming herb. It can actually reduce high blood pressure, not just by relaxing one's arteries (which it does), but also by reducing one's stress levels - an underlying contributing factor in high blood pressure.

As Claire says, herbalist philosophy is to treat the person, not the symptoms, to get to the cause of the manifesting health issues.

Today's herb garden visit witnessed a fledgling blackbird straight out its nest for the first time. A spiky, bluish spotted caterpillar (my mum would know which), and the flowers Angelica and Self Heal (Prunella Vulgaris).

No doubt for me that the freshly brewed (and delicious) Tilia tea helped me slow down to appreciate the wonder of each discovery.

Find out more about Claire's Herb Hut and medical practice here: https://www.facebook.com/TheHedgerowHippy/

Or book an English Class with Blue Noun English Language School (Crieff)!

Claire Mullan will introduce her Herbal Medicine Practice on our Meet The Makers English immersion programme.

Blue Noun

Live Language Learning!

*Just in case you don't know, indigenous plant species are critical to supporting our wildlife as their cycles are the ones that insects rely on. Designer plant species might look pretty, but seldom offer the same habitat and support to wildlife. Keep Gardens Natural!