The Herbal Gathering and Fair

Hello Again,

I had a great time this past weekend at the herbal
gathering. The weather was beautiful on Saturday,
for my workshop and field walk. They went over
quite well, and I was pleased with the number of
people who participated in both events.

There always seem to be surprises on a field walk.
I was delighted to find the cat spruce (white spruce)
growing so plentifully in the Ship Harbour area. The
eastern shore of Nova Scotia seems to have a large
number of those trees. We were also able to locate
the indian tobacco (lobelia), although the plants were
quite small, and hadn't blssomed. The final rather
outstanding discovery for me, personally, was a
patch of bearberry plants. I hadn't noticed the plants;
they were found by one of the participants. I had
intended to collect some of the leaves before
returning home on Sunday, but neglected it.

I did make one rather glaring mistake during the field
walk, and that was to briefly mis-identify a stand of
young birch trees for alder! Often, simple mistakes
can be easy to make, when in the middle of a field
walk. I've made many mistakes over the years. It's
something one learns to live with, when doing such
things. But, mistake alder... I blame it on the heat:))

In the end, I think everyone at the herbal gathering
had a fulfilling and eventful weekend. I certainly made
a lot of connections, and renewed some old
connections. I look forward to participating in next
year's herbal weekend!

All the best!
Laurie