Walk #210: Black Berries, Stellar Jays, Poison Oak and Raccoons...

I'm back at our Foothills home for a brief visit. This morning Angel and I took a rather longish walk. Much needed for my sense of well being and self nourishment. Speaking of nourishing, I stopped to eat some wild Black Berries, which are in season now.

Part of the large Black Berry patch along the walk:

The Poison Oak is turning red. This extensive patch has plants that are five feet tall. I had a patient that had a small rash of Poison Oak on her. In the hospital we were treating her with calamine lotion. Being a Native American, she was quite upset with our ineffective treatment.

She told me the best treatment is to boil some Manzanita leaves. Then you take the tea and use it to clean the rash. I'm going to try this with my next break out (although I resisted the urge to slog through the patch below in order to inoculate myself).

Makes sense to me that there would be a natural treatment which grows amongst the Poison Oak. Cinnamon bark has been found to be effective in lowering blood sugar. Cinnamon is found in the tropics where much of the diet is fruit. The cinnamon helps to augment the fructose.

Nature is smart. Has its own intelligence. We just need to be smart enough to see it.

The Stellar Jays are coming back down from the higher elevations. I found this Stellar Jay feather. I could hear them squawking in the trees. Stellar Jay feathers are magical omens for Joni and me.

And I came across these Raccoon tracks. I've been looking for Bear tracks but haven't found any. Joni tells me that she found some big Bear tracks the other day while collecting Black Berries.

Now I head back to Napa to work a couple of double shifts tomorrow and Saturday. We need money right now and the Universe has obliged with tons of overtime. That is the nice thing about being a nurse; it isn't a fixed income. Need money? Look for more hours (they are usually there to be found in a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week profession).