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Elderberries are Flu-Fighters (New Study)

One summer day a few years ago our younger son pointed out various exotic trees as we walked around our neighborhood.  One with clumps of  luscious blue-black berries caught my eye.  Black Elderberry.  I asked if the berries were edible, and he said they were.  And the black elderberry ( Sambucus racermosa ssp pubens var melanocarpa ) is native to our Vancouver Island.  As someone wanting to grow only native trees in my yard, I have the ethical go-ahead. (To read about why we should grow native trees if we grow trees, see this article about botanist Diana Beresford-Kroeger.) And... did the berries not have some medicinal benefits? I wondered aloud.  He told me that indeed elderberries were noteworthy for staving off and remedying colds  coughs, sore throats and flu.  Customers' Most-Loved Gifts Click to learn more...  A New Study  from the University of Sydney, Australia, published in 2019 in the Journal of Functional Foods...  shows that this amazing berry contains phyt

Granny Taps with the 12th Annual TWS

The 12th Annual Tapping World Summit is online now (February 24 to March 4, 2020) If it is still on when you read this, you can click the image above to register free. TAPPING:  Tapping on body meridians to deal with any number of issues and goals, from easing a recurring headache to becoming a confident, self-caring unstoppable on the way to success in all areas of your life, is not a newly introduced "energy medicine."  But this is the first time I have done an article on it in some time, so if you are new to the concept, and curious how it works, here is a useful video to watch: Suggestions on How To Tap with Brad Yates   After you get over the feeling that it is a woo-woo thing, you will understand when Brad says "The only silly thing about tapping is not doing it." The Tapping World Summit is the longest-running online "summit" or series of webinars of interviews with prominent experts in the Tapping Community.  The Ortner family-- si

No-Sew Fabric ART!

"Duke" Fabric on Stretched Canvas by Barbara Yates Beasley Before Christmas I put together a 10-day series of Christmas crafts and gluten-free cookie recipes for people to do by themselves or with their child, mom, friend-- even thinking about the crafting gave me a huge jolt of creative aspiration.  I am gung ho to take that creative surge into 2020-- I will call it "my 2020 Vision." While I love fabric art-- art quilts and the like-- I do not own a sewing machine, and confession, I am not a good seamstress/sew-er.  But I absolutely drool over the quilts I see that express feeling and perspective in much the way that artists do without other media. So, I have been spending quite a lot of time on Pinterest lately, and guess what I found?  I found a delightful way to do "fabric art on canvas"-- in other words, to paint a picture on a canvas with pieces of fabric-- no sewing required! Fabric Art on Canvas Here are some examples with links to thei

Yummy Vegan Chia Nog Pudding

I am extending the Christmas season a tad so that we can enjoy some more of that nog flavour that we were just getting into! This chia not pudding recipe is: vegan (no eggs, no dairy). I am a vegan who considers raw honey as just nectar passed through a bee... some call us bee-gans.  Sub for the honey in the recipe with maple syrup or 4 dates. gluten-free (no gluten proteins) full of chia protein, which is the form that chia carbs take! full of chia's pretty balanced omega fatty acids (good for the brain) very tasty in that recognizable noggy way sweet, but not cloyingly sweet like the commercial nog can be eaten all year long or just saved up as a Christmas tradition INGREDIENTS FOR CHIA NOG PUDDING 14 oz/414 ml   full-fat coconut milk 2 tablespoons  raw honey or maple syrup or 4 soft pitted dates 1 teaspoon       ground cinnamon 1/2-1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 2 teaspoons      vanilla extract 6 tablespoons   chia seed (or 10 tablespoons chia gel*) (Makes