Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- identity_of_trees_walks [2014-08-01 15:27] – rasa
+++ identity_of_trees_walks [2014-08-01 15:56] – rasa
@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 Are we ready to allow and embrace the necessity?
-If you want to join the silent political Party of Trees you have to complete this walk and listen to the stories thees trees are telling you.
+You can join the silent political Party of Trees by completing one of these walks and by listening to the stories thees trees are telling you.
-  === Tree walk in Forêt de Soignes ===
+  ===Tree walk in Forêt de Soignes===
+  in the framework of [[http://www.bessst.be/|Bessst]]
+  [[http://libarynth.org/_media/watermaal_bosvoorde_treewalk.png|Link to map]]
   * Oak
-  * Elder
+  * Vlier, Elder, Sambucus
+Please meet this pharmacist of the forest.
+Small and scruffy bush with tinny leaves in the early spring, doesn't attract lots of attention. But wait till it starts blossoming!
+It will be swarmed with insects.  And in the autumn they get replaced by birds.
+Elder  is beneficial not only to the animals.
+People have been using it for ages.
+Not only enjoying sweet smell and taste of the blossom in the teas and syrups but also making jams from berries.
+The entire tree is to be used for healing purposes.
+Flowers and berries are used in treating the flu, alleviating allergies, and boosting overall respiratory health.
+As well Elder is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, dissolved in wine, for rheumatism and traumatic injury
+But be careful. Some powers can become danger.
+Eating row berries can cause nausea and stomach aches.
+Branches from the elder are also used to make the flutes. Magic flute? Sounds can heal deepest illnesses...
+In common with other trees with white blossom, such as hawthorn and rowan, the elder had strong associations with Faery- and Goddess-centred mythology. Like rowan, the elder was thought of as being a protective tree, and it was auspicious if it was growing near one's dwelling, especially if it had seeded itself there. If the rowan's place was traditionally at the front of the house, the elder's was at the back door, to keep evil spirits and other negative influences from entering the home. The aroma exuded by the elder's leaves has long been known to repel flies, so this folklore may have been borne out of the need to keep such insects, and the diseases that they carried, away from the kitchen and food. Bunches of leaves were hung by doorways, in livestock barns, and attached to horses' harnesses for the same reason. Elder was traditionally planted around dairies and it was thought to be efficacious in keeping the milk from 'turning'. Cheese cloths and other linen involved in dairying were hung out to dry on elder trees, and the smell they absorbed from the leaves may have contributed to hygiene in the dairy. Elder trees were also traditionally planted by bake houses as protection from the Devil (what with all those hellishly hot ovens within!) and loaves and cakes put out to cool under the elders. Any foods left out overnight under an elder however were considered a gift to the faeries.
+In common with many other native trees and plants with potent pagan associations, the elder subsequently had negative Christian legends associated with it, to suppress earlier beliefs.The elder was doubly cursed as being the tree from which Judas Iscariot hanged himself, as well as being one of several trees 'accused' of having supplied the wood for the Crucifixion Cross (oak and aspen being other popular culprits), though the small size of the elder trees and the fact that Jesus would not have struggled under the weight of a crossbar made of such a lightweight wood as elder make this highly unlikely.
+Notwithstanding these negative beliefs, elder continued to be put to such a wide range of medicinal uses that the mediaeval herbalist John Evelyn called it "a kind of Catholicon against all Infirmities whatever". Washing her face in dew gathered from elderflowers was believed to enhance and preserve a woman's youthful beauty, and derivatives of elder continue to be used in skin cleansers such as Eau de Sareau, and eye lotions. Elderberry wine, elderflower cordial and dried elderflowers for infusion are all still commercially available. A couple of cups of hot elderflower tea before bedtime helps to bring on a cleansing sweat to combat cold and 'flu-like symptoms, and elderberry drinks were formerly prescribed to sooth throat complaints. A fine elderflower champagne can be made using the yeasts naturally present in the blossoms, which can also be dipped in a batter and eaten as fritters.
   * Hazelnut
   * Hornbeam
   * Alder
@@ Line 39: / Line 64: @@
-   ===Tree walk in the centre of Brussels===
+  [[Tree walk in the centre of Brussels]]
+  in the framework of [[http://www.bessst.be/|Bessst]]
   *Fig Prutske
@@ Line 49: / Line 75: @@
-   ===Round table discussion/walk for States of the Arts===
+   [[Round table discussion/walk for States of the Arts]]
    We where invited to present the idea of Silent Political Party of Trees at the round table discussion during the event    State of the arts in Brussels http://fo.am/state-arts/