The year began quietly and coldly for many of us, under the glowing light of a Wolf Supermoon. Named for the howling of hungry wolves that once echoed across these lands, the Wolf Moon appeared in Cancer- a watery, emotional invitation to take stock of the year just passed. It offered a moment to come together in community, celebrate progress, reflect on challenges, and prepare for the next stages in the cycle: letting go, turning inward, and resting.

With this in mind, we’ve been reflecting on our year at Movement in Thyme.

Our 2025 began with a snowy drive to Balfron, gathering as directors of a project we all care deeply about. We shared plans for the year ahead, let go of some ideas, dreamed up a thousand more, and began planting the seeds of the work that has unfolded over the past twelve months.

Growing roots in Glasgow 

In Glasgow, we established a medicinal and culinary herb garden at Glasgow Autonomous Space (GAS)– home to our Glasgow Solidarity Medicine Making sessions, workshops, and Winter Wellness Herbal Mutual Aid events. With funding from the Grow Wild Community Programme at Kew, we transformed a small patch of bamboo into a herbal haven.

Accessible-height planters now hold culinary herbs for GAS Community Meals, while raised beds grow everything from calendula to coltsfoot, horseradish to hops. This year, we allowed the herbs to settle into their new homes with minimal harvesting, and we’re excited to grow alongside them in the year ahead.

Huge thanks go to Tami Pein for fundraising and coordination support, Em Elliot-Walker for their beautiful garden design and build, Green Wheels Glasgow and the many volunteers who helped us clear spiky shrubs and bamboo. We also want to thank our friends at Gallant and Proprogate for helping us set up a community composting system — turning food waste from GAS community meals into compost that nourishes our plants, which in turn nourish our communities.

Making medicine together

Alongside our many talented facilitators, we hosted a wide range of workshops at GAS and across Glasgow. Together, we inoculated logs to grow medicinal mushrooms, learned key herbal medicine-making skills, built planters, created hapazome flower prints, blended teas and hot chocolates, and made salves, oils, bath salts, throat sprays, and more.

Over the year, we made thousands of remedies, which were shared through our pay-what-you-can Community Apothecaries, partner organisations, pop-up apothecaries, community events, and with our friends at Mobile Herbal Clinic Calais.

In May, we joined Scotland’s Wild Food Festival, sharing remedies and delivering workshops in nettle cordage and natural dyes, as well as hosting Solidarity Medicine Making sessions- keeping our core aim of sharing herbs with our communities at the heart of everything we do.

Deepening solidarity & support 

Over the winter months, much of our focus shifted to intensive remedy-making to support community health and wellbeing. From August onwards, we entered three months of concentrated medicine making, producing over 1,200 remedies for colds, flus, coughs, muscle aches, and more.

This work culminated in December at our Winter Wellness Herbal Mutual Aid event, where we shared nourishing soup, made art, connected with neighbours, and gave out over 800 remedies in a single afternoon.

This winter, we strengthened and deepened several key partnerships:

• FOSS (Falkirk)– supporting male asylum seekers living in a Mears hotel that is targeted weekly by right-wing anti-immigration protests. We provided remedies before Christmas and will continue to offer support in the months ahead.
• Stirling Resettlement Team– working with refugee families through herb garden visits, workshops, and plant sharing.
• Forth Valley Welcome– with plans to expand support as more asylum seekers are moved into the Stirling area.

We also continued and expanded our work with NHS Greater Glasgow Health Improvement Team, supplying remedies to female asylum seekers in Mears Housing, as well as two new supported living houses: Say Women and Simon Scotland. Alongside this, we continued close collaboration with Mobile Clinic Calais.

In total, over 1,200 products were distributed this Christmas alone.

Throughout the year, we delivered 30 paid workshops in collaboration with other organisations- helping sustain our work while sharing skills and care.

Planting seeds for the future 

We began laying foundations for a Herb Garden Network across Glasgow and the central belt, aiming to share resources, knowledge, and community through growing herbs. We look forward to gathering with our friends from Grassroots Remedies, Propogate, Kinning Park Complex and more in March. If you’re part of a community garden that grows herbs in the central belt and would like to be involved, we’d love to hear from you.

Looking ahead, we’re developing new partnerships with Homeless Project Scotland– providing winter care items from January, The Glasgow Seed Library– supporting seed-to-remedy workshops and herbal seed sharing and many others.

We’re also exploring ways to make our herb garden more sensory-inclusive and accessible, including conversations with Forth Valley Sensory Centre.

Alongside this, we’re working to strengthen our financial sustainability through a small number of shops and cafés stocking our products, and by developing The Rest Protest– a programme aimed at people working in the humanitarian sector, including a book, public workshops, and wellbeing sessions for organisations.

Our aim remains clear: to build and strengthen relationships so we can support asylum seekers, New Scots, and Scots who are struggling, creating inclusive spaces that foster understanding, care, and solidarity.

Looking to the light 

As the days slowly lengthen and the first signs of life stir beneath the soil, we’re harnessing the energy of Imbolc– a time of renewal and new beginnings- to announce our first Solidarity Herbal Collective monthly meet-up at GAS.

This next phase is about rooting our work even more deeply in community, collective care, and sustainability.

We’ll be coming together to:

• Make herbal remedies for community wellbeing
• Grow and care for medicinal herbs
• Strengthen herbal mutual aid
• Share skills, ideas, and visions for the future

Whether you’re a hoose herbalist, hedge witch, medical herbalist, gardener, or simply plant-curious, you are warmly welcome.

Sunday 15th February (and every 3rd Sunday of the month)
2–4pm
GAS, Unit 9, Hollybrook Place

As ever, if you’d like to support our work, you can donate via our website, purchase remedies from our online shop, or keep an eye out for upcoming workshops and events.

Thank you for travelling with us through this year’s adventure. May the returning light bless you.

With gratitude, solidarity, and springtime hope,
Movement in Thyme

Brat Bhríde on Imbolc eve, a Palestinian Keffiyeh, a prayer for liberation, protection and healing for all oppressed peoples.

We are super excited to be launching our first ever Movement in Thyme weekend retreat, taking place Summer 2025 at the magical Tir Na Nog Holistic Centre near Loch Lomond in the Trossachs.

This is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in a beautiful weekend of natural wellness knowing that what you’ve spent on your retreat is going straight back into our community wellbeing work with marginalised groups across central Scotland.

What to expect.

Arrive on Friday evening to a welcome ceremony, introductions and a nutritious vegetarian meal provided by the onsite cafe.

On Saturday, after a delicious DIY breakfast provided by the cafe, we are offering an awakening vinyasa yoga class in the beautiful studio space followed by free time to explore the grounds, rest or receive a massage (at added cost). After lunch we will host a herbal workshop, learning about healing herbs and making your own products, followed by some free time, dinner and a relaxing bedtime Yin yoga practice with extended savasana.

Sunday will consist of DIY breakfast provided by the cafe, a forest bathing session and outdoor yoga. After lunch we will facilitate another herbal workshop followed by some free time (optional massage), dinner and closing ceremony, finishing with a deeply relaxing Yoga Nidra practice.

On Monday mornings, we host weekly herbal gardening volunteer sessions in the onsite medicinal herb garden which you would be very welcome to join if you don’t need to rush off.

The details:

Movement in Thyme Natural Wellness Retreat 

When: 25-27th July 2025

Where: Tir Na Nog Holistic Centre

What: Yoga, herbal workshops, forest bathing. 

Cost: Price varies depending on accommodation choice – camping or Lodge House accommodation available.

We would love to welcome you to this special retreat. Please email info@movementinthyme.com to register interest and receive more information.

We are now one year into the witnessing of genocide in Palestine and still there seems to be no move by the international community to condemn these acts, let alone stop them. Instead we are seeing the increase in horrific genocidal acts in Northern Gaza with many Israeli settlers waiting to take ‘ownership’ of the land, once they have got the remaining people ‘out of their way’.

Back in May 2024 Ruth Glasgow (Coffee Politik CIC) and I interviewed Yousef Abu Rabea, a farmer in Northern Gaza for my podcast The Sage’s Cabin. I was in contact with Yousef for a time after via WhatsApp to check he was still alive and that his project was going ok. He was a determined and inspirational young man. When other people were fleeing he stood his ground and resisted the occupation doing what he knew best, farming. He stayed on his land choosing the ‘dig where you stand’ approach. As the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) starved people in the North, Yousef planted seeds to grow food for his family and his community. As his plants grew so did his dreams and ambitions and he started to grow seedlings to pass onto his neighbours and community, empowering them to grow food for themselves, joining him in the non-violent resistance to tactical famine – resistance to occupation, to genocide.

Yousef’s fundraiser at the time was raising money for his farm and family, and to help the other farmers in the area continue to produce food for the people. His work was a direct refusal to accept the occupation of his homeland, which has long denied Palestinians’ their indigeneity and is (still) strategically starving the people of Gaza, especially those in the North, with around 50% of homes unable to eat (this number is likely higher now). Amidst violence and terror, Yousef was championing Food Sovereignty in the face of and as resistance to the IOF.

His life was targeted, and he narrowly escaped.

As Yousef became more high profile on social media and news outlets he knew he would become even more of a target. The occupiers could not let this direct challenge continue. His farm was targeted and crops destroyed, but he managed to save some seeds and plants and continued planting. He continued to nourish the little bits of land left unburned, and to nourish his community.

On the 21st of October the occupiers caught up with him when he was delivering vegetables and he was martyred. Yousef said from the outset that even if the occupiers killed him his legacy would continue and the farmers of Gaza would continue to cultivate the land. Palestinians have endured years of brutal trauma, water and food shortages by the Israelis. They are survivors and resilient but even they can only handle so much in the face of genocide. Yousef has shown us with his tenacity that connection with the land is important, our ability to cultivate our own food is vital. His legacy is seeding sovereignty and this should be a wakeup call and a call to action to everyone. Resistance is essential. Non-violent resistance is possible.

As a memorial to him we are naming our herbal garden at Glasgow Autonomous Space after him, as a way to commemorate his death, celebrate his life and continue the work he started in our own country.

Yousef Abu Rabea, aged 24, was martyred on 21 October 2024 whilst delivering vegetables to his community. His legacy lives on.

You can hear Yousef on The Sage’s Cabin podcast here.

You can donate to towards Yousef’s legacy work here.

Our most recent programme at Movement in Thyme is the Solidarity for Justice events.  These events raise awareness of issues around the globe, connect the audience live with people from across the world and raise awareness of the speakers project. This platform provides the speakers with an opportunity to ask the public to take action to support them, their country or project and to help challenge the hostile environment developing in the UK for refugees by sharing their experiences from their home countries and helping to increase awareness here. Our aim is to work against the imperial systems that try to separate and dehumanise us and to work in solidarity with other social justice organisations worldwide.

On Friday evening we ran another Films for Justice event, this time looking at the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  As we watch the horrific genocide in Palestine, it is important to remember there is also one occurring in the DRC, a forgotten genocide which we are not seeing due to low reporting and a lack of people there owning smart phones and sharing pictures directly to our screens.  Currently, 6.7 million People in the DRC are internally displaced and 400,000 women are raped each year, the highest rate of sexual violence in the world.  

The situation in the Congo is being exacerbated by the West’s drive for progress in becoming more ‘green’.  Our desire for electric cars, for example, is having a devastating impact on the people and land in the Congo. Tens of thousands of people are employed by multinational corporations to mine cobalt, copper and coltan in unsafe, life threatening work conditions to source the resources needed to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. The fallout from these mines is also having disastrous environmental effects on the surrounding land and waters.

Our speaker for the evening was Freddy, the Co-founder and Director of Women Concern, live from the Congo.  He set up the charity after witnessing first hand the inequalities experienced by women and girls.

“In my home village, less than 1% of my female colleagues, managed to complete their primary education. In their teenage years (no more than 17 years old), they had all become women and their future was thus blinded. Added to this are concerns related to armed violence committed against women in our country and more particularly in its eastern part. For more than two decades, the Eastern part of our country has been plunged into armed conflicts following multiple armed groups that have proliferated and weakened communities there, especially women and girls, through sexual violence, which has also become a weapon of war. Women Concern was born from that bad experience accumulated since my childhood in the village, that I even found supported by the laws and governance, traditions and culture around the whole DRC and which is linked to social constructs that hinder the development of women and girls by limiting their personal development as well as their inclusion in the social, cultural, economic and political life of the country. Women Concern stands out to restore the dignity of the mother of humanity, woman.”

Freddy told us about the various projects and initiatives they run to empower women to run their own businesses and make a difference in their society.  For example, they set up committees of women peace ambassadors and empower them with negotiation and conflict resolution skills.  In another project they help women to set up a business making and selling reusable sanitary pads. This project not only empowers the new business women with income to feed her family or buy medicines, but also enables the women receiving the pads to continue going to school or work during their monthly bleed, giving her more freedom and control.

Movement in Thyme has partnered with Women Concern to work on their environmental project where we will be helping rural women in their area to regenerate the soil, grow medicinal and culinary plants and to diversify women’s livelihoods.

Women Concern are currently setting up their online donation systems but if you would like to donate to them please get in contact with us and we will let you know once they have these in place.  Even small donations can make a huge difference to someones life.

You can read more about Women Concern here. You can support us to support them by attending events and workshop, buying our products or donating to our projects supporting marginalised groups at home and overseas. Find out more here.

Rox Madeira is the Founder of Movement in Thyme and acts as a Director and Facilitator across multiple projects.

Community herb gardening is a key pillar of our work at Movement in Thyme. We use herbs a lot in our medicine and remedy making and when we were kindly offered some garden space at Tir Na Nog Holistic Centre near Drymen, we jumped at the chance to be able to grow some of the herbs we use regularly ourselves and to make the important processes of planting, growing, harvesting, processing, and learning more about herbs and their uses, part of our wider community engagement.

But growing our own herbs for use in our products is only one benefit of this offering. Having a community growing space enables us to do so much more.

FIVE REASONS WHY COMMUNITY GARDENING IS AMAZING.

Tackling social isolation. Our weekly volunteer sessions are a chance for people from all walks of life to come together, providing opportunities for inter-generational and cross cultural connection. Sharing space, working together, learning from and about each other are gentle but hugely powerful ways to build connection, relationships and community.

Green gym. Gardening is great exercise! A couple of hours of digging, weeding, lifting, reaching and squatting will get your heart pumping and your body moving, helping build strength and stamina. And all in the fresh air of the great outdoors.

Improved mental wellbeing. It is well documented that getting out in nature is a powerful way to improve mental wellbeing. Getting our hands dirty is literally grounding. Increased exposure to sunlight (even on cloudy days!) can increase the brain’s release of the serotonin hormone which elevates our mood and brings about a sense of calm and focus. Regular nature connection can really benefit those who experience anxiety and depression.

Education and learning. Everyone who comes to the garden brings with them their own personal wealth of knowledge and skills in so many different areas, whether garden related or not. We’re also lucky to have a resident gardening expert and herbalist on site every Monday. Gardening as a community gives us time to share, learn and plan together, share skills, ask questions and everyone takes something new away each time we meet.

Sustainable and environmentally friendly. A community herb garden allows us to grow what we need in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way, using traditional growing and permaculture methods. We utilse food waste from the on site cafe and even the resident horse’s manure! Nothing goes to waste and everything we build, from raised beds, to seating, to signage, is made from recycled or upcycled products.

…

Over the last few weeks we’ve been busy clearing and preparing the growing spaces and planting herbs and trees including; echinacea, arnica, fennel, caraway, st johns wort, thyme, sage, chamomile, nettle, solomans seal, elder, hazel, witch hazel, hyssop, California poppy, comfrey, tansy, catmint, calendula, bay, sweet violet, crab apple, dogwood, sweet cicely, lavender, rosemary, wood betony, burdock, horehound, skullcap, woad and dyers chamomile.

Community Garden Workshops

We are delighted we’re now ready to start inviting groups to the garden to take part in workshops with us and we’re so excited to be welcoming our first two groups to the garden next week. Sessions can include activities like planting and tending to the garden, a fire circle with herbal tea blending (and drinking!) and whittling sticks for marshmallow toasting, hapazoming, mindfulness and natural jewelry making.

If you are connected to a community group supporting refugees and asylum seekers, vulnerable young people, elderly people, people with disabilities, or anyone else experiencing marginalisation or isolation please get in touch to find out more about arranging a workshop with us.

Sarah Catnach is a Director and Facilitator for Movement in Thyme, specialising in movement and mindfulness.

Spring has (almost!) sprung, and the winds of March are sweeping across the landscape, with the slow creeping warmth of the sun to freshen the earth once more. With the moveable fast of Easter appearing at the end of the month, we can begin March with the promise of chocolatey goodness and spiced buns to come.

We can expect the first signs on the spring cleansers pushing their way up from the waking earth. Cleavers (Galium aparine), Dandelion (Taraxacum off.), Plantain (Plantago major), nettle (Urtica dioica) and joyful Daisy (Bellis perennis) begin to flourish, a sign that, should we wish to, nature is also offering us a way to begin to refresh our systems after the long dark of winter.

As a herbalist and forager, I’m drawn to walking the woods and valleys of the countryside at this time. It lifts my spirits to see the first colours of these healing plants begin to break through the tired, drab beaten-down grasses and turf, thrashed by rain and snows of the winter.  Soon we will see sunny Primrose and Cowslip (Primula spp), the dappled leaves of Lungwort (Pulmonaria vulgaris) and the sweet, shy purple face of Violet (Viola spp) appearing – nourishment for the wild bees and other precious first pollinators.

One of my favourite ways of aligning with the waking of the natural world at this time is to begin to carefully harvest some of these cleansing plants, particularly Cleavers, pushing a wee bunch of fresh plant matter straight into my water bottle as I walk. Her botanical name, Galium, (Greek for milk) is due to the curdling property of the leaves, used in cheese making, particularly in England.

Spring is the traditional time to cleanse and detox the body from the sluggishness of winter. Cleavers’ gentle clearing action begins to work as I walk, shifting any stubborn metabolic waste from seasonal overindulgence of richer foods and drinks, helping the body’s clever lymphatic system that always works in concert with our circulation, to cleanse and restore. Cleavers’ watery magic works sympathetically, gently stimulating the flow of waters around the body both physically and emotionally, releasing old tired, stuck emotions too, which seems reminiscent of the tiny hooked hairs that make her stick like velcro, and give her the Scots folk name of ‘sticky willy’. She offers renewal, is a mild diuretic, hydrating the body and refreshing our minds. 

Tonic pot herbs’ like cleavers, nutritive foody nettles, and the liver supporting properties of humble dandelion, were much anticipated ingredients of pottage, the rich nourishing staple soup of times past. Our forebears knew of the restorative properties of these first plant helpers. When winter stores were running low, and grains, root veg and cured meats dwindling, the iron, potassium, vitamin and mineral rich properties of fresh green edible plants would have seemed, rightly, like a gift. In The Scots Kitchen (1929) we are told to gather young nettles from patches growing high on the wall. We must strip the few most tender young leaves from the top of the plant and then wash in several changes of salted water which ensures they are clean and also remove any unhelpful, soluble oxalates. 

Perhaps you might consider adding a handful of clean, shredded young dandelion leaves or the rinsed new leaves of nettle to your next spring greens soup pot.

This year, Easter arrives at the end of March. We now understand that Easter is an adoption of an earlier spring festival during Eostramonath, the time of year which is derived from Eostra the pan-Germanic fertility goddess revered in spring, a time of rebirth and renewal.  Our only reference to the goddess Easter is Bede in 725AD yet people were celebrating the Paschal festival, and painting eggs centuries ago and using fluffy bunnies as fertility symbols before that.  

Easter often occurred around the spring equinox, which is the 19th of March this year. So this year, I invite you to talk a walk in nature this equinox, and notice which plants are awakening near you, in your gardens, parks, woodlands or wherever nature pushes her greening way through. Think about which plants are offering their healing where you are, and what, if anything, you’d like to refresh for the return of spring? 

*Information in this blog is not intended as medical advice. Please consult a registered herbalist or your GP for advice of herb/drug interactions with any medications.

Jaye is a herbalist, doula and educator, and a Facilitator for Historical Herbalists

Galium aparine from Prof. Dr. Otto Wilhelm Thomé’s Flora von Deutschland Österreich und der Schweiz. 1885 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Galium_aparine_b.jpg)

Do you love yourself unconditionally? Do you speak to yourself in a way you would to your best friend? The concept of self love and compassion feels icky to most of us. We’ve been conditioned to shy away from loving ourselves as an act of ‘big headedness’, the term ‘she loves herself’ seen as a real slight. We regularly compliment others on how they look or on what they’ve achieved but we’re very quick to criticise and talk negatively to and about ourselves.

In my role as a Wellbeing Coach I speak to many people (mostly, but not exclusively, women) who really struggle to speak kindly to themselves and this can have a hugely negative impact on many other elements of our lives. While I struggle with this as much as the next person, I am passionate about shifting mindsets on this and helping others discover the huge transformations that can occur when you start treating yourself with kindness and compassion.

Here are three exercises to try to invite more self love into your life. Try them and see what happens!

1. “I love you”. Tell yourself, “I love you”. Look yourself in the eye and say it out loud. Initially, you will most likely feel awkward, silly, uncomfortable but try it over the course of a week or even a month and see how much easier it becomes. You might even start to believe it!
2. My Body Is Amazing. Draw the outline of a person on a piece of paper and put your name in the centre. Instead of thinking about all the bits of your body you feel critical towards, label as many part of your body as you can in a positive way. For example, arms to hug, lungs to breathe, nose to smell, feet to run etc. Take a moment to really look at what your amazing body can do and remind yourself that these are the important things.
3. A love letter to yourself. Yes, this one sounds super cringe but it’s so powerful. Create yourself some time away from the chaos of daily life to write yourself a letter. Imagine you are writing to the love of your life. List all the ways in which you are wonderfully you. It can feel hard to start but once you’re off it will begin to flow. If you have been particularly critical of yourself, you could even include an apology and a commitment to be kinder to yourself from here. A client of mine did this daily for a while month and it was truly transformational.

I hope you can make some time to give these a go and reap the rewards. When the wider world feels like such a violent and unsettling place, love yourself unconditionally and I promise you will be more resilient to everything else that’s thrown your way.

Sarah Catnach is a Director and Facilitator for Movement in Thyme. She is a Yoga Teacher and Health + Wellbeing Coach.

I am sitting in my warm home with a cup of tea watching the latest news about the Israel-Palestine genocide, the internal war on drug gangs in Quito, Ecuador, and violence in Congo. It breaks my heart to see all these people suffering. In the last decade the number of refugees in the world doubled to 26 million people! (1)

Most people fear this raise in the global movement of people, fearing specifically that they are going to “invade our country and take our jobs”. The UK government fuels this paranoia while they push forward with their illegal people trafficking plan of transporting asylum seekers to Rwanda rather than giving them asylum in the UK. In fact the UK only takes around 1% of the world’s refugee population. 72% of refugees stay in neighbouring countries (2). Turkey, for example, houses 3.7 million refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan displaced after war. It is estimated that by 2050 up to 1.2 million people will be displaced due to climate change (3) with increases in droughts, floods, fires, earthquakes and other weather-related incidents.

All this can seem very overwhelming, how can we help? What can we do? In regards to refugees, I have volunteered with The Mobile Herbal Clinic Calais since 2019, we run a herbal first aid clinic to Calais once a month. One of my main objectives in setting up Movement in Thyme was to support this project with the work we do in Scotland. MHCC work alongside other agencies in Calais and fill the gap when other agencies like the Red Cross and Medicine San Frontier are unable to be there. We take herbal remedies which we distribute to refugees and also provide first aid treatment and cups of herbal tea. Over the four days, every month, that the clinic team are there they see around 500-600 people. The majority of refugees who are in Calais are from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and South Sudan, the top most dangerous countries in the world to live, according to the Global Peace Index (4). The majority of people seen in the camps are males and this is due to a number of reasons. In Sudan, for example, young men are often killed to stop them rebelling against the government or are used as child soldiers, and in Afghanistan, young men are often targeted for recruitment by radical groups like the Taliban (5). This causes young boys from as young as 12 to flee. Furthermore women and children are often prioritised for social housing and so are less often (not never) seen on the street.

Things in the camps are not comfortable, they are often raided by the French riot police who will slash tents, shoot tear-gas, evict people and throw peoples meagre belongings in the bin; clearing the sites completely. So there is constant need for items. Refugees are often walking around in flip flops, even in freezing conditions, and for example, police will put giant boulders in sheltered places such as under bridges to stop refugees being able to sleep there.

Medical conditions commonly seen at the herbal first aid clinic are respiratory issues, scabies, old, new and infected wounds, itchy skin from insect bites, mites, atopic skin conditions and mosquitos, headaches, chapped lips, allergies, acid reflux, indigestion, constipation, diarrhoea, bruises, sprains, muscles pains, joint pains, fungal infections, corns, blisters, warts and hyperthermia. The remedies we make are therefore things like cough syrup, immune tonic, wound wash, mouth wash, indigestion tablets, anti-itch spray, allergy blends and bruise ointments. We see the remedies working, we hear stories of how they helped people and we know that, unlike for many people in the western world, herbal remedies aren’t an alien concept but a trusted source of healing.

Clinics like this aren’t common, but it isn’t totally unique either. For example, after the earthquake in Haiti and hurricane in New Orleans herbalists were there setting up free clinics to help the people who were suffering from shock and trauma and wounds. Herbs have so much to give. They are the system our bodies have known for millennia. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t take anything away from allopathic medicine, which has its time and place as well.

If any refugees make it to the UK, things are marginally better, but contrary to popular belief they do not end up living in impoverished luxury. With only £7.02 per person per day to cover food, transport and toiletries (6) there is not a lot spare. At Movement in Thyme, we make remedies to leave for refugees to collect in Glasgow and Stirling, and run refugee yoga classes in Stirling. We have had people complain that they do not want to support refugees and if we were supporting other groups then they would be more willing to support our work.

My other reason for setting up Movement in Thyme was that I felt that the pandemic really highlighted the disparities in health in our country and even though herbal medicine is often thought of, and has historically been medicine for the people, it has become inaccessible to many people. I also wanted to marry up herbalism and movement as a way to effectively look after wellbeing preventatively, and to empower people to be able to do this for themselves. Being able to have a toolkit of herbs, movement and mindfulness techniques can really help reduce stress, which causes massive problems for our health. Community is also a major driver of wellness and so we aim to run our workshops with a view to cultivating communities around herbs and wellbeing. Which is why every workshop we run supports marginalised people in our local communities, here in central Scotland, as we empower anyone interested to look after themselves, and their family, with easy to access herbs and wellbeing activities. We aim to create resilient communities that will support each other. Remedies are left at community fridges where anyone can pick them up and workshops and classes are run on a no-questions sliding scale basis to ensure everyone can attend.

Finally, with regards to climate change we feel that herbs are both impacted and can have an impact…but that’s another blog post.

We will be running retreats, hen parties and corporate workshops to help to cover our costs, please get in contact if you would like to work with us. We can’t wait to welcome you to a workshop, retreat or class.

Find out more at www.movementinthyme.com

Rox Madeira is Founder and Director of Movement in Thyme and runs here own business focusing on The Wise Women: Herbs & Liberation.

How else you can help

I am also volunteering with, and collecting, the following items to send to Calais and Dunkirk refugee camps in solidarity with Mobile Refugee Support. If you can donate and deliver them to Stirling or Aberfoyle please email me Rox at hello@roxmadeira.com . Thank you for your help!

• Camping Items
• Tents (2-4 man)
• Sleeping Bags
• Tarpaulin
• Thick Blankets
• Torches
• Rucksacks/Backpacks
• Cooking Equipment eg. Pots, Pans, Serving Spoons
• Camping Kettles
• Men’s Clothes
• Waterproof Jackets/Trousers
• Warm Winter Jackets
• Jogging/Tracksuit Trousers
• Jeans
• Trainers/Sport Shoes (sized 40-44)
• Waterproof Walking Boots (sized 40-44)
• Snoods
• Gloves
• Socks
• Underwear
• Communication Support
• Smartphones
• Power Banks
• Micro-USB Cable
• USB-C Cables
• Lightning Cables (iPhone)
• Food Packs
• Rice
• Pasta
• Dried Lentils
• Black Tea
• Instant Coffee
• Sugar
• Tinned Tomatoes
• Tinned Beans
• Tinned Vegetables
• Tinned Fruit
• Tinned Fish
• Hygiene
• Nail Clippers
• Tweezers
• Tissues
• Soap/Body Wash
• Shampoo (Small bottles ideally!)
• Toothbrushes
• Toothpaste (Small tubes ideally!)

References:

(1) https://www.concern.org.uk/news/these-12-countries-hosted-most-refugees-

2022?https://www.concern.org.uk/news/these-12-countries-hosted-most-refugees-

2022&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwP6sBhDAARIsAPfK_wYZ4gJfxm2RzgDbKGVIyj_WrxbJh6Ch4a59P7Jo48

IMAcyGWuYWProaAngWEALw_wcB

(2) https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/information/refugee-asylum-facts/the-truth-about-

asylum/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwP6sBhDAARIsAPfK_wZhrWnLHExvstj53GNsSgdveyicwtI

c04kN7rOgFDM2uKEtYrn9jgAaAua9EALw_wcB

(3) https://www.one.org/stories/climate-global-health-

crisis/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwP6sBhDAARIsAPfK_wbdyhJQ51xwUiGWHatHi-

Ow8lYCz0HZyYt_L5a32Grgu8Wd5AQ0qyoaAoI1EALw_wcB

(4) https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/#/

(5) https://care4calais.org/the-refugee-crisis/

(6) https://www.gov.uk/asylum-support/what-youll-get

Bilal Saleh, a beloved face on the streets of Ramallah, a city in the West Bank, Palestine. He sells herbs on the street; sage, thyme, sumac. He gathers the herbs himself in the hills surrounding where he lives.

Sold. Gathered. Lived.

Bilal was murdered by an Israeli settler on the 28th October. Shot in the chest as he harvested olives on his family’s land. By a settler, acting with impunity and protected by soldiers from the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

As the world watches the genocide in Gaza, the situation is growing increasingly dire for Palestinians in the West Bank, Al Quds (Jerusalem) and ‘48 Palestine (Israel).

In less than a month, mass arrests in the West Bank have doubled the Palestinian prison population; hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel, along with Jewish Israelis, have been persecuted by law enforcement and other institutions for speaking out against the bombing of Gaza; thousands of Gazan workers in ‘48 Palestine have had their work visas revoked and are missing – believed to be held in detention camps; over 500 Palestinians from 13 communities have been violently displaced from Area C and over 100 Palestinains, including 34 children have been killed in the West Bank.

Bilal was 40 years old, from a village south of Nablus called Al Sawiya; like many villages in the West Bank, it is encircled by Israeli settlements which are illegal under international law. He was described by his uncle as “a poor hardworking man of the earth”. After being orphaned at a young age Bilal dropped out of high school to work as a tiler, before starting to explore the hills where he foraged for herbs to sell.

Before he was killed, the earth and land to which Bilal belonged and that nurtured him were shrinking from beneath his feet- the village of Al Sawiya is home to 3500 people who own 12000 dunums (2965 acres), but only have access to 600 dunums (less than 150 acres). The rest of the land is controlled by Israeli Occupation forces and illegal settlers, who attack and harass the Palestinian population, burn their farms, cut down their trees and steal their olive harvest. This kind of settler violence, perpetrated with the protection of the IOF, is common in the West Bank.

As Bilal was nurtured by the land and what grows from it, so too are the people of Palestine as a collective. 75 years after the Nakba (meaning catastrophe in Arabic and referring to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians from their ancestral land), Palestinian refugees and their descendants still mourn the loss of their connection to their homeland.

The herbs Bilal sold form an essential part of Palestinian culture and identity. The thyme which is blended with sesame seeds and other herbs to make za’atar. The marimia (sage) which is made into a tea at the first mention of a sore tummy to a Palestinian mother, before you’ve had the chance to argue! The nana (mint) which is added to sugary black tea, tiny hot glasses thrust into your hand in every home you enter. Parsley in tabbouleh and falafel; cinnamon, turmeric, cumin for the show stopping ‘upside down’ dish maqlouba; rose or orange water in baklava; cardamom in the coffee. Walk through any market in Palestine and you will see old women sitting on crates selling bunches of fresh herbs, stalls selling bright pink pickled cauliflower, and herbs and spices which scent the air.

Like cultures the world over, traditional healing systems in Palestine have been somewhat marginalised and replaced by mainstream medicine. Where once the market’s attareen (herbalist) would have formulated medicines for their community’s ailments, now they sell simples- single herbs for customers to blend at home or use in cooking, or in some cases souvenirs. Much like the people of Palestine in the wider context, attarine continue, steadfast, healing their communities and connecting people to the land through herbal medicine. Growers continue to grow herbs on ancestral land, even under the threat of violent expulsion and even as their products are often exported to Israel and re-exported under Israeli brand names for a higher price. In the face of expropriation and dispossession, Palestinians send out tap roots, reaching deep into the earth of their homeland, like the olive trees Bilal was tending when he was killed.

The olive tree has become a symbol of sumud– steadfastness – and the resilience of the Palestinian people. The olive harvest in October is an opportunity for families and communities to come together, to share stories and connect with the land. To be rooted in spite of the ongoing Nakba and ever present threat of displacement. Settlers often target olive groves for vandalism and destruction. The enduring symbol of these ancient and gnarled trees, whose fruit nourishes and whose image emboldens, is not lost on them.

I experienced first hand this destruction of Palestinian flora during my time in Al Khalil (Hebron) in 2012. I was working with the organisation Youth Against Settlements, sleeping in the centre. One morning I woke up to find the garden ransacked, furniture set alight, plants uprooted. My colleague in the organisation drank his shay w nana (tea with mint) without sugar that day, a custom for those in mourning.

These individual cases of settler violence against Palestinians and their land echo the wider policies and practices of the state of Israel. A key goal of Zionism’s ongoing settler colonial project from its inception has been to “make the desert bloom”- disregarding the diversity and ecological balance that has existed in Palestine long before the first invasive pine trees were planted. The planting of these pine trees was not simply a gardening faux pas. British-Israeli writer Susan Nathan writes that for Israel “trees are a weapon of continuing dispossession”- a practice of greenwashing whereby native species of plants – as well as the people who have lived with and cultivated them for generations – are removed and replaced with non-native species. Plantations of European pine species crowd out smaller plants, prevent shepherds from grazing flocks, destroy ancient Bedouin routes and guard and expand illegal settlements. Friends of the Earth have also noted the environmental injustice, colonialism and ethnic cleansing inflicted upon Palestinians and their land, from expropriation of land and water sources to tactics of sewage dumping and pollution as a weapon. While these policies and practices have caused immense ecological destruction as well as untold human misery, the state of Israel’s hasbara (propaganda) machine hides the damage beneath a green shroud, using their planting of trees as further justification for ethnic cleansing.

Still, the olive trees remain, steadfast.

We mourn Bilal. We mourn the 9000+ (at time of writing) Palestinians in Gaza killed by Israeli bombs. We mourn the villages that now lie beneath Israeli national parks.

But we also fight, for a ceasefire in Gaza. For the aid which Gazans so desperately need. For an end to the siege. For full civil rights for Palestinians in ‘48. For the right of the Palestinians in the diaspora to return to their homeland. For an end to the occupation. For Bilal and his memory.

It’s a fact. Our urban parks had never been so busy as during the first lockdown of 2020. Suddenly everyone was out there, taking their daily outdoor allowance in their local wildish spaces, when previously, the notion of simply heading out for a wander everyday purely for the sake of getting outside, would never have occurred to a lot of people.

Whilst it’s certainly quietened down out there, many people have kept up the habit of making time to spend outdoors regularly. And why not? The health benefits are well documented.

Having access to green space is associated with lower stress levels, (Thompson et al., 2012), and a reduction in the symptoms of depression and anxiety, (Beyer et al., 2014).

There is also growing evidence to show that children with attention deficit disorders, who spend time outdoors interacting with nature, have improved cognitive abilities, (Taylor and Kuo, 2009). This was also the case for adults suffering from depression. A study by Berman et al., 2012, found that adults who regularly engaged in nature based activities outdoors, showed significant cognitive gains.

So what’s actually happening? Why does spending time outdoors in green spaces have such a positive impact on our health?

The surprising answer is that it’s actually the chemicals produced by plants and trees to protect themselves from predators, terpenes, which have such a profound effect on our mental state, (Gershenzon, J and Dudareva, N, 2010).

We all know how relaxing the smell of Lavender or Chamomile can be and how uplifting the scent of Conifers are. That’s due to the terpenes in their aromatic oils. Walking through a forest or woodland exposes us to large doses of different terpenes found in many trees and plants. It’s almost as if our green friends are trying to calm us down and persuade us to stop acting so destructively towards the planet!

How many times have you found yourself wandering through a woodland on a damp autumn day breathing in huge lungful’s of the woodland air, which, by the way, will have been laced with terpenes such as the tannins breaking down in the decaying leaves on the floor. Nature is truly amazing in the many ways it supports us.

So how can foraging build on the already enormous benefits of being in the great outdoors?

Well, apart from the obvious answer, which is the physical exercise of wandering about hedge bothering, foraging makes us really slow down and tune in to what is around us. The slower we go, the more we see. It’s a mindful practice, even if you don’t realise that you are being mindful.

Wild food is often more nutritionally dense than the supermarket food that we buy. It may surprise some of you to hear that there are superfoods growing out there all around us. You don’t have to pay a premium in the health stores for them. Just take the time to get to know them, with the two most obvious examples being Nettles and Dandelions. If you had a bag of spinach and compared the nutritional content to the same quantity to that of Nettles, (Rhutto et al., 2013), or Dandelions, (Di Noia, J, 2014), Spinach would come bottom of the class.

Eating wild food connects us more closely to the seasons and we learn to appreciate and value the plants which appear at certain times of the year. Remember that improved cognitive function I mentioned earlier? Eating seasonally makes us plan to store and preserve our harvest, just as our ancestors would once have done. They didn’t have the luxury of nipping to the shop if they needed to replace something in the store cupboard.

Additionally, wild food is far more sustainable than any shop bought food can ever be. It hasn’t travelled half way around the world to get to the shops and isn’t wrapped in plastic. It will have grown exactly where it pleases, with no pesticides, or been part of an intensive agricultural practice which systematically destroys the soil, meaning future crops have to be sprayed with nitrogen and other fertilizers in order for them to grow.

Foraging is good for the planet as well as for ourselves. As we start to notice all of the gifts nature provides us with, we become more connected with the Earth. It ignites a desire to protect the land and a sense of stewardship.

Because of this it is crucial that we pick plants sustainably and mindfully, thinking not just of ourselves, but all of the other creatures who depend on the plants we collect and the impact we are having on that plant community by our actions.

So next time you go for a wander through your local park, take time to appreciate what is going on around you and give a nod to the plants and trees as they wrap us in their healing breath!

Vicky Manning runs Little Foragers Kitchen.

Nature can inspire us in so many ways but did you know it can also have a huge impact on our wellbeing?

There is a LOT going on in the world right now and it can be very easy for us to get overwhelmed and stuck in our heads. As we welcome in a new season, let the natural world boost your wellbeing.

You might have come across the term ‘grounding’, sometimes referred to as ‘earthing’ when it comes to electrical goods, but we are also electrical beings and this need also applies to us, particularly in times of change or uncertainty. Grounding for us, is the process of calming our minds and bodies by reconnecting with the earth. When we are grounded we feel calm, stable, strong, rooted. Being grounded can help us sleep better, reduce stress and anxiety and make us more focussed and productive. There are lots of ways we can ground ourselves but the most powerful can be found in the great outdoors.

According to research from the Mental Health Foundation, “people who are more connected with nature are usually happier in life and more likely to report feeling their lives are worthwhile. Nature can generate a multitude of positive emotions, such as calmness, joy, creativity and can facilitate concentration.

5 ways to ground yourself in nature.

1. Place your bare feet or hands on grass, earth or sand, literally connecting yourself to the ground.
2. Spend some time by (or in!) your favourite body of water.
3. Take a mindful walk outside, without your earphones or phone, and really notice your surroundings.
4. Breathe fresh air deeply, using mantra. “I am grounded”, “I am calm”, “I am stable”
5. Get some natural light every day. The specific colours we witness at daybreak are thought to be particularly beneficial to our wellbeing.

A mindful practice to try.

Take a moment in your favourite spot to notice:

5 things you can see.

4 things you can hear.

3 things you can touch.

2 things you can smell.

1 thing you can taste.

As with anything, learning to ground ourselves is a practice. Go slowly and gently and enjoy the result.

Sarah Catnach is a Director and Facilitator for Movement in Thyme, leading on Community Yoga and Wellbeing Coaching.