Fortunately not in the form of poor old Frankenstein though it does feel like it sometimes – it has been a hugely weird few years since covid, and I’m pretty sure I am not the only one that feels this way. In no particular order, it has brought bereavements (cancer took my beloved dad at the end of the first covid lockdown. Kidney failure took two of my beloved cats within a year of each other). It has brought changes in career – I wound down a lot of my self employment during the early stages of covid as there was no way I could keep running the business in its current iteration during that time. Then I got a job. Then I moved from that job over to teaching herbal medicine at Lincoln College. Then I ended up as course lead for 18 months (no good deed goes unpunished) before stepping down, recognising the damage the workload was doing to my health. Lately my contract has reduced, which is giving me a bit more time to remember what it is that I love, and why. Earlier this year I was put on the waiting list for an autism assessment, which came as absolutely no surprise to anyone who knows me.
I wrote and published through Aeon books a trilogy called ‘Wild Medicine’ – and that trilogy was republished as a combined hard back edition in May this year.
And then last autumn I managed to go on a sculpting retreat with Wendy Froud and Armorel Hamilton, and a part of me that had slid into a fairly grumpy sleep finally woke back up – and she was NOT AMUSED at the life I was trying to inhabit. In May 2026, Mother Mugwort and her apprentice Fen (both sculpted by Wendy Froud) came to live with me, and my brain finally found an outlet for the need for a combination of enchantment and whimsy.
So what exactly is it that I am doing now, alongside trying to remember what it is that I love about herbalism, and being determined to fall wholeheartedly back in love with the craft?
For a start off, I am still practicing herbalism and seeing patients at my clinic at Havelock Holistics, alongside my lovely partner, an acupuncturist. We got engaged a few years ago – you never know, we might actually get married sometime before I turn 50.
I started Tales of Wort and Wyrd, a patreon account where I could tell stories of Old Mother Mugwort and her apprentices, sneaking in nuggets of herb lore and folklore and gentle whimsy and humour. You can find that one over at wortandwyrd.co.uk if you fancy taking a peek.
I’m going to try and resurrect this blog.
That’s three things. Threes are magical, and right now, three feels like enough. Knowing the way my brain works, however, I’ll probably add another three things next week and find that one of the original three gets kicked into a dusty corner to think about what it has done for a while longer.
Hopefully this blog won’t be one of them but I make no promises. 😀
