Puppy love & Chai tea — Archaic Joy

Here I sit typing, with a warm little bundle of puppy on my lap. Three weeks ago we adopted a sweet little Aussie Mix from a shelter down in Juneau. She is now 3 months old and is doing all the puppy things: trying to jump up on the couch, getting up in the middle of the night, crazy time in the late evening, has bitten through the Christmas lights wrapping the stairs, not quite housebroken, she needs lots of teaching and training and......oh my word, I forgot how hard having a puppy is!! Because before, with my other two furry friends in puppyhood, my partner and I did not have children, our work loads in the winter were minimal. Now I feel like I am taking care of another child!

See I had really high hopes about what I was going to accomplish this winter. I was going to finally complete the ‘Taste of Herbs,’ an online herbal course taught by the knowledgeable and lovely Rosalee de la Foret and hosted by Learning Herbs. (I highly recommend checking out Learning Herbs, for both novice and advanced herbal studies!). Barely had I started carving out morning time for these studies when we decided to get a puppy.

Also, yoga classes were finally on my agenda again ~ it’s hard to fit in self care these days but I discovered yoga when pregnant with my first child and have tried to incorporate it into my winter routine since....it doesn’t always work out that way....Especially now that there’s this puppy who needs daily walking and training, and it’s a lot easier to walk with a puppy and work with them one on one rather than also walking with a four year old who doesn’t want to be in the rain or wind or sideways snow! So there goes yoga for another year...but I will still do a short practice of my own, somehow, yes, this must be :); but yes, a puppy.

Peppermint Rainbow Glitter Sparkles…. :). Pepper for short.

And this blog ~ my goal here was to post once a month, on the new Moon (but last month I finished writing and editing it prior to the new Moon and was too excited to wait!). And this month, well, our computer broke and I had to order a whole new one…not an ideal time of the year to shell out a bunch of moola that’s for sure. And the computer was not here on the new Moon this month. And then our kitty cat, who was not entirely enthused about welcoming this little puppy into his space, decided to swipe at the her one evening. This resulted in a vet visit and eye surgery. Poor pups had to wear a cone for a week…yeah, it’s been a rather stressful December. But through it all, we’ve been enjoying the light heartedness of this new being in our lives. Already, I’ve been taking her on the trails I traveled with my other dogs and am enjoying our daily jaunts into the forest.

This month's post was supposed to be all about a recipe of my Chai Tea blend and how the ingredients in it meld together together to make a warming, stimulating and digestive treat...I’ll still give you the recipe at the bottom of this post, and trust me when I tell you it’s seriously an incredibly delicious Chai Tea that you can make in bulk and then use whenever your heart desires. (But I’m not getting into the energetics of this tea blend today. I’ve been too busy being a puppy parent lately.) This blend makes a great non-alcoholic drink to make for holiday functions or to sip while curled up with a warm blanket reading a good book on these dark winter days. Or make a batch up for fall and winter birthday and holiday gifts!

Pepper and enjoying the winter forest. She’s sniffing a Birch Conk, a common medicinal mushroom in this area.

As I sit with this little girl pup warming my legs, I’m touched by her sweetness and love she shows already. Her name, by the way, is Pepper. (Full name is Pepper-Mint Glitter Rainbow Sparkles ~ yes, we let our 4 year old pick out the middle name! And in keeping with the tradition of naming our dogs after some sort of herbaceous plant, the Mint part is from me as she’s a very cool-colored coated doggy). So this winter I’ll be focusing on Pepper and how best to train her to be a good dog and listen when called and stay close to home and perhaps even be able to help me locate morels and boletes (my dream!!) this spring and summer. I also hope she’ll be protective of our home and alert me to bears and other creatures of the forest without going pell mell after them. Needless to say, I’ve got my work cut out for me. So if it takes me another 6 months to a year to get back to studying herbal energetics in greater depth or working on a decent pigeon pose, so be it. Puppy hood is so brief and precious and I’m immersing myself in it while I can. And this should be how we live...immersing ourselves in this beautiful, at times ugly and hard, but rather fleeting life. It’s only the one. Love and take care of yourself as this year comes to a close.

With love on this first official day of Winter ~ Emily

CHAI TEA via Maiden Alaska Herbals

~ Dry Mix Ingredients ~

1 cup Cinnamon bark (chips, or sticks broken up with mortar & pestle)
1/2 cup Ginger root, dried
1/2 cup Orange peel, dried
1/3 cup Cardamom pods ~ the green ones, Not the powder!
1/4 cup Fennel seeds
3 T. Peppercorns, black
2 T. Cloves, whole
4 t. Nutmeg, powdered
1T. Vanilla bean (buy whole and cut into teeny tiny pieces ~ optional)

Thoroughly mix all the above together.

~ Method ~

Spoon 3 tablespoons dry mix in 2 cups water, stir. Bring to a gentle boil, then turn down and simmer 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and add an optional 3 tablespoons black tea; cover and steep for 10 minutes. (Keep covered for 10 minutes if not using black tea as well.). Strain. Add 2 cups of the milk of your choice. Warm gently and whisk in 1-3 tablespoons honey. Enjoy :)

Notes: I will often reuse the strained material and make it again using the same method. It’s certainly a different flavor and not as rich, but still carries a lot of the good stuff. Also one of my favorite things to do is to put the strained mix into a pot of water and put it on top of our wood stove to heat. Eventually this imparts a lovely scent in the air that just makes me feel all warm and cozy!!

The ingredients I use are all Organic and most are purchased from Mt. Rose Herbs (a fabulous company out of Eugene Oregon) or our local natural foods store. You can also make your own orange peel by saving and drying your own.