MinxterBLOOM

Many solstice celebrations still take place on June 24, which, since Julian times, is no longer the longest day of the year. Pope Gregory XIII changed the calendar bringing the solstice to around June 21, give or take some crucial hours and minutes, the celestial solstice. Did you miss a bonfire on the 21st? I did, due to rain, wind, and thunder. Tonight is also a Midsummer's Night, because this is the fest of St. John the Baptist. I like to think of him as Sinjin. Sinjin is the British contraction of St. John (as Sinclair is for St. Clair). I read 'Sinjin McQuillan' in family letters dating from the 1920s. Now that is a name! Katie Craig's stories about our Craig-McQuillan line, as told to her by father William Francis McQuillan Craig, appeared in letters between Louis Navin and Gladys O'Donnell. (I am related to all).

St. John's wort blooms at this time of the year, typically in clear, bright yellows and golds.

Elizabeth Blackwell (1700) wrote and illustrated The Curious Herbal . Desperate to earn funds to free her husband from debtor's prison, The Curious Herbal is truly a labor of love. Mrs. Blackwell used specimens from the Chelsea Physic Garden, issuing the herbal in weekly sets between 1737 and 1739. She made enough money to secure her husband's release.
St. John's wort appears on page 9 facing the page for foxglove ( Digitalis ). You can also listen to audio version of each page. Of St. John's wort, Mrs. Blackwell writes: [a]"tincture of the flowers in spirit of wine is commended against melancholy and madness." The University of Maryland Medical School houses a complimentary medicine program. What they say about St. John's wort is here. Interestingly, the UM Medical School warns about an interaction between Digoxin and St. John's wort, so perhaps if Mrs. Blackwell were alive to revise her herbal, she might not place them across from one another.