seramarias replied to your post “here’s

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seramarias replied to your post “here’s a weird tip: the tea I’m making out of oregano and thyme and…”

Now that’s interesting! I wonder if lemon thyme would work?

Oh, yes, I think lemon thyme is just a cultivar of regular old common thyme, so it would have the relevant stuff in it. I really think the main active ingredient is thymol, which is in, like, commercial mouthwash and stuff. 

I Googled a bunch of herbalism stuff and I always have problems because so much of it is so subjective (this site just told me that thyme gives you courage, like… okay) but, I mean. Herbs are made of chemicals, and the chemicals have scientifically attested properties, so. 

Most of the herbalists did say thyme was good for helping with productive coughs, and it is both antifungal and antibacterial. So. 

My recipe is really like, 1 tsp of leaves, 1 tsp honey, 6-8 oz boiling water, steep 5-10 minutes, stir well, strain. I added some of an herbal loose tea mix I had that contained peppermint, red clover, green tea, and a few other things, because I wanted there to be something to taste besides thyme. But thyme by itself is pretty effective.

If you’re planning your herb garden, I’d really recommend some hyssop too, though, it’s got a flavor I’m not sure how to describe but it goes well with the thyme and with the honey, I quite like it. (There’s a variant called anise hyssop that tastes like, you guessed it, anise– licorice– that also has beneficial properties for respiratory stuff and would probably be pretty good in a tea.)
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To Those Who Leave Kudos

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lodessa:

I want you to know that there are many days when that kudos email from AO3 is the highlight of my day. 
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You’d think that in my Decadent Day Off on

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You’d think that in my Decadent Day Off on Tuesday I’d’ve finished my NaNo novel but… no… I made par and that was it. Ditto yesterday; I made par, and that was it. But if I make par today, and par tomorrow, I’ll finish tomorrow, and thereby achieve the goal.

Best thing, though. I’m at par today, which is like… 46,000 some words… and I am JUST ABOUT to get to the part where the PLOT BEGINS. 

I know. I fuckin know! It’s amazing. Only me, guys. Only I could do this. I am A DELIGHT. 

Walked to work yesterday, but caught a ride home because the slush was just freezing and it was dark. Today, though. Well, 90% of the sidewalks are shoveled, everything is a sheet of ice because it got up to 34 F yesterday so it all melted just a little, and now it’s 29F today so it’s all rock-hard (this is the joy of winter, to any of y’all who haven’t experienced this: water can be wet or literally as hard as rock within the span of three or four degrees, and in between it is absolutely frictionless, and I just don’t see that reflected in media ever, the particular lurching horror of trying to navigate a path that was slushy and got footprints in it and then froze solid again, it’s like hell-cobblestones only sharper).

Anyway. I had to do the penguin-walk, where you move across a near-frictionless surface by shifting weight in a waddle instead of striding like a human, so that slowed me down, but I didn’t fall, so that was nice. 

The downside I’m finding of winter walking is that your cold weather / waterproof / windproof gear is great while you’re enroute, but then you get to your destination and you’re soaked to the skin with perspiration even though you didn’t sweat much– literally everything your skin gave off or you exhaled is trapped by the waterproof gear, and then you unwrap yourself from the plastic and are freezing because your nice sensible layers are all soaked through from the inside. So I need to either invest in some wool underthings, or start carrying a full to-the-skin change of clothes to work, or maybe I just need a space heater at my desk so I can warm myself through while my clothes dry on me.

Here’s where I’d post a snippet of the ongoing novel to make me feel better, but honestly, I haven’t written a single damn sentence that’s actually good, so. *shrug emoji* 

Oh, here’s the consolation instead: I discovered a little baggie inside a box my BFF gave me for my birthday, and realized there’s a set of rainbow-beaded jewelry in there, so I’m wearing a long black jacket over a short rainbow dress, and I have glittery rainbow beads hanging from my ears. It’s very winter-chic. Now if only the jacket was not damp, I would not be freezing and all would be well. (I carried the dress in my bag, and put it on dry, but the jacket, I hadn’t really forseen that it would be quite so damp. Usually my arms don’t sweat appreciably when I exercise, but being wrapped in a windproof coat kind of did the trick, I guess.)
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ok today’s thyme tea was less

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ok today’s thyme tea was less effective. 

also yesterday i had taken sudafed at some point, i think first thing in the morning? and by about 3pm i had the worst dry eyes– the world was blurry and it hurt to have my eyes open for too long, it was fucking awful. so today, no sudafed. and the thyme tea worked okay for a bit, but– it was less strong today, too, I’m running low on the thyme I dried this summer, I gave most of it to my sister– and a bit after noon, I started having really brutal coughing fits despite only just having finished my tea, so. 

Back to the Mucinex it is, for the nonce. My eyes are still wicked dry, but at least they mostly focus. (Then again, it is only just 3pm.) It might not be the Sudafed… 
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