What a gorgeous summer day. The sun was shining, there was very little wind and the sky was clear and blue. He'd been caught by one of his nieces heading out toward the Orchard and he offered to let the girl come along on his hunt for various herbs. The height of summer was an excellent time to gather meadowsweet. He settled beneath an oak tree and shrugged off his pack before pulling out a tin of the dried herb and opening it. "Take a whiff, this is what Meadowsweet smells like. It's best to gather it in summer when it is blooming with small white flowers. You know you were named after Meadowsweet. It's scientific name is Spiraea Ulmaria."

Ulmaria scrambled after her uncle, glad that he agreed to bring her with. They would be looking for something called Meadowsweet and since she didn't really know what she was looking for she followed his lead, pausing as he opened a tin for her to see. Curious she leaned over the tin and took a whiff of the sweet smelling plant. She liked the smell. Her uncle explained that it would be a plant covered in white flowers and that she was actually named after it. Her ears perked up. "Really?" Oh, she really wanted to find that plant now. "What is Meadowsweet used for?" She hoped it would be a useful plant for conditions she understood and not something vague and random.

Álarr nodded and tucked the tin away before slipping his pack back across his shoulders. "Yes, it has several uses but I primarily use it for fevers and joint aches. We can make a tea, a half-ounce of the dried herb to a cup of water is the best. I will show you more on this later." They could use fresh as well but he preferred to use up his already dried stores rather than the new herbs he would dry for the season ahead.

Álarr took off across the territory, headed for a clearing near the middle of the Orchard where he found a number of herbs the last time he'd been there. His right ear twitched as a bumble bee buzzed past. Around them the birds were singing happily in the trees and a number of plants were flowering. He led his niece through the clearing up to a cluster of meadowsweet. "This is meadowsweet, recognize the smell?"

Ulmaria followed along, trying not to get too distracted by all the new scents and smells. She really liked being outside exploring and as they arrived at the clearing she tried to focus more on the plant she was looking for. There were a number of pretty plants with unique smells. She spied a plant with clusters of little white flowers and followed her uncle as he walked up to it and explained that it was meadowsweet. She hopped forward and sniffed the plant, recognizing the sweet smell. She swiftly nodded. "Yea, I recognize it. So how do we gather it? Do we dig this one up like we did the dandelions?" Álarr had said they needed the root of the dandelions so they'd dug the whole plant up.

Álarr waited patiently for his niece to smell the plant before continuing the lesson. "We can use all parts of the plant including the roots but for now I just want the leaves and flowers to dry. If we leave the root it will grow back." The root could be more potent but he would rather have the plant return later on. "Go ahead and use your teeth to chew it off at the stem. We can take the whole plant back and hang it to dry." He would let her gather this one so she could continue to get used to the taste of the plant and the effort that it took to gather these herbs.

Ulmaria listened attentively as her uncle explained that they could gather the whole plant or just part of it. Made sense to her! She hoped it wouldn't taste to bad. It certainly smelled better than some of the plants she'd gathered. Bending her head Ulmaria started to chew at the stem, flinching a bit at the earth taste but soon her puppy teeth worked through the juicy stem and felled the plant. "Ok, got it! Shall I take it back over to the fire?" Her uncle nodded and Ulmaria scooped the plant up between her teeth and bounded back toward the range where Afi and Piper were making a fire.