Lofty Dreams ~ Home Sweet Home #5

Ideally, I'd like to have a live/work loft space in the city and a cozy little cabin in the woods. I really miss living in a loft... Unfortunatly, gentrification has infected every last bohemian enclave in Chicago, so finding an affordable loft space is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I'm always up for a treasure hunt though, so I know I'll find what I'm looking for when the time comes. I'm dreaming of an old warehouse or factory with exposed brick walls and pressed tin ceilings, exposed beams, wooden flooring that go on throughout a huge open floor plan. I want plenty of room for an studio/office where I can make soap and candles, jewelry, art and pottery. I'd love to have a big play area where my kids can stretch out, let loose and play!



I dream of giant windows with tons of light! I picture the light pouring in over a little wooden indoor greenhouse where I can grow an herb garden. I'd grow common herbs to cook with, magickal herbs for witchcrafting charms and formulas, shamanic plants and entheogenic botanicals that make you "fly" and aid in lucid dreamtime!



I'm going to the Chicago College of Healing Arts next Spring to take a year long program called Foundations in Herbalism. "The program provides an introduction to plant medicine and lays the foundation for further plant medicine training. Students are taught the skills necessary for designing and making herbal formulas, as well as organic growing and wildcrafting of herbs, and the ecological and political concerns of modern herbalism. An integral part of the program is its series of country weekends, where students are given the opportunity to work with the growing, harvesting and processing of botanicals. Hands-on medicine making labs allow students to gain experience in creating their own tinctures, pills, salves, essential oils and more!"



I imagine creating a rooftop garden and keeping bees! Rooftop beekeeping could help to combat colony collapse disorder. Read more about urban beekeeping here...



There are many benefits of a rooftop garden beyond the fact that they can be quiet urban sanctuaries. They add another dimension of green space to an urban scape without taking up an extensive area of land in densely populated places. In some European countries such as Switzerland, bylaws have been passed that new buildings must be designed to relocate the greenspace covered by the building to their roofs. Existing buildings must also comply with the bylaw by greening at least 20% of their rooftops. Read more about "green roofs" here...