By Maki Shimamura

Editor's note: In May of 2005, Maki and three others visited Wales and the areas in which Dr. Bach spent time while discovering the plants from which he first made his flower remedies. They also visited with Julian Barnard of Healing herbs (at right with Maki), who is a long-time scholar of Dr. Bach's work. Julian is organizing the upcoming International Bach Cromer Conference to be held September 23-24, 2006. Read more about it here .

Re-tracing Dr. Bach's Footsteps: My Visit to Wales

It has been one of my dreams since I started using flower essences to visit the place where Dr. Bach walked. When I attended the FES practitioner seminar at Lake Tahoe, I learned that nature and the flower essences are mutually connected. The nature of California nurtures the FES flower essences; so how is it with the English remedies? To understand completely the English flower essences, I wanted to visit Wales where Dr. Bach had his inspiration and first “met” flower essences.

These are some of my photos taken in Wales. My overall impression was that the land was very old. There are a lot of natural areas but it is less wild. The lands are in good relationship with the human inhabitants; it “feels” very gentle and very round.

Looking west from England into Wales: the ridge is “Offfa's Dyke” the old boundary between the two countries.
These photos were taken on the border near Healing herbs .

(Below) This mountain is 'The Skirrid' and is the view to the south of Healingherbs. It is a very special place and traditionally a Holy mountain. The plants in the foreground are Bracken - it grows on the mountain but is
a kind of fern and not a flowering plant.

First, I visited the offices of Healing herbs to meet Mr. Julian Barnard. He kindly shared some time with us. He told us that he welcomes everyone, and the door is always open. He gave me a lot of good inspiration about Dr. Bach and flower essences. I was just amazed how seriously he has devoted his life to Bach flower essences.

The staff people there were all kind and warm, too. When we walked around to say "hello", they stopped their work and showed us what they were doing. I was very much impressed by the fact that the procedures are completely done by hand—especially, the process of producing Five-Flower Cream; it was very impressive. The office and workplace are both very clean, modern and well organized. Everyone seemed to be enjoying their work.

Mr. Barnard showed us some plants there too. We saw Water Violet !!

On Mr. Barnard's advice, we also visited Crickhowell. In 1928, Dr. Bach met his first flowers, Impatiens and Mimulus , in Crickhowell. It was too early to see Impatiens in bloom and Mimulus weren’t there anymore. However, the place itself seemed to be just the same as when Dr. Bach used to walk there. There was a very beautiful stream and the area was very green. I had a wonderful time imagining Dr. Bach walking there.

Along the River Usk in Crickhowell

On the way back to London, we stopped over to visit the Bach center, too. The house in which Dr. Bach lived his last days was a very small house with beautiful furniture. From reading his writings, I used to have an impression of Dr. Bach as a very stern and strict man. But when I entered the house, I felt a lot of energy coming from the place; I found it coming from the furniture there. One of the staff told us that all of the furniture was made by Dr. Bach. I was happy to know he enjoyed his life with passion, too.

Front and back views of Dr. Bach's house
Inside Dr. Bach's house with the furniture made by him

In his garden, we could see Rock Rose , an Aspen tree, Wild Rose and other plants.

Dr. Bach’s grave is behind the Bach center.

On his gravestone, there is a carving that reads " BEHOLD I AM ALIVE FOR EVERMORE". I will never forget the moment when I first read that inscription.

Maki Shimamura attended the 2003 Practitioner Training at Lake Tahoe. She recently completed her certification case studies and is now a FES certified practitioner of flower essence therapy. She is also a Reiki teacher and a certificated EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) practitioner. Maki lives in Chiba, Japan and has a practice called Earth Embracement. 

Read about the International Bach Cromer Conference to be held September 23-24, 2006.