Anne McIntyre Herbalist and Ayurvedic Practitioner

03/02/2026

Have a feeling it won’t stop raining for a while - but at least these will cheer us all up! A little beauty in the gloom.

22/01/2026

The garden at Artemis House is enormously important to my clinic, patients and students – and to me! It is laid out in a spiral, representing a journey through a woman’s life, starting at birth with a beautiful rose arch and ending in paradise by the tranquil pond. There is a narrow gravel path to follow as you slowly walk around the garden and as the path unfolds the planting reflects the herbs that are most helpful for that time in a woman’s life.

We aim to grow as much as possible in the garden to produce home grown and home processed herbs for the dispensary. To maintain this garden requires an enormous amount of work, knowledge and passion and each winter I review planting schemes, deciding which which herbs we need more of for the practice, which beds and borders need attention, and looking at new garden projects – all of which requires considerable amounts of labour to carry out!

To help us keep the garden looking its best, this spring and summer we are looking for volunteers to come and work alongside our regular gardeners. A passion for herbs and plants is essential, but no previous gardening experience is necessary as a herb garden does not always follow the same rules as an ornamental garden (our definition of a ‘weed’ is slightly different for starters!).

We will be gardening on Mondays, but the number of days volunteered and the work to be done will be arranged in advance with us, you can give as much, or as little, time as you are able. Please note we are not on a public transport route so you will need to be able to drive yourself to and from the garden.

If you would like more info please get in touch!

19/01/2026

🌿How to Be a Home Herbalist ✨SOLD OUT✨
🗓 Feb-Sept 2026 | 📍 Artemis House | 💻 Online + In-Person

How to be a Home Herbalist is a comprehensive and inspiring introduction to herbal medicine, carefully designed to guide you on a transformative journey with plants. This blended course brings together decades of herbal wisdom, combining self-paced online reading with in-person practical workshops at the Artemis House clinic and herb garden in the Cotswolds.

Whether you are brand new to herbs or ready to take further what you already know, you’ll gain the confidence, skills and understanding to work with plants safely, intuitively and effectively.

🌿The Practicing Home Herbalist 
🗓 Starts March 2026 | 📍 Artemis House

New for 2026 The Practicing Home Herbalist is a hands-on series of workshops looking at the wonderful and fascinating world of herbal medicine. We’ll be diving into each system of the body, exploring how to support and treat these systems using herbs, diet, lifestyle changes and using real-life case studies to bring the learning to life.

Together, we’ll look at both preventative strategies and natural treatments for common ailments – combining practical herbal knowledge with holistic approaches to health and healing. We will spend lots of time in the garden, picking herbs and making them into a variety of different preparations – and we’ll have lots of fun along the way!

🌿Day Courses
🗓 May / June / November 2026 | 📍 Artemis House

Come to Artemis House for the day to find out more about how you can use herbs to support your health. Drawing from both Western herbal medicine and Ayurvedic wisdom, these course will explore the use of herbs, offering you practical tools and natural remedies to build resilience and restore balance. Take the opportunity to walk around the spiral herb garden, visit the dispensary and enjoy a delicious plant based lunch.

More information on the website, or via link in bio

19/01/2026

Over the last couple of posts I have talked about rtucharya, the adaptations we make to keep ourselves in balance through the changing seasons. I now want to share some useful ideas on how we can adapt our lifestyle to the winter climate while kapha is dominant.

Eat a light diet with hot foods and regular meals and try to avoid heavy, oily foods and red meats. Avoid overeating, especially at night, don’t eat when you’re not hungry and try not to snack between meals. It’s best to avoid cold foods and drinks

Increase pungent, bitter and astringent foods in your diet and reduce sweet, sour and salty foods such as cakes, potato crisps, vinegar, chips, yeast, cheese, yoghurt, chocolate, and refined sugars and flours. Add warming spices to your cooking such as cinnamon, pepper, long pepper, cardamom and chilli.

Drink plenty of warming teas especially freshly grated ginger root and lime juice, celery seed, cinnamon, cardamom, chai, peppermint and thyme. Sweeten with honey if you wish as it is used as a vehicle for herbs to reduce kapha. Expectorant herbs with honey as their vehicle are ideal for clearing excess kapha from the system. My favourite Western herbs are elecampane and thyme, there are two really useful Ayurvedic formulae that can be mixed with honey, sitopoladi and trikatu.

You can also do inhalations of stimulating and decongesting essential oils such as peppermint, cinnamon, clove, eucalyptus and lemon grass or do nasya – nasal administration of oils including eucalyptus and vacha oil.

16/01/2026

Yesterday I talked about rtucharya, the Ayurvedic word that means living in rhythm with the changing seasons. It’s about adapting our lifestyle to the climate, our environment, our time of life and the demands of our daily routine. It is when we don’t adjust our diet, habits and pace of life to reflect these seasonal shifts, that maintaining balance and health can become more challenging. Over time, being out of sync with our environment may lower our resilience and make us more susceptible to imbalances or health problems.

Like everything else in the universe, the seasons have unique energetic qualities, including hot/cold, wet/dry, heavy/light. As we go through the year, we may notice the different qualities or attributes each season has and how they profoundly affect us.

The qualities of the seasons interact with the qualities of the doshas (vata, pitta and kapha) and so different seasons may present challenges for some and benefits for others. This is why some of us dislike the chill and feel like hibernating dormice, while others love the cold and crisp of the winter and feel energised.

Kapha accumulates when qualities similar to it (heavy, wet and slow) are prevalent in cold, damp, winter weather, these qualities help us to be quiet and still. Kapha rules the respiratory tract and an excess of similar qualities can increase kapha tendencies to be heavy, inactive and congested. We are all aware of how the cold and damp of winter can make us more prone to catarrh, coughs and colds!

If you are out of balance and want to reduce kapha, make sure to take plenty of exercise - specifically vigorous activity which will reduce heaviness. Be open minded and try new things as kapha is resistant to change. If your sleep is excessive and you are always tired, try to set a schedule to get up well before 8am, 6am is preferable, and don’t sleep in the day time!

A few simple changes in our diet and lifestyle can have a huge impact on the way we feel, helping to prevent and reverse a whole range of health problems. This is the incredible body of wisdom that is Ayurveda, helping us to stay in balance so that we feel well in mind and body.

15/01/2026

I took this video of the herb garden the other morning and was struck by its calm stillness compared to the bustle and energy it has in full summer.

The New Year often inspires us to make changes to our daily lives, sometimes with challenging resolutions and promises to ourselves to take more exercise, eat better and so on. But we need to remember that we are still in winter, a season that invites us to slow down and conserve energy until the warmth of spring returns - to hibernate really!

Ṛtucharya is an Ayurvedic word that means living in rhythm with the changing seasons. It’s about adapting our lifestyle to the climate, the cold, our environment, our time of life and the demands of our daily routine.

Over the next couple of posts I’m going to share a little more about adapting our lives to these seasonal rhythms, telling you more about the doshas and their seasons and giving you some ideas of how to support yourself with adaptations to your lifestyle and diet, as well as some useful herbs for you to try. I hope you find this information useful - let me know if there’s anything specific you’d like me to cover!

14/01/2026

Herbs for Mental and Emotional Resilience
🗓 14th May 2026 | ⏰ 10am – 4pm |📍 Artemis House

Join us at Artemis House for a nurturing and insightful one-day workshop dedicated to exploring herbal support for mental and emotional wellbeing.

Drawing from both Western herbal medicine and Ayurvedic wisdom, this course will explore the deep interconnection between mind, body and spirit, offering you practical tools and natural remedies to build resilience and restore balance.

Potions and Petals
🗓 16th June 2026 | ⏰ 10am – 4pm | 📍 Artemis House

Come and join Anne for a day of discovery as you uncover the untapped healing potential of your own garden. You don’t need to start a medicinal garden from scratch – your garden is already filled with plants and flowers that can be used to support your health. To find out how to open up your garden pharmacy, join us here at Artemis House to investigate the healing uses of commonly grown garden plants.

Sage and Snow
🗓 5th November 2026 | ⏰ 10am – 4pm |📍 Artemis House

A seasonal workshop for strength, stillness and self-care.

As the days grow shorter and the air turns crisp, winter invites us to slow down, rest and turn inward. Sage and Snow is a seasonal herbal medicine course designed to help you meet these colder months with resilience, warmth and vitality.

More information can be found on the website, or via the link in bio ⬆️

14/01/2026

🌿How to Be a Home Herbalist ✨ SOLD OUT✨
🗓 Feb–Sept 2026 | 📍 Artemis House | 💻 Online + In-Person

How to Be a Home Herbalist is a comprehensive and inspiring introduction to herbal medicine, carefully designed to guide you on a transformative journey with plants. This blended course brings together decades of herbal wisdom, combining online text-based learning with in-person practical workshops at the Artemis House clinic and herb garden in the Cotswolds.

Whether you’re brand new to herbs or ready to take further what you already know, you’ll gain the confidence, skills and understanding to work with plants safely, intuitively and effectively.

🌿How to Be a Home Herbalist - Year Two
🗓 Starts in March 2026 | 📍Artemis House

Building on everything you learned in Year One, owe’ll take a deeper dive into each system of the body, exploring how to support and treat these systems using herbs, diet, lifestyle changes and real-life case studies to bring the learning to life.

Together, we’ll look at both preventative strategies and natural treatments for common ailments – combining practical herbal knowledge with holistic approaches to health and healing. And we’ll continue to have lots of fun along the way!

🌿Day courses
🗓 May / June / November 2026 | 📍Artemis House

Come to Artemis House for the day to study how to use herbs to support your health. Drawing from both Western herbal medicine and Ayurvedic wisdom, these courses will explore the use of herbs, offering you practical tools and natural remedies to build resilience and restore balance. Take the opportunity to walk around the spiral herb garden, visit the dispensary and enjoy a delicious plant based lunch.

More information on the website, or via link in bio ⬆️

14/01/2026

Ayurvedic Apprenticeship Foundation Year
🗓 February – October 2026 | 📍 Artemis House | 💻 Blended Online + In-Person

Is 2026 the year you study Ayurveda? If so this course is for you! We’d like to invite you to come and explore Ayurveda’s core principles and learn how to care for your unique constitution using this wonderful tradition that’s supported wellbeing for thousands of years.

Through self-paced online readings and in-person workshops in the Cotswolds, you’ll discover Ayurvedic and Western herbs, food and lifestyle practices, as well as practical tools to support balance, vitality and emotional wellbeing. All our courses are in small, friendly groups and the workshops include a delicious plant based lunch.

Ayurvedic Apprenticeship Further Year
🗓 February – October 2026 | 📍 Artemis House | 💻 Blended Online + In-Person

Ready to go deeper into Ayurveda? This course is the natural next step if you’ve completed the Foundation Year, or if you already have a solid grounding in Ayurvedic principles from other courses.

We’d like to invite you to deepen your understanding and expand your knowledge of Ayurveda, looking at Ayurvedic anatomy and physiology, how to live a sattvic life, detoxification and the use of both Ayurvedic and Western herbs in the Ayurvedic tradition.

You’ll move through monthly, self-paced online readings alongside in-person workshops at Artemis House, weaving ancient wisdom into everyday life.

Ayurvedic Continuing Study Workshops
🗓 March – November 2026 | 📍 Artemis House

These workshops are open to any of my students who have studied Ayurveda with me for more than two years – and many of you have been on this journey with me for much longer! These are in-person workshops only, with no additional online content, although some topics may be supported with handouts. Each session is themed around one topic; women’s health, the sacred and spiritual aspects of Ayurveda, the treatment of children, mental and emotional wellbeing and rasayana chikita, and you can book as many of them as you would like to attend.

More info on these courses is available on the website or via the link in bio ⬆️

12/12/2025

🌿Year Two: How to Be a Home Herbalist🌿

🗓 Starting March 2026 | 📍 Artemis House

Ever since I began teaching How to Be a Home Herbalist, I have been asked for a second year of study – and I’m so happy to share that Year Two is launching in 2026!

If you loved studying Year One with me - or if you have a good foundation in herbal medicine from other studies - this next step is all about developing our knowledge, building confidence with the herbs and treatment, and exploring how we can support the body in real, practical ways.

We’ll look at each body system and talk through case studies, as well as exploring herbs, diet and lifestyle approaches that make a genuine difference. And as always, we’ll keep the learning relaxed, supportive, and enjoyable, with time in the herb garden whenever possible.

Course Dates
🌿18–19 March
🌿30 June–1 July
🌿2–3 September

Price
• Year Two: £850
• Direct entry (if you haven’t taken Year One): £850 + £350 for access to the Year One online content & monographs

Direct-entry students will just need to show they have a solid foundation in herbal knowledge. If you’d like to join us or have questions, please get in touch!


08/12/2025

We also have shorter courses and day workshops - there’s something for everyone!

Continuing Ayurvedic Studies
🗓 Various dates | ⏰ 10am – 4pm | 📍 Artemis House
The Ayurvedic Continuing Study Workshops are open to any of my students who have studied Ayurveda with me for more than two years — and many of you have been on this journey with me for much longer!

Herbs to Support Gut Health
🗓 9th April 2026 | 📍 Artemis House | ⏰ 10am – 4pm
This ever popular workshop is a full day dedicated to exploring how herbal medicine, food and lifestyle can work together to support digestive wellbeing.

Herbs for Mental and Emotional Resilience
🗓 14th May 2026 | 📍 Artemis House | ⏰ 10am – 12pm
Drawing from both Western herbal medicine and Ayurvedic wisdom, this course will explore the deep interconnection between mind, body and spirit, offering you practical tools and natural remedies to build resilience and restore balance.

Space are limited to 15 people.

Book now via the link in bio.

08/12/2025