MH, tincture-making Question--And praise for the heart of Autumn: the assimilable spectrum of yellow gold- red

Hi MH, I made a *milk thistle seed* tincture back in April--and faithfully shook it every day--but then forgot about  it--

There were other tinctures in front of it, in the cupboard, barring the view--I forgot I guess in about late  August.
(That daily shaking, though it remained in  the cool and dark.) It was tinctured  in brandy -- is it still good? Meaning, how would I tell? Would you suggest I strain it now, and add more alcohol? It's pretty thick...otherwise It looks okay---and I was very good with it originally -- started it on a new moon; had good rich seed I bruised and pulverized...what do you think?

 Secondly, though it's not YOUR thanksgiving, it's "mine". So-- Thanks (giving) to YOU and yours and the Ducks' ,
(they are not political, thank the Lord!) and the dogs and so on! Not all beings are in sync with  these 'manufactured' occasions-- though sadly -and we should be mindful of this- animals are *subject* to our responses to these *holidays*; Indeed to all this so-called 'real world' and our reflexes within it. 

That is, we can either calm and empower these other beings (who share this realm) to experiencing True Light and Love, or...we can imprison them--or simply blindly persist in what was begun before us...be , dare I say: "soldiers"...

but -- My God! Thanks (giving) for the glorious trees! It wasn't ' till today  -I'm creeping up on 50 too-  that I fully saw the energy of the deeply coloured and dying trees--and appreciated ( really completely) that there is a subtle energetics that is the reflection of light off these fall leaves-- it's incredible-- all together, it makes up a kind of basket of light--

and it dawned on me that we physically take this in, in the fall ,(those of us who have seasons,and go out and move among them) in as profound and visceral a  way (banking-wise, so to speak,) as we take in vitamin B12 perhaps-- and store it, sometimes for years. Certainly for the winter!

It's crucial to our whole balance. That and probably walking on the earth, barefoot, under these changing/dying trees.
I  had this epiphany today--and I'd had many incredible experiences with trees over the past forty or more years...
They have been my deepest (quietest ) friends.

hmm........................................ We can create oxygen bars (where we  go to delight in oxygen as if it were a fine brandy, say--) and we can worship (or despise, but use  anyway) tanning beds, but  wow--

we are still kindergartners, with slumping socks and scuffed toes  when it comes to truly knowing the mystery of colour--
and the *sufferings of light...(*how light is stepped down to us in colour, out of great compassion for our inability to meet it as pure light.) well-----------------------------------------------How wondrous!!

C