Sorry it has been so quietly recently on the "Cupid by Proxy" front, this months Nerdist contest has been taking up a lot of my time because my entry "Squids In" has been somewhere in the top 7 from the start. It’s currently in 5th place so I really should be working on getting that book back up to 3rd, but I’ve been neglecting CbP for too long and need to issue an update. 

So last week I went and did some research at Alnick Castle and Grounds, specifically the Poison Garden, which houses the plants a lot of medicines and illegal drugs are derived from (including opium poppies, cannabis, cocaine, khat and even... rhubarb?)

This whole section of the grounds is gated and protected by security for obvious reasons. You can only enter when accompanied by a trained botanist who provides additional insight into each plant, its effects and some extra snippets of really interesting facts. It truly was a pleasure to visit and I recommend it to all.

It gave me some wonderful ideas with regards to the plants "The Arcanum" will utilize in their various concoctions and I plan to upload chapter 4 a little later this week after giving it another once over.

Thank you for following "Cupid by Proxy". If you are interested in something equally quirky but very different, please go check out my other project about a video-game playing octopus.

Matthew