Slow Living, But Lots To Do - Garden and Miracle Salve

The days are long and sunny here still. If it has rained so far this year it has only been a light mist, so my day usually begins with watering the gardens.
It is a good time to check everything out, and I invariably end up going back to the house to get a container of (very) hot water to give the green shield beetles a spa bath. This year I have taken advantage of their propensity to drop when disturbed and find it much more satisfying than squashing them one by one.

The morning's catch of beetles, next to some self seeded hebes (waiting to be transplanted)

Sometimes it seems like a battle against all the pests, and the possums won this year - stealing all our peaches and breaking branches on many other fruit trees to eat the leaves...grrr! I realized too late that I should have put the wire netting back around the trees, having removed it to make mowing easier.

Darned possums

The beans are doing very nicely, hanging from the arbor that Derek and Katie built, which makes them so easy to pick.

I just love my new bean arbor

Fortunately we still manage to grow enough to make it all worthwhile.

Just some of what we are growing here - beetroot destined for tonight's roast veg.

It has been a busy day today, with time spent making space for our new (to us) piano which will arrive later. Hooray, I can't wait - I haven't had a piano since I was a teenager..(keyboards don't count, they are not the same).

Next I made up this "Miracle Salve" for the first time, and it turned out great. I already had all the ingredients here, and it is one less pharmaceutical to buy, for keeping feet nice and soft. The recipe comes from primallyinspired.com where there are also printable labels, so it would make a great gift.

Miracle Salve

3 Tablespoons of beeswax pellets

1/4 cup of coconut oil

1/2 cup of almond or olive or jojoba - I made it up out of all three

2 Tablespoons of shea butter

20 drops of essential oil of your choice.

Melt the beeswax in a double boiler for about 15 mins. I used a large, cleaned pet food tin so I don't have to worry about getting it off my pan.

Then add the other oils and shea butter and mix. I let it cool a little then added the essential oils before it started to set, and poured it into a clean container.

Miracle Salve

Every night I go to sleep planning what I will do the next day. It is a great way to get to sleep - way better than counting sheep don't you think?