Home made washing powder

I make this regularly - much superior to anything you can buy in the shops. It has a really lovely "clean" and soapy smell to it, and the washing seems to stay softer, and is easier to iron. It's just a lovely thing to use, no harsh chemicals, no artificial perfumes, little packaging. I like my clean washing to smell of clean washing!! Here's the recipe:

6oz soap flakes
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda - powder or crystals

Mix all together and keep in a dry, cool place, covered. I use about 1/2 a coffee mugful each wash, so it's quite economical, especially if you can buy the ingredients in bulk. I got my last lot from here:

http://www.thesoapkitchen.co.uk/

It's also a good way of using up the odds and crumbly bits from home made soaps.

Handspun hat - completed!

Here we have it - the completed hat, from start to finish. Pleased with it, so will attempt something a bit bigger next. There's a lot of fleece to get through! :)

Fairly bright here today, need to get out and muck out the goat pen, but not sure what else. Back later.

Serendipitous findings...........

Looking through and sorting out my Kilner supplies, I found this little packet of rubber rings; it says "for jars before 1948" on the front! They're still in good condition and will fit some of my narrower-necked jars.



My second find was in a book; I bought a copy of Change the World for a Fiver - full of little things you can do easily to help look after the planet. The "fiver" refers to the five pounds th book cost, but I got it in Oxfam. One of teh suggestions was to plant your own Christmas tree, to save buying one, or buying a fake, plastic one. Luckily, the seeds were still attached in the book, inside a lovely packet. So, I'll be sowing them later today, although they won't make a usable Christmas tree for a while yet!

In a nutshell.......

John Lane, in his introduction to Timeless Simplicity, sums it up very succinctly:

".........life at the beginning of the 21st century is not what it should be. It seems that oor economic and technological progress has failed to bring about the good society; a higher standard of living has become the unofficial agent of oppression. It has simply failed to result in a better quality of life. Modern culture has encouraged the delusion that consumption provides a palliative for the unease which characterises many lives. This is the exact opposite of the truth. Material "solutions" to emotional problems leave behind a sense of personal dissatisfaction. A simpler lifestyle leaves space for one's spiritual renewal"

Immortelles

I have successfully grown a few of these this year; previous efforts have all been slugged :0 There are more of the statice to come. I prefer the French "immortelles" to the rather more prosaic sounding "everlastings" in English, so these are my immortelles, which are shortly to be cut and dried off for autumn/winter decoration.

The sawmill

We occasionally have to go out and buy various bits of wood for various projects; this happened on Friday last - MrL needed some posts for the new extension to the wood shed, to house more logs for the winter, so we tootled off up to the sawmill. This is always a treat for me. It is in the most wonderful location, perched right on the top of Bulbarrow hill, set in amongst its own woodland - birds, wild flowers and peace (until the saws start running, ofcourse!) The staff are lovely - helpful, polite, interested - and the owner does a lot for local charity too. On Friday, we were priveleged to meet the resident peacock too! I talked to him about woodchips for when I hopefully get my smoker built, and he's happy to supply me with oak chips and sawdust at good prices.

Staying at home

It occurred to me last night that I had not been away from the house all weekend. We managed to do everything we needed to do on Friday afternoon, so ahd no occasion to go out. I was quite happy pottering about, re-organised most of the store room to get the large Suma delivery in and tidied and decluttered around the sink and windowsill - need to keep it tidy now! Weather was warm and humid, bit of rain, but I didn't get outside, just the greenhouses watered.
I have no problem with staying at home, and am never bored or at a loss as to what to do. Nice and economical as well.......... :0