Friday 27 March 2009

Working hard and enjoying life

I've had another productive day today, which has included lots of writing and finishing off a phd chapter. Slowly chipping away at it is doing the trick after all! 

This is the view that greeted us through the kitchen window on coming down for breakfast this morning. 


Our garden is small, and the bird table close to the kitchen window, so we spend many an hour, tea in hand, watching the antics of the birds. This wood pigeon and it's mate, and occasionally another couple, are daily visitors, and make us laugh by sliding incompetently down the branches, being intimidated by sparrows, and sitting right on top of the pile of seeds like Smaug the dragon. You can see the lilac buds in the background too. 

As my toiletries run out, I'm experimenting with making replacements. This morning I tried a face scrub, adapting a recipe from The Fragrant Pharmacy by Valerie Ann Wormwood. It's a lovely book about using essential oils to promote general well being and healing, and I often refer to it to deal with cuts and bruises and colds. 

The face scrub is just a couple of spoons of medium oatmeal mixed with a teaspoon of sweet almond oil and a couple of drops of lavender. The book called for ground almonds too, but I didn't have any. 

I patted it onto my face with damp fingers, and massaged it in. It was beautiful! It smells divine, and feels gorgeous, and there was no need for moisturiser. My skin has stayed soft all day. I'll definitely be experimenting further soon. 

Talking of experimenting... I checked the soap again today. There's a layer of oil that's separated and formed on the top. I had a scout round the internet, and found this site which recommends checking the recipe and remelting, which is what I did. The result looks much more like I think it should, so it's wrapped in a towel now and I'll check tomorrow if it's hardened. 

All in all, a good day! 

No comments:

Post a Comment