making rose salve...and catching up!

well kids - it's been a long week and a half! we've had business meetings, flying internationally several times, meeting up with movie and rock stars - it sure can wear you out.

BAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH! naw - we've been busy in the garden and the house, jambaloney's been busy working on his contract, we've been petting cats, near died when we had high humidity for almost 3 days in a row (i feel so sorry for all of you people that live with constant humidity - i swear, we were crying for those almost 3 days!) and eating lots of good food.

but when it wasn't humid, we were outside enjoying our days.

jambaloney, the weeder extraordinnaire, has been weeding non-stop. i've been making more salves. this is rose petal salve.

make sure your roses are just in their prime and pick them, lay them on a screen to give any bugs a chance to get off, after an hour, all the bugs should be gone, then rinse them and dry them really well - putting them back out into the sun works well and quick!

toss those beautiful petals into your salve-making pot and dump some hard coconut oil and coconut milk in the pot.

let it all melt together.

toss in some clover heads and heal-all flowers for the medicinal quality that they provide.

let it all cook up JUST to boiling.

strain your mixture and press on your mixture to get all of the liquid out.

put your liquid back in the pot and chuck in some 100% beeswax (if you are lucky enough to get Pioneer Preppy's beeswax you are one lucky sod!)

once the beeswax has melted put the liquid that HAS NOT ever come to a boil, do your spoon test.

dip a spoon into your mixture, let it sit for 10 minutes. then rub the spoon. if it's too runny, add more beeswax, if it's too thick, add a little more coconut oil. when you are satisfied with the composition, fill little jars. here's mine:

this, like all of the other salves i make has many uses. you can use it as a face cream, body cream, lip balm and for anything chaffed (like elbows knees and feet). you can also just use it as a hand cream - it has a soothing fragrance and if you rub it into your hands in the evening watching tv or whatever - it has a very calming effect.

now for my buddy W, who is always asking about the cats. Rat Cat...i mean Edgar....found himself a new bed.

we have pillows and blankets and little beds all over the house that not one single cat has ever gotten into?!?!?!?!? but put a box lid on a desk...and that is Edgar's bed. Noodie-Noo sleeps on boxes that are in a shelf. Mankly-Spontoonch ( Frankie Blue Eyes) sleeps on a tiny ledge in the kitchen. and Moby-Moe is now sleeping in a tire insert on top of the hottub. these cats are nuts.

we watched a thunderhead develop the other day - what a gorgeous picture!

but it blew by us.

and here is some homemade chili burritos that i made the other day for supper.

jambaloney suggested that the only thing that could make the meal more decadent was to put a poached egg on it.

i concurred. and then served it with a quinoa, parsley and mint salad topped with tomatoe and cucumber. we moaned for hours.

now on to some "herbs". how about some lemon balm, bee balm, sage and sage flowers, heal-all flowers, sweet marjoram and flowers, chamomile, oregano and thyme all drying in the sun? woohoo! i pick these quite regularly and solar dry them on screens for delicious herbs for over the winter that you grew yourself!

here's another beautiful day - i had a friend once ask if cape breton is really as beautiful as it seems??? just google cape breton and you will see tons of pics - NOT taken by me - and you will see just how absolutely mesmerizing it is! especially at the Manor!

here's some fresh-picked herbs that i put in jars of water - why? because i am going to make herb salt out of them. stay tuned and i will show you how i salt my herbs for use throughout the winter.

heading down to the river one day, every day - it doesn't matter what day - it always looks like this!

down at the river. special pic for my friend C.

coming back up the road after a river day...after a day of looking at the sky with awe. and then we see the lop-sided Manor - my favourite place in the world.

"the man" (jambaloney) wanted steak, chicken thighs and homemade potatoe salad for supper. "the man" always gets what he wants for breakfast dinner and supper!

i had a piece of his bloody, un-cooked steak and still prefer mine to be like combat-boot leather. on the left is chicken thighs cooked on the bbq and then tossed with my "kick-you-in-the-head" homemade hot sauce with butter and honey. on the left is a teriyaki-kind of sauce that i just made up with ginger and garlic and stuff.

both were delicious! and as you can tell - for my potatoe salad, i use yolks from 6 eggs but only use 4 whites - i like my potatoe salad to be yolky!!!

sorry if i haven't been by your blogs. but it's hard living the life of riley! sending love though!