Vinegar of the Four Thieves

A few weeks ago I posted about a mixture called the Vinegar of the Four Thieves. Last week I decided to get some, it came in today, and I was so excited that I made a batch almost immediately. Heh.

For a more in-depth look at what I'm talking about, I refer you to the above link. Concisely, the Vinegar is a very strong but effective bug repellent that can be used on anyone and anything externally (barring the obvious, like broken/sensitive skin or orifices). I made a tincture with 12 tablespoons of the herbal mixture and 1 quart of vinegar. (I started off with a pint, but it's too much for one little jar so it was moved to a quart instead). 

This is about 5 minutes after pouring the vinegar over the herbs. See how dark it's getting already?

Here's a bit of plain apple cider vinegar for comparison. This is exciting stuff, people. I love this kind of thing. :3

So within the next 3-6 weeks I'll strain off the herbs, soak some crushed garlic in there for a few days, strain THAT off, and then it'll be ready for dilution and application. Nerg. *checks watch impatiently*

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And now, for some levity. Here's a picture describing my life:

Seriously. They don't.

New Growth

We had a lovely (though all-too-short) rain over the weekend, and I finally learned to stop picking at the herb garden and just let it GROW. (Or I've just been too busy to go out and check on it for the past week or so. Sigh.) 

And I'm overdue for a post about normal stuff like gardening, rather than ranting about inflammatory topics. Ahem.

Back row: Weeds sprinkled with echinacea

Middle row: Marshmallow, flax, marshmallow

Front row: Chamomile (not visible here), dill, wormwood, flax, fennel, lavender

The dill has exploded as well as the marshmallow...the wormwood is still small, but doesn't seem unhappy where it is.

Baby flax! I don't know what it'll look like when it's full grown, but it's fun to watch.

And baby chamomile. I know that a lot of these plants look similar, but believe me there is a huge difference between them all (the dill smells strongly when crushed, the flax has individual spike-type growths, and the chamomile has a single stalk with frondy bits coming off of it). Believe me. I can tell.

Oh yes, and the Gookster presiding over all. She's a very nosy cat. O.e

Anyway...there's your weekly (biweekly?) herb garden update. Time to wait for things to grow more.

Not for the faint of heart...

I have two videos I would like to share. The first one is a testimony by Dr. Anthony Levatino concerning the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 3803) that was given last week before a U.S. House subcommittee. This is not for the faint of heart or squeamish, as Dr. Levatino is a former abortionist and part of his testimony covers the 'suction dilation and evacuation method' (or suction D&E) for abortion. For a transcription of his testimony, visit this link.

The second video is an undercover video taken by a woman who went into a Planned Parenthood clinic to find out if they would encourage a sex-selection abortion.

I don't think it'd be spoiling anything to let you know that not only does the employee encourage a sex-selection abortion, she gives advice on what OB-GYNs to contact for abortions and how to get around the Medicaid loopholes (fraud, anyone?).

I'm sorry, but the more I see of this organization, the less I'm willing to buy that they're all about 'women's healthcare'. And the more that people try to tell me that this is a sign of 'liberation' and 'women's rights', the more I think that the 'right' to slaughter one's offspring should be taken away. Just sayin'. 

Related, but on a side note: I have a quote from Dr. Levitano's testimony concerning the claim that abortions 'save women's lives'. Here it is in full.

"Before I close, I want to make a comment on the claims that I often hear that we must keep abortion legal in order to save women’s lives, or prevent grave physical health damage, in cases of acute conditions that can and do arise in pregnancy. Albany Medical Center, where I worked for over seven years, is a tertiary referral center that accepts patients with life-threatening conditions related to or caused by pregnancy. I personally treated hundreds of women with such conditions in my tenure there. There are several conditions that can arise or worsen, typically during the late second or third trimester of pregnancy, that require immediate care. In many of those cases, ending or “terminating” the pregnancy, if you prefer, can be life saving, but “terminating a pregnancy” does not necessarily mean “abortion.” I maintain that abortion is seldom if ever a useful intervention in these cases.

Here is why: Before a Suction D&E procedure can be performed, the cervix must first be sufficiently dilated. In my practice, this was accomplished with serial placement of laminaria. Laminaria is a type of sterilized seaweed that absorbs water over several hours and swells to several times its original diameter. Multiple placements of several laminaria at a time are absolutely required prior to attempting a suction D&E. In the mid-second trimester, this requires approximately 36 hours to accomplish. If one were to use the alternate method defined in federal law as Partial-Birth Abortion (but now generally banned), this process requires three days, as explained by Dr. Martin Haskell in his 1992 paper that first described this type of abortion. 

In cases where a pregnancy places a woman in danger of death or grave physical injury, a doctor more often than not doesn’t have 36 hours, much less 72 hours, to resolve the problem. Let me illustrate with a real-life case that I managed while at the Albany Medical Center. A patient arrived one night at 28 weeks gestation with severe pre-eclampsia or toxemia. Her blood pressure on admission was 220/160. A normal blood pressure is approximately 120/80. This patient’s pregnancy was a threat to her life and the life of her unborn child. She could very well be minutes or hours away from a major stroke. This case was managed successfully by rapidly stabilizing the patient’s blood pressure and “terminating” her pregnancy by Cesarean section. She and her baby did well. This is a typical case in the world of high-risk obstetrics. In most such cases, any attempt to perform an abortion “to save the mother’s life” would entail undue and dangerous delay in providing appropriate, truly life-saving care. During my time at Albany Medical Center I managed hundreds of such cases by “terminating” pregnancies to save mother’s lives. In all those cases, the number of unborn children that I had to deliberately kill was zero."

Peeksures

I haven't checked stuff outside for a while, and went out for the express purpose of taking pictures of the herb garden. I'm glad to report that it's exploding with growth, but I in my absent-mindedness (i.e. distraction by weeding and taking pictures of bugs) forgot to get a picture of said growth.

*headdesk*

But I got pictures of bugs and clouds instead. That counts, right?

And eggshells, because you can never have enough eggshells. Right?

This is an idea I found on Pinterest for using egg shells as little growing containers. There's catnip seeds in every one of those things...but nothing's growing yet. And they get bone-dry within a day--I have no idea where all that water goes. O.e

Oh yes, the horse. Because I haven't been riding her at all and the only thing she does is eat and she's getting fat and has a marshmallow butt again. *sigh*

Storm clouds--it's raining now with just the occasional flash of lightning. That's the best kind of storm, in my humble opinion.

The butterfly! He was so tiny--only about the size of my thumbnail. I had a heck of a time getting these because his flying was more of a spastic flitting that couldn't be followed with the naked eye. But he finally stopped long enough for a couple pictures. 

I have no idea what kind it is, but he's photogenic and that's all that counts right now.

Praying mantis...just a baby about an inch long. He (she?) finally stopped moving long enough for a little profile. And then the cat flopped down on it in an attempt to get my attention. *facepalm* I never found a body, so maybe it lived? I don't know.

Mantids are kinda cool and kinda creepy at the same time. There's something about those bug eyes. O.e

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On another note, the herb garden is doing well. The marshmallow has positively exploded with growth as well as the fennel and dill--chamomile is poking its head up, along with the flax, and I THINK the echinacea is making a bid too. At this point I just have to let things grow and stop messing with them.

I have various oils and liniments (rubbing alcohol base) steeping in the laundry room. They should be ready for use within the next couple of weeks. The only lousy thing about working with herbs is that there's a lot of waiting for things to mature or grow or steep...ah well.

Anyway. Enough babbling, and ya'll can go back to your lives...enjoy the pictures...

Some random things

And they shall be filed randomly. So there. XD More randomness after the break! (This is a rather long post. ^^;)

Mindsets

Have you ever come across something that so filled with filth and vileness that you don't know exactly how to respond to it? Show of hands, anyone?

As mentioned in a previous blog post, I am unabashedly pro-life. There's not much else I can say to expound upon that without getting into the inherent injustice that masquerades as 'pro-choice'. So coming across a blog post that refers to abortion as a '...medical procedure that should be routine, like getting a filling at the dentist or getting a vaccination...' and tells women to be proud of their 'choice' understandably gets my ire up.

For the entire post, see here: http://www.xojane.com/issues/abortion-fantastic

For a response to the above post, see here: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/website-asks-women-to-be-proud-of-their-abortions

Am I the only one who sees something wrong with that mindset? Women have been having babies for thousands of years, with a very high success rate.  When has it become admirable for women to willingly and happily sacrifice their children by admitting access to what should be the safest place in the world for a developing infant, and allowing someone to tear that infant apart? The mindset has become so 'me' centered that people think it's better for a woman to kill her child and 'save her own life', rather than actually be a mother and sacrifice her own life for that child. 

Then there are people who think that abortion is a 'necessary evil', that a person can think it's wrong but they can't tell a woman who doesn't think it's wrong that it is. Following that train of thought, right and wrong become subjective. I could go around punching people in the face, and if they tell me 'that's wrong' and I say 'It's my choice, I don't think it's wrong', who are they to press their opinions of what's right and wrong upon me? (I wouldn't do that, I'm just using it as an example.)

And for those who think that one's right to swing their fist ends where the other guy's face begins (metaphorically speaking), abortion is a really lousy practice to use that argument against. The idea that something is wrong if it hurts someone else actually supports a pro-life POV, seeing as how in a typical abortion the child is either torn limb from limb or made to swallow/be bathed in a saline solution that causes horrific burns inside and out.

If that's not hurting someone else, I'm not sure what is. But back to the original blog post.

If a woman is ashamed of an abortion, that's a very natural reaction. The killing of an innocent being who hasn't even had the opportunity to draw a breath is horrific. Being proud and flaunting one's status as a 'liberated' woman at the expense of another's life, however, is a completely different story.

Screwtape Letters Quotes

I was looking for a quote today from The Screwtape Letters to illustrate a point I wanted to make in a conversation. I didn't find the quote I was looking for, but here's a plethora of others that are just as good.

(For the uninformed, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is a collection of 'letters' between a demon named Screwtape and his 'nephew' (lower demon, I guess) named Wormwood. The book covers the human condition and spiritual warfare as seen from a demon's POV. They refer to the humans in the book as a 'patient', the devil as 'Our Father', and God as 'The Enemy'. It's a very chilling way to look at humanity.)

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“It should be (but it is not) unnecessary to add that a belief in angels, whether good or evil, does not mean a belief in either as they are represented in art and literature. Devils are depicted with bats’ wings and good angels with birds’ wings not because anyone holds that moral deterioration would be likely to turn feathers into membrane, but because most men like birds better than bats. They are given wings at all in order to suggest the swiftness of unimpeded intellectual energy. They are given human form because man is the only rational creature we know. Creatures higher in the natural order than ourselves, either incorporeal or animating bodies of a sort we cannot experience, must be represented symbolically if they are to be represented at all.” — VIII (Preface)

“Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient’s soul. The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbours whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus become wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary.” — P.31

“Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made all the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden. Hence we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that in which it is least natural, least redolent of its Maker, and least pleasurable.” — P.41-42

“Talk to him about ‘moderation in all things.’ If you can once get him to the point of thinking that ‘religion is all very well up to a point,’ you can feel quite happy about his soul.” — P.43

“Humour is for them the all-consoling and (mark this) the all-excusing, grace of life. Hence, it is invaluable as a means of destroying shame. If a man simply lets others pay for him, he is ‘mean,’ but if he boasts of it in a jocular manner and twits his fellows with having been scored off, he is no longer ‘mean’ but a comical fellow. Mere cowardice is shameful; cowardice boasted of with humourous exaggerations and grotesque gestures can be passed off as funny. Cruelty is shameful — unless the cruel man can represent it as a practical joke. A thousand bawdy, or even blasphemous, jokes do not help towards a man’s damnation so much as his discovery that almost anything he wants to do can be done, not only without the disapproval but with the admiration of his fellows, if only it can get itself treated as a Joke.” — P.51-52

“I would make it a rule to eradicate from my patient any strong personal taste which is not actually a sin, even if it is something quite trivial such as a fondness for country cricket or collecting stamps or drinking cocoa. Such things, I grant you, have nothing of virtue in them, but there is a sort of innocence and humility and self-forgetfulness about them which I distrust. The man who truly and disinterestedly enjoys any one thing in the world, for its own sake, and without caring twopence what other people say about it, by that very fact forearmed against some of our subtlest modes of attack. You should always try to make the patient abandon the people or food or books he really likes in favour of the ‘best’ people, the ‘right’ food, the ‘important’ books. I have known a human defended from strong temptations to social ambition by a still stronger taste for tripe and onions.” — P.60

“My dear Wormwood, the most alarming thing in your last account of the patient is that he is making none of those confident resolutions which marked his original conversion. No more lavish promises of perpetual virtue, I gather; not even the expectation of an endowment of ‘grace’ for life, but only a hope for the daily and hourly pittance to meet the daily and hourly temptation! This is very bad.” — P.62

“The Enemy’s demand on humans takes the form of a dilemma; either complete abstinence or unmitigated monogamy. Every since Our Father’s first great victory, we have rendered the former very difficult to them. The latter, for the last few centuries, we have been closing up as a way of escape. We have done this through the poets and novelists by persuading the humans that a curious, and usually short-lived, experience which they call ‘being in love’ is the only respectable ground for marriage; that marriage can, and ought to, render this excitement permanent; and that a marriage which does not do so is no longer binding.” — P.81

“The sense of ownership in general is always to be encouraged. The humans are always putting up claims to ownership which sound equally funny in Heaven and in Hell, and we must keep them doing so. Much of the modern resistance to chastity comes from men’s belief that they ‘own’ their bodies — those vast and perilous estates, pulsating with the energy that made the worlds, in which they find themselves without their consent and from which they are ejected at the pleasure of Another! It is as if a royal child whom his father has placed, for love’s sake, in titular command of some great province, under the real rule of wise counselors, should come to fancy that he really owns the cities, the forests, and the corn, in the same way as he owns the bricks on the nursery floor.” — P.97-98

“There are things for humans to do all day long without His minding in the least — sleeping, washing, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working. Everything has to be twisted before it’s any use to us. We fight under cruel disadvantages. Nothing is naturally on our side…” — P.102

“We must first make (Jesus) solely a teacher, and then conceal the very substantial agreement between his teachings and those of all other great moral teachers. For humans must not be allowed to notice that all great moralists are sent by the Enemy, not to inform men, but to remind them, to restate the primeval moral platitudes against our continual concealment of them.” — P.107

“On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means of their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to do anything — even to social justice. The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. For the Enemy will not be used as a convenience.” — P.108-109

“The Enemy loves platitudes. Of a proposed course of action He wants men, so far as I can see, to ask very simple questions: Is it righteous? Is it prudent? Is it possible? Now, if we can keep men asking: ‘Is it in accordance with the general movement of our time? Is it progressive or reactionary? Is this the way that History is going?’ They will neglect the relevant questions. And the questions they do ask are, of course, unanswerable; for they do not know the future, and what the future will be depends very largely on just those choices which they now invoke the future to help make.” — P.118

“This, indeed, is probably on the Enemy’s motives for creating a dangerous world — a world in which moral issues really come to the point. He sees as well as you do that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful until it became risky.” — P.138

“No man who says I’m as good as you believes it. He would not say it if he did. The St. Bernard never says it to the toy dog, nor the scholar to the dunce, nor the employable to the bum, nor the pretty woman to the plain. The claim to equality, outside the strictly political field, is made only by those who feel themselves to be in some way inferior. What it expresses is precisely the itching, smarting, writhing awareness of an inferiority that the patient refuses to accept. And therefore resents.” — P.163

“You remember how one of the Greek Dictators (they called them ‘tyrants’ then) sent an envoy to another Dictator to ask his advice about the principles of government. The second Dictator led the envoy to a field of grain, and then snicked off with his cane the top of every stalk that rose an inch or so above the general level. The moral was plain. Allow no preeminence among your subjects. Let no man live who is wiser or better or more famous or even handsomer than the mass. Cut them all down to a level: all slaves, all ciphers, all nobodies. All equals. Thus Tyrants could practise, in a sense, ‘democracy.’ But now ‘democracy’ can do the same work without any tyranny other than her own. No one need now go through the field with a cane. The little stalks will now of themselves bite the tops off the big ones.” — P.165 

 

 

Flawed Design?

I've been listening to this video for the past day or so, and trying to play it on guitar. And it plays in my mind when I'm spacing.

It's just so catchy... *wibbles* Plus, it's the perfect sympathetic villain song. The only quibble I have with it is the end conclusion that implies that the singer is the way they are because they were made that way, when previously they referred to deliberate manipulative actions that ended up backfiring. Meh. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but there ya go.

"And I will turn off

And I will shut down

Burying the voices of my conscience hitting ground..."

When I see your face...

...I get breathless. When I see your name my heart pounds like it's going to hammer its way out of my chest. My stomach hurts at the sight, and it feels like my throat is going to get so tight that I can't breathe. It's strange how the palpitations of crush-ism and the panicked galloping of pain can be so similar...why do you still have this effect? I haven't spoken to you for months. I haven't seen pictures of you for weeks. And yet...the barest brush I have with you, even if it's just your name, results in reeling back and feeling the brunt of all that agony AGAIN.

Why does this keep happening?

My mantra for weeks has been 'I'm in repair--I'm not together but I'm getting there'. Progress is two steps forward, one step back. (I thought about saying 'ten steps back', but if that were the case I'd still be curled up sobbing in bed every day.) Each shaky building block looks as if it's finally balanced, but it comes crashing down at the slightest puff of wind. 

In light of all this...I wish I had never met you. I wish we had never crossed paths, had never known the other existed, and gone off in merry oblivion. Then there would have been none of the divorce-like repercussions, the pain of promises made and not kept, and the agony of being reminded that you are still out there.

You know what they say, 'if wishes were horses'...well, I'd be broke if that were the case. And burned out on horses. But I digress.

I know what people have told me, about how I now have a PhD in heartbreak and what to look for the next time around (I can hardly bear to think about anyone else in that manner, much less contemplate a future relationship), how to test the waters even more cautiously, etc...but I don't see how it was for the best to experience that. The waters remain untested for an unforeseeable amount of time. I don't know how you are about it all--though I've had the persistent thought that you're in a similar area of pain, and avoid me for the same reason that I can't even look at your name.

I don't hate you. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm still rather in love with you in a limping, cautious, pain-ridden sort of way. But I can't help wishing that we had never met.

 In closing, the mantra begins again.

(I let this post sit for about an hour and came back...my heart is still palpitating and the breath comes shortly. Urgh.)

War Horse (major spoilage), Pt. 2

Because this is getting insanely long and disgustingly rambly, I'm breaking it up into parts. In the last review there was much rambling and cynical side comments until Sherlockstache (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Red-Haired Loki (Tom Hiddleston) showed up. Cue suddenly getting drawn into the movie...so here goes again.

War Horse (major spoilage), Pt. 1

Just for the heck of it, I'm going to babble and spew and ramble about War Horse because it was the last movie I watched recently (not counting Thor, which is basically mind-candy) and I feel like writing a cynical review gosh-darnit. Review after the break, for those who don't care for exhaustive spoilers and nonsensical rambling.

Finished Project, Monday Wares...

There's been this tea cabinet/cupboard thing sitting in my room for months now (and a couple of years in the closet before that). After rearranging my room I got it out with the intent to hang it up and put herbal/tea stuff in it. Cue its resting at the foot of my bed for months...but today, it has been placed on the wall! And it makes me rather happy.

It doesn't exactly match the rest of the room...but I don't really mind. Those tins are empty Republic of Tea tins--I have no idea what to do with them yet--and the rest of the shelf space may or may not be devoted to herbal stuff. I have yet to figure it out. *rubs hands together*

Labels! I made these in Word, and am alternately irritated and relieved. I made a version in Photoshop that has a picture of a comfrey plant, along with the uses and ingredients. But for some reason my printer (or program?) doesn't want to print color at all. This week I'm going to try to figure out how to format labels in Photoshop...until then, the plain ones will have to work.

4 bags of 20 cough drops apiece (these are thyme-ginger-honey)...

...and a variety of homemade soaps. I've used the oatmeal and the honey wheat germ, and I must say that the oatmeal gets stains off like none other. I had to fix my bike chain today, and with the aid of a small bristle brush you wouldn't be able to tell that I had been doing anything with bikes at all. Mwahaha.

So anyway...tomorrow I'm working til 4, but have a friend covering for me at Farmer's Market until I can get there. I'm kinda excited about this. Wish us luck! :D

Comfrey Salve, Plagiarism, and Mind Blowing Stuff

And it may or may not be in that particular order. It's 11:23. I'm entitled to scattered-ness occasionally. XD

So comfrey salve! Monday is the first Farmer's Market here in town, and Mom and I have been preparing for the past week. Mom is going to be doing her Bread for Life stuff (she sells baked goods and uses the proceeds to support orphans in Honduras), and I'll be selling salves and other various herbal thingies. So far I've got cough drops (4 bags of 20, not counting the wrapped ones) and today I made a batch of salve.

This is what it looks like right after cooling:

The green is from the plantain and comfrey oils. It's a clear greenish-gold liquid when poured, and solidifies within about 10 minutes. I love this stuff.

I got jars (4 oz) and tins (2 oz) yesterday, thus much planning of stuff has been taking place. Next time I'll probably get them a size or two smaller, because these tins are huge compared to the little 1 oz tins I normally use. Eesh.

I'll be selling the big tins for $4 and the little tins for $2 this Monday! If you're in town, feel free to stop by and see what we've got. *holds up stuff hopefully*

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You know those cups that have gotten really popular lately? The plastic double-walled ones with a heavy-duty screw-on top and reusable straw? I almost got one today, and then was struck with the brilliant idea of turning one of my mason jars into a nifty look-alike. I hadn't worked out the schematics yet, but I thought it was a great idea and may have done a little patting on the back of being so brilliant.

Then I got onto Pinterest. One of the first things I saw in my feed was this:

AUGH! Yet again, I've been beaten to a fantastic idea...cue wind being severely taken out of the sails. Sigh. It DID answer a few questions (namely how to drill a hole in the lid, and where to find rubber grommets), but still. That was MY idea. Mine. My own. *clutches blue mason jar protectively*

Mind-plagiarists. O.e

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So I saw War Horse tonight for the first time. First off, I've been soured on horse movies since forever--having owned/trained horses tends to do that, because I spent 90% of the time yelling 'no, horses don't act/think that way!'--but this had two redeeming points: Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch.

I can see the question marks forming...so let me proceed.

This is Tom Hiddleston:

(He's the dude who played Loki. But he was a good guy in War Horse.)

And here's Benedict Cumberbatch:

(It's Sherlock! With red hair! Holy crap! O.o)

These two fought side by side in the movie (on horseback, of course) and were in it for only about 10 minutes, which made me sad. But I digress.

So anyway. I was watching the movie when out of nowhere Tom Hiddleston pops up and starts talking like a posh British gentleman. I almost spit my tea onto the computer screen from laughing so hard. And less than 5 minutes later, Benedict Cumberbatch (WITH A MUSTACHE) pops up, cuing the same reaction. Then both characters die heroically and I was sad. Anyway.

So War Horse was all right--a bit rambly story-wise, but beautifully filmed. After finishing that I looked up the play online, and was thoroughly impressed with the way puppeteers made the horse puppets look very life-like. One video in particular stood out:

It's the main character 'interacting' with a real horse...I'm very, very impressed with the way the puppet moves (I keep wanting to say 'he' and 'the horse'--that's how good it is) and kinda wish that I could have seen the play onstage just to see the horses. But yes, much mind-blowing was going on. It were pretty cool.

(I also may or may not be getting slightly obsessed with Tom Hiddleston a.k.a. Loki and Benedict Cumberbatch a.k.a. Sherlock/Smaug. I shall try to contain the fan-sploding to a minimum. And with that final note, good night.)

This is me tonight...

Far too much Tumblr time, not enough school time. I'm going to regret this, I know. >.<

I've also eaten too many cupcakes in the past few days. And worked a ton. And acquired some echinacea plants that need pictures taken of them. And haven't ridden the horse enough. And need to practice guitar at times that don't include 10:30 at night. *sobs*

I also made some amazing egg salad the other day. It's a terrible picture, but anyway. It had:

6 hard-boiled eggs
Mayonnaise
Dijon mustard
Bacon
Salt and pepper
Dehydrated onions

I didn't measure anything, 'cause that's how I roll. But it was amazing and literally gone in about 10 minutes (which wasn't so amazing). I must needs make more sometime.

Rose Water

I've been reading through one of my herb books a lot lately, and getting lots of ideas for things that I want to do/make/etc. The latest thing to catch my eye was two recipes for rose water.

Traditional rose water is distilled, taking 2-3 quarts (!) of fresh rose petals to make about a quart of excellent quality rose water. Originally, the idea was to experiment with that tonight--but the recipe was rather involved and I wasn't going to be able to get started until 9:30 PM.

So. With that in mind, I've saved the distilled version for another day and settled on a simpler recipe. The roses were acquired from a house that I cleaned today (the yard at said house is packed with all different kinds of flowers and herbs and vegetables, and there were tons of heirloom roses in various areas), along with some cuttings off the rose plants in an attempt to grow my own.

Aren't they gorgeous? They were so fragrant that I could smell them from several feet away while picking them. *glee*

The recipe thus far is very simple:

Rose petals

1 part distilled water (I used filtered)

3 parts witch hazel

I had about a cup of petals from all the flowers.

The finished result...dated and labeled.

In 2-3 weeks (according to my book) this will be ready to be strained off and used for whatever I need. Another recipe I have my eye on is a light cream in the same book that calls for rose water...or I can use this as a facial toner, ingredient for other recipes, etc. Some other time I'll try the distilling method and compare the two results to each other. And I need to get more rose petals to dry for teas and salves...there's too many things to try and not enough time to do them. Sigh.

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I don't have pictures for this, but for the last two nights I've been doing hair rinses with comfrey (the first night) and a comfrey/rosemary blend (tonight). I prefer the second so far--comfrey by itself seems to make my hair a bit dry and somewhat 'snarly', for lack of a better word. Plus the rosemary smells better. Comfrey makes a really pretty clear green tea, but it tastes and smells...not disgusting by any means, but distinctive and isn't exactly pleasant.

I also tried to make a homemade shampoo with some rebatched soap my mom made (I took 4 tablespoons of grated soap, mixed it with 1 1/2 cups of tea and a couple tablespoons of glycerin and let it cool. The result is...viscous. And thick.). I'm not sure what to think thus far, except that it may have to grow on me. The effect is somewhat stripping, and after my normal routine of baking soda rinse followed by a vinegar rinse, it feels rather weird.

Tomorrow I shall expound and possibly take pictures. Until then, good night little interwebs world.

A Slightly Different Post

Just imagine me as Agent Coulson here. But with more squealing.

So...I saw The Avengers last week. Twice. And I really really liked it. It's to the point that I've been collecting funny comics/pictures and reading about the movie on TvTropes. *hangs head*

I can't help it! The Avengers was just so good! And funny!

So here's some funny pictures. Some are related to the movie, some not, but if you haven't seen the movie, here there (might) be spoilers. O.e Enjoy.

Hawkeye hitches a ride with everyone!

Duh.

"Have you seen my brother?" B'AWWWWW! *squishes sad!Thor*

Because Thor is totally the scrapbooking type.

Anyway. Hope ya enjoyed the fansplosion of geekiness and have an appreciation for The Avengers in adorable comic form now. XD

Last time. I promise.

I know, I know, all I seem to post lately is those silly cough drops. But this time I think I have a winning batch!

The first recipe I ever read had a method for pouring the candy into molds made out of powdered sugar. And this morning before work I got to try it out for the first time. Observe:

I took a shallow pan, smoothed out the powdered sugar, and pressed little molds with the lid of an essential oil bottle. The cool thing about this is that the candy is so hot (300F) that the sugar repels it and they stay all nice and neat in their little molds without mixing with the sugar. Watching the process was pretty cool in itself.

This is after mixing them in the sugar and shaking the excess off--this was much, MUCH neater and faster than the previous method of scoring/cutting the candy as it cooled. I just needed more pans of powdered sugar in order to use up all the liquid. And a faster way to pour them so that the last dozen or so wouldn't be hardening and sticking to the pot. Ah well.

Plants!

They're growing!

The comfrey has been there for about 3 years, and it's finally blooming and taking off this year. I'm really excited, in case you can't tell. ;) (I totally didn't see that bug in there until just now. Heh.)

Ain't it purty? The blossoms have started falling off already, much to my dismay. Sigh. The plant itself is very large and well-established now though. 

Baby plants!! I don't remember what I planted here, but they're growing! *glee* It might be mallow. Or yarrow. Or echinacea. I'll find out once it gets bigger.

Mom had me move her patch of lemon balm from the front flower bed (on the north side of the house) to the backyard--this stuff spreads like crazy, so I dug up a section of sod next to the raised bed. It was in shock for a couple of days, but came out of it and hopefully will be establishing itself this year. And there was tons drying behind the stove--I've got half a gallon bag of the dried stuff in the freezer now. Hopefully that will go into tea blends and such.

And there's wormwood! This stuff is pretty, but SO nasty-tasting. I'm not planning on making this into anything edible (while wormwood is an excellent way to rid oneself of parasites, it's such a potent plant that it would be easy to accidentally overdose), but there's this mixture on the Bulk Herb Store called the Vinegar of the Four Thieves that contains wormwood, rosemary, peppermint, sage, and lavender. It's a dried mix combined with fresh garlic and apple cider vinegar to create a potent insect repellent--some history books concerning plagues mention similar herbal mixtures that doctors used to 'cleanse the air'. Since I'm feeling a bit lazy I'm going to copy and paste the description on BHS's website. Seeing the historical use of such remedies and applying what we know now to records in history is, in my opinion, rather fascinating.

{Again, the following is cut and pasted from the BHS website. None of it is mine.}

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Lately, with all these awful threats of plagues in the news, I have been spending my free time reading medical reports and ancient history books that discuss the times of the great plagues.

The last great plague of 1664-1665 covered all of Europe, Turkey, India, and China. It is estimated that at least one-half of the population of those areas died. The people knew the disease was somehow related to the rats and mice, because as the rodents died off, so did the people. They just didn’t understand it was the fleas leaving the dead carcasses of the rodents and finding human hosts that were spreading the disease.

The latest insect-carrying virus that could prove to be a nightmare plague is the West Nile Virus. When we welcomed in the year 2000, the West Nile Virus was almost unheard of. After all, it only concerns people living around the Nile River, right? It is now in almost every state of the union. It kills over 2% of those who get infected. Thousands upon thousands of dead birds, dogs, horses and chickens are being found infected with this exotic killer. Mosquitoes carry it from mammal to mammal to mice to people to pets, and from pets back to people. Thousands of people here in the USA were infected last year. A simple mosquito bite is no longer an unimportant little red spot. A quick research project is to look at a map posted on the web displaying infection rates; it is quite sobering.

In reading personal accounts of the different plagues, I noticed some important points. There were usually 3 completely different expressions of the plague: bubonic (swelling glands), pneumonic (lung congestion with flu-like symptoms), and septicemic (pathogenic bacteria in the bloodstream). Often nurses, doctors, and those who buried the dead never contracted the plague. The survivors telling their stories never agreed upon a preventive, yet I noticed several different authors mentioning vinegar and smoke as a possible defense against the plague.

I read of one old couple who served the sick and never got ill. They strongly believed their immunity was the result of the use of herbal vinegar, which they put on their hair, clothes, and even a vinegar-drenched rag placed in front of their faces when they were attending the sick. They lived to tell their stories and to promote their preventive.

Many families survived by staying in their homes at all times and creating acrid smoke in their homes every 3rd day. They thought the smoke was purifying the air of disease. The smoke was made by burning a variety of things, from gunpowder to Rosemary. They suspected that the rats and mice might be carrying the disease, and by creating the strong odor, they believed it would drive the rodents and fleas from their homes.
Burning Rosemary, which is a pleasant odor, proved to be so effective in ridding homes of pests that its use has continued down through the years. Even as late as World War II, rosemary incenses were burned in the hospitals of France to “cleanse the air.”

The most famous and interesting story of healing coming out of the great Black Death plague was the story of the four thieves and their amazing concoction that came to be known as The Vinegar of the Four Thieves. History records that the four thieves were arrested for stealing from the homes of the many dead victims. After their arrest, they were taken from prison and forced to bury the dead with the promise that if they lived, they would go free. One of the thieves was an herbalist, whose herbal wine vinegar purportedly kept the four thieves alive all during the Black Death. As their resistance to the disease became obvious, others started using their vinegar tincture—reportedly with great success. They lived to credit the vinegar potion for their survival.

The old records document several recipes that are very much alike. I looked up each of the herbs comprising the tincture and marveled at how effective the tincture would be in place of today’s insect repellents. Of course, superstition was rampant during those times, and disease was not understood, so the old history books confuse superstition with herbal healings. Common sense and more recent medical understanding have made it possible to comprehend why this herbal vinegar worked so well.

Rosemary, being a strong antiseptic, was one of the choice herbs. Wormwood and Rue are the bitterest of herbs. Both are antiseptics and vermifuges (kill worms). Wormwood has been used internally but can cause convulsions. Lavender and peppermint are high in volatile oils, hence excellent ingredients for a very good insect repellent, as well as being pleasant smelling. Sage, among other good things, is a lymphatic, which is an important fact to remember in case of a bubonic-type disease outbreak. Of course, garlic, as the king of herbs, is a wonder drug. Within its paper-thin wrapping is found a host of beneficial properties, far too many to list. But it does have specific properties that are antiseptic, antimicrobial, antibiotic and, antifungal—chemicals that kill parasites. If I were ever lost in a sick, hostile world, I would not take medicine; I would take garlic. Always keep a sack in your kitchen, and go to the library to learn how to use it.

The Vinegar of the Four Thieves is a super-strong insect repellent. It should be diluted with water to half strength if you spray it directly on your skin. This repellent can be used many ways. Splashed on your socks or shoes will discourage ticks, chiggers, and mites. An herbal cloth kept in your pocket and rubbed on your skin ever hour or so would be very beneficial during outdoor work or recreation. Or, a nightly bath with a little herbal vinegar and oil will keep it on your skin for many hours and could prove helpful for families who live in the country or while out on camping trips. It should only be used externally.

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I'm tempted to buy some for this year, seeing as how my little herb garden is just getting started, and trying to make my own next year. Plus the Vinegar is on sale this month....hmmmm..... :p