Imbolc Activities - Creating New Candles from Old

The other day on the blog I mentioned that the season of Imbolc, or Candlemas would begin in a few days, and I thought yesterday to make a brief video of one of the activities I would be doing as part of my preparations.

So if you would like to see a rare video of me chatting about candles feel free to click on the video below :)

Spring comes a peeping

A quick nip into the garden during a break in the weather and we already find evidence of mother nature waking up from her winter slumber, although it is still a slow sleepy waking, like a cold weekend morning when there is nowhere pressing you need to be.

The festival of Imbolc, or Candlemas is only a few days away now and after a couple of weeks of slowly getting back into a routine and enjoying the hibernation feeling of that post-holiday madness, I feel ready to start putting forth my own fresh new growth.

Like the snowdrops just peeking through the snow

 it is time to begin.

A fresh and Marvellous New Start

 Often the longer it has been since you have done something, the longer you then leave it to begin again, making it even longer since you did it and even harder to start and so on.

I'm not sure what happened to my blogging, I sort of took some time off during the summer months when the boys were visiting, and then found it really hard to get back into the flow of writing again, it seemed so much easier to just do something else all the time.

 Sort of like when you haven't exercised for a while for whatever reason, and then it seems like so much effort to begin again.

Also I kind of felt like I had lost my blogging way, my purpose, till I remembered that blogging had simply been a way to share with the world my musings, what we are doing in our little corner of the world, and what I am currently creating.

Also I felt as if I wasn't really being me online, not really sharing the stuff we were doing as much as I had been, and also avoiding talking about certain stuff, not out of any sense of lack of privacy, more just because it didn't fit in with what I thought the blog's 'content' was about, hmm.

Well stuff that, it's my blog and I will share whatever speaks to me, inspires me and what I am thinking, warts and all.

So here's to a fresh New Year, lets make it a Marvellous one !!!!

How to Easily Make Comfrey Ointment

With the Comfrey plants almost reaching tree like proportions, it is well past time for me to be harvesting it. Usually before now I have been harvesting the first cut for making comfrey infusion for the greenhouse but I have been a little lax this year so now I have a huge first harvest instead.

Most of the leaves harvested will be used to make comfrey infusion, which basically involved steeping the leaves in a huge bucket of water to make a horrid smelly liquid which the tomatoes love. But comfrey ointment for this years stock will be made with some of the leaves first.

Comfrey has long been used traditionally as a healing plant, and scientific studies show that the plant contains a small molecule called 'allantion' which repairs cells and decreases inflammation making it excellent for skin wounds.

Making comfrey ointment is really easy and one of the quickest I find to make.

How to Make Comfrey Ointment

Ingredients:

Fresh picked comfrey leaves

Either.... Olive oil (or another preferred oil such as almond/sunflower etc) and Beeswax

OR …... Coconut oil

Labelled jars or pots to store

* Roughly chop comfrey leaves and place in a saucepan

* Cover with oil (if you are using coconut oil you may need to melt it first)

* Heat very very gently just so that you are getting the oil not quite hot, you do not want to Fry your comfrey (although I have been know to accidentally do this myself).

* Turn off the heat and allow to comfrey to infuse in the warm oil for around an hour in a warm place.

* Strain your oil through a sieve into a measuring jug squeezing the leaves with the back of a spoon to keep as much of the oil as you can, then allow to stand for another hour in a warm place.

* If you are using coconut you are now finished and can carefully pour your ointment into jars or pots leaving any sediment behind in the jug and store in a cool place.

* If you are using beeswax you need to measure how much oil you have before carefully pouring back into your wiped out comfrey pan leaving the sediment behind in the jug.

* Add beeswax to your pan using roughly 10grams (½ oz) of beeswax for every 100ml (3 ½ fl oz) of oil,  heat gently to melt and mix, then pour into pots or jars.

And that's it, easy done in a morning.

Comfrey Trees are blossoming

The fabulous weather we have been having on the island recently has sent the comfrey into a serious growth spurt. It self seeds itself and pops up like a weed, but I don't mind in the slightest as it is so useful both in the Stillroom and on the plot, and we use the ones that pop up in completely the wrong places by harvesting them.

For healing it is one of my favourite herbs for broken skin, and those that are slow to mend, e.g. John managed to come out in blisters on his forearms from strimming hogweed, nasty and burn-like and I've been told can scar, so comfrey ointment is being used liberally.

We have several huge clumps dotted about the property which I suspect were originally planted as a source of nitrogen and potassium compost for the garden as it makes a wonderful liquid plant food when made into comfrey tea excellent news for our tomatoes.

If nothing else it makes a fine meal for the bees, they love it and to fills a gap with a pretty plant.