Both boys have wobbly teeth, bless them, and are acting like bears with thorns in their feet. I think the pain is amplified in the current climate as there’s not enough fun distraction to take their mind off it. School has been cancelled about 50 times over the past two days but to give them their due we’ve somehow got stuff done, tears all round. I really hope for all our sakes that they are back at school in spring. They miss their friends and I’m sick of having to get them to toe the line for such much of the day.
I meanwhile have been trying to rearrange the downstairs furniture in between working in the name of starting the refurbishment of our kitchen, finishing the lounge while keeping its lovely airy feel and finally finding a home for all my herbal supplies.
By teatime all the food, plates, pots and pans were in boxes around the perimeter of the kitchen, the fridge made it’s long overdue journey to the food prep area, the dresser was dismantled and the lower part reimagined as a sideboard (somewhere for me to arrange fruit and flowers and put my drop down record player)/toy cupboard (somewhere for the kids to store their lego and nerf guns as they still have no interest in playing in their rooms) at the end of the lounge and ‘the bread cupboard’ – a tall, dark 18th-century Welsh dresser originally designed to store bread and cheese – began its new life as a bar and board game cabinet.
I love a bit of sorting and change is as good as a holiday they say, so lining up bottles and glasses provided the perfect tonic for two very stressful days; preparing a gin and tonic would also feel more like a ritual as well.
The most satisfying moment, however, was unpacking and rehousing all the bottles, jars, herbs, oils and props I assembled while writing The Heritage Herbal: bags of dried rose buds, lavender, elderberries, calendula, lemon balm, lemon verbena and Himalayan and Epsom salts; pots of wax pellets, vegetable-based soap bases, shea butter and coconut oil; bottles of carrier oils, essential oils, natural bases for lotions and gels; supplies of citric acid, bicarbonate of soda and witch hazel; plus Mason jars, medicine bottless, non-reaction pans and funnels, straining muslins, jam thermometers, tea bags, bath sachets, ointment tins and silicon moulds for lollies, bath bombs, soaps and resin crafts.
I work best when I’m organised so giving each of these items a permanent dwelling place means it will now be easier to replenish tried and tested herbal remedies (running low on some of my homemade cosmetics, for example), experiment with new ones and get the kids involved. Also inspired to install a drying rack in my home studio so I can stock up on homegrown herbs.
Although I’m often motivated by the process – the creative invention and then making of a design – just handling and indeed smelling all these aromatherapeutic herbs also reminds me of just how beneficial plants and flowers can be. The scent of lavender from just a few spilled buds transports me to the warmth and hope of a late spring day; the orange petals of calendula flowers – uplifting and soothing in salves, soaps and as tea – inspire optimism for the sunshine days and blooms of summer.
I close the drawers on my newly filed herbal friends and go to bed feeling surprisingly relaxed for once.