Making Time

The weather has been incredible, deceiving us into believing it can't be November.  Despite being mild and inviting we haven't slowed down in our schedule very much to be out enjoying it.  Thankfully I shook my head and put lots of things on pause.  The reward of walking, exploring and spending time together outside was well worth it. 

Beach Time

It might be with sweaters, rubber boots, hats, wet clothes, and ever closer to swimsuits (to be honest I am surprised no one has gone in yet!), whatever our attire I think we can officially say beach season has begun. One of the perks of living where we do is being less than ten minutes away from close to twenty different lakes. Some have great beaches, others beautiful picnicking areas, docks to jump off of, slides to fly down, excellent fishing, spotting loons or mink, baby ducks or osprey, sandy beaches and rocky shores. I love the beach, being close to water, the chance to swim daily, playing for hours in the sand, being outside.

Welcome back beach season!

The added bonus

Our ultimate goal of tapping the trees and boiling the sap is obviously to produce some of our own maple syrup. It is a time consuming process, especially in our small pot. Without a doubt it is time well spent. The process of building and maintaining the fire, skimming off the syrup, refilling the pot for many, many hours at a time has led way to other wonderful rewards.

We head outside at first to tend to our tasks, but the sun and warmth keep us out. There was ice collected for winter fairy houses, hockey played. The swings were enjoyed, lunch roasted, snowball fights had. We tried our hand at bannock on a stick, which was a huge hit. The process involved in making sap together as a family is one we cherish, but just as much is the time spent together outside just hanging out. Or maybe the bonus is that for days on end we all smell like campfire!

The Cupboard

The smells in the house have been (temporarily) shifting from apples and cinnamon to beeswax and lavender. I don't know which I prefer, although totally different types of smells, they are both have such rich, comforting aromas. The new slab of beeswax was picked up at the market so we could get started on stocking the first aid cupboard. Each year we try our hand at making more of our own remedies to have on the shelves. We started with different dried herbs for teas, soaks and poultices, making our way to creams, salves, tinctures and oils. It gives us great satisfaction to grow or gather the ingredients, have them steep or dry over time and then mix them up into their final product. It is a slow and steady process, requiring patience. A process that builds our anticipation.
Shai has very sensitive skin, calendula cream is the most effective way we have found to sooth it. We can easily spend $10 a week on giving him comfort. After planting calendula flowers a few years ago and learning how easy it is to make a salve it made sense for us to make our own. This is the simplest recipe, one we have made successfully for the last few years.

I also steeped some plantain, red clover, mint and lavender. We combined infused plantain oil, beeswax and tea tree oil for skin irritations, rashes, cuts. For achy muscles, colds, congestion we mixed together olive oil, beeswax, comfrey, mint, eucalyptus, and pine. The red clover is for pms (not that I get that!), grape seed oil infused with the red clover can be used on the temples. We also did a jar we called "smells good herbal rub", its a little bit of this and that; lavender, mint, calendula, rosemary, beeswax and a few other things for good measure. We collected rose hips for a syrup chalked full of vitamin C, perfect for warding off colds. It tastes good to boot and I remember making as a child with my mum.

Combined with vitamins, herbal remedies, homeopathics, hot water bottles, some newly made cloth 'band aids' (for my sensitive skin guy), our cupboard if fuller and we feel healthier just knowing it's there!