Soaping

With the first frosts, the autumn raspberries are turning to mush and the remaining runner beans have become overgrown and stringy - the allotment season is winding down now for this year. The nights are drawing in and the mornings are dark with a chill in the air.

Along with the count-down to winter, there has been sadness, and several sad events (one especially) have left me feeling weary lately and my energy sapped. 

"See You Later"

My creativity seemed to dim and I have not felt much like writing, gardening, capturing moments and images with my camera or even doing in general. However I know that those whom I have tearfully said goodbye to recently would be admonishing me to "get a grip" and carry on regardless, just as they continued on without complaint or self-pity through difficult times - still able to laugh and offer words of encouragement to others.

So my attention has turned now to indoors and soaping in preparation of the oncoming fairs. There is much to do, including - 

batches of soap to stir;

boxes to design, cut out, glue and decorate;

soaps to slice and decorate with lace, ribbons, shells collected from the beach and the flowers that I have collected and dried over the past few months;

Sea Garden Soap - with sea shells & driftwood from the sea shore

fabric hearts and sachets to sew and stuff with my dried herbs.

Red Rose Buds decorate my Goat's milk, Jojoba & Shea Butter Soap

And that's just for starters - believe me, my To Do List is lengthy! I shall also be putting together some seed packets with seeds collected from the allotment and this year I am planning to experiment with making natural firelighters, containing herbs, pine-cones and essential oils - guaranteed to not just help light a cosy winter fire but also to fragrance the room with beautiful natural scents.

The first fair coming up is Lucinda's "Christmas at the Barn." A gorgeous venue with a quality line-up of crafters, including Jenny - Drin Pottery, Viv and her lovely handmade teddy bears and of course Lucinda's fabulous Phoenix Cards.

With the fair less than 4 weeks away, soaping is now the priority, (I simply must resist the new cross-stitch sampler kit that has caught my eye and the sudden seasonal urge that I have to start knitting)! With all the batches made - using the traditional rather more time consuming cold-process method, requiring 28 days for the soap to cure; I can begin on the part that I like the most, and that is decorating the soaps and the boxes.



Gardeners Herbal Soap decorated with Poppy seed-heads and Marjoram from the allotment 

Home and the workshop are filled with the delicate scents of essential oils and dried herbs; the normal progression into soap clutter chaos is seeping and expanding into rooms other than the kitchen and workshop. 

Dishes of pink rose buds and lavender flowers, trays of dried Bee-Balm flowers, and pressed Chamomile and Heartsease Viola flowers adorn every available work surface; jugs of lavender sprigs and poppy seed-heads line window sills. Boxes both decorated and waiting to be decorated are stacked precariously on tables and benches. 

Piles of vintage style fabrics spill across chairs and spools of ribbon unravel in a colourful rainbow amongst the ginghams and sprigged rose fabrics. For health and safety purposes Monty and Lucie are banished despite their protests to the hall in order to prevent any mishaps.

As usual time is always against me and this year due to other commitments (not least the renovation project - yes I am still painting windows!)

Sneak preview of one of the newly installed windows, - especially for Fran!

I may be forced to either call on the elves or else take up the offer of help from a friend who is having a rest from her own craft of jewellery making. For this reason I am not taking on as many fairs as usual, but hopefully when I can squeeze some spare time from somewhere (where I do not know???) I shall be setting up my Etsy shop and so my soaps will be available on-line.

While I am writing this, time is racing past, so I shall bid you adieu for the moment and resume my one woman soap and box making production line. I'll be back soon though to update you on progress!

Little Cat Lost

Poor Lucie is feeling rather put out - we have a new arrival on the scene. Appearing completely out of the blue one day with a beseeching expression upon his face came Monty. A long-haired tortoiseshell-white calico cat, strikingly marked and very well behaved he asked for nothing, but made it clear that he had nowhere else to go.

Sitting on the doorstep he politely waited to see if he was welcome inside and when initially the invitation was not forthcoming, he did not persist but just sat on the step with a sad resigned expression on his little face.

Ever the soft hearted where cats are concerned, I put a plate of food out for him. Monty fell upon the food and within seconds it was gone. He then resumed his place upon the doorstep and waited patiently.

Convinced that such a lovely cat as Monty must belong to someone and was possibly lost, I designed a lost and found poster with a photo of him to display in the local shops. A call came a week later from a very nice lady who lived in a neighbouring village some 8 miles away. She knew Monty well as he lived two doors away from her and would visit her every morning at the same time. Not knowing his real name she called him Cat. When she hadn't seen him for several days the nice lady questioned Monty's owner about his whereabouts. The owners reply was a blasé, "Oh! I gave him away - I didn't want him anymore!"

So it turns out that poor Monty is unwanted, homeless and hungry. Too well-bred to hunt he was famished when I first found him sitting outside my front door. At first I kept my resolve and refused to succumb to his silent request for a home and although I fed him it was always outside. However the weather has taken a turn for the worse and after finding him huddled on the doorstep on a particularly miserable evening I broke my resolve and brought him indoors.

Lucie was overcome with horror and appalled by his intrusion into her domain she could do nothing except sit and sulk, staring at him in disbelief and resentment. Monty was oblivious and within seconds had found the old rocking chair where he snuggled up on the cushion and fell into a deep slumber.

A Sulky Lucie

Lucie continued to eye him balefully, emitting large sighs and snorts of disgust. Safe, warm and comfortable, Monty slept the entire night and despite spending the next day outside he was there waiting hopefully the next evening on the doorstep.

The rocking chair has become his refuge and although he is content to be petted for a short while, Monty prefers to be allowed to sleep in peace upon the cushion. 

Monty asleep on the rocking chair

Thus it looks like Lucie is going to have to accept that she has a new companion because I don’t think Monty has any intention of seeking a home elsewhere and I certainly don’t have the heart to ignore his plight.

I have since found out that almost all calico cats are female – and for a calico cat to be a male is a rarity. Apparently calico cats originate from the Mediterranean ports in France and are believed to bring good luck - sometimes they are referred to as money cats. So it is highly likely then that Monty is not a boy after all, in which case a new name will have to be chosen. I think a French name is appropriate – Minou seems to suit her.

After several hours of Minou I made a discovery that Minou is indeed a rarity and is most definitely a boy. As I lifted him up the additional two little furry extras underneath reaffirmed that Minou is a he. So now I am in a dilemma - do I revert to Monty or given that I have found out about his French origins - should he be called by a more French sounding name, perhaps Monet as in the painter Claude Monet? After all as I mentioned before Calico Cats are referred to as money cats - so Monet seems to fit well and it can be either a male or a female name. However Monty has a nice ring to it and it could be short for Montague which is an old French surname.

What do you think, Monet or Monty?