black betty....bam ba lam ba lam....

mortar and pestles...

Tallows beach n lil gecko dude....

Came across this gecko in the kitchen, he froze and tried to blend into tiling, which maade for a decent shot, poor lil guy.

I thought it was about time I posted an image of the beach, so folks could see how beautyfull it is. Jealous? Me too, oh thats right I live here. Yep its still a bit surreal...

Opal plant ways....

If youre interested in plants, ive just started up a blog specific to them at http://opalplantways.blogspot.com/ Please bear with me as I sort out some teething problems. Thanx.

Pan....

Drawn from the movie 'Pans Labyrinth'

Plantain salve....

Id like you to meet 'plantain', Plantago lanceolata, a fine herb for insect bites, rashes, dry skin, and I hear small wound healin. Youve probably already seen her about, shes often handy to places bees hang about (and sting). Ive had some plantain infusing in olive oil since august last year, hoping to call upon her soothing nature. The other day I decided to make a salve up. I had about 8/10 of a litre of oil, so I grated up 100g of beeswax to mix with it, I set up a double boiler to make the heating gentle, and stuck 3 chopsticks between the bowl and the saucepan of water as insurance. Up goes the heat and I gradually added the beeswax as the oil in the bowl heated up, till all the wax was disolved. As a liquid, I poured it into jars and as she cools she gels. You end up with a salve that melts with the heat from your fingers as you use it, too cool. Ive been using it on my face where theres excema type stuff round my nose and mouth. It looks like I had a big night, crashed out and drooled all over myself during the night without noticing the next morning. Not a good look and itchy. But aaah no more, 2 days of swims in the ocean and plantain salve are working wonders! Relief., and a lip balm for Ilkaflower...

Roo....