hot hot hot!

I took this photo of my cayenne peppers on my last day on the farm in Oregon. It's the first place I've lived that I could really grow these spicy little heat-lovers. I'm now home in Halifax, NS and the lovely fall we had been having has turned bitterly cold! Just thinking about that long hot summer takes away a bit of the chill...

st. john's salve

I spent the other night making a st. John's wort salve - simply melting beeswax into oil infused with st. johns wort, calendula, comfrey and echinacea. It has a beautiful, rich, red tone and would be great for burns, nerve damage and all-purpose skin healing. 

I'm feeling inspired to put together a line of pure, plant-infused body products. I can't wait until I have a bit of land to grow all of the herbs myself...

coneflowers and bumblebees

The echinacea is in bloom and the bumblebees are loving them, even more than me! They are also all over the borage (more to come). As I was picking borage flowers one ran smack into my arm and didn't sting me. That is the way of the gentle bumblebee.

lady birds

Snap of lady bugs on the sweet cicely at my community garden's communal herb garden. Apparently these little ladies have been scarce the last couple of years. The garden was practically teeming with them as they feasted on aphids so perhaps the pesticide bans are helping to bring back the pollinators and other beneficial insects.