Easy Grow Borage

Borage is easy to grow

I'll tell you a story of my borage. Some years ago I had a borage plant. It grew to about 40cm tall (about 15 in) and I treasured it. Borage is a herb that attracts the bees. It is also known as star flower. It has beautiful, blue flowers. Borage also self seeds. This means that it drops its seeds and they will come up again by themselves - no work for you. 

This little plant and its babies flowered on for two or three years, then it disappeared for a few years. Another plant appeared, a thin, spindly plant. Then we had a drought for ten year.No more seedlings appeared during those years and I thought 'Well, I have lost it this time.'

Vibrant blue coronet of Borage herb photographed from above

 

No Borage to a Surplus of Borage

Recently we dug up the garden in that area and built a chicken house. The ground around it was bare. A few months later some borage seedlings appeared. Wow! I was excited. I'm sure the borage fairies hovered in the area to make sure these plants grew. 

Now we have the most amazing, sturdy, large, tall patch of borage you could ever imagine. This has grown to nearly one metre (3ft) by about 1.2 mts (4 ft). It has been covered in beautiful, blue, nodding stars for a couple of months now. 

The large happy plants of the Herb Borage. 

How to use Borage

Borage flowers can be frozen in ice blocks and used for cold drinks in the summer. They can also be used to decorate dishes of your favourite food and can be eaten. The leaves are dark green and hairy, having little spiky hairs all over the leaf. These are not prickly although they look it. The leaves can be dried, ground and used as a tea. 

How Borage Benefits the rest of the Garden

We need bees in the garden. They pollinate a lot of plants. Lots of vegetables need to be pollinated by the bees so we can get their fruit, for example pumpkin, zucchini and tomatoes. 

Borage brings bees to the garden. Bees especially love blue flowers, so will gather in abundance, enjoy the borage flowers then buzz on over to your vegetable flowers. Then you will get an abundance of vegetables. 

There is no need to be frightened of bees. Welcome them into your garden. Say 'Thank you for coming' and just stay away from your blue flowers while the bees are working in the hottest part of the day. 

Benefits of Borage

The seeds of this lovely blue flower are also collected, crushed and the oil from them is used in the cosmetic industry and as a supplement. Borage is filled with essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. Borage is soothing and calming and helps the adrenal glands. These are affected when we are under stress. 

Photos by Therese Vahland

Spring Gardening - Blue Flowers

At the beginning of spring all of Nature seems to burst into life. New leaves on trees appear from nowhere. 
One day the limbs are bare, a few days later the tree is covered with leaves.  
Flowers burst forth in their short burst of glory...

Pink lavender and blue borage flowering together

 In all the colours of the rainbow. Yellow brings sunshine into the garden and looks good when side by side with my purple flowering Hebe.

Bright, yellow, daisy - osteospernum

Bright yellow daisies bloom, bringing sunshine into the garden ..... 

Blue flowers abound in my garden this year. Below is some Borage and Echiums making a show and attracting all the bees. This will ensure a good seed crop for all my other flowers too. 

Stunning blue Borage flowers happily beside Echium and Nasturtiums

Blue Echium always makes a stunning show

A bright deep yellow and brown Australian native with it's pea shaped flower

This year I have re-potted many plants into self watering pots. I find these so great any time of the year, but especially during the long, hot, summer days when you really don't want to go out to water. You know your precious plants can last a couple of days.

Spirit Painting

Surrendering to Spirit

Sometimes I just like to give everything up to the spirits around us. They know more than we do about lots of things. I am always careful to ask for only good energy to come in, and to surround myself with White Light. 

I settle myself in a quiet corner with a drawing pad and pencil, close my eyes, and wait. It can take a while for the energy to build up. The more you repeat the exercise, the easier it becomes. As you and your Spirit Guides get used to communicating, the quicker things will happen each time and the more easy the flow will be. 

Spirit Painting

Amazing drawings have come out of this exercise and I am sharing one painting that I did from one of these drawings. 

Amber by Therese Vahland and Spirit

How to Draw with Spirit

There is a feeling of excitement each time your pencil starts to move and you know you are not moving your arm or hand. To make sure I have little conscious input into these drawings, I keep my eyes closed. So the entire drawing is done before I open my eyes. I do not know what has appeared on the page until this moment. 

My Spirit Artist has a unique way of drawing. Most of the drawings have been done without lifting the pencil from the page. When It wants to move to another part of the drawing, It traces exactly over the top of other lines. This is all done with my eyes closed. Some intricate and geometric patterns have been built up this way.

This painting was copied faithfully from one of my Spirit drawings.

Please email me if you are interested in my painting.

Pure Distilled Water for Health

Distilled water is mostly free from all impurities.
It is not so simple to make although it sounds easy. 

How to make Distilled Water

 

Now doesn't that sound just so easy? Boiling the water is OK. The steam that arises from the boiling water is just extra hot water in another form. Collecting the steam? Well how do you catch steam? It tends to evaporate and we need to give it time to cool down again so that it can turn back into a form that we can handle. 

Water Distiller

This is where a distiller comes in just so handy. It is especially made with a big stainless steel tank for the water, and has lots of coils inside with a fan to cool the pipes (coils). As the pipes cool, the steam loses heat and becomes water again.

As it comes out of the distiller, the liquid is caught and bottled. 

This is far easier than messing around with saucepans or kettles of boiling water. Safer too!

Differences between Normal Water and Distilled Water

Normal water has many impurities in it. It includes minerals, bacteria, chemicals and can also carry parasites. If you leave a bottle of water in the sunlight for an extended period you can see algae growing in the water. 

With distilled water, all these impurities are left behind. They are not carried into the super heated steam therefore a bottle of distilled water will not grow algae. 

Uses for Distilled Water

Distilled water has many uses:

• bathing cuts and scrapes
• washing eyes
• making Homeopathic liquid remedies
• making beauty creams 
• making Flower Essences
• adding to liquid herbs
• cleansing the face
• filling the car battery
• drinking purified water

 Drinking pure distilled water is known to draw toxins or impurities out of the body.

 Pure Distilled Water by Enhance you Health can be found at My Garden Treasures Ebay shop

Love and Crystals

When people are introduced to crystals they know instinctively if they are attracted to them or not. The people who are attracted to them take little time to fall in love with them. 

What are Crystals

Crystals  are actually rocks or stones that are formed below ground in great heat and under great pressure. Many have specific shapes that are formed and all the crystals of that variety have a similar shape. Very perfect specimens of some crystals are called gemstones and fetch great prices in the jewellery trade - think diamonds, rubies and sapphires here as well as emeralds.

There is a huge variety of crystals. This ensures that there are plenty for people to fall in love with. Crystals come in all colours, many in multi-colours depending where they are formed in the earth. Crystals are not as expensive as gemstones. 

Everything on this planet resonates. We cannot see it but it still happens. Things that resonate at the same frequency tend to move towards each other, for instance, two people who are friends. They resonate nearer the same frequency. So too with crystals and people.

Two Crystals to Fall in Love with

Two of the most favourite crystals and ones that are well known, even by people that know nothing about crystals are Amethyst and Rose Quartz. 
  

Rose Quartz

Rose quartz is a beautiful soft pink colour, about the colour of coconut ice. It has a soft energy and resonates with the energy of the heart. It is said to be the stone of Love. People are greatly attracted by this stone, especially if they have difficulties with love in their life. This does not necessarily mean romantic love. Rose quartz softens the heart and brings love. 

Rose quartz pyramid array

Amethyst

Amethyst is a purple crystal.  It's energy helps to calm the mind and help sleep. It has eased headaches. It's vibration resonates with the vibration of the chakra, the energy centre between the eyes and at the top of the head. 

Amethyst wand

 You can buy the beautiful rose quartz pyramid array at Crystal Spirit on Facebook. 

Crystal Spirit photo and design by Thérèse Vahland

Dairy: 6 Reasons You Should Avoid It at all Costs

Mark Hyman, MD, thinks there are many good reasons NOT to drink milk.


Over the years we have worked toward avoiding milk.
Now everybody thinks of milk as that white liquid that comes out of plastic bottles and is kept in the fridge in the supermarket, right?







Well, there are just so many other ways that the dairy industry has devised to get us to consume milk and this milk does not even look like milk anymore.

First there is yoghurt. There are so many varieties of yoghurt but the all contain milk. Then there is butter, cream, cheese, cheese sticks, Parmesan cheese and all sorts of other varieties. 

Next, chocolate comes to mind. There's lots of milk in milk chocolate. Milk is also included in cakes and omelettes. We have been seduced into eating this food which is meant for baby cows. Oops, didn't you realise that?

Listen to hear what Dr Hyman has to say and it just might improve your health, stop all that sinus trouble and all those sore throats.

 

Healing with Crystal Energy

Crystals Benefit our Health

Crystal energy started me on my road to recovery twenty years ago. I was seriously ill. Doctors and specialists had no answers. After spending years in bed with very poor health I started on a slow recovery with the help of the healing energy of crystals.

The effect of these  crystals had a profound effect, not only on me, but also on my family. As I improved in health, I began to study many forms of healing in natural ways. Naturally, crystals were my first study and became a great love for me. 

I gradually learned many ways to use them for healing and collected a vast array of crystals. 

Amethyst runes

Crystal Elixirs

After learning about Flower Essences, I also found out about Crystal elixirs. These have the energy of the crystal held in water and drops of this crystal infused water is taken by mouth.

Many years of helping others with their health problems followed by doing healing with crystals. 

My daughter also was fascinated by these beautiful rocks and their secret energy. She too learned to use them for healing. 

Crystal Spirit

Today, she imports unusual crystals and sells them at very reasonable prices. She wants to make them accessible to many people. 

Lapis lazuli geometric wand

Clear quartz Angel

  Click on any of the photos to be taken directly to Crystal Spirit Facebook page. 

 Photos and designs by Therese Vahland

Pigs and a Cooking Show

Pigs on the Farm

Pigs are one of the animals I have never had. My husband flatly refused to have them. 

A pig called Stephanie

I have always loved animals and had many varieties over the years. We lived on an eighty acre farm. That's about thirty two hectares in size.

Animals on the Farm

We have had

• goats - angora, dairy (a few varieties) and cashmere
• sheep - carpet wool and a few other varieties along the way
• donkeys 
• mule
• horses
• cows
• chickens - lots of breeds
• ducks - 120 ducklings one year
• geese
• rabbits
• cats
• dogs
• birds - a variety

But we never had pigs.

Stephanie, the pig, features in one of his latest videos.

Cooking Shows on You Tube

One of our sons, Bevan, is a chef and makes videos with great recipes and scrumptious food. 

Why don't you check you his You Tube channel, subscribe and share? He'd love to have you visit.

How to Build a Deck

I came across this video about building a deck. Have a look if you are thinking of building one too.


Now, to be fair, I really must tell you that this young man is my son, and his lovely boys and dogs appear in the video too.


Bevan would love you to have a look at his video, 'Like' it and 'Subscribe' too.


He has lots of videos. He's a chef too, and you will find lots of mouthwatering recipes there too. He makes everything look so easy. Yes, you can have great food too by following his recipes. 

I think building a deck might just take a bit more energy.