Making way for a Herbal Apothecary

Do you have a room in your home that you have no idea what to do with? No matter how much you tidy it, it will get messy?  We have two in our house, one is the hallway full of boots and wellies and other bits and bobs and the other is the parlour leading off the kitchen, so I decided to put this room to good use and being next to the kitchen would make it ideal.  Plus with the heavy rain, I couldn't really go anywhere, even my dog wouldn't go out!!

So today, mop bucket and homemade rosemary and vinegar cleaning fluid in hand, I got to work and cleaned the parlour down because I have been thinking of using it for  storing dried and hanging fresh herbs for ages.  I mopped down all the walls, ceiling and shelves and then I let the room air for an hour.  Next I got all my dried herbs and put them into jars, labelling them and then harvested some fresh herbs, Catmint and Borage, which has been growing like mad in the garden and hung them to dry.  I must say the couple of hours I have spent has paid off, I now have somewhere to store my herbs and homemade Elderberry wine later in the year too.

After busying myself with all of this tidying up and sorting, I took the flowers off the borage and pressed some of them and the rest infused in an oil, which I will list on my Etsy.com store when it is ready for magickal purposes. Borage is good for lifting the spirit and bringing courage, it is also said to be good for spirit communicatin also.

I also busied myself with making an altar space on my kitchen widowsill which happens to face north too, as I do alot of my herbal preparations in the kitchen, I thought this would make an ideal spot for my working altar.

Next on my list will be to tackle my herb garden, although it is pretty much weed free, it does need cutting back and some of the Calendula can now be harvested too.

My next job now is to go outside to feed and water our 17 hens, there are four adults and 13 youngsters which were a free gift last week from a friend of ours, their food tray is getting low and in order to grow they need to eat

All in all it has been a busy day with a productive result at the end of it, so now that the rain has finally stopped, I shall go and persuade my dog, Toto, to see if he will fianlly go for that long awaited walk!!