I have been curious to try dyeing with plants for a while now, and finally got round to it. For my first dye pot I chose goldenrod (solidago canadensis) as it grows locally on wasteland. There’s plenty growing alongside the canal, and August is the month it blooms.
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The larger varieties of cosmos I am growing this year have started to open. This one is called cosmos ‘white cupcakes’ because the petals are fused together so that it looks like a paper cupcake (or fairy cake) case. They’re so pretty.
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I recently made some cold process soap with fresh calendula flowers I grew on my allotment, and made a video sharing the method and recipe. I thought I’d share it as a blogpost too as from time to time people find my blog through search engines, and perhaps you’ve found this post by searching for a recipe for calendula soap yourself.
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One of Ed’s running friends and his fiancée have recently had a baby, and I really wanted to be able to give them a bunch of home-grown flowers to celebrate. Baby girl was born towards the end of July but our wet and overcast summer, coupled with our first year soil, has meant that our flowers weren’t quite ready. Knowing that life with a newborn and your firstborn is quite full on and there will have been lots of people queuing up to congratulate them and meet their daughter, we waited a couple of weeks for the flowers to be ready before paying them a visit ourselves, with flowers and a loaf of homemade bread.
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