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Friday, May 18, 2012

A Relaxing Soak

I spent the day prepping for my herb workshop at Sunset Community Centre (between 10 and noon tomorrow). Tonight I made myself a bathtub tea sachet with epsom salts, rosemary, sage and lavender. What a nice way to relax and soothe aching muscles! Thanks to Jean and Catherine for their special contributions to the ingredients. I like the sachet because it means you don't have to clean little bits of flora out of the tub, as you do with bath bombs. One of my tips is to use butter muslin, not cheesecloth, because cheesecloth can be very cheap and fall apart when you wash it and the muslin keeps the small bits in, but is woven loosely enough to let the ingredients steep.


I've just read a piece of Australian crime fiction--a book called Truth by Peter Temple. This is prose peeled back to the bones. It's very macho, POV driven, hard core fiction. You'd think I'd hate it, but the plot did propel me into the novel and it took some work, but I gradually was able to enter into his prose. There are parts of the story I love: the image of the protagonist's father taking a stand to protect his home from a raging fire. He's joined by his sons for some thrilling action. I also like the part where he visits the mother of a murder victim and helps put in her vegetable garden, then he gets pissed off when her rich neighbors help themselves to the fruits of his labor. There is a vulnerable core to the main character that makes the story very human and the way he sees and describes the essence of his surroundings is very powerful.

The boys are playing Magic downstairs.


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