All the Pretty Little Ponies

I volunteered at Saddle Rock again this week and took some pictures. This is Jam, one of the therapy horses, he likes to pose for pictures:










I was interrupting lunch and Dusty would rather eat than pose, but Jam found the concentration within his horsey brain to multitask

I love volunteering at Saddle Rock but thet top ring that we ues in the summer is very uneven and sandy and there is a very steep hill to walk up to get there and my knee just wasn't having any of it after three hours. But I got a couple of nice pictures from the top:

And here are some of the horses fooling around in turnout:

The date stamp is way off on my camera and I just haven't bothereed to fix it so pay no attention to that.

Why God made Coffee

I have figured out why God created the coffee plant. It is for those of us who wake up at ten am on Wednesday and don't get to sleep till nine-thirty pm on Thursday. I don't know why I couldn't get to sleep Wednesday night/Thursday morning but all I could achieve was a very light dose. I woke up around quarter to ten this morning and now I have that shaky-airy-floaty-I slept way too much feeling.

The lye came today, now I'm just waiting for my order from Mountain Rose Herbs and I can make my soap!! Yay *happy dance*! I helped Daddy finish our new fence yesterday, now he's pulling out the old metal fence that the ground and plants have claimed. I actually woke myself up by going for a run yesterday, I got about half a mile of actual running and a little more of walking, but my body seemed to wake up, my brain shut down more. After we did the fence, I had a read in the pool, the only form if multi tasking I was capable of: sunbathing, reading and resting. I might actually do that some more today, just to see if it helps as much for too much sleep as it did for not enough sleep. I'll let you know. Until next time, happy reading.

Soap

Daddy and I just made a, rather crude but it's mine, soap mold. We used cut offs of 1x6 planks from making one of our sheds, the inside dimensions are approximately 3.5" wide x 7" long x 2.5" deep. I'm not sure how much it'll hold, but I'm going to try it with 1.5lbs using the Green Tea Mint recipe I posted, just scaling it up. I'm waiting for the lye and other ingredients I ordered from Mountain Rose Herbs which is good because I want to take a piece of sandpaper to the mold to clean it up a bit, the wood has been sitting outside for at least a year.

A book I ordered came today, 'Elixir's Tonics and Teas' by Jeff Stein and Edgar Veytia. I flipped through it and I am now in love. It has some simple but useful recipes for just about everything and a lot of history and reference. There are two drinks I want to try, Study Hall Fizz and Sweet Memory Tea, they both sound yummy and useful.

Study Hall Fizz
2 floz pineapple juice
2 floz mango nectar
2 floz papaya nectar
1 dropper lycium
2 droppers red ginseng
4 oz seltzer or sparkling mineral water
small chunks of fresh pineapple

In a tall glass stir the juices and herbs together, add the seltzer and stir again. garnish with pineapple chunks.

Sweet Memory Tea
1 tsnp green tea leaves
1/4 tspn dried stevia
1 dropper ginkgo extract

Make a tea with the dried ingredient and hot ,but not quite boiling water. Let steep for three minutes then add the ginkgo extract.

I posted pictures on my Pictures Page if you want to see the mold we made.

First Recipe

Title- Green Tea Mint Soap								Creator- Margaret
Base= Green Tea		Fl oz- 4
Oil	Oz wt		Specific Gravity	Fl oz		% in recipe		Lye Table Excess Fat oz wt Lye
Aloe Extract	3					20		0		2.17
Coconut Oil	6			------		40		1		2.15
Neem Oil	.75		.908	.681		5		2		2.13
Olive Oil	3		.92	2.76		20		3		2.11
Bees Wax	2.25			------		15		4		2.09
								5		2.06
								6		2.04
								7		2.02
								8		2.00
								9		1.98
total	16					100		10		1.96
Additive	Oz wt		Fragrance/ Essential Oil		Oz wt		Specific gravity		Fl oz	Tspns
			Peppermint		0.30		.8993		.25	2

This is the first recipe I came up with and it'll be the first I try when everything gets here and we make the mold. I'm really excited to try soap making.

Sandalwood Shaving Soap

Title- Sandalwood Shaving Soap								Creator- Margaret
Base= Water		Fl oz- 5
Oil	Oz wt		Specific Gravity	Fl oz		% in recipe		Lye Table Excess Fat oz wt Lye
Aloe Extract	1					6.41		0		2.42
Coconut Oil	6			-------		38.46		1		2.39
Olive Oil	4.6		.92	4.232		29.49		2		2.37
Palm Oil	3		.92	2.76		19.23		3		2.34
Shea Butter	1			-------		6.41		4		2.32
								5		2.30
								6		2.27
								7		2.25
								8		2.22
								9		2.20
Total	15.6					100		10		2.17
Additive	Oz wt		Fragrance/ Essential Oil		Oz wt		Specific gravity		Fl oz	Tspns
Fuller's Earth Clay	1		Sandalwood		0.35		.992		.35	2.13
			Tea Tree		0.2		.889		.16	1.32

 

If I ever get around to trying this I thought it might be a good summery gift for Daddy when we go to Croatia, this batch would make enough for Uncle Jeremy too. I don't think that either of them use shaving soap, but it's the thought that counts right?

Soap

I've decided to try my hand at cold process soap making. Daddy and I are going to make a 1lb mold I drew up out of scrap 1 x 6 pieces of wood. I just bought the oils that I need for the actual soap, I have a recipe in my head that I worked out on the lye calculator on MMS and I think it'll work. The last thing I need to get is the lye, but I don't want to do that yet as I don't want that sitting around. My recipe is a blend of green tea and peppermint, I hope it turns out well. If it does I'll have four bars of home made soap and I'll bring a couple out to Croatia, I'll post the reciep if it works, if it doesn't I'll try rebatching it with some tweeking.

I've been editing Granny's manuscript and I'm more that half way through. As I re-format it gets shorter and shorter, it started out as over twohundred pages and it's now around onhundred and fifteen. I hope it isn't too short, but I should have the rough draft done by the end of the month, then I need to actually read through it and have someone else read it, I might e-mail it to one or two of my teachers from hs to see what they think. I hope I can get it published, I'm sure someone would be interested in publishing, I just don't know if I can afford to have it published, I'm sure my parents would help. Until next time, happy reading.

Saddle Rock

I spent all of the morning and a little of the afternoon at one of my favorite places: Saddle Rock Ranch. They run an equine therapy program for people with mental and physical disabilities on the weekends and Tuesday afternoons. Every Saturday I go in at eight for morning grooming and tack and stay until around one. I help with the horse care and the lessons; leading horses and side-walking for the less independent riders. It is very rewarding to see children who are painfully shy get on a horse and sit up tall and be happy that they can do something on their own. Even the people who aren't as capable shine when they get on a horse. It's a healing experience, and a workout when the rider is capable enough to trot but still needs a person on the lead line, especially because the top ring is on a steep slope. It's a way for me to be around horses even though I can't ride at the moment. You can meet a lot of great people when you give your time and service to a good cause.

I got home around half past two and took a four hour nap. It's amazing how tired you get after five hours in the sun. I have pointy sunburn on my shoulders because I tied my t-shirt sleeves up with a couple pieces of string and my face is bright red, but it is most definitely worth tomorrow's discomfort after seeing how happy horses can make people. Next week my hands (and most likely legs) will be stained purply-blue because I'm bringing in Blue Kote to help with the horses' thrush, it gets everywhere and takes a while to get out, it's a spray so it mists all over places you wouldn't think it could.

I spent a good part of yesterday after noon starting on the monumental task of cleaning my room (shock, gasp), it was getting cleaner and actually staying clean until school ended and my locker exploded onto my floor and dresser and whatever space was left on my desk... so tomorrow will be spent trying to find my floor and maybe even some of my desk. I can't believe high school is over, but I'm happy I'm finally in college. I haven't had time to work on Granny's manuscript but I don't have a deadline and I don't want to rush through it. Until next time, happy reading.

Saddle Rock

I spent all of the morning and a little of the afternoon at one of my favorite places: Saddle Rock Ranch. They run an equine therapy program for people with mental and physical disabilities on the weekends and Tuesday afternoons. Every Saturday I go in at eight for morning grooming and tack and stay until around one. I help with the horse care and the lessons; leading horses and side-walking for the less independent riders

College: to CLEP or not to CLEP

I already have my schedule for the fall semester but that schedule depends on my taking CLEPS and receiving enough credits to exempt some of the base courses. The advisor I spoke with was against taking CLEPS, she didn't seem to grasp that I wasn't trying to finish faster, just get more of the electives I want and not have to sit through a redundant class. If I can pass the CLEP for a certain class, then obviously I don't need to take the class because I already know the material. I'll still get the full 'college experience' but I'll be taking more of the classes I feel are relevant to what I want to do. I'm also looking to do a double major, while still in a Liberal Arts Psychology program.

My dad has just gone to the college to hand in my registration money for the five tests I'm taking before my classes start. The first one I'm taking is College Composition so it should be a breeze. Until next time, happy reading.

Language of the water

The toilet is deffinately talking to me, I just don't speak the right language. Please ignore this bout of insanity and early morning paranoia. I'm sure it will be deleted at some point after I find my rationality again...

Why the .... am I awake?

Let's hear it for 2AM posts. I woke up about forty minutes ago and couldn't go back to sleep, so I snuck down here to post about nothing. I have Granny's manuscript in an almost readable condition (the first four chapters, ten over all) and I am very excited to actually read through the whole thing and edit. I need to start saving up to get it published, I don't want anything flashy, that wasn't really Granny's style, just a nice mid-range package. I think it would be cheaper to only release it on paperback, maybe have a few hard cover for the family and limited release. I know hardcover is more expensive.

My cat is having a wonderful time playing chase the toe under the table. She rarely plays like this so it's nice when she does. I got her for Christmas two years ago, I wanted a kitten but the shelter didn't have any and it would be a while before the ones they did have got out of quarantine. We had seen her in one of the window cages with her brother, but when we went back her brother was gone and I didn't want to leave her on her own. She was about a year old when we got her and we think she was abused. She won't sit on people's laps and get nervous when she realises that she is kneading into some one's leg. She's terrified of strangers and especially doesn't like men. And she only lets me pick her up for around a minute. Even though she is a moronic, neurotic mess, she's our moronic, neurotic mess and we love her. Her name changes a lot though. She is usually Squeaker because her meow is so high that all she really does is squeak, but for a few weeks she was Sniffles because she had a cold and was sneezing a lot (there were many snot bubble jokes), poor thing.

I'm rather bored most of the day because my best friend, Jess, is a year younger and still has school. She also works a lot on the week ends so we don't see each other as much as we usually do. It was fine while I was still in school because we had classes together, but since I've graduated I haven't seen each other at all. We still text and stuff, but I really miss her and our four am swims in my frigged pool. Of course I have things to do, but it isn't the same when I can't hang out with her or just talk with her and our friends in Creative Writing and Study Hall.

I keep thinking I hear voices, but it's just the leaky flush valve in the downstairs toilet. I think I'm just freaking my self out because it's late(or early, depends on how you look at it) and the only things awake are the cat, me and the talking toilet, though I'm not sure if that counts as a sentient being, do toilets have a conscious mind that can sleep and awaken... that's getting a little too deep, definite sign of too little sleep.

I need to do thank you letters for graduation presents, and call guidance because I missed senior night and never got a yearbook, or the senior gift because I definitely didn't go to senior mass. It isn't that I'm against going to mass, just that I've had religion stuffed down my throat for the thirteen years I've been in catholic school and I just don't think the Catholic faith is for me and didn't want to sit through yet another school mass. So that's what goes through my sleep deprived mind at what is now three in the morning, though hap it classifies as morning when it's still pitch black outside is beyond me.
Until next time, happy reading.

More editing and a few recipes

As I was editing Granny's manuscript I came across two traditional Dalmatian remedies for colds kidney stones and back ache

Dalmatian Winter Syrup
1 litre (1_ pints) of water.
Rogac (carob beans) about six pods.
8 dried figs.
10 prunes and a handful of wild mountain sage.
250gms (10oz) of sugar.
Bring water and sugar to boiling point, making sure the sugar has melted before it boils, as for jam making. Add all other ingredients and simmer for 2 or 3 hours until the fluid is a thick syrup. Strain and bottle for use in the case of a cough or sore throat. There are many carob, or John the Baptist trees on the island, including four in our garden.
A Syrup for Kidney Stones
A variation of the Dalmatian winter syrup includes a dozen almonds in their skins to the other ingredients. This is said to ease the presence of kidney stones or gravel in the kidneys.
Cure for Back Ache
To remedy backache the roots of the asparagus are dug up, beaten and boiled and the resulting liquid applied to the affected area of the back while still warm.

Just thought I would share those with you. Until next time, happy reading.

Manuscripts, Music and Tears

A couple of years ago, my cousin, Emma, and I found our grandmother's manuscript on a disk. She saved a copy on her laptop, and I took the disk home when I came back to the US. I have recently started trying to read through it but found that the formatting is so off on the old file that I have to manually go through the whole thing to make it readable before I can even attempt to read it. The manuscript was denied by her previous publisher around fifteen years ago but Emma and I would like to try to get it published.

As I was re-formatting I had music on, because I can't work without some background noise that isn't my father's chainsaw or hedge clippers, and The Call Came on. This almost sent me into tears. Granny was so pleased wen I started piano lessons and even more so when I started vocal lessons. Having both Granny's work and my lesson music just made everything very emotional so I am taking a break and calming down by updating here and looking for a fairly cheap but professional publishing option and I came up with Xlibris.

But I haven't told you about why we have a house in Croatia, or why Granny would have a publisher in the first place. Granny was a travel reporter for the BBC and Grandpa Peter was the editor of Aerial Magazine, the internal mag for the British Air Force. I have a wonderful sketch of Granny on a horse in Spain with all her radio equipment in her saddle bags, that was drawn but one of her travel guides.

One of her trips took her to Yugoslavia, she loved it there and so did Grandpa Peter when he was a young man traveling to Greece straight out of University. The irony is that after hearing so much about it the first time Granny went to Croatia was without Grandpa Peter. He died before I was born, around the time my mom found out she was pregnant with me, but Granny and I were very close. Granny has two published books on Yugoslavia and the Adriatic one for the Essentially series on Yugoslavia and the other on the Adriatic Islands and Corfu. Her manuscript that I am currently editing is a travel book/ cook book/ memoir, which wasn't very popular years ago, but is now and even if it isn't I would like Granny's last work to be published for people to read. I'll try to post more about Granny and my work on her book later, but I seem to have done the exact opposite of what I set out to and need to find a new topic to calm me down.

Well here is my usual way of calming down:
mug of double strength green tea with honey as a sweetener or, even better, golden syrup. For all those american who have never had golden syrup it is sweet gooy golden heaven, especially with som whole grand oatmeal on a cold winter morning or drizzled over plachinke. Back on topic, I love Canadian Clover Honey, and I just found a three year old, barely used jar of it from Sainsburry's in the back of the kitchen cubbord. I't lovely and smooth and almost as heavenly as golden syrup which we are sadly out of. Now that I am emotionally stable, for the moment, I'll get back to my editing and sad music.
Untill next time, happy reading.

Ice Queen

For my Contemporary Fiction class the first semester of my senior year we had to write a review of an Alice Hoffman book. Originally I had planned on reading Local Girls, it was short and about Long Island, easy peasy what's not to like? Not so easy; I couldn't read it. I would read a few pages and promptly forget all of it. So I dug through the back of the school library and polished off Ice Queen in about a week of lunch periods. And now I'm going to see if the cut you can use on LJ works here. For those who want to read my review, clicky the linky, otherwise skip over and keep reading. It didn't work and the only way to make it work is all long and complicated so I'm putting it on my Creative Writing page under writing anomalies.
sorry if that didn't work, I'm still figuring out the formatting on here.
On a cleaner and less dreary note, I just got the mixed bag of soap (mainly black raspberry vanilla) that I ordered from Gassner Custom Soaps, a link is on the side. I love them all, especially the Pumpkin Spice soapsicle they put in and lots of lavender is always nice in the hotter weather. I'm also using a little peppermint essential oil instead of perfume as I've just started getting a mild reacting to any of the commercial body sprays with lots of alcohol in them. Which is not so great, I love my pear blossom spray from Bath & Bodyworks, as inorganic as it is, it's so light and summery.
I have a new musical obsession with Escala. An electronic string quartet that competed on Britain's Got Talent. They didn't win, but I think that they are absolutely amazing. I also have a (not so new) obsession with Legend of the Seeker TV show. Love it! Very SiFi/Historical Fantasy, not sure yet if I want to to read the Sword of Truth book series that it is based off of.
That's all for now. Until next time, happy reading.

Answering the Musical Call

I went for an interview for an officer position in the Honors Club at my college. They seemed to like me and I think it went really well. I applied for the position of Historian, it's really just archiving, newsletter, scrap-booking and a little pr work. Sounds like my kind of job.
It's raining here, the weather held all weekend so I guess it was inevitable. I tried to make a new header, but I can't find a text color that I like and that actually shows up. I really want to keep the background pic I have but I might have to change it all. Oh well, I'll keep playing with it.
I went to a makeup piano lesson after the interview and I just started playing The Call by Regina Spektor, who is one of my favorite artists; her voice is so dynamic, I'm going to learn how to sing it after I can play it well.
For all of you who don't know what Regina sounds like or want to hear The Call, here you go:

	Regina Spektor - The Call .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Until next time, happy reading.

Muscle Mend

Back, again.

I have found recently that I can't live without Burt's Bees Muscle Mend. It helps with little scrapes and bruises and cuts down on some of the surface soreness in my knee. But it's really expensive and I'm really broke and can't work because of my knee and we're going to Croatia in July; so even if I could get a job now, I'd be taking off for a month about a month after I started. I looked up the ingredients and using my limited knowledge of creams and salves I came up with a fairly simple recipe for my own beeswax based muscle mend. The main focus is clove powder, for the antiseptic and numbing properties. So more bulletin board play and I have a pretty picture for you, sorry again if you can't read it on here, but if you click it you can see the full sized pic.

Still too poor to try to get the stuff to make this, but I'm getting there. Until next time, happy reading.

All pics and price quotes are from Mountain Rose Herbs no copyright infringement is intended.

HTML and other things I've forgotton

I used to be really really HTML savvy, now I've forgotton most of it and lost all the notes and shortcuts I wrote down; so I'm wingin' it. I think I remember the right way to link to a point on the same page. It's worked so far, but every time I go to edit the page the code is changed. I don't mind and I think I can play with it a bit to get it to work how I want it to. As of now the links to the stories and poems all work, the back to top links don't, but I think I can get it to where if you click on the story title you can go back up to the top, we'll see.

I have two writing pieces and a new poem up. I'll keep you all updated on how the links are going, untill then, happy reading.

Shampoo

Playing with the bulletin board again, this time a shampoo recipe that my friend gave me. She uses it and loves it, we have similar hair (long and straight) so I figured I'd try it when I had the money and time... so not yet. Hope this one is a little easier to read.
Still on the creative note, I've posted links to some of my better poems on the Creative Writing page. Still trying to find cheap private posting to link to my short stories so I din't have to waste space on here. Until next time, happy reading.


once again all pictures and price quotes are from Mountain Rose Herbs I own nothing and no copyright infringement is intended

Creative Writing

One thing that I feel I do very well is write. After four years of forced, on the spot writing in high school, it comes fairly easily to me. My dad had me reading as soon as I was mentally capable; he's a reading teacher.This probably helped with my writing skills, after reading a lot of good books and some not so good ones I find it easier to critique my work, especially when I read it out loud. I could live in Barnes and Nobles, it has everything I could need: food and books and fairly clean public bathrooms. I'll post a page with some of my stories and links to the poems I already have on FictionPress.Com and make referances to it when I update. Untill then, happy reading.

Bruise Salve

First legitimate post!! So, I've been playing with the bulletin board app on the new Toshiba I got for graduation and decided to see what I could do. This is a blend of recipes that I found and have yet to try. If anyone wants to try it and tell me how it goes or has experience and can give me pointers that would be great!


sorry about the bad quality you can click it to see the full sized image, but here's what it says:

Ingredients

• 3oz Kokum Butter
• 1/2oz Calendula Flowers
• 1/4oz Fenugreek Seed
• 1/4oz Thyme Leaf
• 1oz St. John's Wort
• 2.5oz Kukui Nut Oil
  

Directions

1. Gently crush seeds with mortar and pestil (do not powder)
2. Put herbs and seed in medium wide-mouth jar
3. Cover with 2.5oz boiling oil
4. Let steep until cool
5. Melt butter in double boiler or microwave
6. Strain oil into butter and stir until smooth
7. Pour into tins or tubes and let set

Until next time, happy reading.




all pictures and price quotes(if you can read them) are from Mountain Rose Herbs, not copyright infringement is intended.

Welcome To the Land Normalcy Forgot

Hi All,
Not my first blog, just the first I'll keep up with(hopefully). I'm Margaret, a college student, born and studying in New York. My father's family is all English so we spent a lot of time in Europe and we have a family summer home on the Island of Korcula in Croatia.
I love to ride horse, mostly English style. I jump up to 3foot 9inches and currently don't have a horse. I have an almost unhealthy obsession with reading fiction and write to save my life.
My current hobby, and I think it'll stick, is learning about and attempting to make herbal remedies and products. So far I haven't had the time to try any of the recipes I have found or made up in my head, but if anyone has ideas that they think I should try, I'm all open and will blog about the experience.
I also make embroidery thread bracelets and have set myself the challenge of making a bridle out of embroidery thread, so any designs anyone wants to see, post me a link and I'll see where I can work them in.
Unfortunately I injured my knee in a series of bad riding accidents and can't ride, or walk on some days, and my doctors are having trouble finding a way, sans a surgery that might not even fix all of the problem, to get me fully functional again.
So, welcome to my life, and hope you enjoy the show.