tiger tiger

It has been perfect summer weather lately.

There is no better way of describing these kinds of days but - perfect!

The children next door spend a great deal of time in their water tubs, big deep plastic pots, his blue, hers pink. I hear them splashing and giggling. Often these tubs are on their back deck and I can hear them through the studio/kitchen part of the Heartsease shop as my window is alongside their yard. Except for a bout of chicken pox they are having a good old-fashioned summer with a visit to grandparents last week , a trip to the cottage next week , and camping the following week. I listen to them as I work, my mind often wandering to past summers with my own children. We had glorious times as well, many, many.

Memories jump through my mind, some sounds, some tastes , some people and places. How does time race progressively faster?

We lived in the country- typical for seventies parents- when the kids were little. It was the whole schtick- old 12 room brick house ( the kids could even ride their bikes indoors) on 15 acres, huge garden, dogs, cats, guinea pig, chickens, horses, the odd neighbouring cow wandering through the fence.

The farm women taught me how to make bread and I convinced them to branch out from their usual fluffy white loaves to use whole grains. One farmer was so taken with these "artisan" breads that he put aside some of his wheat for us to share and had it stone-ground. I made everything from scratch- it all had to be super healthy- granola, soups, stews.

It is no wonder that the kids loved it when we went to the city to see Grampa and Grandma. My mother was a wonderful cook, but she also had the wisdom to know that treats were a necessary and welcome part of growing up.

Every visit included a trip to the ice cream store. Mom liked pistachio or maple walnut, Dad chose a different one every time but for the kids, it was tiger tiger, no doubt as much for the name as for the licorice/orange flavour and the fascinating swirl of black on orange.

My stream of consciousness led from the laughter out my window through all those memories to the development of a new soap- tiger tiger, of course!

I used paprika to tint the soap orange and through that swirled a small amount that was tinted with midnight black clay. The "flavour" reflects the ice cream- sweet orange and star anise essential oils. It smells yummy!

But what is fascinating is watching customers' faces as they pick it up, turn it over in their hands, then smelling, often with eyes closed, sighing happily.

I can almost see their thoughts form memories of their own past perfect summers.

Tiger tiger- ice cream or soap- delightful!

winnipeg folk festival

It's been a while since I've written, mostly due to my being busy getting ready for Folk Fest, and then getting caught up after.

It was a great time, as usual, and this year the weather was wonderful- a little windy on Sunday and quite warm throughout, but no major systems.

We had a different spot for our booth in the Hand Made Village this year and I was a tad apprehensive- I had the set-up of our usual spot down to a science. When we arrived , I decided to not use one of the three tables I had ordered as we were in a corner site. That meant building the display more vertically in an L configuration of the two tables. It all worked out just fine, of course, and I loved the spot. I was in the shade all day and, because it was a corner spot, I was able to people watch to my heart's content.

When we are in Mexico we sell at an organic market in San Jose del Cabo every Saturday. It is a fabulous market with at least a hundred vendors, entertainment, music, drumming, dancing, bubbles, great food, and lovely people. We have been doing the market for 5 years. We take our own canopy tent and tables and set up under the big tree along with our Mexican neighbours and some ex-pats who love Baja as much as we do. It is very relaxed. It is also a great place to people watch.

That is the connection that made this Folk Fest in the new spot so much more fun. We had more room so Alan spent more time with me and we were able to sit side by side and watch, watch, watch. There is a universal quality to this kind of event and we found ourselves seeing replicas of our Baja people.

That lovely man with the shaved head must be Cesar, our artist neighbour, and that tall skinny guy is surely our surfer friend, Roger. Leah, the gallery owner who sells organic Chiapas coffee, wandered past. We thought we would see VJ, our actor friend from India come by and tell us how bee-u-ti-ful it all was. And so on...

In the Mexican market the men don't wear sarongs nor the women bikinis as they did at Folk Fest and the children are able to frolic freely. Mexico is much lower key but the ambiance at the Winnipeg Folk Fest is what leads me to apply every year. It reminds us of Mexico- good people, good vibes, a good three days together. We love it!

Neem Oil

An interesting thing happened in the Heartsease shop a few days past- a couple came in because they were curious about the "deet-free, neem-based mosquito repellant" that I had posted on my chalkboard outside. As it turns out, they were back in Winnipeg for the summer from their posts in west Africa where they are involved in the production of neem oil. We shared our love for this amazing tree, its fruit and oil.

I import my neem oil from India where it is used extensively: in massaging new borns, in hair oil, in skin tonic- an all purpose oil that is used daily. It is thought to be an effective insect repellent, to offer some relief to psoriasis and eczema, to nourish healthy hair.

It is a dark amber/brown carrier oil that solidifies in cooler temperatures. I am not fond of the scent of this oil- it is quite strong- but it is also very earthy and healthy smelling. Most carrier oils that I use have little or no scent. In my neem products I add essential oils that not only make it more pleasant-smelling but also add to its efficacy.

What is an interesting co-incidence is that when we bought our property in Baja some years ago, we planted a neem tree- hardly more than a stick that we stuck into the ground. We knew nothing about this tree but had seen one in the yard of a local organic farmer and admired it for its lush greenness and shade-giving qualities. We were in a drought in Todos Santos at the time and were afraid the tree would die. We watered it well and hoped for the best. Our caretaker- really our dear friend, Adrian- diligently waters when we are back in Canada and kept up the care. Bless their hearts, one year when water was a problem, he and his mother watered all our trees by carrying water, litre by litre to our site. Now our neem is huge, providing shade and privacy. We tie a hammock to it that spans to a near-by palm tree. We sit beside it in the morning with our coffee, catching the first warmth of the sun after a cool desert night. We have our sundowners in its shade while we watch the sun slip into the Pacific. Our dogs have marked it as their favourite spot and our cat scampers up its limbs. We all love it.

In Mexico, the organic farmers make an infusion with the berries from the neem and spray their crops to protect against insects. One couple that we met at the organic market make a tea from the leaves and swear that by drinking this elixir every day, they are protecting their bodies from all kinds of things and prolonging their lives- who knows?

As for me, I am happy to be enveloped in its canopy and use the oil to make products- soap, neem cream, hair oil, and bug repellent - all great sellers.

Salud to the neem tree!

The house I love and live in for most of the year is pink, a quiet, gentle pink. We live in the upper two stories and my business, Heartsease, has the main floor. The house is situated on a corner of an almost inner city neighbourhood, Wolseley, across the river from affluent River Heights, in Winnipeg. It is a neighbourhood that has always been known for its socialist values- famous for Nellie McClung, the woman behind getting the vote for women.

It was built in 1907 for John and Florence Livesay, both journalists, progressives, left-leaning activists and she, also a poet- and here they had a child, Dorothy, who was to become a well-known poet. She is my favourite woman poet and I have every one of her publications. I also had the pleasure of sharing a public reading with her. She was gracious, honest, and generous in sharing the podium with amateurs- also somewhat bawdy and very entertaining!

Between Dorothy's time and my time in the pink house it has seen any changes. It was converted to a duplex years ago and I get many people into the shop who fondly remember living here. Before that it was a boarding house for prostitutes- a safe haven after working hours- I think all of the Livesay's would have loved that!

I don't know when the house became pink but that is what caught my eye many years ago. I always loved the area and I always was drawn to this house. When it came on the market a few years ago it was a disaster but my beloved indulged me to have a look at it and he was as smitten as I. We tiptoed through, not wanting to touch anything- it was so gross- and we knew it was for us to save it and give it a new life.

So here we are.

We live, we love, we create, we celebrate the Livesay's- thank you for this magnifisent house- we are so proud and happy to be here!