Afterwhile, Chamomile

This pretty little Garden Pub Selkie seemed like a great bargain on Poshmark and I love the pastel print, but the world is becoming a more and more dishonest place and I buy everything with a grain of salt these days. Unfortunately, the posher I bought it from claimed it was New With Tags, but it arrived with a tiny food speck on the front, so I knew it had at least been worn for the duration of a snack. That didn't really bother me too much. Then, a few days later, when it was too late to return it, I took it out to wear it on a humid day and that's when the pit-funk hit me. Ugh. I wish all companies would put tags in a place where they couldn't be hidden for wear and then resold as new. I washed the dress and the funk has been reduced, but it will take another wash or two at least to get out this lying posher's stink. I hate dishonest people. Ok, dress-tangent over. Let's get to the actual topic of today's post.

Sometimes, it starts feeling like my blog posts are stuck in a rut. That I'm constantly discussing a struggle of some sort and to be frank, there are times when that's all I write about because that's all I'm doing; I'm struggling with some thing or problem daily. Fortunately, today will not be a tale of woe but of triumph!

The literal fruits of my labor are finally paying off in the form of my herb garden. When we moved onto our farm, we had to contend with the bewildering choices of the previous occupant. One such choice was to cut down two trees in the front yard, but leave the stumps about four feet high and blocking the walkway to the front door. Those stumps were then surrounded with giant boulders bordering bare desolate earth. It was a strange, grim sort of landscaping, but as everything was too bizarre to contemplate and too heavy to move, we left it alone.

Later I planted some flowers called Four O'clocks, which are lovely, but merely decorative, and only covered the ridiculous stumps for one third of the year. The rest of the year it remained a festering eye sore. Last spring I decided to reclaim this area as it is one of the few sunny spots in our yard. Herbs seemed the logical choice for such a small space, so I planted, mint which was gifted to me by a friend, basil, and chamomile, along with marigolds for a little pest control.

It took quite a bit of work to transform this speck of ground into something lovely and useable. I had to start by using a rock bar and a hammer and chisel to break down some of the larger boulders that were blocking the sun into a useable perimeter fence. I used the boulder-turned-rocks to expand, in fact to double the size of my plot.

Then I had to haul more rocks to build a fence, plus haul in topsoil. Mr. Bleu removed one stump and greatly reduced the size of the other since they were not only taking up room but also blocking the light. Finally we had to fence off the whole area to keep out hungry chickens and curious cats who would have scratched all my work up in a matter of minutes. But, I knew it would all be worth it for some homegrown herbs, particularly if one of those herbs would make a very nice tea.

I must have been about 17 and living on my own for the first time when I chose to become an herbal tea drinker. It was something that I saw an older, more refined and worldly friend doing and, since I wanted to seem refined too, I decided to take it up. I bought a variety of teas and began testing them. It was not easy at first, in fact, I despised the taste of most of them, but I was determined to persevere and after about 500 disgusting cups of tea, I eventually learned that I love chamomile tea and pretty much nothing else in the herbal variety of beverages.

Last year being the first year for my little garden, I didn't get a single cup of tea. Instead I let all the flowers go to seed and saved as many as I could just in case my plants didn't return on their own this year. To my delight, not only did my plants return, but they thrived and multiplied, so this spring I am diligently plucking and drying as many of these aromatic flowers as possible so that I can enjoy this taste of spring long into the winter months, although I fully intend to enjoy a cup or two with fresh flowers on one of these lovely mild mornings in my favorite spot under the trees while the season lasts.

Unfortunately, my herb garden is still quite small and certainly not grand enough to make for a nice backdrop for photos, so I had to content myself with taking photos among some wildflowers and photographing the chamomile all on its own. It's come back this year so gloriously full and with so many blossoms that it has brightened up this strange, previous bland rocky spot and I don't really mind letting it be the star of its own pics.

I thought a few pics of my latest second-hand selkie acquisition would pair nicely with the chamomile. I'm obsessed with Selkie prints but still not a huge fan of the puff style. So far this pink belt and this pair of pink cotton bicycle shorts have been the saving grace that's allowed me to wear all these short Selkie puffs without worrying about the empire waist making me look dumpy or unwanted bum exposure from how short they are. I am nothing if not someone who loves a challenge.