Eight Acres

 I learnt to hand-sew and embroider as a child.  I particularly remember my first cross-stitch kit, it was a rooster (now I wish I still had the finished product!) that I was given for Christmas when I was nine.  I remember struggling and making so many mistakes, but eventually I learnt how to read the pattern, count carefully, make neat stitches and produced a nice enough rooster.   Hooked on Cross-Stitching! From them onwards I was hooked on cross-stitch and made several kits before my mum bought me a pattern booklet (flowers and birds) and I made many of those (my grandmother had them hanging all over her house, what else do you do with them?!).  Finally I got a full book of sampler patterns and designed several of my own themes as gifts.  And then like so many childhood hobbies, I stopped, and my cross-stitch cotton, needles and fabric sat in a box at my parent's house for years until they made me take it away. The main reason I stopped cross-s...

 Chamomile is one of my favourite herbs, but I am only now writing a post about it because in the past I've had little success with growing it.  I have been buying and using dried chamomile, but I currently have a lovely healthy plant out in the food forest , so I'm going to tell you all about it (and maybe learn some tips for myself to keep it alive this time). Firstly, what do I mean by chamomile? When I started reading looking for chamomile in my herb books, I realised that its a bit complicated as there are several species and varieties with similar names and different names for the same species!  Even the botanical names have changed over time, which makes it a bit tricky to know which plant I have in the garden.  This is why it helps to have multiple herbs books to check, as they will all have slightly different information on the same herb. Chamaemelum nobile ( syn. Anthemis nobilis) - Garden Chamomile, Roman Chamomile , Lawn Chamomile, Mayweed Perennial...