Snowdrop and Cyclamen Trifle, Small Boys, and a Recipe for Home-Made Laundry Powder.

Also, 'Civil Dawn'.

Happy February! I have copied Arthur ‘s heavenly idea and made a cyclamen and snowdrop ‘trifle’ to celebrate. Now that two out of three children have to be out of the house by 7.20am and I’m often with the middle one, helping him hump his games kit, or guitar to the school bus, I’ve been noticing with ineffable joy how it’s not PITCH black when we leave any more. Does that mean that this morning light in the beginning of February is ‘Civil’?

The boy is a natural early riser but starting secondary school has had him utterly floored. Each morning throughout January he tells me just how WRONG it is for humans to be up in the dark. This has sparked many conversations around ‘progress’….how glorious the wonder of an electric lightbulb is for humanity, and also what this wonder snatches from us. And then the thing about watching a child - particularly a small boy - wrestle with stuff he hasn’t hitherto had to bother with, and the consequent result, which I can only equate to a loss of innocence of sorts.

I am being over-dramatic, I know it. My ‘job’ as his mother is literally to make myself redundant. I know this. And yet, and yet… The sadness I feel when he accuses himself for leaving his games kit on the bus, or for forgetting something, is bottomless. I’m literally watching childhood being stripped away, and it hurts me, and makes me feel a bit angry and sick. The only comfort is that I know he doesn’t feel that way. He accepts this new thing completely, and trusts us entirely. His experience of it isn’t coloured by intense love and deep nostalgia and the weighty knowledge that the decisions we make for our children may easily be the wrong ones…we are, after all, just doing our best.

In the spirit of which… home-made laundry powder.

Bit random, but I wanted to share my recipe for home-made washing powder here as I absolutely love it and it is devoid of any chemicals that might make you unwell (and in my opinion there are enough of those when you are trying to live life, especially if you are in a city). Obviously there are many wonderful small businesses who can do this for you if you don’t fancy making your own. I should probably work out cost-per-scoop but ugh, the maths involved.

I’ve been using home-made cleaning products for a number of years and you can find recipes for all these on my much-neglected website if you click the link below. You’ll find recipes for general purpose cleaning spray, bathroom spray and window/glass spray:

Home-Made Cleaning Product Recipes

Here is my washing powder recipe

Mix the following in a container:

1/2 cup Epsom Salts

1 1/2 cups Sodium Carbonate (Soda Crystals or Washing Soda)

1 1/2 cups Bicarbonate of Soda

1/4 cup Sea Salt (Note: as you can see from the pic above, I have run out of sea salt and I’m using cheap table salt instead…I’m unbothered. You could probably use rock salt I think… But the link is for sea salt).

A few drops Essential Oil (I use geranium but you should use the one that makes doing the laundry a good experience for you)

The mixture will be a bit lumpy because of the oil. This isn’t a problem but you may need to dig around a bit before you scoop. There will be absolutely zero trace of any geranium smell (or otherwise) once your wash has run its cycle. The oil is there purely for your pleasure as you do your laundry.

Usage amounts depend on how dirty you are, and how hard your water is. I tend to use a tablespoon or two for each wash.

I hope this is in some way interesting - do please give it a heart if you liked it.

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x Laetitia