Children away for their thursdayfriday at their father’s, and I am a little ill again, this time the chest, my body is telling me that I am tired, I am not listening enough. Listen more, I tell myself in vain. I take Gouttes aux essences, a great blend of essential oils (peppermint, clove, lavender, ceylon cinnamon, thyme) that deals with “acute benign [oxymoron ? sounds good anyway] bronchial diseases” beautifully. No first-aid shelf of any bathroom should be complete without this, we live in the damp north west of ireland and we survive Without Antibiotics Very Well. The brand is phytarma, and you can get it for between €7 or €8 in any chemists in France.

I do my jobs slowly. I establish which of my two goats has a touch of mastitis, by doing the washing-up-liquid-test (add washing up liquid to fresh milk and see if the milk turns like snot). Only one does. Tomorrow I will find out if she has it on both sides or just the one as I suspect, and then I’ll probably try homeopathy. I had a little mastitis myself with each children so I have all remedies leftover and homoeopathic remedies never go out of date. I really think you can only look after animals that you empathize with.

Anyway, no progress with reorganizing my studio because I am really dragging myself around, but I finish the hat I have been knitting at the knitting and chess-playing afternoons (4 to 6, wednesdays at the Dock).

what it looks like

And I make a whisk out of willow for L, L is happy.

whisk