How to get rid of Aphids

Financial

Holy mother of Pete, I love my herb garden. I purchased a selection of herbs to try and curb the amount of money I was spending on fresh herbs from the supermarket [not a lot.. but enough to justify buying a cart full of foliage]. I now carry the following in our kitchen:

• Basil
• Two varieties of Thyme
• Parsley
• Lavender
• Oregano
• Sage
• Rosemary

**(I wish I could find Cilantro [coriander] but no joy as yet)

Anyway, my herbs were thriving, I was elated, until whilst rubbing one of the sumptuous basil leaves this morning and I suddenly noticed that my forefinger was covered in small green dots *eowwww*. 

Damn damn damn, my basil had aphids *ugggg* Code Red emergency!

I threw myself immediately at the mercy of google and found a number of articles discussing the use of soap as an insecticide, particularly when the insect in question is a certain monsieur aphide. I didn't want to use anything vaguely toxic so this was a most satisfactory option and has apparently been used as an insecticide for years with evidence for it's success documented on the Chinese Scrolls and Egyptian Papyrus.

Apparently Aphids are attracted to lush, healthy growth ( hurray!) which is a complement [I guess?] but also extremely annoying as I would have preferred to have used said growth on my Bruschetta. http://greenearth.dupont.chost.ca/features/soap_e.php

Green Earth seems like a great tool in the fight against the mini green skittles but I picked up a couple of useful tips along the way:

1. Aphids like lush, new growth so try not to over-fertilize

2. When you first identify that your plants have Aphids ( small green things on plant), spray heavily with water. This should dislodge a load of them, 

2. Soap appears to suffocate the aphids so try this homemade version of the Green earth spray:

 1 cup of vegetable oil

 1 1/2 cup water

 2 teaspoons of dish soap

Mix and spray!

Hopefully this will make them go away and you wont have to suffer from an Aphid invasion like us!

Sakura

Health and Financial 

I have already blogged about Aranka and her fabulous local business but I thought she definitely deserved a second mention. Sakura is her own inspiration and has grown into a thriving small business in town and has just picked up The Chamber of Commerce Environmentally Consious Business of the Year award in Collingwood. This girl is reaching for the stars! 

Aranka is very cool. After graduating with a degree in Biological Sciences (I did the very same) she went on to complete a four year course to become a Doctor of Naturapathic medicine. She worked at a clinic helping sufferers with HIV before founding her own business in hometown Collingwood, 'Sakura'.  

Naturopathic Therapies target the underlying cause of your condition and the profession is a regulated with Doctors of Naturopathic medicine receiving a minimum of 7 years of training. Naturopathic medicine endeavors to find the root of the problem rather than masking the symptoms with pharmaceutical intervention. It is a fascinating discipline and as a complement to this, Aranka is also promoting a toxic-free way of living which includes eliminating toxic chemicals for items we use daily such as shampoo and soap. It is very current and extremely important. Aranka is most definitely onto something here!

 
I love how she has taken a risk in setting up her own business and is really starting to see the benefits with a loyal following and critical acclaim.  I have no doubt this is a tribute to her hard work and dedication and it is quite inspirational for me. Congratulations Aranka!

Kwikpix.ca

Overcoming hurdles

Rain outdoors and whilst wading through the immigration paperwork, I decided to work on the photo album that I have to include with the residency application. Darren and I have to prove to the authorities that we are couple and photos are (of course) deemed great evidence and highly encouraged. 

I have over 3000 photos of Darren and I and although every picture is worthy evidence that we are together, I am not sure that my allocated visa officer would appreciate an encyclopedia of pictorial evidence. I managed to edit the stack down to around 500 which I decided would be more manageable.   My next challenge was to find somewhere to print the photos ( yes, they want them printed, labeled and mounted... *aggg*) and after trawling through various websites, I came across Kwik Pix.  

This company is AWESOME! Based out of Toronto, I uploaded all my photos in around 30 minutes on to their very easily navigated website and they charged me £39, for 500 PRINTS!!!! 

Two days later, this box appeared. Darren was intrigued ( it felt like a box of rocks it was so heavy) and I couldn't believe it when on opening the box, all the photos were there, stacked in neatly and ready for action!

I had picked up couple of cheap albums in Wall Mart and to work immediately. It is no mean feat mounting 500 photos and took me the best part of a day. I am yet to label them all.. I need to schedule in a couple of good movies and a cold Corona for that mammoth task. 

The moral of the story is, Kwik Pix are awesome! If you need some printed photos ( quickly) I would highly recommend it! I am full of praise. 

Beautiful Hair

Confidence

I have launched my beautification process as part of my Success blog; we all know that Beauty is in the eye of the beholder *slight yawn* but what does it all really mean?  Something or someone that makes us feel happy, excited and elated can be described as beautiful and all this is, of course, totally subjective. What one person deems beautiful might differ vastly from someone else and these differences are magnified when you compare what people from different cultures, race and generation.

It's a mission to beautify oneself on a limited budget and my penchant for running and the great outdoors will hinder this further, but I thought I would start with my hair ( my mum would be a huge supporter of this; she finds my hair upsetting and would love for it to be 'neat'). 

I found myself at my favorite Beauty Emporium in Collingwood, Strands, http://www.strandssalonandspa.ca where the glorious Skot worked his magic and I left feeling like a different person!

This is me, this is my hair *gasp*. Not sure how long it will last.. but hopefully for more than 24 hours. And having gorgeous hair did make me feel like I was on top of the world. I have a couple of secret weapons up my sleeve to try and maintain the gorgeous locks; Morroccan oil http://www.moroccanoil.com/ ( this stuff is like liquid gold) and the Aussie 3 minute miracle, https://www.aussiehaircare.co.uk/ ( my mum sends me these in the post [more please mutter.. x]) 

I did a little research and apparently long hair represents a young, healthy individual (without vitamin deficiency etc etc) which is possibly why hollywood sirens habitually court long, luscious locks. I have always had super short, cropped elfin hair so it will be interesting to see whether having 'longer' hair affects my life in any way. However, the bottom line is as long as Darren thinks I look beautiful then nothing else really matters ( and he very much liked my new do)

Talking of beauty, it seems that EVERYONE seems to think the new Princess Catherine is at the top of the list. After wearing this lovely Reiss Shola dress today during the Obama 'BBQ' [in central London?], the internet collapsed; turns out, every female with access to a computer had tried to order the dress online. I realized the gravity of the situation while I was chatting to my sister and skype shut down... she revealed shortly afterwards that she had tried to log to Reiss.com....

http://www.reissonline.com/holding/index.html

Morels

Health

Today's major success was the discovery that our garden is providing the perfect growing conditions for one of the more the prized fungi, Morels!

There are several varieties of Morels and they can be found throughout North America. They have a distinctive 'pitted' cap and are sought after in gourmet Kitchens and regular homes alike but starting price can be as much as $20 a pound! The flavor is highly distinctive; Morels have a rich, nutty, smoky flavor and almost meaty consistency. Perfect with a knob of butter and splash of white wine. http://www.mssf.org/cookbook/morels.html

Morels come in a variety of colours but are primarily classified by their hollow stem. 

*** Mushroom Warning. As with ALL wild fungi, please be VERY careful when picking and deciding to eat anything you find in the forest. Bad mushrooms can be VERY bad ( A module in fungal biology at University nearly put me off for life). If your 'morel' has a solid stem, it's a baddun: throw away. If in doubt: throw away. 

Luckily, Darren has great experience with Morels and was responsible for the first sighting which lead to a good stint in the garden trying to hunt down more. They are tricky little blighter and very well camouflaged, even if they have achieved significant growth.  

Once we had plucked the morels, we washed them in cold water and then Darren chopped them up into small pieces. In the sidelines, I had made up a mushroom risotto which we were hoping to serve with our garden treats. 

Darren fried up the mushrooms in a pan full of melted, bubbling [full fat] better. After the butter has fizzled away, he added a huge slug of white wine and the morels were done!

We spooned the morel mix over our risotto and were good to go; it was pretty delicious and needless to say I am hoping our current forecast of perpetual rain my inspire more Morel growth in the garden!

Drink, BBQ, LOVE (ie. DBL)

Happiness

Today's post slots nicely into the Happiness Category and was entirely influenced by Darren who's creative genius is a constant source of inspiration. Darren's brain wave encapsulated the themes generated by the universally loved 'EAT PRAY LOVE' ( check out the book.. and the movie. You may have heard of it  http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/eatpraylove.htm )

But.. we thought we would harness the power of EPL but with a 'slightly' different mantra: Drink, BBQ, Love; in other words..  DBL!

It's the summer of love and the summer of the BBQ! We have a new BBQ ( it's a Weber.. check out the website, they are pretty advanced http://www.weberbbq.com/default.aspx). I truly believe, after the numerous BBQs that Darren and I have had,  BBQs provide us with a love of food and the food for love!

This is a recent BBQ experiment that turned out to be amazing! I love everything about the BBQ; i love the preparation beforehand; the cutting of the veg; the marinading of the meat; Darren running up and down the stairs tending to the BBQ; the smell; the gorgeous food. Je t'aime le BBQ!

I am striving to find the perfect marinade and Darren may well have found it.. It is a combination of Ted Reader's Tandoori sauce and his [pre-made] pineapple and rum sauce. I would strongly advise everyone to purchase Ted's Everyday Gourmet Burgers. It is truly awesome and will exponentially enhance the quality of your BBQ life. http://www.tedreader.com/recipes.php

I made up a bowl of Jamie Oliver's fabulous guacamole ( avocado, tomato, fresh coriander, lime and green onions; so delicious, the fresh coriander is inspired) which was the perfect compliment to the tandoori basted chicken. http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/chicken-fajitas-with-homemade-guacamole

The veggies were a total experiment, but were an unexpected triumph. I cut up a load of veg ( potatoes, sweet potatoes, asparagus, hot peppers, tomatoes; basted them with bone dust ( another brain wave from Ted and perfect kitchen aid; you can put this stuff on anything!), oil and lime juice and we roasted them on the BBQ in a very neat contraption made specifically for BBQs. The bone dust was such a great addition to our classic roasted veg; it was a fabulous evening watching the food cook away while sipping on a Corona... sigh. 

So, it's the summer of DBL! I highly recommend it to everyone ( and urge everyone to harness the combined BBQ potential of Mr. Reader and Mr. Oliver!

Introduction

My name is Libby Mourant, I live in Collingwood, Ontario and have just completed one year of Blogging. My pledge to blog daily has proven to have had a significant impact on my life and spurred me on to continue. My boyfriend, Darren actively encourages me to seek out new and interesting 'blog fodder' which I strive to post as often as possible and hopefully remember to run spell check.

I have decided to keep posting on my inaugural blog, 'one unusual thing per day for one year ' (http://oneunusualthingperdayforoneyear.blogspot.com) but thought that I should endeavor to stretch my Bogging Muscles and start up a new one; This time around I am on a quest to become Successful!

Success can be measured in so many ways so I will try and embrace as many as possible and but also intend to delve deep into the heart of the Internet and beyond to find people, places or things that radiate success that I can then discuss on the blog.

Success in a nutshell:
1. Happiness: I am already very happy but one should never become complacent about such things and I intend to strive to maintain my current state of bliss. Darren is a major factor in this and I am sure will pay a major role in the blog as he has done before.
2. Financial ( of course): Very important and one aspect that I need to address ( and not just by buying Lottery Tickets )
3. Creative: I am off to Art School in September which, I am sure, will provide a major spring board to success and areas to blog about
4.  Confidence: Everyone ( most definitely)  including myself suffers from depleted confidence from time to time and I aim to find ways to overcome this.
5. Health: Another no brainer and an area of great interest for me. I am excited to research the areas of fitness and nutrition, both of which I take very seriously
6. Overcoming Hurdles: Mine is currently immigration. This will be an interesting aspect to observe over the coming months as I hopefully managed to get closer to my goal of becoming a permanent resident in Canada.


So I intend to start as I mean to go on. I have been playing around with the 'design' tab on blogger and have selected 'Green' as my signature color after a small amount of research following my main theme:

Green Symbolizes

• The master healer
• Life and Well being
• Fertility
• Freshness
• Ambition
• Growth and ability to be adaptable
• Generosity
• Stability
• Endurance 
• Green is the most restful color for the human eye 
• Dark green is associated with money and banking
• Green to recommended when promoting health products. 
• Green signifies a love of nature, animals and children

Green relates to the Heart Chakra ( which is associated with Love, Self Love and Balance ) but more on that to come... 

So Green it is! But I will stick to Black for the text as I don't want to cause anyone eye strain ( not very generous of me ** see above). I went for 'Georgia' in the end after endlessly scrolling through the available fonts. As with writing in 'green' some of the fonts made me feel a little queasy so I thought best to stick to the tried and tested Classic formula of Georgia in Black. It has worked for many before me. 

In conclusion, I am on a mission to find success and will post away until I find it! It's going to be a great year!