random musings
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Lip balm
Making lip balm is one project I’ve been wanting to do with our beeswax. It is relatively easy and foolproof. The success of a lip balm has more to do with preference than with messing up a recipe. (This reminds me of a time when I made chocolate truffles as Christmas gifts. The raspberry truffle Continue reading
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Purifying the beeswax
The most obvious advantage of maintaining bees is to have honey. A secondary advantage is to have the beeswax. It’s an amazing product with so many practical applications. Last year we harvested our first honey. This year we want to find uses for the wax. The first step is to get the wax from the Continue reading
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Comfort
“Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” So said Robert Frost. A grandparent’s home, that’s where you go when you don’t want to go home. A grandparent’s home is where they roll out the red carpet. If you’re really lucky, your grandparents live next door to your Continue reading
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Back from the beach
Beach view through the porch railing It was a hot week in Cape May, but not nearly as uncomfortable as what we came home to. After a week of ocean breezes, the stifling humidity at home is really oppressive. How am I going to tackle my summer to-do list if I feel like a slug? I had already Continue reading
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Caterpillars on the fennel
What’s scarier than Buggy or the One Red-Eyed Wolf? Green caterpillars with black and white stripes and orange horns! Ok, maybe they aren’t so scary. (Well, they are a little scary if you click on the picture and see the eNORmous image of them.) They are rather amazing. We found 10 of them on Continue reading
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lemon mint soda
I’m playing around with herbal infusions. Steeping in the kitchen window, near the milk bottles, is peppermint oil. The other day I made two flavors of simple syrup: chocolate mint and lemon balm-peppermint. I poured some chocolate mint syrup on vanilla ice cream and that was pretty yummy. Today I mixed a shot of lemon Continue reading
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Creatures in the woods…
Not all creepy things at Maywood are in the cabinets. Some are in the fridge. (In fact, one of my scariest moments recently came today when my mom brought me home quasi-sedated from the hospital and I realized she was going to open the fridge to fix me something to eat! ) But it is in the woods at Continue reading
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There’s something under the sink…
Maywood Living sounds so country perfect. Herbs and bees and cutesy little country things. Life at Maywood is quirkier than that. Yesterday the “ladies” came to clean. They normally arrive mid-afternoon, but at 8:30 a.m. John and I were still in bed when we heard a cheery “Merry Maids!” downstairs. Ack!!! I told them to Continue reading
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Thyme in the Kitchen
One of the best things about summer is having time to do nothing in particular, like staging a still-life in the kitchen. This morning, a scorcher already by 8 a.m., I went out to cut some flowers for poor sick newlywed Julie. The garden still looked fresh and happy and the thyme was bushy and perky. Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 