Handcrafted Herbals

✨🐞 These incredible little bugs are Hibiscus Harlequin Bugs (Tectocoris diophthalmus), also known as Cotton Harlequin Bugs.

The metallic electric-blue bodies with brilliant red and orange markings make them look like tiny pieces of jewellery! 💙❤️

They’re actually true bugs rather than beetles, and these are the nymphs — hence the impressive gathering all clustered together on the plant.

They’re commonly found on hibiscus and other members of the mallow family, where they use their piercing mouthparts to feed on plant sap.

I love discovering these little flashes of colour tucked away amongst the greenery — another reminder of just how much incredible life is happening right in the garden! 🌿🐞✨

🌿 Wild Lettuce — Lactuca virosa

The wild lettuce in the garden is putting on quite a show at the moment! 🌱 It’s going to seed, while underneath it, a whole new generation of little plants is already popping up. I love watching this natural cycle — one plant finishing its season while quietly creating the next. It’s a wonderful reminder that the garden is constantly renewing itself.

Wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa) has a long history of traditional herbal use. The milky latex contains compounds including lactucin and lactucopicrin, which have been traditionally valued for their calming and relaxing properties.

Wild lettuce has particularly been associated with supporting relaxation, restful sleep and easing occasional tension and discomfort. 🌿

I always love seeing medicinal plants reseeding themselves naturally rather than having to start everything from scratch. This little patch is clearly very happy where it is! 💚 Have you ever grown wild lettuce — or spotted it growing wild around your garden?

🦟 Bug Lifeguard 👀

I seem to be constantly saving bugs lately! 😂 This little dragonfly was another pool rescue — I found her struggling in the water and scooped her out, and thankfully she was happy to sit on my hand for a little while and dry off. 💚

I believe she’s a female Blue Skimmer (Orthetrum caledonicum), a beautiful and fairly common dragonfly in our area.

It’s amazing how many little creatures we encounter when we slow down and actually look. 🦋🌿 Between the bees, butterflies, spiders, beetles, dragonflies and everything else I seem to be rescuing, there's always something interesting to see 😁

🌿 Sensitive Skin Cream — back in the making today! 🌿

I originally created this cream for people with sensitive skin and allergies to products with long, complicated ingredient lists — wanting something simple, nourishing and plant-based, designed to hydrate, soothe and support dry, reactive skin.

Over the years, customers have given me wonderful feedback and told me how much they love it for dryness, redness, wind-burn and rosacea-prone skin, as well as sweat rashes and particularly dry, scaly skin.

Everyone's skin is different, but I love hearing how a formulation created for one purpose finds its way into so many people's skincare routines. 🌱

Today I'm making a fresh batch of the original Sensitive Skin Cream, along with my H**p Sensitive Skin Cream — adding h**p oil to the same nourishing herbal base.

No essential oils, no complicated fragrance blend — just whole-plant herbal infusions and carefully selected ingredients made by hand in small batches.

💚🌿 Handcrafted skincare for skin that prefers things simple.

🌿 The Magic of Alcohol Extraction - Strawberry Liquor 🍓❤️

One of the fascinating things about making herbal extractions, whether it's for a tincture or a liquor, is watching the alcohol begin its work almost immediately. 👀🌈

Alcohol is an excellent solvent, meaning it can pull a wide range of compounds from plants — including aromatic oils, flavours, pigments and other plant constituents.

🌿 In many botanicals, you can see the transformation within the first 24 hours, as the alcohol draws out the plant's natural colour and the liquid begins to take on the character of the herb or fruit.

This is one of the reasons I love working with whole plants. 🌿🍊🍓

What starts as a jar of fresh fruit, herbs or botanicals slowly becomes something completely different as the solvent extracts and concentrates their unique qualities.

🌈The colour change is often the first visible sign that the extraction is happening — a little glimpse into the chemistry taking place inside the jar. ✨

🍊🍓 Homemade Fruit Liqueurs

I've got sooo many strawberries 🍓 and oranges 🍊 that I've decided that today I’m making two delicious homemade liqueurs! 😋

For the orange, I’m soaking the fresh orange peel and flesh in sugar first, allowing the sugar to draw out the natural citrus oils and juices before adding 48-50% alcohol.

The strawberries are getting the same treatment, letting the fruit and sugar create a beautifully rich base before the alcohol goes in.

Simple ingredients, patience and a little apothecary magic! 🍊🍓✨

🌿🐍 Stare Off! 🤣

This beautiful Common Tree Snake (Dendrelaphis punctulatus) was enjoying the sun in the garden this morning.

They can be grey, brown, blue-grey or green. They’re non-venomous and harmless to people, and are wonderful natural predators of frogs and small lizards. 💚

Another reminder of just how much wildlife is quietly living alongside us! 🌿🐍

🌸🌻 Winter Flowers... 🌼🌷

So many flowers are blooming! Spring will be amazing ❤️🌸