Island of La Gomera

Been away for a few days on the beautiful island of La Gomera. It is only a 45 minute ferry ride away from Tenerife and when you get there you just immediately RELAX!! We have been before but we really explored the island this time, with the car.

We even did one of the many walks on offer. The amazing Garajonay National Park is a sight to behold.

We stayed at Tecina Jardin Hotel, it is very well located near to Playa Santiago and is set in beautiful tropical gardens. It has it all, very, very pleasant place to stay.

On my return my little seedlings had grown at least an inch. I have been potting on various plants such as Nasturshiums (this is clearly not spelt right but you know what I mean, don´t you), Cosmos, Tomato, Melon, Calendula and many more, it has been a busy but exciting time in Pixiepods Garden.

I have attached a photo of the woodlands in the Garajonay National Park, please feel free to use this photo, it is a gift from me to you, if however you wish to see more photos and perhaps would like to own one, please see my Etsy shop, www.pixiepod.etsy.com where there are a few on the shelves for sale, always feel free to check back now and again to the store as there is always something new to buy.

Hubby has been busy redoing the garden wall, he is cladding it and changing the coping stones. What a great job he is making, I am helping out where I can but most of the work is down to him. It looks great and hopefully will be maintenance free.

Please, please, please post comments, share your La Gomera experience perhaps?

The unveiling of the newbies

In a previous post I took a photo of my plastic bottle clad new herbs. It helps to protect them from the harse winds and just lets them settle in a little first after the initial move out into the garden.
I unveiled them about a week ago and took this photo to share with you. Already the chamomile plants are producing flowers and the calendula is doing well. The thymes are not so bad either but time will tell.
It has been a bit unsettled in Pixiepods Garden over the last few days, the winds are changeable but when settled it has been really hot.

Planted out some more broccolli, cauliflower and lettuce into the vegetable beds and more potatoes. We are eating the last of the ready crop tonight. They have been great and I hope now that the earth is up to a reasonable standard we can continue to produce some tasty vegetables.

I have also been pruning and bundling. Herbs love to be tied into little bundles and recently I have posted onto my Etsy shop, a bundle of apple tree branches, prepared and bundled into a bundle of 8 perfect little sticks. The apple tree is very symbolic in the garden, it represents, garden magick (amongst other things) so they make good companions for herbs, even in little pots on the window sill. The blossom of the apple tree is well known for representing fertility.

Hubby and I went walking at the weekend, nearly our first of the season. We did Roque del Conde, which we have done before but just before the very top I took a bit of a panic attack. I am scared of heights to some degree but my legs just went like jelly and I really didn´t want to be up there. We came back down and I can honestly say I was glad to get back to a more normal height. It was an enjoyable day but by gum were we sore the next day! Walking in Tenerife is great fun and there are lots to choose from but be careful if you do venture out as some of them can get tricky and you must remember, you have to have the energy to get back.

Well must get on and do some gardening, feeling like more sitting in it today, but there is always something to be getting on with.

Is Winter on the way?

Here in Tenerife it rarely gets cold much before October, but this year it hasn´t been cold much before November. This Sunday hubby and I decided to take to the hills where it is now a little cooler. It was amazing! What a fantastic island this is for walking. We had a super morning and returned to the sunnier coast for the afternoon.
Today I awoke to the most amazing sky of pinks, blues, purples,golds only to find that by 11am the rain had started and the sky was very grey in colour. The hills looked positively uninviting and the longing for cold days became less a priority.
I had a thought about home in the UK and thought how lucky we are to be here where the climate is a lot kinder to the body and how we see blue skies regularly for most of the year. This is not a blog to sicken those of you who don´t live here more of a reminder to us expats who often have longings for home, looking at home with the rose coloured glasses on, of course.
It is almost 40 days until Christmas and I am still in T shirts, so I am going to smile today for I am trully lucky to be here in paradise.

Crimbo is not that far away!

Sorry to mention the C word but it is not that far away. I just wanted to let everyone know I have justed listed my latest product "Oriental" onto my Etsy shop. I have created a Gift Set of two of the products in the range. Making it really easy for you to get someone who likes a bit of luxury a gift for their Birthday or dare I say it Christmas, okay that´s it out there!

Hope you like the product, wish you could smell it! If you want to check out any other typically Christmas gifts then go to my shop at www.pixiepod.etsy.com and in the search at the top put in Christmas, a few angel ideas.

Lots of love Margaret x

Halloweén

It´s almost that time of year again - no not Christmas!! Halloween!!!
It has turned into a commercial headache of Americanised "Trick or Treating". Don´t get me wrong I don´t mind the neighbours children coming around, dressed up and clearly making the effort to get into the spirit of the event.
Halloween is the time when the two worlds can communicate with each other. Looking at this from my stand point it is the time for celebrating what our Elders have left behind, our gifts that we have are given to us from them and on this night we can give thanks for that. Also a celebration of the craft of Herbalism, we have been handed down this knowledge too, and as it seems increasingly likely that we will be banned from buying herbs from ungoverned places due to a law that has been passed. Which will result in only being able to purchase "proven" herbs and there uses defined by a small few. It is important more than ever to remember the herbal potions and lotions, remedies etc that we use, that were given to us from our Elders and pass them onto our next generation so that the Knowledge never ends.
I sell some herbs, flowers, seeds, etc in my Etsy shop. I give a little bit of info with each one. Anyone who is interested in herbs and would like more information please feel free to email me.
Another purpose of Halloween is the cleansing with fire. I have created my hearth in a small area of my garden, this is where I burn herbs and write little notes that I can burn. These notes consist of bad habits that I want to break or poems that I want to give to Mother Earth, they can be anything really.You can do this anytime but there are more powerful times of the year, Halloween being one of them.
So, Halloween has a lot going for it, don´t forget it and celebrate our Elders, celebrate the Knowledge of Herbs, and Use the fire to cleanse.
One more point for all the single people out there. Take an apple just before midnight of Halloween Eve and sit in front of a mirror, ask the reflection of yourself who your husband will be, three times say this to your reflection, whilst peeling the apple, try and take the skin off in one go, it is more powerful. Your future husband should appear or you will dream of him that night.

Up the Mountains

Well hubby and me went for another walk up the mountains today here in Tenerife. It was superb. We had done part of it last week and this time parked the car a little nearer and done the second leg of it, which was approximately 7km. I managed as usual to find some amzing things, not to mention some great photos taken of nature at its best. I collected some more black tourmaline and some amber resin. It is always exciting when I find things. The wild chives were looking amazing, absolutely huge!!We were passed by three men all dressed the same in red t shirts with black lycra shorts, they were running down the mountain, one after the other. It was hilarious not just because they were running and we were panting but because they were triplets, they were identical and it was something really special and funny to see. Didn´t get a photo unfortunately but did get a photo of a rock climber, he looks fit! As far as Pixiepod the shop goes I am selling off some bead stock, need more room and new things but they are great please check them out.

Green Tourmaline

I am very excited! On Sunday we went walking, unexpectedly in a place near Vilaflor, Tenerife. It was a magical place. As I stood waiting for hubby to get his things together I noticed a stone on the ground at my feet. I bent down and picked it up, it wasn´t in the ground, it was loose and ready to be picked. It was the most beautiful green stone, after extensive research I think it is a green tourmaline. It is the choice of crystal for the fairies and this totally makes sense to me right now. It symbolises a few other things that I can also relate to.
Then we went the walk and it was the most magical place, wish trees and vibrant wildflowers.
Ah, I love NATURE!!!

Picking more flowers

I love this time of year here in Tenerife! The flowers on the herbs are just marvellous, I know some people get all bothered about there plants flowering but I let some flower and some don´t it´s nature you have to let the process happen naturally.

Anyways I am harvesting the flowers to sell on my Etsy shop, not all of them of course as I use them to make things for myself and friends and family but I love to share with all and hope that people will want the quality products that I grow here in my little haven.

Rainbow Power

Well I have had inspiration again from Mother Nature herself!! Last week there was the most amazing rainbow, just after a shower of rain the sun came out blazing bright and with it came the most massive rainbow, bright and colourful. This may seem run of the mill if you live in the UK but for here it is unusual as rain is not that often, apart from big downpours little showers with sun are unusual and rainbows are just not common. It inspired me to come home that day and work with the colour in the garden and the power and energy in a rainbow. With this I started making "Rainbow Power" Aura/Energy Sprays. I will be launching them on my Etsy shop in the next few days so I hope you will enjoy them and the power they hold.

The fragrance is just so lovely and it makes me feel so connected to nature and mother earth. For therapists of any kind and especially energy workers it would be useful tool for protection but my wise woman blend is especially good for menopausal beings and those going through this transcendance to the other phase of their life.

The photo is the one I am using for my labels, unfortunately I didn´t manage to capture the one here as my camera was at home and I wasn´t but that´s what rainbows are like, you see them and then they are gone, but they leave you with some impression.

Planting Out

Well another lovely day! In the UK it is pretty grim with all the snow, it makes you feel a bit guilty when you complain about silly things going wrong in the garden. I have took my little plantlings out of their safe houses, these were constructed to protect the plants from the wind and hottest of sun, they are really making a difference to the yield. I planted out a melon plant I grew from seed, it really is a nervous moment, it seems that sometimes things just don´t take or the weather turns nasty and I wish I hadn´t removed them from the safety of the their plant house but I have got a system whereby I plant one out and plant one into a pot so I can always move the potted one about. My potatoes that I planted in December are doing well, a little bent over from the storms but they have started to flower. The next crop aren´t so good but will bank up today, this usually brings them on. I use my own homemade compost, we started with a homemade wooden box, made from internal shelf wood that we had leftover but it wasn´t built to last, it served its purpose and proved to my non green fingered husband that making your own compost works so we invested in a big plastic one, which seems to be better at generating more heat.
Well enough bletherings better get back to the garden!

Rain in Tenerife!

Well what was I saying about Sun being a bit of a problem when gardening in Tenerife. It seems the rain is not letting up. As you can see from this photo a lot fell at one time causing all sorts of problems across the canary islands and more recently and tragically in Madeira. The garden has recovered and only minimal losses of small seedlings but I managed to get all to the safety of little plant cupboards that were originally built to protect the plants from the winds and the hot sun.