Oh So Natural

We had an SOS call on Friday evening from a friend of mine - she had a swarm

of bees in her front garden, very close to the gate...and too close for comfort to her front door. She had got home from work, turned the car engine off, but could still hear a motor so was very confused......she then realised it wasn't the car engine, but some other source and it didn't take her too long to track down the buzzing!

Knowing that not only am I doing my bee keeping lessons but that I was a happy recipient of a bee hive (Christmas prsent), she phoned to ask if we could help. I'm still kicking myself as I had my son's hockey awards to go to as well as meeting up with friends for a drink...somehow overlapping those two Friday night's entertainment just didn't allow for squeezing in building the beehive and catching my first swarm. :-(

Luckily Ted, our local bee keeping swarm patrol came to the rescue and took them off in a temporary hive.

This week we'll be putting the hive together in anticipation of it being swarm season and offering a home to another band of bees on the run. Can't wait!

Charity Bike Ride Across Zambia

My husband is busy training for a 500km bike ride across Zambia. The children and I are really quite amused and amazed as he isn't necessarily what we'd describe as 'fit - and yet the amount of training and passion he is putting into this incredible journey has quite stunned us.

If you would like to know more about the trip, please visit the Zambian Bike Ride blog where you can make a donation if you wish. The charity behind the venture is African Revival.

Meanwhile, I'm putting together a list of trees, bushes, shrubs and plants I want him to photograph as we use the butters, extracts, oils etc in our products.....oh yes, and persuading him to use the Incognito 'No More Mosquito' spray instead of deet.

Seaweed & Watercress Soap care of The Apprentice

OK - own up, who saw it? I love The Apprentice and last night it was very close to my heart - making beauty products! See our website to listen to our stint on BBC Radio reviewing the Apprentice Soap Making episode www.plushfolly.com

Seeing the Apprentice teams scavenge around in the rock pools collecting seaweed or donning their protective gear to collect honey reminded me of two lovely ladies we had on a course once. Their plan was to drive around the British Isles in their Winnebago making and selling soap created from ingredients indigenous to the area they were staying in.

We had fun compiling the list - Oats & Whisky soap (Scotland), Seaweed and Sea Salt Soap (Cornwall), Clotted Cream Soap (Devon), Guinness Soap (Dublin), Tea Soap (Yorkshire), Coloured Sand Soap (Isle of Wight), Crab Soap (Cromer - OK I'm lying, but you can see how fun this was!), Strawberry Soap (Wimbledon) etc - the list was extensive.

I wonder how they are getting on.....