Thoughts to lift your spirits
There are simple ways to help us deal with life’s stress. Stores are offering products designed to relieve stress, such as bean bags that you squeeze, wooden beads that you roll on your feet, back and temples and fluid-filled eye packs that are kept in the fridge.
Something I have discovered is reading quotations. There are many pocket-sized books available that are loaded with light-hearted stories and sayings to lift your spirits and give direction. You can carry the small books with you, keep them at your bedside, beside your favorite chair, or near the bathtub to read as you soak. Two of the books I use are:
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- Chicken Soup for the Soul, compiled by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Barry Spilchuk, and published by Health Communications, Inc.
- Inspiration for Living, compiled by Beth Mende Conoy, published by Peter Pauper Press, Inc.
Here are some examples of the contents:
A bell’s not a bell till you ring it
A song’s not a song till you sing it
Love in your heart was not put
there to stay
Love isn’t love till you give it away.
– Oscar Hammerstein
If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them and half as much money.
– Abigail Van Buren
It is kind of fun to do the impossible!
– Walt Disney
Death is not the greatest loss in life.
The greatest loss is what dies inside
of us when we live.
– Norman Cousins
A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.
– Hugh Downs
The measure of a man’s real
character is what he would do if he
knew he would never be found out.
– T.B. Macaulay
Kindness is the inability to remain at ease in the presence of another person who is ill at ease, the
inability to remain comfortable in the presence of another who is uncomfortable, the inability to have peace of mind when one’s neighbor is troubled.
– Rabbi Samuel H. Holdenson
The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own.
You don’t blame them on your mother, or the ecology.
You realize that you control your own destiny.
– Albert Ellis
Making potpourri
Dear TEAM: Recently I read an article in a paper for making potpourri from wild rose petals but I cannot find it. I am wondering if you can help me? The petals were spread out and sprinkled with salt but I don’t recall the entire procedure. I would like to have this in place for spring picking of our wild roses, petals and buds. – L.B., Prince Albert, Sask.
Dear L.B.: I am a potpourri lover. I use it in various types and sizes of containers, in any room of the house, and I also use simmering pots on the stove for a lingering aroma. Making potpourri is surprisingly easy.
- Collect materials for drying.
- Decide which drying method you want to use – hang, air, oven, water, or silica gel drying. Air and oven drying are recommended for rose petals.
Oven drying – If you need items dried in a hurry, or you do not have a lot of space, oven drying is your best bet. Set the oven at 100 F (200 C) and leave the door slightly open, place the material on cookie sheets one layer deep, and turn every 15 minutes. When the material is crisp and brittle, remove it from the oven.
Air drying – To do this you need a flat surface through which air can circulate. Some options are old window screens, cotton muslin or commercial drying trays sold at herb or health food stores or garden shops. Whatever apparatus you use, the important thing is to have good air circulation, and a warm, dark and dry place. This system is used for doing large quantities of petals or flower heads. If mould or mildew become evident with this method, you may want to finish the procedure with the oven method described above.
Create your potpourri
1 cup dried roses 250 mL
1 cup dried mixed 250 mL
pink and white flowers
1Ú4 cup dried rosemary 50 mL
leaves
1Ú4 cup bay leaves 50 mL
1Ú4 cup broken cinnamon
sticks 50 mL
1 tbsp whole cloves 15 mL
3 tbsp sorris root chips 50 mL
6-8 drops of rose oil
Once you have mixed the materials, seal in a jar with plenty of breathing room.
Add orris root, which helps the scent to last. Shake or stir daily for two weeks to allow it to blend and ripen. Do not use metal bowls as metal affects the scents.
Source: The Potpourri Garden by Theodore James, Jr., published by MacMillan Publishing Co.
If any of our readers have a recipe that uses wild roses (with or without salt), please share it with us.
