Natural Laundry Detergent - it's Conkers!

Cancer treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy can cause some skin sensitivity and rashes.  I have found a recipe for home-made laundry detergent that is all-natural and mild, which would hopefully reduce any possibility of irritation.  The other benefits are: it is odour-free (some of the scents in detergents are the likely culprits of an adverse reaction), packaging-free and......free!  It's easy to make and, literally, a walk in the park.  

Here's what to do:

Collect a few conkers (horse chestnuts, not edible chestnuts), as fresh as possible (dry ones are harder to chop up).  
Wash and allow to dry.
Chop up a handful (can blitz further in a food processor).
I removed the brown outer shells as far as possible, but don't worry about that too much.
Soak about half a cup of the chopped conkers in a cup of hot water for a minimum of 30 min or overnight if the chopped pieces are fairly large.
Filter the milky-looking liquid through a sieve.
Store the liquid in a clean jar in the fridge for a week or so.
Use about a cupful per wash - the amount will depend on the concentration of your filtered liquid so experiment.

If you don't want to use all your conkers at once, allow the chopped pieces to dry out and store in a jar until required.

Soaking the conkers allows the release of saponins.  These are soap-like substances which are sometimes added to our industrially-made detergents anyway.  They are also in soap-nuts which are another alternative to shop-bought detergents; commonly used in India, they have become more popular as an "eco-alternative", but as always, you have to balance the costs of transporting them and packaging costs too.  So conkers are a nice local solution.

N.B. There is a possibility that if the dark shells are not removed, the detergent may not be ideal for white washes.  Be careful and test first on tea-towels or something that isn't too precious!

For those of you who don't have the time or the conkers for this, for 18 months now I've been using another home-made laundry detergent that I make from bulk ingredients bought on Amazon.  It doesn't have any odour but you could always add a few drops of an essential oil.

Ingredients:
1 bar Natural soap, grated (I use laundry buttermilk soap)
250 g Borax substitute (I use Dripak Borax Substitute)
250 g Washing soda (I use Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda)
Use 1-2 tablespoons per washing load

For  further details about the benefits and reasons to use home-made detergent, take a look at this link from the Guardian's column "All You Need is Less".

A Suffolk Weekend

I find it's always helpful for the mental state to have something to look forward to. Luckily I was off work the day the WannaCry MalIware virus hit the NHS Trust where I work - believe me, it's not been pretty, so I was glad to have had a break when I arrived back for this last "challenging" week.  Anyway, it's become a bit of an annual treat to go to Southwold in Suffolk around the time of my birthday in May.  I love it because we camp on an unspoilt campsite by the beach which is surrounded by marshes and reedbeds which hold an amazing number and variety of birds. You wake to the sound of the waves and the dawn chorus and very little else.  We normally go between the two May Bank Holidays so the site is relatively quiet. A couple of years ago we got up at an hour I can't bring myself to remember and drove to the RSPB reserve at Minsmere for their dawn chorus walk with one of their managers.  It was fabulous to walk through the reserve before it officially opened for the public and hear about 20 different bird species.

On Friday, after a 5 hour drive from London (don't ask), the sun finally came out for the evening. No expense spared on home comforts.
  

A short walk to the Harbour Inn for a pint of Adnams and a fish supper followed by a stroll along the River Blyth.

Saturday morning we tried the new café which has opened in the perfect spot (i.e. near the campsite) in the harbour.

A trip across the river on the much-loved foot ferry (a rowing boat; £1 each way) and we arrived in Walberswick to visit another much-loved local, Sonia, and she took us for a beautiful walk along Hoist Covert with her dog, Alfie.  Stunning views across the marshes and dunes to the sea.  No sign of the local marsh harrier. Or any bitterns.

We came upon some traditional reed cutters stacking the reeds for roof thatching.  I would have loved take a photo but they had pitchforks and looked busy - didn't want to disturb! 

Back "home" to our private glade for a little siesta.  No chairs but got the important stuff.

The local wildlife isn't bothered.

Kestrel

Swallow

Out to one of our favourite restaurants in Southwold, Sutherland House.

Stopped for drinks on the way home at The Sail Loft.  Great views over the marshes from the back of the pub.

Sunday morning dawn chorus was very early so went for a walk between 5 and 8 a.m. to make the most of the beautiful sunrise over the reedbeds.

This reed warbler was making a LOT of noise.

Not sure what this is, possibly a pipt. Known as LBJ (Little Brown Job).

The Adnams brewery (founded 1872) is based in Southwold. "Southwold Jack", a medieval clock 'smiter' dressed in 15th Century costume is used as a symbol for the brewery (original in St. Edmund's next to the font).

The amazing Grade I listed St. Edmund's Church is a surprise (I've never seen it before even though I've visited the town a few times) hidden round the back of the High St. Built in 1460, funded by wealthy wool merchants. See link (here) for photos of the beautiful interior.

St. Edmund (Edmund the Martyr) was King of East Anglia from approx. 855 to 869.

Walk back to the campsite along the start of the Sandling's Walk, the perfect distance for a stroll between the town and the pub at the harbour.

The tea hut next to the campsite was much needed for a warm-up after putting away the tent in the rain.

The sun came out and time for another cheeky beer before lunch. Cheers!



Another favourite place: Sole Bay Fish Company. Packed full of people buying fish at the counter and enjoying lunch.  Make sure you book!

Strangely enough, there is an article in today's Telegraph talking about walking in Southwold and Walberswick.

Insomnia - Finally cracked it!

Since my first post about insomnia in January 2013, things haven't got much better. A good night is often just 3 or 4 h of uninterrupted sleep.  Until a few weeks ago, when - Eureka! I finally found something that helped me get a couple more hours of sleep each night.  It sounds ridiculous after trying everything under the sun: herbal pills, sleeping pills, lavender spray, chamomile tea (bleurgh), turning off screens and phones, hot baths, warm showers, cooling showers (to aid the natural night-cooling of the body), not drinking, drinking, healthy eating, exercise, relaxation, reading, music, etc, etc.  I thought I had exhausted all avenues.  But a chance discovery of a Virgin Airlines eye mask made me try it, not really expecting anything, but *choir of angels, Hallelujah*, it really seems to work.  I stupidly had assumed that because my bedroom curtains were lined, that my room was dark.  But actually it gets pretty light in the mornings.  The eye mask really allows me more time before I wake up, so even when I do wake in the night, I am more confident that I'll get more sleep in the morning. 

One other thing I have been doing which does seem to make an appreciable difference is increasing the amount of leafy greens I eat.  A bit of reading around the subject informed me that magnesium is important for sleep regulation among many other functions - see link here), so I include in my diet plenty of spinach, almonds, cashew nuts, avocados and pumpkin seeds. Apparently magnesium deficiency is pretty common but difficult to test for.  I have also just started taking a magnesium supplement.  
Good luck to anyone else trying to sleep, let me know if you have any other suggestions.

Yogn't - Looks like yoghurt but it isn't: My easy homemade dairy-free 'yoghurt'

A few of my cancer survivor friends gave up dairy after their diagnosis for various reasons. Whatever your reason, if you would like an easy, nutritious breakfast, dessert or snack, try this recipe which I adapted from "Strawberry and Chia seed pudding" in the Living Well with Cancer Cookbook (Fran Warde and Catherine Zabilowicz, 2016), which I recently reviewed for Macmillan and can highly recommend.

Yogn't

Ingredients (for one serving)

A handful of cashew nuts, soaked in water to cover overnight

Handful of raspberries or strawberries

Drop of vanilla extract (optional but adds a touch of sweetness)

2 tablespoons of chia seeds (for a cheaper alternative try Tukmaria seeds)

Oats (optional)

Instructions

Put the soaked cashews in a blender with the soaking water and blend to a creamy texture.

Add the vanilla and most of the raspberries (or strawberries), blend again.

Stir in the chia seeds (and oats if using) and leave for a minimum of 30 mins (to allow the seeds to swell).  The longer you leave the seeds, the thicker the texture.

Top with remaining fruit and enjoy.

The cashew nuts provide protein, to help keep you full.  The chia ("strength" in ancient Mayan) seeds are also protein rich and contain: omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, fibre, calcium, copper, phosphorus, magnesium, niacin, potassium, zinc, manganese, vitamins A, B, E and D...the list goes on (see link for health benefits of chia).  They are from the plant Salvia Hispanica, which is related to mint.  Tukmaria, or Sabja seeds, which are seeds from the sweet basil plant (recommended by my Gujarati friend who says they are used in a lot of Indian desserts and drinks) have similar water-absorbing properties to chia seeds, are full of vitamins and minerals and are good value from Indian shops.

I find this is a light but filling breakfast.  Raspberries produce a light pink, delicately flavoured yogn't, but strawberries provide a bit more colour, substance and texture.  The amount of water can be adjusted to your preferred consistency.