Oh, my darling hubby. If you thought that I didn't sit still, you should experience THIS guy. He never stops unless he's crashed. This term was full on for him, working AND doing the Defender engine and the camper. So it was no suprise that he did himself an injury doing up the headbolts. His side was agonizingly sore, like he'd busted a rib or torn a muscle. Oh it didn't make him stay STILL for long. Like me, he refuses to stop.

His go to herbal remedy is comfrey - it's the one he thinks of, anyway, his herbal knowledge limited to a few wonder herbs: hops, plantain, chamomile, licorice, peppermint being the others. I didn't have the salve in, though I had plenty in the garden. I recall Nana making a sticky green poultice from the leafs, wrapping her arm covered in comfrey in a bandage. The stuff works. Traditionally, it's for healing bruises, pulled muscles and ligaments as well as fractures, sprains and strains.

But a poultice was never going to stick on Jamie's side as he moved about - like a toddler, I had to catch him on the run, slather something on him and let him get back to it.

So salve it was.

Though you really should use dried comfrey as the moisture content of the leaves can make the oil go rancid, I only wanted to make a small jar that we would use quickly, and I'd keep the rest in the fridge whilst making more from dried leaves next week. It was a 24 hour quick job so fresh leaves were chopped and added to half a cup of oil. Using the double boiler method, the oil is placed over a saucepan of water and kept on low heat for a day to allow the infusion to happen.

As they wilted down over the hours in warm oil, I'd squeeze them into flat balls and add more leaves. The oil turned a magical deep green.

Next was squeezing the oil from the leaves and straining it, to measure the weight of oil and then use an eighth of that in beeswax - 81 g of oil meant 10 g of beeswax melted and stirred into the oil then allowed to cool.

Voila, comfrey salve.

Did it work? Well, he's still moving - but doing it without grimacing and complaining 😂

And would you believe it - he stood on a stick that went through his thong (flip flop) into his foot, just like me a few weeks ago. So it's time to break out the plantain again.

And now he has a stomach thing going on. Hmmm.. what I have I got in the cupboard, I wonder?

With Love,

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