#The same way that you CAN get a nice hot bath by boiling a litre of water in the kitchen

[kaluawoo]

While I agree that giant swords are super cool, they're also kinda shitty weapons for a ninja

[rowanthestrange]

How To Make A Build-A-Bear Dye Without Killing It:

Me: If this is Paddington, why is he white?

Build-A-Bear: Oh my god Rowan, you can’t just ask why Paddington’s white!

Paddington is currently one of Build-A-Bear’s cutest and plushiest options. However he’s also significantly lighter-furred than either the recent movie, the classic television show, or even the original illustrations made him. My sponsor being a fan of the Paddington TV show, I was asked to experiment to see if I could correct this by dying him, in a long-lasting, no rub-off way, whilst maintaining the gorgeous fluffy texture of the fur.

And shockingly...yes. Yes, you actually can.

(Instructions and more adorable pictures under the cut)

Now as far as I can tell, if you can do it with this plushy baby, you should be able to do this with any Build-A-Bear. Probably any bear full-stop, but I’m not responsible if you re-dye that toy tiger you’ve had since you were a baby and it crozzles into a little plastic ball. Be smart, be responsible, be sure you can buy another one of whatever you’re dying in case you screw up. Remember even if it all works, you might still not get the colour you want. Dying’s a lottery.

Disclaimers over, you will need,

A Bear.

Rit DyeMore Synthetic in the colour of your choice. (Cocoa Brown if you’re doing this Paddington).

A big metal pot than can go on the stove. Bigger than the one you’re thinking of right now.

A cooking thermometer is highly encouraged - look you’re buying the dye, you might as well spring for this too, you’ll find uses for it.

Nice smelling washing-up liquid.

Rubber gloves if you’re not an idiot.

A big wooden spoon that can reach the bottom of your pot.

Basic sewing supplies (don’t panic, nothing arduous)

Ideally an extra person in case of emergencies (these include: when it turns out you can’t stir a pot continuously for over thirty minutes, when you splash yourself with scalding-hot dye and need someone to stir while you hold your hand under cold water, when you apparently don’t have the coordination to stir, check temperature, and keep track of time all at once, etc.)

And before you begin, offer a prayer and thanks to @tokozdragon whose own experimentations allowed me to stand on the shoulders of a giant. Theirs was one of the most helpful bits of information I came across in my research, and is how you’re gonna hopefully keep that fluff nice and gorgeous.

So. Build-A-Bears are seemingly synthetic top to bottom. Certainly this one is. I couldn’t find any tags saying anything other than 100% polyester, man-made fibres. Now this is a bad thing when it comes to dying, because the dyes can’t penetrate and hold in the same way. You wash it, everything’ll immediately rinse out. But Rit Synthetic Dye, does work. The only catch is, you’re gonna have to get it to just below boiling point. And if you’ve ever left a cuddly toy against a radiator before, you might know that these things do not like heat.

But there is a trick to this. You’re gonna diverge from your dye instructions just a little bit, but it’s going to work so long as you’re really on the ball.

First of all, check to see that your bear will fit in your pot - physically put it in there - and check if it could move freely and be covered with water. No? Then you’re gonna do what I did, and frankly what I suggest: You’re going to unstuff your bear. Get a clean box, find a seam (the BAB tag is perfect for this if it’s still got it on) pull until you see threads, have courage, and snip. You can put them back together, I promise. I left the head and arms stuffed for Paddington because it would fit, and they’d be more difficult to restuff. You might want to as well. Keep your heart (and tracking barcode) safe, as well as all that stuffing. Now you may have someone who looks like this:

Next, it’s bath time. No, don’t skip this step. Get a little of your nice washing-up liquid, just a small drizzle, and some warm water. Nothing hot, not close to hot - baby bath temperature. Give your bear a gentle wash, to remove any coatings or oils or dirt, and rinse them out well under more warm water. Make sure to squeeze it through any remaining stuffed bits too. You don’t need to go overboard though, a bit of soap left over is gonna be fine.

While you’re doing that, you’re going to heat up your dye to just below teddy bath temperature.

This is where we start to deviate from instructions.

You’re gonna put that dye in right away, while it’s still cool. I needed about 5 litres of water for my pot, and used about a quarter of a bottle of dye (somewhere between 6-8 tablespoons). You can see how Cocoa Brown turned out here. Obviously if you want a weaker colour, use a few spoons less. If you don’t get it perfect straight away, don’t worry about it, you can add more later if you have to, but again remember your ideal colour is not guaranteed.

Then add a small trickle of washing-up liquid to the dye. Less than a teaspoon, but it’s going to help the dye catch.

When your dye is just about bear-temperature, still really low, you are going to immerse your bear, while the temperature’s still going up. That’s right, we’re doing it now. What we’re trying to do is not shock the fur by giving it a sudden temperature change - plunging it into 90°C dye like you’d usually do. Instead we’re gonna boil it like a frog in a pot.

You are gonna stir this baby continuously, and treat it like a video game level you can’t afford to fail. Bits that float, squeeze em and squish em back down. Nothing stays still. You stop stirring? You’ve failed. And never, ever, ever, let it touch the bottom of the pot for even a second without you moving it away. Treat this early temperature where you can still put your hand in it as your test, and get a rhythm up. Using your gloved hands (or not, but it’s gonna make your nailbeds look weird for days), squeeze the dye thoroughly through your still-stuffed areas, make sure everything’s evenly covered, because once this dye goes past 50°C you’re going to be using your spoon only.

Then just keep stirring. If your arms get tired, this is why you have your emergency standby buddy. Check the temperature occasionally. When it gets up to about 80°C this is when the dye will actually start activating. Keep the heat going, but check your time. If you can’t easily see a clock and don’t have a buddy, you definitely can’t afford to stop stirring now, so start counting one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, up to about 240-Mississippi. For everyone else, go to about 4-5 minutes, maybe having your buddy check the temperature as you go. If you hit a boil - you’re seeing bubbling - turn the heat off. What we’re aiming to do is give it about 4 minutes in the 85-max 95°C range, so you choose when to shut your heat off - you know your cooker better than I do.

After your heat is off keep stirring as it drops its temperature, remembering it’s just as delicate a procedure as when you were heating it up, it still can’t touch that hot metal for too long. When it gets down to about 60°C, if you or your emergency buddy can easily (and I mean easily, with no difficulties at all) lift that pot to put it in a cold water bath in your sink, you could do that, but if your wrist suddenly gives out or something that is a hell of a lot of hot water that will mess you up. If in doubt, you gotta just keep stirring for as long as it takes for the pot to cool back down to bath temperature. Don’t try and lift the bear out and put it in the sink early, just do it properly.

Once you’re down to relatively cool again, lift the bear and squeeze the dye out. Then transfer them to your sink. Run water at about the same temperature, and rinse them thoroughly.

When the worst of the dye stops coming out, then it’s time for bath time yet again. More of that nice smelling washing-up liquid, soap them up good, and watch that sink get all colourful again.

Then keep rinsing them, replacing the water until it stays clear and free from soap.

And then all you need to do is wait for them to dry!k

(If you don’t have a hairdryer that works on a cool setting, then just squeeze them with paper towels to get the worst of the water out, and fluff em up a little bit every now and again, moving that fur, and making sure it ends up roughly in the direction it should be so it doesn’t dry too oddly.

Then the next day when they’re dry, brush them up a bit, and give them a re-stuff, making sure to give that heart-wish a little booster when you put it back in. (And put that odd little barcode you probably found in there right next to it - that’s one of the ways a lost bear can find its way back to you. You never know). Then to stitch up the hole, use a ladder stitch. Google it to find instructions that work for you, but that’s the clever invisible stitch you’ll need. And if you can’t do that last bit for any reason, I’ve never found a Build-A-Bear shop that won’t help fix up a bear (and they’d probably be interested in your dye test. You could probably even get a scent put in if you’re good at sweet talking).

And voila, one spiffy bear.

Who in this case, had all his stuffing given a rub down with sweet orange essential oil, the perfect scent for any bear who carries an emergency marmalade sandwich.

Of course if you’re going the full Classic Television Paddington, then a bit of work with some black felt and ribbon is still required. The red hat should be enough for you to mirror a pattern. I suggest 2mm or 3mm thick felt (and you’ll need a metre/whatever rather than A4 if you want to do the...sticky-up-bit of the hat all in one go like the red hat). And 1.5-2cm ribbon (but I had 1cm so that’s what I used). The brim is about the size of a dinner plate, and you could cut the circle for the top out of the middle of that if you’re trying to conserve materials.

Bonus cuteness: I think Orlando the Thirteenth Doctor Bear makes a very good movie Paddington.

[elevenhoursinfront-blog]

21st September 2017

The alarm went off at 0515. How could that be it? I only just went to bed - or so, it felt that way. Steve got up and turned the light on so we could get ready. I hid underneath the cover and begged him to let me stay. Realistically, even if he said yes, I wouldn't have. I was a little excited to be fair. A new farm experience. We got dressed, got our bag ready with our litre bottle of sun cream being the most important thing packed. Steve made us sandwiches and I filled our water bottles up. We quickly had some cereal and left. We were meeting Harriet who was coming with us, at 0610 by the van. It was already 0613 - oops! We got there and Harriet said how tired she was. I feel you girl. She went to bed at the same time as us. We got into B3 - the van that has rubbish everywhere and a slight sick smell. One the plus, it's the only one with a radio. Beggars cannot be choosers. This is a luxury to us these days. We had a half an hour drive before we got there. We were going to a place called Euramo and we were meeting a guy called Anthony on the side of Rockingham Road and Bruce Highway next to a small banana stall. We got there and pulled over. It was pretty easy to find to be fair. A straight line the whole way there. We saw a truck slow down and pull up besides us. A guy leaned out of the window and said "Are you guy's here for Anthony? The watermelon farm?" Steve said yeah and we were told to follow him. We followed for a further 10 minutes through fields and fields of sugar cane, grass and mud. We were on a dusty dirt track struggling to see the car in front. Eventually we pulled up to his farm, we were told to park next to the "power pole". We got out and walked into the shed. There were men pulling up ready to start their day. We stood there, like planks with no idea what to do or where to go. I started to feel really intimidated. Anthony was a real bogan and his workers were Aboriginal men. I was nervous. I couldn't understand them - I think they were talking in a different language. Anthony told us to get the watermelon boxes, open them up and place them onto pallets. The workers all said hi and gave us a helping hand. The watermelon boxes were huge. They were the thickness of about 5 cardboard boxes and about a metre width and length each way. We had to open them up, bend them so they weren't square, they were hexagon. Then we had to bend the flaps at the top so they could all fit together when we turned them back the other way. I'm not even sure if that makes sense but it hurt my hands a lot. We did that for about half an hour. Harriet and I were the only girls there. We all jumped onto the tractor trailer with everyone else. They guys introduced themselves and we started chatting away. We got to the watermelon patch after about 5 minutes driving. We jumped out and watched the guys move the conveyor belt outwards. The tractor was out our left and the belt came out horizontally in front of us. We had to stand in a line, arms width apart and walk with the tractor. Every step you took, you had to pick up a watermelon and place it onto the belt. There was one guy and Anthony on the tractor sorting them into boxes. The trailer held about 9 boxes. The mud was ankle deep, should’ve been quite light and dusty. It would’ve been if it hadn't rained so much lately. It was like normal damp soil now though. Watermelons grow on thick vines. We had to pick the very large ones only. We had to grab them, break the vine with our hands and be quick to put it onto the belt whilst walking forward. At first, fairly simple. The melons were damp from dew so they were slippery. It was hard to get a grip especially with them being about 15-20kg each. They weren't your average size melons - these were humdingers! The mud didn't help either. The tractor driver was an old man called Bruno. He was pretty deaf, bless him. He must've been a good 70 years old. He had a few deep cuts on his leg that I wanted to clean up for him but I guess that's not something they do when they work on farms. We walked up the first paddock which took about an hour. We were facing the sun too which was beaming into our faces. Steve and I were smart and packed our hats. Ange would be proud. Once the boxes were full, we waited for a member of shed staff to drive a new one out to us and then he would drive the full one back. We did another paddock walking away from the sun which was so much easier. It's unbelievable how much the sun can affect you. By 0900, Anthony had to go back to the shed. He told us to have smoko (Australian 10 minute break). One of the guys cut up a watermelon for us to eat. It was absolutely delicious. Harriet was in her element. She said the two hours work was worth it for that. How To Please A Vegan - Volume One. We chatted to the guys who are really nice and very funny. We continued with our work doing more and more paddocks. I was getting tired. I looked at Harriet and she was starting to struggle too. By 1100, we were exhausted. Taking one step, picking up 20kg slippery watermelons caked in mud for 7 hours so far. We had to try and watch our steps so that we didn't ruin the vines but there's so many everywhere, you just can't help it. As you're walking with the melon, they get tangled in your feet and you trip. You can't see because the melon is so big, you kick more melons as you try to catch up with the belt. I had toads jumping out at me, some bigger than my head (slight exaggeration, but they might as well have been that big). Worms crawling up my arms, caterpillars, spiders, weird insect that I've never seen before. You don't have the time to check for them on you, you just feel where they're moving g and flick them off if you can. It was awful. Anthony is the son of the owner of all the farms in the vicinity. His Dad runs the sugarcane farms and Anthony is in charge of the fruit. Anthony shouts at us constantly whilst we're working - he's quite mean. He calls Harriet and I 'girl'. He would shout "you missed one girl - don't tread over it!". He would shout at everyone "Don't roll them around in mud!" and all sorts. He's an arse. We had lunch around 1230. We had to fill out our tax file forms and give our details so we could get paid. Harriet wanted to give an excuse so that we could go home now. I wanted to do the same but I'm not that sort of person to quit. I'd get through the day and die when I get home. We went back to work and it was worse. The sun was at it's hottest point and I was just burning, literally. I was bathing myself in sun cream whenever I could.  I weren't even rubbing it in anymore, I was leaving it thick on my skin.Our bodies were black from the mud, head to toe. We were soaked from all the sweat. I have no idea how these poor people do this daily. I wish I was a multimillionaire so I could give them money so they didn't have to do this anymore. It's sad because they beg Anthony for work too. Work like this shouldn't be allowed. It's painful. Anthony's Dad joined us for 5 minutes to see the quality of the melons. Anthony was very quiet when he was around. He was like a mouse. Funny that - when he left, he went back to his shouting self. Arse. Again, like the bananas, so much of the fruit is wasted. If it doesn't look right or feel right, he chucks them. I couldn't tell you the amount of fruit chucked out, because it was a ridiculous amount. It made me sad because I hate waste and I wasted ten tonnes of energy picking them up!!!!!! By 1500, I didn't have much more go in me. Steve was knackered too. We were all out of energy and I just couldn't keep up. I couldn't bend anymore to pick them up. They were too heavy. They kept slipping out of my hands. I was stuck deep in the mud, tangled in the vines trying to lift as quickly as possible. My body hated me. Eventually, we were on the last trailer and I've never felt happiness like it. When Anthony shouted "That's enough!", an instant smile appeared on my face. I did it - a whole day. Anthony told us that tomorrow would be a shorter day. Harriet and I said that we had work elsewhere, which wasn't a lie. I was back at the cafe. Steve offered to work tomorrow and I died inside for him. It was torture. I can't even explain to you how difficult it was. I felt like I was on Biggest Loser being sent to the worlds hardest boot camp. We were sitting on the back of the trailer driving back. The guys jumped up and screamed "SNAKE!". They jumped onto the belt in the middle of the trailer. I jumped up, scared and looked around for it. The snake was underneath us and slithered away from us. It was MASSIVE. It was ridiculously fat, long and ugly. You know you're in trouble if all the locals jump up!  They said that it was an Inland Taipan - the most venomous snake in the entire world. The guys kept shouting "that would kill us all in a second!" Luckily, it went away from us, if came towards us, we would've been in trouble. The guys said it should've been killed but there was no way of killing it. What a lucky escape. We got into our boiling hot van and drove away as quickly as we could. We didn't but I wanted too. We got home after half an hour and everyone was outside saying goodbye to Lucy and Danny who were leaving today. We got out of the van and everyone started laughing at the state of us. We were practically black. After we said our goodbyes, we got in the shower. I was in there for ages scrubbing at my skin. The black mud wasn't coming off. My skin felt sore afterwards. Luckily, I wasn't burnt like I thought I was. My skin was glowing red outside which was weird. Maybe it was the reflection, who knows. I told Steve that I was too tired to make dinner but he said he was starving. We made turkey mince with broccoli, carrots, onion, green beans and pepper. The same as last night. It was delicious and I'm glad we did make dinner. I just couldn't move. I couldn't do anything. I've never felt so lethargic in my life. We went to our room around 1830 after washing up and what not. My head was absolutely pounding. We fell asleep straight away. Out like a light.

[nettleandfriends-blog]

Ye Olde Nettle

When you’re a child, the only thing you’re interested in is to get on with the stuff you like to do, like climbing trees, jump over fences, play tags on rooftops, collect tadpoles… I know, I know, I’m talking ancient history here, as today kids’ thing is online gaming, instagramming, texting and such, but the principle is there.

Any hindrance to your childhood pursuit of happiness is perceived as unfair, malicious and utterly pointless (“I wish I was dead and then you’d be sorry…”)

During my early years  I often pondered about this or another unpleasantness in my life. I was trying to find the sense in existence of barbed wire, mosquitos, younger brothers and nettles.

As I was growing up, things were becoming clearer. For a time, I thought that the sole purpose of the existence of barbed wire on fences was to make mothers stop dolling up their daughters in pretty dresses, blouses and skirts. Time after time I was coming home in shredded skirts and dresses, until my mum finally gave up. It was leggings and shorts after that.

Some time later I discovered that younger brothers kinda grow on you. Eventually I stopped moping around for getting a baby instead of a puppy – or, even better, a horse. There was still a problem of him following me around like a – well, puppy – so I waited patiently for my chance. When he was old enough (about 4 or 5) I showed him a picture of T. Rex. Then I took him outside and pointed to a small hole in the ground (my favourite when playing marbles) and told him that it was where T. Rex lived. Not only did he stop following me around, he was petrified of going out whatsoever. Later still, when he stopped grassing my every little transgression and blaming me for his own ones, we even started talking to each other and occasionally having fun together. By the time we were semi-adult we started even liking each other. So, basically, I admitted to myself that baby brothers are OK and stopped wondering why they existed.

Nettle, of course, was one of the major annoyances in my childhood. Although I’m fortunate enough to have quite tough skin so nettle, or bee stings, even wasps only cause mild redness and itchiness that lasts a day or two, it was still not fun to brush them lightly while whizzing around having fun. Furthermore, my best friend was very sensitive to everything; nettle would cause swelling and blisters lasting for a week or two, and wasp stings… Whoa!

So, understandably, I detested nettle with a passion. I hated even the fact that the most frequent shampoo in our house was the one with nettle extracts (my mum still swears by it).

However, when I started developing interest for plants I discovered that this nasty nettle is actually quite an amazing plant. Every single part of it – root, stalk, leaves, flowers – is beneficial. It is not only edible, but quite tasty too. It’s packed full of iron (almost ten times more than spinach) and vitamin C, as well as various minerals and trace elements. I suppose poor old nettle had to develop some sort of defence, otherwise it would be eaten to extinction by herbivores.

As food, you can use it virtually everywhere you use spinach. Well, maybe it would be a good idea not to do the substitute if you eat your spinach raw, in salads or sandwiches. If you do, please make a recording and post it online. I’m sure it’ll go viral like the video of the eejit who lit a firecracker while holding it in his teeth.

Actually, now I’m thinking about it, I’ll make a post about nettle as food (maybe the next one), with a few of my favourite recipes.  Meanwhile, here’s a link to a quite nice article about nettle: http://www.countryfile.com/countryside/ten-unusual-facts-about-nettles .

Stop prattling about and get on with nettle’s remedial properties, I can hear you grumble. Here goes…

Nettle (its posh name is Urtica dioica) is an excellent diuretic; if you have high blood pressure caused by water retention, nettle tea will help a lot. Be careful, though: if you’re already taking pills you might achieve a double whammy resulting in low blood pressure.

If you’re having difficulties with passing water, either because of the urinary tract infection or because of benign enlargement of the prostate, nettle root is the thing to go for.  You can make tea or use tincture.

Tea: boil ½ litre (approx. 17 fl oz) of water and pour over 2 tbsp of chopped nettle root. Cover and leave to soak 10 minutes. Take 4 cups of this tea daily.

Tincture: add 30-40 drops to a glass of water; take 3-5 times a day.

For frequent nosebleeds and intensive period bleeds, as well as for hay fever, acne, eczema and gout use nettle leaves tea:

Pour ¼ litre of hot water over 1 tsp of dried nettle leaves. Cover and leave for 10 minutes. If you use kettle to heat the water, wait a minute or so after water boiling, then pour on the leaves. Take a cup of this tea 3 times a day. You can use tincture instead of leaves - 1 tbsp of tincture in a glass of water. The tea also helps with mouth ulcers and gum inflammation, as a mouth rinse.

Tea prepared from the whole plant is good for getting rid of lung phlegm and cleansing of stomach, liver and guts. This is how to make it:

Finely chop the whole plant. Put 3 tbsp of chopped plant in 2 litres (3.5 pints) of water to soak 10-15 hours. After soaking bring to boil and simmer, covered, for ½ hour. Leave to cool, then strain and take a cup 3 times a day, before meals.

I’ve mentioned nettle tincture; here’s the recipe:

Use the root collected either in spring or in the autumn. Wash the root well, pat dry and chop finely. Fill ¾ of a bottle or a jar with chopped root, then add rakija (or vodka) to the top. Cork well and leave in dark warm place for a month. Then strain it into a clean bottle/jar (preferably coloured) and keep in dark place, at room temperature. I haven’t made tincture for a couple of years, but when I did, I kept it in a deep drawer in my bedroom.

Nettle tincture is very good for treating hair (more about it below), as well as for treating children anaemia (especially if the kid refuses to drink nettle tea). In this case you’ll want to reduce the amount of alcohol in the tincture. I mean, let’s say you massage your scalp with tincture in the morning and then go to work... and your boss smells alcohol on you on daily basis... You get my drift? Not to mention nosy neighbours reporting you to Social Services for giving your kid something containing alcohol.

To reduce the amount (and smell) of alcohol, once the tincture is strained, just boil it a bit - most of alcohol will evaporate quickly.

Nettle is brilliant for treating hair: not only it makes it stronger and thicker, but also gives a wonderful healthy shine.

We all lose hair all the time but it also keeps growing. Some people, however, simply have thin and/or weak hair; sometimes an illness or a lack of vitamins, trace elements and such can weaken the hair. Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with one’s hair but one wants it improved anyway. In all these cases nettle is a great helper. This is what needs to be done to stop hair loss:

Simmer approximately 20g (around 3/4 oz) chopped nettle root in ½ litre water for 10 minutes. Strain and mix with a few cups of nettle leaves tea. After washing hair, use this mixture as the last rinse. In addition, use the tincture to massage the scalp daily.

Keep in mind: if you’re genetically predisposed to hair loss (e.g. your dad, granddad and both uncles went bald before they were 40), this treatment will NOT stop it. It will slow it down, though, but the rate varies from person to person.

I was lucky enough not to have problems with dandruff, but a few friends told me that tincture worked for their dandruff problems, so have a go...

For general hair care, to make it soft, supple and shiny (basically, what Pedigree Chum does for dogs if we are to believe the ads) do this:

Put 5 litres (10.5 pints) of water in a large pot. Add several handfuls of nettle (fresh or dried leaves and stalks) and, on low heat, bring to boil. As soon as it starts boiling remove from heat and leave for 10-15 minutes. If you’re using nettle root, leave a handful of root in cold water overnight. The next day do the described preparation. Use this to slowly rinse-cum-massage your hair after wash, leave for 5-10 minutes, then rinse well.

I’ve mentioned earlier that the tea made from nettle leaves is good for treating skin problems. You can keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days and apply the same way as cleansing lotion, using cotton wool. Ideally, you’ll be drinking freshly made tea 3 times a day (same with hair treatments, I forgot to say). 

If you want to treat all of your skin, then have a nettle bath: put a mug of nettle (whole plant or leaves + stalks) in a large pot and pour hot water on it. Leave for about 15 minutes. Use the time to fill your bath with warm water. Strain your nettle tea in the bath water and get in straight away. Soak for 15-20 minutes. Don’t rinse the bath water off - just pat yourself with a towel. You should stay inside for about an hour if it’s cold outside.

A few warnings:

1. Although you can use nettle tea and tincture all year long, very rarely people might get oversensitive to nettle if using it for a long time. This can manifest as allergic reaction, digestive problems or diarrhoea. If you want to make sure it doesn’t happen to you, simply make pause in using it – e.g. use it for 3 weeks, then pause for a week, then use for 3 weeks… you get a pattern, right?

2. I’ve never heard about any problems with using nettle preparations in pregnancy and during breast feeding period. As a matter of fact, a few women I know used to drink nettle tea in pregnancy as they became anaemic. However, I’d always advise to check your blood results with your doctor and follow his/hes advice.

3. Nettle tea is really good for treating anaemia in children, as well as for strengthening their immune system. But, sometimes, kids are too finicky and won’t drink it. If this is the case, 10 drops of the tincture in a glass of water or their favourite juice should be alright. Keep in mind: I said “juice”, so no colas, fantas etc. - strictly non-fizzy drinks.

4. Being strong diuretic, nettle might slightly change the colour of urine or make it look cloudy. It should not worry you, it’s just a sign there’s lots of toxins and metabolic leftovers clearing out of your body. As they are getting reduced, your urine will get clear.

There are loads more remedy recipes where nettle is one of ingredients, but I want to go through some major plants just on their own before I start with mixtures.

So, there you are: from dreaded childhood nuisance to really great and useful stuff.

Still wondering about mozzies, though…