June 19

Quiet time alone up in Villetale Haute is rare, believe it or not. I suppose this is a positive note. I certainly wouldn’t want to be all alone up here, but for a day or two, it’s really refreshing. 

I took advantage of some alone time this weekend by giving myself a bath by the garden! With our sweet wwoofers Margaux and Matthieu having left to continue their journey after two amazing weeks with us, Pedro on his way back to Guatemala earlier in the a.m., Philippe off to Nice for the market and to drop Pedro at the airport and Jorris off to the bees, I found myself alone and loving it.

Our awesomely spectacular wwoofers Margaux et Matthieu! We miss them!

It has always been a dream of mine to take a bath outside in a garden amongst the flowers and vegetables. There is something so relaxing about it, the chirping birds, the warm sun. It reminds me of being a kid again. I’ll settle for being beside the garden rather than in the garden this time, though don’t doubt my gratitude to my strong beekeeper man Jorris who made time Saturday morning before going to work to carry (yes he really carried it over his shoulders!) this bath tub closer to the garden for me.  

A modest bath it may appear; however, it was filled with the best ingredients such as fresh mountain spring water, some lavender hydrolat (lavender water byproduct of distillation for essential oil), and grounded oatmeal, as well as a few drops of essential oil. I first disinfected the tub with tea tree essential oil and vinegar, although it didn’t need much disinfecting since it’s just used as a source of water for the bees or to mix sand and clay for eco-construction projects. In any case, I got it nice and clean, then filled it up with mountain spring water, the same we drink and water the garden with, which comes from a spring source a few miles away from us via a very long hose. Since it was a sunny afternoon, the hose and water were warmed by the sun, so my bath water was perfect.

A bath beside the garden of fresh mountain spring water, warmed by the sun.

Nourishing ingredients: Lavender hydrolat and grounded oatmeal.

These days, natural to me means I can eat it. So much of my self-care ingredients can be found in the pantry. In the kitchen, I prepared the oatmeal. I grounded the same oats we eat in the morning into a fine powder with the coffee grinder. I also sniffed a few different bottles of hydrolats we have lying around the house and found lavender. After adding a few drops of lavender essential oil into a cup of lavender water, I fetched my towel and was out the door. 

I chose these ingredients because they are relaxing and beneficial to one’s skin and nervous system. Lavender is calming to the nervous system and skin, reducing inflammation. Oatmeal also helps with itchy skin caused by bug bites or eczema. Both are extremely nourishing and after 30 mintues of soaking and reading some French cooking recipes and natural living brochures I picked up from the bio store (organic store), I felt the difference on my skin.

Truth is, while all this was very pampering, it was also very necessary in taking care of myself since I have these mosquito and other small but very itch bug bites all over my legs and some on my arms, ear, one on my face...it’s horrible. That is however, the truth of living this kind of life. 

Waterplay in Nice on a sweltering Friday in June. 

Jorris, just to my left at our stand, posing with our jars of sweet gold. 

My section of our stand. 

Jorris and I had set up the market stand Thursday night and worked Friday. Philippe worked it yesterday and today. Since we were in Nice on Thursday night, we decided to have a date night at this delicious Indian restaurant by the port. And since we are on a tight budget and the camper car J9 is out of commission, we camped in the quatre-quatre (4-wheel drive) Mitshubishi. Now, I’ve slept in there before on the lavender fields, but this time was drastically different.

The quatre-quatre had this bad car-chemical smell and maybe it had transported some dirt or something which had those horrible itchy caterpillar hairs which I’ve written about last season, but something was definitely there which bit me all over. And, to top it off, there was this nasty mosquito which buzzed by my ear throughout the night and bit me in a few places. We parked on a remote street, which actually had a nice view of Nice, but the glare of the street light also kept me up. After a night of not sleeping well, it was a day of work at the annual Bionazur organic market in Nice. Jorris and I were tired. He didn’t sleep well either, but with a few coffees and the positive spirit often emitted at an organic market with awesome and kind people both on the selling and buying side, we made it through the day happily. 

I think though whatever kind of life we choose to live, we have to remember to take care of ourselves and to love ourselves. This is something women, who are often the caregivers in a community or household, often forget. We put others first, serve the bigger piece of omelette to someone else and take the smaller broken piece for ourselves. And while I’m a firm believer in giving another the bigger piece of omelette or the not-burned piece of toast, I have to remember that if I don’t give myself time to rejuvinate, to care for myself on days like Saturday, I won’t be able to care for others. Because only when we love ourselves first can we truly love another. It’s totally cliché but totally true. Sometimes we have to say no in order to meet our needs and be better, to ourselves, in turn, to others around us. 

I’m still learning, but Saturday was a great start. While I wanted to go help Jorris with the bees, I knew I was too tired from all the market work and my skin was so itchy and uncomfortable. I had to take care of that and remembered the oatmeal bath my mom gave my brother and I when we were kids with the chicken pox. So, I took an afternoon to do that, and why not add some lavender water in there as well? And why not experiment with a honey-pollen facemask I had read about? 

A honey-pollen face mask is rejuvenating.

That’s one of the “loves” I have in this “love hate” relationship with agriculture. I hate sleeping in the quatre-quatre and get eaten by mosquitos and bugs because we can’t afford a hotel, but I do love that I have amazing ingredients at my disposable like honey and pollen, and a beautiful garden, and bath tub. 

Honey and pollen do wonders for our bodies internally, and I’m finding through different readings that these superfoods also do wonders for our skin. Honey is a humectant meaning that it is a substance which draws water molecules to our skin, leaving it moist and hydrated. It is also anti-bacterial, which is great for people with acne. Pollen, rich in antioxidants, absorbs damaging free radicals (molecules from pollution, cigarette smoke, sun, etc.) on our skin, while nourishing and repairing skin cells. 

To me, it’s not about staying young forever. And, that’s not what I’m trying to do. I believe in beauty at any age and more or less wrinkles on a face doesn’t determine beautiful or ugly. It’s just about taking care of oneself; and our skin, being the largest organ of our bodies, deserves the same love and care as any other part. Why not improve, protect and repair our skin if we can and feel good about, feel confident in the skin we are in? I am totally for it, and garden baths, even when someone might drive by or hike by because your home is technically on a road. It was totally worth the risk of being caught in my birthday suit. And I’d be delighted to do it again.









*Photos by Tiffanie Ma