Lavender Castille Soap and Sneakin’ Through The Fence!

Lavender Castille Soap and Sneakin’ Through The Fence!

I am sure you are wondering what one has to do with the other.

Let’s start from the beginning which is always the best way to start.

Yesterday, I made a wonderful New Mexico Spicy Potato Soup and posted it on the Blog.  Perhaps you saw it.

Let me tell you that soup is so delicious that you will be making it often. See the recipe here.

However….as with all good things, they usually come with a price and in this case the heavy white enameled cast iron pot that I cooked the soup in, would not wash up nice and shiny and white in my sink of dishwater.

So I reached for the Lavender Castile soap I have under my sink.

Result? A little scrubbing with my dish cloth and a squeeze of castille soap not only made me smile as the lavender fragrance encompassed my sink work area but my “stained” white enamel came spotlessly clean.

I am sure you know of this hidden gem of a product because our Mothers and Grandmothers used it on EVERYTHING!

I remember searching for Castile soap online because it was not available in stores, but over the last few years that has changed.  If you can’t find it in your local supermarket, places such as Wal-Mart and Target usually have it on the shelf.  

So, if you are not familiar with this soap let me give you a little history. The soap is not made from animal fat or other synthetic detergents but rather from vegetable oil. 

It originated in 1858 in the Castile region of Spain, using pure, olive oil as a base.  Since that time, Castile soap has been made using coconut, hemp, avocado, almond, walnut and many other vegetable oils, mostly organic.

The Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Castile Soaps  that I use is made using pure coconut, olive, hemp and jojoba oils and is in a concentrated and completely biodegradable liquid soap that cleans gently and effectively and can be used for almost everything.You didn’t think I would give you a one trick pony did you?

Sorry, that comes from my days at Boeing with all the Field Service Reps who always have a phrase for almost every situation. Idioms they call them. I wrote a post on these phrases, using only phrases to tell a story.  If you missed it, you can see it here.

But back to this Castile Soap. This natural soap is definitely making a comeback!

There are so many uses!  Infinite possibilities and in case you are wondering, I am not receiving any compensation from anyone for talking about and recommending this product.

I just love that it can be used as a everyday household cleaning product, body wash, laundry, pet care, and a multitude of other uses that are gentle yet effective. And the best part is that a little of this soap goes a long way, making it a great value despite a little higher price tag.

Castile Soap comes in a variety of fragrances, hence my favorite being lavender although I love the orange fragrance too.

Have you used Castile Soap?  Perhaps you have other uses you could share.

Now, you may ask what Castile soap has to do with sneaking through the fence.

Nothing!

You see I am always seeing something that amuses me and when I share it with someone…they usually just look at me with a frown on their face as if to say….

…”You are weird.”

And they would be right.

I am the one who loves coca-cola with a wedge of lime, themed tablescapes, the sound of rain bouncing off a tin roof, romantic movies, and knights in shining armor!

So it is no wonder that I found humor…I mean like smiling from ear to ear humor when I walked from the parking lot of my dermatologist and heard a clacking noise like pieces of wood hitting each other.

I turned in the direction of the sound and saw a smallish teen-aged girl…. with a dark hoodie pulled low over her eyes and struggling to wedge through the wooden fence planks and hedge separating the parking lot from a row of homes…..

….and she was carrying…

are you ready for this?

….carrying a huge upright bass in a large black case. You know like the one in the pic below. There was no denying the contents of the case as it was shaped like a very large guitar. 

If you are not familiar with musical instruments of this size, it is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in a symphony or in the case of this young girl…a high school band.

As she plunged through the planks of the opening, with her musical instrument in both hands, fence slats pivoted, swayed and fell to the ground.

She paused, setting the big black case on the ground while steady-ing it with one hand.  She flipped the hoodie off of her head with the other hand so she might survey the damage that she and that huge guitar-shaped instrument had done to the fence. Her face bore a very exasperated expression.

She evidently decided that she could do nothing with the fence at this time as we could both hear the school bus chugging up the street.

She gave a sigh and hefted the upright bass up (it was almost as tall as she) and she headed for the school bus stop across the street from the parking lot.

I gave her a smile, ….my thought was encouragement and she sorta glared at me as if to say…“don’t tell any of my friends that you saw me doing this”.

I know that “look” because I too, played not one, …..but two unusual instruments in my high school days.  

I played the accordion AND the HUGE bass drum. See pic below of another unlucky fellow, although he looks taller than I, I was only a little over 5 ft, so you can imagine the size differences.

 

The drum was for our high school band and I had to tote that heavy percussion instrument not only to the parades and sports games, but it was strapped to the front of me, hindering my view as I walked in parades.  This was especially annoying when following horses, if you understand my meaning here.   

I would much rather have played the cute little clarinet with the narrow lanyard around my neck, rather than the thick wide straps of both the accordion and the bass drum.  But the bass drum was all that was available when I joined “band”.

The accordion was a different story that my parents were involved in and thank goodness I did not have to play accordion in or at school functions, (Just state competitions, but that is a story for a different time)

After the girl wove her way through rows of parked cars, crossed the street just in front of the bus…I grabbed my IPhone and took a picture of the fence. I would love to have shown you a pic of the girl carrying that large contraption but it would have embarrassed her further and I could not have done that.

But I did smile.

And I continued on into the building, with several thoughts running through my mind,…. one of which,….how far had she toted that thing and through how many yards did she cut through …..or was that house her home and consequently her parent’s fence. I’ll most likely never know because after my appointment, the fence situation remained the same.

I smiled again.

Did you play an instrument in high school?

I hope you are having a great and happy Wednesday!