Last batch of soap for 2020

 In an effort to use up my out of date oils I recently made up a batch of soap using the Castile Bubbles recipe as the only oils required are olive oil and castor oil. This should turn out to be a really nice soap but the main reason I made it was to see if the dreaded orange spots appeared so that I can narrow down the cause although I doubt that the oils are rancid as they don't smell. Anyway I am quite pleased with how they turned out.

This time I used Bohemian Dream fragrance oil and Pink Lemonade mica. I would like to buy a softer pink mica and have also run out of my pansy mica but I really need to use up what I have first before ordering any more as they take forever to get through as you use such a small amount of colour. 

Just as well I don't want to buy any fragrance oil from Gavin's Little Green Workshops as most of them are out of stock. Normally I replenish my supply at this time of the year but I still have plenty left as I haven't been making as much soap as I used to. 

So that is my last batch for 2020 and I won't buy any more olive oil until just before I make another batch. Castor oil is quite expensive to buy and last time when I bought it another soapmaker and I bought a bottle together so I might make recipes that don't require it for a while. Now to wait six weeks for it to cure. 

I heard a familiar noise in the tree next door last week so grabbed my camera and zoomed in on these little cuties...

...aren't they gorgeous. They look quite young. 

You can't listen to a kookaburra laugh without having a chuckle yourself.

This is another regular visitor who brings his friends around to knock the macadamia nuts off the tree while they are quite small. Then they get stuck into the pecan nuts. They aren't as popular around here as the kookaburras. 

This visitor was a bit worse for wear and was very tame so I could get quite close to take a photo. I think it may have been unwell. 

Last week our capital city of Brisbane held the State of Original Final at which 50,000 were allowed in to watch so it will be interesting to see if there are any consequences as far as COVID-19 is concerned. There do seem to be a few inconsistencies where restrictions are concerned and sometimes it is hard to understand why 50,000 can be allowed into a stadium while other smaller outside gatherings can only have limited numbers attending.  Our state of Queensland is still not open to some other states so it will be interesting to see if families will be able to visit each other for Christmas if they live interstate. 

We are still very fortunate though that we don't have the huge numbers of people being infected like in some countries overseas and if you live in those areas I hope and pray that you stay safe. It must be a very worrying situation to be in. 

Have a happy and healthy week!