Spring and cleaning

Birds and eggs inspire hope and happy thoughts in pretty much everyone at this time of year. The cardinals and finches have been frequenting the feeder today, and Phillip and I watched the grackles starting their annual nest in the neighbour's cedar tree this morning. (Between coughing fits and blowing my nose, in my case. I'm feeling better, but worse, you know?)
My MIL bought me the sweet pottery bird feeder above at Value Village last week, and I'm excited to put it outside.

And eggs! These are actually artificial (gasp!) eggs that MIL bought for me at Michaels. (She's good to me, I know.) I like that they're not as fragile as real ones (so they'll survive an egg hunt with Mr P, and being counted many times over) or as tacky as the neon plastic ones. That's the extent of my Spring decorating here - looking out the window is Springy enough, with the snowdrops up, crocuses here, and tulips poking up from the ground. Oh, and I did change my winter pinecone wreath out for a more Springy twiggy one, like this one, only darker.
I was looking at some Springy things online this morning, and found this gorgeous egg photo, featuring a great apron, by Abby Try Again, as well as this apricot blossom photo. I had never given any thought at all to apricot blossoms, since apricots aren't grown around here, but now I'm envious of those of you who might have access to some of those branches to force.

There's nothing quite as Spring-y as Spring cleaning! I looove this picture, also by Abby Try Again, and would love to have a huge one on a kitchen or pantry wall.

Speaking of cleaning, I have a safer solution for cleaning your porous old bathtub! (If you have one, of course.) I tried a mixture of 5% peroxide (available in the natural cleaning aisle at the health food store or grocery store) and baking soda in our ancient, porous clawfoot tub to get it to look somewhat clean, as suggested in The Baking Soda Book. I sprinkled on the baking soda, and used a spray bottle to liberally spray the peroxide over all of the baking soda. I left it for about 2 hours, giving it a light brushing with a scrub brush every now and then to make sure it was well covered, and it made such a difference! Without all of the scariness and toxicity of chlorine bleach. I would have left it a bit longer, to get the last tenacious stains gone, but it was time for P's bath, which waits for no man. So I rinsed it very well, and it looks great! It worked much better than anything else I've tried, including scary foamy stuff I had languishing in the cupboard. So, go forth and clean! Have a great weekend.

natural dishwasher detergent update

Hello, sun! This is the fifth consecutive day of sun. Maybe more. Fifth consecutive day of hanging clothes on the line, at least. I am one happy gal. I think it's time to take down the Wintry pine cone wreath and replace it with something a bit more Springy.
We have company for a few days, which translates into more dishes than usual, hence the prompt follow-up to yesterday's dishwasher post. I popped an Ecover tablet in the dishwasher this morning, ran the load through, and it looks good. The tablets have a few more ingredients in them than the borax / baking soda solution (equal parts), including "plant-based fragrance", which I'm assuming can only be essential oils. I'm not sure why it's listed like that. Regardless, the fragrance isn't strong at all when the dishwasher is running, which I like - the regular grocery store stuff smells pretty vile (in my opinion) when it's going through. Of course, no scent from the baking soda / borax mix, ether. I did notice a few water spots on a glass washed in the baking soda load yesterday, but I think I was looking for them. And that's waaaay down on my list of things to be concerned about!

b. s. (or, baking soda) and natural dishwasher detergent

I read Eats, Shoots & Leaves over the past few days, and I loved it. I was reminded of a few punctuation rules which I am sure that I often break, and was also reminded of how much fun can be had with punctuation. No, I am not kidding. The book referred often to people like myself, who love finding punctuation and grammatical errors on signs and in books.
How fortuitous that I borrowed this book from the library! It's replete with errors. Such as "Breathe Freshener" instead of "Breath Freshener",
"Dishwasher Power" instead of "Dishwasher Powder",and - perhaps my favourite - "Use your hand to rinse clean the sin", rather than "sink".
Despite the errors and the decidedly un-beautiful cover, there are lots of good tips in the book, such as making dishwasher powder with equal parts of baking soda and borax. I was really excited to try this one, so I gave it a go this afternoon, and it seems to have worked well. The dishes look clean, and the glasses aren't cloudy. (I do have some residual Jet-Dry in the dishwasher, which I'm planning on replacing with good old white vinegar when the Jet-Dry is gone). I'll try the mixture again with a heavier load of dirtier dishes and see if the borax and baking soda does a good job on those. Here in Canada, Borax is in the odd box pictured below, in the laundry aisle at the grocery store, next to the washing soda on the top shelf, and costs around $5 for a box which will last a long time. (Toilet talk note: shake 1 cup of borax in the toilet before bed, swish it around and flush it in the morning and you'll have a clean toilet, free of rust stains and other nastiness.)
In the interest of some bloggy dishwasher experimentation, I also bought some Ecover dishwasher tablets which were on sale, $8.79 for 25 tablets, to do some unscientific testing against the Nature Clean gel we had been using, which costs $9.99 for 1.8 L, and the borax / baking soda homemade stuff. The Nature Clean stuff works well; best if the pre-wash compartment is filled as well as the wash one. But it's pricey. The Ecover tablets are going to be the priciest option, even on sale, so I hope they work. I'll do an update once I've tried those, too.

For sprinkling baking soda on sinks and surfaces, I bought this shaker this morning at Yarmouth Natural for $1.99. (Hello! You can see me in the picture.) I have another shaker, but decided that it would be sensible to have one upstairs and one downstairs. $1.99 didn't break the bank, and the holes are larger than the standard ones, allowing for better flow when sprinkling it in the tub. Apparently, mixed with a 5% peroxide solution, it makes a good cleaner for porous iron bathtubs, such as ours. I'm currently out of peroxide, but will pick up some more (with the natural cleaners aisle at the Superstore, since they didn't have any at Yarmouth Natural) and give it a try. I didn't know that since vinegar and baking soda neutralize each other, sometimes the cleaning power isn't the best. Which is why peroxide is recommended. It makes sense, I guess!

There! I hope you picked up some natural cleaning tidbits you can make use of in your home. And despite all of the tragic errors in the baking soda book, you should see if you can find a copy at the library. It's entertaining, if nothing else. Let me know if you try any of these tips!