My daughter developed a decent dose of chicken pox aged 4. Not unwell just a bit sore and itchy…. the poor tolerant child allowed me to experiment. She had baths of oats and just emerged slightly sticky with a warm aroma of ready brek. We used a little very dilute tea tree or lavender oil on the sores that looked icky. No improvement (although she smelt a lot better) but she was still willing for some fun.
Best of all was the hot day when she let me draw a line down the middle of her body (just in her undies) and cover one half with the standard calamine lotion that everyone uses and the other half with the gloopy gunk from my freshly slaughtered Aloe vera barbadensis. She wandered around looking perplexed for half and hour before we gave in and rinsed her down. It was absolutely worth it. ALL of the pox where the Aloe was applied had shrunk away to the size of pin heads.
To top it all my Aloe survived for another 8 years and (willingly?) donated its flesh to many of my friends.
A much less pleasant event occurred to me last year carelessly cutting back the rampant Euphorbia in my garden. As I flung the gooey stems into the bag the plant took its revenge by splashing a copious quantity of latex directly into my left eyeball….as I have limited vision in my right eye this left me wandering the streets screaming for a neighbour to take me to hospital as I felt the fire of its delightful defences trying to reach my brain….several hours of scraping (uggghhhh) and anaesthesia (only local, ask for more!) and I was released. I’ve given birth twice (hence the first tale) but this pain surpassed that by several degrees…. Plants give and take.
Author: Ruth Huddleston
