Watching Blue Peter with my daughter recently I was telling her about it being on when I was school age and how it was one of the few children’s programmes broadcast regularly. Apart from a lunchtime slot for pre-school age children we could only watch chidren’s television between 4:00 and 5:30pm, unlike the 24 hours a day on cable or 15 hours a day BBC channels. My daughter was horrified, exclaiming “what did you do?” What we did was play outside after school and most of the day during holidays, maybe except the dead of winter and regularly displayed cuts and bruises to show for it from falling off bikes to tripping over playing ‘had’.
Whenever one of my children have fallen over and grazed the odd knee or elbow I’ve told them how my brothers and I were constantly injuring ourselves that way. At school the nurse or whoever was trained to administer first aid, would clean the wound with disinfectant lotion and at home we’d use Savlon; my mum always liked the smell of Savlon better than the smell of Dettol and even now I keep a bottle around. We’d also apply some kind of healing ointment, maybe Germolene, which my dad would have brought from the pharmacy; old habits die hard and he still has a ready supply of creams and tablets for minor ailments.
These days however, while I may use the same disinfectant, I have changed the healing ointment to Weleda’s Calendula cream. After years of use I have found it to be the fastest way to heal any cuts and grazes or skin irritation. I have tried a couple of different Calendula creams and currently have ones by Nelsons and a pure Herbal version, but none are so good as my trusty Weleda cream.
I first discovered it on a visit to the Weleda medicinal garden site in Derbyshire many years ago. We saw their herbal gardens and discovered how they produced their remedies. One area was given over to the marigold with pestle and mortars to crush the flowers and a guide to how it was turned into Calendula cream, with small sample tubes given to everyone. It was great, a sunny day in Derbyshire with lots of red-flecked yellow marigolds and creams and remedies produced naturally with no chemicals.
I began using Weleda’s Calendula cream then and continued after the original samples had run out by buying the standard tubes. Applied on a cleaned cut or graze it initially stings wince-inducingly before settling down to a soothing feeling; unlike other creams needing repeated application, Weleda’s Calendula seems to have an overnight effect.
Calendula as a garden marigold adds beautiful splashes of bright colour to gardens; my mum’s garden this summer was filled abundantly with pots of marigolds in every corner, around archways, at the bottom of trellises, in window boxes and hanging baskets. The explosion of colour brings a smile and happiness on looking at it. The colours vary between yellow with tiny flecks of red to orange with flecks of yellow and any mixture in between.
The anti-inflammatory and anti-fungal medicinal properties of Calendula are also excellent especially applied topically on the skin as it assists in healing and repairing damaged skin. As well as on cuts and grazes it can be applied to soothe itching chilblains and eczema. As a tea Calendula can soothe sore throats and stomach ulcers. Marigolds are also used as a food colour and dye – all this from a humble garden flower!
My principal use is still as a skin ointment and so I recently tried the Herbal company brand which is organic, natural etc. – I found the sharp sting on initial application just didn’t happen and the thinner creamy texture while pleasant to rub in seemed to vanish without leaving the soothing feeling I was used to. Somehow the missing sting made it feel like it just wasn’t healing the way it should. I also tried Nelson’s and found it a little better but still not thick enough to feel like it was working; they all feel like cosmetic creams!
Products such as these can be very happily used as skin softeners or basic soothers but for quick healing I will be returning to my small tube of Weleda Calendula cream, tried and tested and a proven friend.
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