Rosemary

 Rosemary is the honorable lady of my herb garden.  Blessing me with her magical scent each time I brush against her.  Guardian of the medicinal and culinary heritages of the other herbs that grow along the meandering paths that lead to her throne.  And her christened name Rose of Mary transcends the ages of biblical history.  

Rosmarinus Officinalis

My Rosemary has been dutifully keeping a watchful eye over our cottage herb garden some 10 years now, all cozied up to an old Douglas Fir tree stump.  I love the way she has in time managed to gracefully embrace the old stump. She has plentiful blooms that  are a nearly white pale blue.  I have pruned a few aging branches from the old girl from time to time and have found their lightly scented, gnarled and twisted appearance very unique.  I'm planning on using a few as  sturdy handles for my whacky hillbilly baskets.  Rosemary brings an air of dignity to any landscape and would be the perfect herb selection in today's era and ethos of water conscious gardening.

~ Spring Salutations~

There's Rosemary, that's for remembrance.  Pray you, love, remember. 

~ William Shakespeare

Stirred NOT Shakened

*Stirred, a sequel to my last post, Simmer, Stew & Soak. It's what I've been up to these past few weeks, at the stove in my warm cozy kitchen, brewing up concoctions from the things I've been gathering around our place. I'll be digging up other fabrics and things to dye besides wool. I have a goodly stash, doesn't everyone?

*NOT Shakened, a season of stressing family issues has come our way recently. Nevertheless, God has been good and faithful in working it all out for good and here we stand, maybe just a bit shakened. My spell checker is having a heyday with that word, shakened. But I'm ignoring spell checker for the love of a word. Plus it would totally ruin my stirred, not shakened attitude I got goin' on.

Hawthorn berries have grown especially large this year. The result of plentiful spring rains I imagine. They're harder than rose hips though, so I gave them a good chop before putting them on the stove.

Inside the thin hard husk suprisingly, were a lot of hard yellow beige seeds. And the resulting dye was the color I can only describe as soft and mellow.

I also harvested a small batch of rose hips from rosa rugosa that grows abundantly in hedgerows along Panther Creek Road for a dye color scheme that falls center of my black walnut and hawthorn creations.

Hawthorn berry, rose hips, and black walnut. I love that the colors from nature are always compatible. They just go together naturally!

And for other brews to warm the cockles of my heart; I discovered a spectacular cocktail recipe at my new found and soon to be favorite food blog Sassy Radish. The appeal was in using some Rosemary freshly harvested from the garden to infuse a simple syrup. This rosemary infused Gin Fizz turned out to be the perfect New Year's Day libation. One I'm sure I'll use often, well, at least as is required.

This sassy cocktail, try it and remember:

Stirred, definitely NOT Shakened.