“Tucking my handbag firmly under my arm, I marched into the shop and bought the vases.
I met Frank at the crossing of the High Street and the Gereside Road and we turned up it together. He raised his eyebrows at my purchases.
“Vases?” He smiled. “Wonderful. Perhaps now you’ll stop putting flowers in my books.”
“They aren’t flowers, they’re specimens. And it was you who suggested I take up botany. To occupy my mind, now that I’ve not got nursing to do,” I reminded him.
“True.” He nodded good-humoredly. “But I didn’t realize I’d have bits of greenery dropping out into my lap every time I opened a reference. What was that horrible crumbly brown stuff you put in Tuscum and Banks?”
“Groutweed. Good for hemorrhoids.”
“Preparing for my imminent old age, are you? Well, how very thoughtful of you, Claire.”
Excerpt From: Diana Gabaldon. “Outlander.”
Tuesday, June the Tenth is the day we've all been longing impatiently for the release as it marks the release of the long anticipated 8th novel of our beloved Outlander series; Written in my own Hearts Blood. I've cancelled all of my appointments and will be found swinging in my hammock, with ale , homemade oatcakes and lavender shortbread.
The one appointment that I will keep is my weekly Tuesday morning volunteer time in the Western Reserve Herb Society gardens. We'll be harvesting fresh herbs for vinegars and rose petals and geranium leaves for the jellies that we make for the Herb Fair that we hold every year. The harvest doesn't wait, even for MOBY. I'm hopeful that Jamie Fraser, farmer and Laird would approve! For those of you who are reading this and don't quite know what I'm talking about, here's a brief synopsis if the Outlander series. If you haven't read it, trust me when I say you must!
So where does the surprise for all of you comes in? The other day I was wandering through the Botanical Garden gift shop and I came across this wonderful flower and plant press. I bought two on the spot... One for me and one for a very special one of you!
The minute I saw it I thought of Claire and her delight in pressing little bits of flora and fauna! It comes with some blotter paper and it's ready to use! Pressing plants is so much fun and a great way to really learn about them by really studying them at close range.
While pressing them in a book like Claire did is wonderfully romantic,( I once bought an old book that had at least a hundred 4 leaf clovers pressed into it!) pressing them in blotter paper allows them to dry out faster and really retain all their colors. You can make beautiful notecards or your own Material Medica. Whatever you create I promise that you'll have a lot of fun doing it!
To enter just go to the Outlander Love Affair-Milady's Pantry Facebook page,
"Like" it if you haven't already and then go to the event page and click on "Join" just like last time! It will immediately enter you into the drawing! On Tuesday morning before i settle in I will download all of the entrants like I did last time and put the number through the random.org sequence to choose one lucky winner!
GOOD LUCK!
