How I Dry My Herbs and Uses for Those Herbs!

What An Herbal Mess!

My work space is even more jammed than normal.  What you see on the table may or may not be used.  The Herbal Husband cut down even the brown bits and it remains to be smelled and decided about their fate!  I have no excuses for not getting this done.  Oh, maybe one.  I have been stitching!

One of my faithful readers, Faith asked a few weeks ago how I dry my herbs and how do I use them.  Faith, depending on how much time I have, I either hang them or layer them in paper toweling.  You can dry them in a very slow oven or in the microwave. I have an electric stove.  It would be better in a gas oven and microwaves are hit or miss.  I just let them air dry naturally.  You must make sure that the herbs are dry not wet from rain or dew so that they don't get moldy.  I don't put a whole lot of stems together, because they will not dry easily.  Here is a link to a previous post, Drying Your Herbs Made Simple and Smells from the Herb Garden Contained! that may be of help.

That post talks about paper towel layering which I love because you get a bonus of scented paper toweling.  The two main reasons I dry my herbs are to make potpourri for gift giving and to make herbal tea.  I also make herb mixes if I have enough herbs cut.  Most times I don't have that luxury.

Potpourri my way is getting a big container and it is usually a plastic one with a cover.  I have gotten in trouble suggesting plastic containers as storage.  If the herbs are at all wet and have not dried, you will get moldy herbs not dry ones.  And that has happened to me.  I am not immune from mistakes!  Glass containers with tops are preferred and tinted ones even better so the herbs do not fade.  I have some really big old glass jars that came from a commercial kitchen.  I think all of those jars are now plastic not glass.  Any way I just dump my ingredients into the container and mix it all up.  And then as I make gifts, I use tiny hemlock cones to infuse the potpourri with essential oils with individual containers.  Ingredients can include lemon verbena, rose petals, lavender flowers, mints, thyme, calendula petals, etc.  Continuing the Potpourri Conversation and Getting Crazy with the Boxes! has a bunch of potpourri resources.  Unless you want to buy your ingredients, you will be limited by what you dry.  But I have found that recipients are very amazed and grateful that you thought enough about them to give them a gift from your herb garden.  Simple Holiday Crafts with Herbs that I wrote for Mother Earth Living several years ago has some more favorite tips.  Just be sure to click on the Continue Reading tab to get the full post!   As I said in that post, a potpourri recipe is like a culinary recipe and you may not have all of the ingredients, but you may find a new combination that works better for you.

I sometimes don't talk enough about an herbal subject as I should and tea maybe one of them.  I did a post for Mother Earth Living in 2014 that was called Celebrate National Hot Tea Month and it will give you three of my favorite herbal tea blends and some other resources.  Again find that Continue Reading button and click it to get the full post!  Making Herbal Tea Blends gives you a French tisane recipe favorite and Tea Around Town  you will find a link to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article that has a bunch of information that I think you will find useful.  Again, it does come down to the herbs you have dried and how you will use them.  Hopefully these resources will give you some great ideas!

Coming to the end of another year, 2017!  I will be doing my year-end review in the next post!  Not much to review although I did manage to do at least one post per month over the year!  It is frigid in the 'Burgh and as I sit sipping a lemon ginger tea (lemongrass, ginger, lemon peel and a cinnamon stick) to make me feel better, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  I didn't get Christmas presents, I got a cold!  Healthy all year and get to the holidays and collapse!  I think it is that way for a lot of people!  Stay warm if you in the northern half of the U.S.  I will talk to you later.

2016, An Herbal Year in Review!

January--Very Cold and Snowy!

February--My Favorite Selfie of the Year!

March--Wildlife of All Kinds Are Welcomed!

April--One of My Favorites in the Spring-Forget Me Not!

May--One of the Highlights of My Trip to England-Sitting in Jekka's Garden at Chelsea!

June--Means Roses Blooming in the Garden!

August--A Volunteer Sunflower in the Herb Garden!

September--The Butterfly Bush is Blooming and Butterflies Abound!

September--Couldn't Pass Up Giving You This Sunflower in Bloom!

October--My Favorite, Lemon Verbena Was Huge in the Herb Garden and in Bloom!

November--Celebrated 29 Adventurous Years with The Herbal Husband!

December--Potpourri Wreaths Finished with Wired Ribbon!

December--Spice Wreaths Finished with Gold Ribbon!

Wow, looking back on the year 2016 wasn't as bad as I thought it might be!  I just needed to take a few more photos in the winter months!  I would say that our winter last year killed a lot of the pests that would have been problems during this growing season.  

Our spring was beautiful, but I think I need to plant more bulbs!  As it has happened in previous seasons, May was very hot, very early and I came back from England to a garden that was already passed bloom in a lot of cases.  I will be posting about my May travel to England in the coming months.

Summer here was very hot with some rain, but not enough because I lost some herbs, both from weather and rodent damage.  BTW, just for the record I made 112 jars of raspberry jam which are just about gone and another 80 plus jars of herbal jelly.  Just staring at that 19 pouches of Certo made me find new herbal flavors to try!

We had a beautiful fall as usual and I got a lot accomplished in my basement work space for Christmas giving, herbally speaking.  I found a whole box of dried material and depending on scent, I will be using it as filler for potpourri in the worst case and for scented potpourri in the best case.  So I am going to stitch in the next months, but I will try to work in some days where I will post what I am doing inside, tea blends, potpourris, reading about the 2017 Herb of the Year, Cilantro, the love or hate it herb!  You get the idea!  

I just want to take a moment to thank each of you who has hung in there with me and read each and every post that I have written over the past year.  Your sweet and questioning comments are what has kept me going.  Every time I think I have had enough, you keep encouraging me to go on.  So I wish you all a safe and peaceful new year and Lemon Verbena Lady will be posting in 2017!  Talk to you soon! 

Potpourri and Spice Mini Wreaths Recipes and Photos!

Really You Have What It Takes To Do These Wreaths!

Bought This Lavender Potpourri for Less than $3 at T.J.Maxx!

I Have Been Using This Glue Forever!

Don't Forget A Spatula or Something to Get The Wreaths Out!

Just Hit the Heck Out of the Cinnamon Sticks and Nutmeg!

One Bag of Potpourri Makes Three Wreaths in Two Recipes and Two Recipes of Spices Makes Four Wreaths!

This Wreath is Ready to Jump Out of the Mold, But Don't Forget to Release the Middle Part!

So Just Like Goldilocks, We Have a Big, Medium and Small Choice!

The Spice Wreaths Are Still Pretty Wet!

So if you remember back to Wednesday's post, I showed you my very favorite Christmas book by Marge Clark.

In case you missed here it is again.  I am in the habit this time of year of trying to come up with something new and different that has an herbal theme and Marge (RIP) Clark has never disappointed me whether in recipes for cooking or crafting.  I wrote about it for Herb Companion now Mother Earth Living five years ago!  Here is the link again.  It is called My Favorite Christmas Thyme Book and Spice Wreaths: Part 2 

Just check out the link to make sure I didn't forget to tell you something important!  So here is what I did.

1.  I used the $2.99 bags of potpourri that I found in T.J. Maxx that had been laying around.  The prettier the potpourri the better.

2.  Marge talks about using a donut cutter which I didn't have, but I thought my mom's jello molds that she used in her bridge club days would do.  I think they work perfectly!  Again she talked about 2-1/2" to 3" for the molds and mine were 3-1/2".

3.  I lined my surface with wax paper.  It seemed to work best for me.

4.  THIS STEP IS MANDATORY FOR BOTH KINDS OF WREATHS:  You must use a cooking spray or butter or margarine to oil the molds.  That will ensure once the wreath is done and after six hours or an overnight of drying, you can unmold it easily.

5.  Then take a cottage cheese carton (I use two 24 oz. cartons, one for each kind.)  Mix a tablespoon of water and white glue together.  As you can see I use Elmer's.  You can use whatever kind of glue you like.  The white glue does dry clear in the end so don't worry if it is white when you unmold them.

6.  Add a cup of potpourri or spices (I will give you my mixture of spices that I used later.) to the glue/water mix and mix with a plastic iced tea spoon.  I like that because it gets down into the mixture and mixes it up and it is easy to clean.

7.  Then pack your molds with the potpourri or spice mixture pressing down as you go around the mold and if there is glue left in the bottom of the carton, pour it around the top of the mixture in the mold.

8.  Let them stand for six hours at a minimum and preferably overnight.

9.  Next day, take a butter knife or baby spatula and carefully go around both inside and outside of the mold to release it and turn it out on the wax paper to dry for a couple more days, turning them every so often and then use essential oil for the potpourri wreaths because the glue will take away some of its scent.  The potpourri ones I made have lavender and rose.  So I will either use lavender or rose scent to enhance them.  And of course ribbon.  I will show you the finished products as soon as they are dry!

FOR THE SPICE MIXTURE:  I used 1/4 cup each of whole cloves and allspice and 3 cinnamon sticks and 3 nutmegs put in a freezer bag and hit with a hammer until they are smashed to your satisfaction, along with an additional teaspoon of cinnamon.  It gives you about one cup of spices that you mix with the glue/water mix that goes into two molds or more if you use a smaller mold.

So I will show you the finished products when done later this week.  I have wired ribbon that I use on the potpourri wreaths and I usually use a gold ribbon for the spice ones.  So Christmas is a week away!  Just ridiculous how time is flying by!  Our weather went from the teens yesterday morning or maybe it was the 20's and an ice storm (about 1/4" on my car) to 60 degrees last night at 11 PM!  And today we are going back into the deep freeze briefly.  After completely melting away, the ice is a thin coat on my car!  That's winter in the 'Burgh!  Hope you are having a fun time whatever you are doing.  Talk to you tomorrow!  

In My Haste, Herbally Speaking!

A Beautiful Rose Thorns and All!

Really beautiful bee balm Pressed!

A Lovely Rose Bud and Other Roses in Bloom!

Sometimes my haste makes for beautiful items, florally speaking!  As I was undoing my paper towel tower the other day, I came across the beautiful red rose with thorns, a couple of very complete bee balms pressed nicely and various roses, especially the blush colored one and I don't think I grew it!  Oops, senior moment!  The Herbal Husband may be able to remind me where it came from.  It is really senior times here!  He doesn't remember either! Oh, boy, we in big trouble! Hee! Hee!  But we're having fun!  Reviewing photos from earlier this year for my annual calendar and the blush rose was from my talk on Shakespeare's herbs and flowers!  Whew!

So I thought shadow box, but then I would have to spray them and they probably won't last too long even sprayed.  Then I thought about making an old-fashioned scrapbook as they did in Victorian times.  I just had a light bulb moment down in my work space.  I have a bunch of lavender leaves that have dried.  I am going to put those in a glass apothecary jar and place the pressed flowers along the edges of the jar and the lavender leaves will hold the pressed flowers in suspension.

Will Probably Move This Out of Direct Light!

A View From the Top!

 Actually like it a lot!  Lost a few petals and leaves when arranging, but I really like the look.  I had it in a smaller container, but it was too jammed in.  Sort of looks like a dried terrarium from Victorian times!  Never know what I am going to discover in my haste!

Going to be in the deep freeze by the end of the week.  We have lost our snow already.  Only one more day to enter my herbal mystery giveaway.  I am thinking we are going to leave it a mystery except to say there is jam and jelly coming to the lucky winner!  So if you want to leave a comment, click here or go to the upper right hand column of my home page to enter.  Remember 5:00 PM, EST, Tuesday, December 13, 2016 is the deadline.

Continuing the Potpourri Conversation and Getting Crazy with the Boxes!

The Work Table A Little More Cleaned Up!

Annual Mexican Sage Flowers to Add to the Potpourri!

Cuttings from This Year's Gardens!

And the Craziness That is This Time of the Year!

As I think I have mentioned, I always have a tower of paper towels on the herbal work table through the season.  I just clip and pile and sometimes I forget what I have clipped.  I try to write on the paper towel  what is drying but I don't always get very far.  So what happens then is that I just combine all of the leaves and flowers into a container and make potpourri.  I mainly let what is in the box plant wise, dictate what essential oil or fixative I use to give it fragrance.  And you should really use both fixative AND essential oil for long lasting appeal.  A fixative is orris root, sandalwood, frankincense and myrrh and others.  I had forgotten that sweet woodruff dried gives a hint of vanilla in your potpourri and is considered a fixative.

One of my Facebook, master gardener friends and landscape designer extraordinaire, Martha asked for my favorite combinations of materials and scents.  I am sort of boring or maybe traditional is a better word when it comes to potpourri.  I love all of the lemon scented herbs and calendula petals with lemon oil.  I love lavender, thyme, rosemary and rose together with either rose or lavender oil.  I just found a bunch of dried lemon eucalyptus in my herbal stash that smells like Murphy's Oil Soap and depending what else I put into that mix, I might use rosemary oil.  I love pine needles, cones and holly leaves and berries with sweet orange, cinnamon, clove OR pine essential oils.  

These next three ideas are from one of my favorite little booklets called Potpourri Recipes and Crafts by Pat Humphries and Bertha Reppert.  It may still be available from The Rosemary House in Mechanicsburg, PA.

Lemon verbena, lemon balm, lemon grass, lemon thyme, calendula petals that have lemon smells and yellow colors in the petals,  use lemon essential oil.

When you have a lot of rose petals, rose geranium leaves, use a spoonful of cinnamon or clove and rose geranium essential oil.

Lots of different mint leaves, dried red geranium flowers (or holly with berries my addition) with pine essential oil.

For Christmas several years ago, I wrote this post for Mother Earth Living called Simple Holiday Crafts with Herbs and in it described a Woody Seed Mix from Malcolm Hillier's book, Christmas.  It incorporated leaves and twigs and seed heads from plants and even gave it a Christmas feel with cedarwood, pine or cinnamon essential oils.  I am such a stickler for a recipe and having every ingredient, but it really doesn't need to be that difficult.  Use what you have.  It may not look like the photo in a book, but if it is pleasing to look at, it will work.

I also think Martha that as a landscape designer, you should look into the book, Potpourri Making by Margaret Roberts which includes lists of herbs to grow for potpourri but adds lists of climbers, trees and shrubs too.  Something some of your clients may appreciate.

These additional books are a beginning book from Storey Publishing Bulletin A-130 called Making Potpourri by Madeleine H. Siegler and a book on the history of both dry and moist potpourris from Ann Tucker Fettner called Potpourri, Incense and Other Fragrant Concoctions may be helpful to those of you just starting out or want the history.  All of the books described have very good and easy recipes for both dry and moist potpourris. 

Yesterday we had to get organized to start sending our Christmas boxes to our friends.  And getting presents like bay leaves jarred and labeled.  Picking out your jam and jellies for the winning reader's box and selecting various jams and jellies to go all over the U.S.  It is an overwhelming task for The Herbal Husband in packing everything, but I get so much joy out of giving what I make that it is worth it. 

So at this writing, we do have a dusting of snow in the 'Burgh.  I changed my banner photo to reflect the snowy landscape.  We are to have temperatures rising later today and snow will change to rain.  I guess a crazy mix later on.  We are almost at the end of my annual herbal giveaway.  If you would like to participate and you live in the U.S., you must place a comment on this link for the original post by Tuesday, December 13, 2016 at 5:00 P.M., Eastern Standard Time.  There is also a link at the upper right hand portion of my home page to find the original link.  The Herbal Husband said what do you have to blog about now, since the garden is done.  Well, I said to him I would really like to finish my 2016 Trip to England.  Only have four posts out of sixteen done, so will be doing those in the coming days.  Hope you are having a great Sunday.  I need to get upstairs and help with packing boxes!  Talk to you tomorrow! 

It's That Time of Year for a GIVEAWAY, Herbally Speaking!--U.S. READERS ONLY!

This Large Flat Rate Box Will Be Filled in the Brim!

THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED AND THE WINNER HAS CLAIMED THE PRIZE!  Well, it is that time of year, my lovely blog readers!  GIVEAWAY TIME!  And this year unlike most years in the past, I am not exactly sure what will be in this large flat rate box!  I am pretty sure it won't need a drink or food when you get it!  Other than that it could be anything with an herbal theme and my fabulous raspberry jam and herbal jellies, of course!  I think you will be pleased with the choices.

OK, if you are new to this blog, you need to put a comment in this post only.  THIS GIVEAWAY IS FOR MY UNITED STATES READERS ONLY!  ONE ENTRY PER READER.  If you are connected to a blog, I will be able to reach you.  IF YOU ALWAYS POST AS ANONYMOUS BUT LEAVE A NAME AT THE END OF YOUR COMMENT, I WILL NEED YOU TO ALSO LEAVE AN EMAIL CONTACT.  If you are on the FACEBOOK side of my blog, I will again need you to post a comment on this post to be eligible.  THIS GIVEAWAY WILL END NEXT TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016 AT 1:00 P.M. EASTERN STANDARD TIME.

Another gray day here and rainy.  Not complaining.  Could be snow!  Hope you are having a great day! I found a bunch of herbal bags brimming with material.  Fun and games, herbally speaking!  Talk to you tomorrow! 

When A Bit Blue, Make Potpourri and Other Blooming News!

Layering Flowers and Herbs with Paper Towels!

A Whole Box of Herbal Potpourri!

Tiny Hemlock Cones Are Just the Thing for Essential Oil

The Rue Finally Bloomed!

The 'Hot Papaya' Has An Extended Bloom!

Morning Glory Seeds from Chile Are Still Blooming!

The Herbal Husband had a good idea this afternoon.  It was a two fold message!  Clean off your worktable in the basement and make some of your wonderful potpourri in the process.  It will cheer you up!  You see through the summer season, I try to clip herbs and dry them as I go.  We also clip our roses for table bouquets and they land between paper towels.  I had a pile of paper towels and it is like Christmas lifting off the next layer to see what is underneath.  I always find myself saying why didn't I dry more of this and that!  I use hemlock cones to drop some essential oil into the potpourri mix as I give it away. I use two or three at most.  Although it rained overnight, I may try to get some other things clipped before a freeze happens over the weekend.  We really haven't had a good frost yet.  The tomatoes are still growing in the back garden under Reemay!  They are looking a bit done if you ask me, but when it comes to growing stuff, The Herbal Husband is king!

Tomatoes Need to be Picked Before Frost!

So sorry I haven't been such a great blogger at the moment.  I just have been in other directions besides the garden.  And once that jelly burden was over, I just kicked up my heels and did some stitching.  I am just about to finish a piece called The Gardener by Blackbird Designs part of their Garden Club series.  I just have to embellish the hat and add an initial.  The piece is only 4" x 4" so it is very quick to do.

The Gardener

Hope you are having a great day!  It is gray here and maybe will be gray for awhile in the 'Burgh!  I will do my best to finish my England trip and share my favorite herbal Christmas crafts soon!  Oh, and I am going with Bonnie to the first Pittsburgh Tea Festival this Friday, November 11th.  Hopefully, if you are in the Pittsburgh, you can attend too!  Talk to you later.

In the Herbal Work Space!

A Bit of Chaos, Herbally Speaking!

I have new inspiration from this daily blogging!  I actually worked in my herbal work space yesterday. Looking into what I have and what needed to be tossed and while this might look scary to you, it really has motivated me to rearrange and get things done.  At the end of the day I am not finished but there were a few empty containers and just a bit more organization.  And look I could see my table top!

The Cleanup Before the Storm, Herbally Speaking!

So among the other things I am working on, I will try to share some more potpourri recipes.  But until then, here are some links from an assortment of previous posts:  for a sneaker tamer from last year, a Clevelandii sage potpourri recipe and this is a scented geranium recipe from a Mother Earth Living post.

Some Herbal Containers Trying to Escape!

Well, the excitement of the herbal giveaway is gone.  I will get back to blogging about the savories and my England trip and try to get a lot of those posts done before the end of the year!  It is a cloudy and cool day here.  Can't seem to get the sun to come to the 'Burgh and stay, but it almost winter here and it is gray most days!  No snow yet and it doesn't look like we are going to have a white Christmas here.  It is going to be 60 plus over the weekend.  Hope you are having a great day!  Talk to you tomorrow!

Snippets from the Herb Garden!

Herb Snippets for Potpourri!

I have had several light bulb moments in the early part of December blogging every day.  I thought I had better start to clean up my work space so that I might start doing some projects, herbally speaking.  It always starts with the dried herbs that I throw to the side or put under paper toweling to dry on my work table.  Really I found some gems under the paper toweling and just separated the stems from the blossoms and stems from the leaves and tossed them into the container.  Of course, some lemon verbena (a lot of that this year), savory because it's the Herb of the Year, roses, lavender (not much of that), some spearmint and thyme.  You get the idea.  I have some green glass pint jars and I will portion the mix into those jars and then add scented small hemlock pinecones to bring the herbal mixture to life.  Haven't really taken the time this year to do any projects.  So now that the colder (not) weather is here, maybe I will have a bit of time to use up those dried herbs and make some goodies for me (tea blends) or for gifts.  Any projects going on in your work spaces, herbally speaking?  Please let me know with your comments!

Another cool and maybe mild day here in the herb garden.  We certainly won't have a white Christmas this year.  I see snow in January, but El Nino has made it interesting again.  Well we have one more day until the big name draw.  Click on the link at the top right hand corner of my home page if you are a U.S. resident.  The big reveal will be tomorrow.  Talk to you then.

Plodding Along The Herbal Path and a Road Trip or Two!

The Herb Garden Still Has A Lot of Green and Gray!

Always Love My Annual Visit to Well Sweep Herb Farm's Christmas Shop!

One of the Beautiful Perennial Beds That Still Had Some Color!

My Afternoon Tea at Sally Lunn's in Chester, New Jersey!

Sharing Tiramisu with The Herbal Husband!

Red Anniversary Roses from Our Friends in Uruguay!

We have arrived in November already!  I can't seem to get on my laptop enough these days to blog!  So here is a recap of the last weekend.  We almost always go to Allentown this time of year.  It is not always on our wedding anniversary, but this year it was.  The Herbal Husband has a toy show that he likes to attend and I almost always go to Well Sweep Herb Farm in Port Murray, New Jersey for the start of their Christmas shop and the Sally Lunn's Tearoom & Restaurant in Chester, New Jersey for afternoon tea even if it is sometimes in the morning when I arrive.  It is a lot of driving for me because remember I drive for your safety and mine!

Can I just say that besides the huge (more than 1,900 varieties) selection of herbs, perennials and exotics, Well Sweep Herb Farm is visually a feast for the senses.  The Hyde family who has owned the farm for 46 years and the quality is consistently excellent from year to year.  If you live in the vicinity, I hope you will support this herb farm with your business.   Their Christmas shop is stuffed full of all kinds of herb related gifts, dried flowers, books, potpourri items, and lovely Christmas and herb related gifts.   Fortunately for us that live further away, they still do mail order.  I have started to order each year just so I have some unusual herbs for my herb garden.  They do have a paper catalog still and you can download their catalog if you would like from their website.  One of my favorite herb farms in the east.  Here is a link to a post I did for Mother Earth Living called Herbal Travels:  Well-Sweep Herb Farm.  So nice to see that they are continuing to prosper.

I continued on down the road to Chester, New Jersey and stopped by one of my favorite tearooms, Sally Lunn's.  It has been in business 30 plus years and is still consistently very good.  It was very busy on Saturday and I sat for a time next to two ladies who had never had afternoon tea and needed to learn the proper way to steep loose leaf tea.  I came to the rescue.  My afternoon tea was delicious as usual and I took a scone, clotted cream and jam back for The Herbal Husband's afternoon tea at the hotel.  Didn't quite have the same atmosphere, but clotted cream is his middle name!

Then we made a reservation at one of our new favorite restaurants in Allentown.  It is called Henry's Salt of the Sea.  It is very cozy with a long bar and booths in the front.  They are known for their French inspired seafood.  I had sea scallops and The Herbal Husband had schnitzel.  We were both happy and we had a weekend of mostly good food and not counting calories.  The Herbal Husband showered me with wonderful gifts and cards.  He told me I got him a toy ship from Italy and I got him a LSU purple fig for his collection at Well Sweep.  We came home to a box sitting on our doorstep full of roses from our friends in Uruguay.  We were afraid they would freeze in the cold, but actually it was like them being in the refrigerator overnight.  It worked quite well.

As far as the herb garden goes, there are still many herbs that have remained green even with the cold temperatures.  I still have a part of the golden pineapple sage that is still alive and blooming, a shoot of a calendula may keep blooming for Thanksgiving (Maybe wishful thinking!) and the tarragon has come back nicely.  As always the chives are nice and green and so is the salad burnet.  All of the herbs we transplanted earlier are doing well.  I was afraid we were too late with our transplants, but they have worked out.  Would like to make a few Christmas presents, herbally speaking.  Here is a link to my post last year giving you links to an artemisia tree and spice wreaths.

Well, I hope you are getting things done more smoothly than I am.  My big project that I am trying to get done is my talk on Shakespeare's Herbs and Flowers for next March.  So please forgive me if I am not around too much.  I will try to post when I can.  We had a rainy day in the herb garden, but still milder than usual.  Talk to you later.