Happy Crafter: Getting Ready to make potpourri

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Getting Ready to make potpourri

I have been busy collecting flowers for my potpouuri - some of my favorites are the sweet smelling pink roses, some blue and pink larkspur, lemon balm lots of lavender and red bergamont.

Here is a Basic Lavender Potpouuri recipe from "The Pleasure of Herbs":

Add 1 quart lavender blossom to 3 T. orris root pre-mixed with 10 drops of lavender oil

Variations:

Add a cup or two of dried lilac, larkspur,
cornflower, or any floral blossoms for an additional color,
or rose petals for fragrance, plus double the amount of orris root and oil

A tablespoon of ground cloves will add a spicy touch.
1/2 cup ground vanilla beans will sweeten the blend.
A cup of bergamot leaves and/or mint will add fresh liveliness.

I can't wait to get all my blossoms dried and put together for a wonderful fragrant potpouuri.

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Goldfinches by Mary Oliver, Poet

In the fields
we let them have---
in the fields
we don't want yet---

where thistles rise
out of the mashlands of spring, and spring open---
each bud
a settlement of riches---

a coin of reddish fire---
the finches
wait for midsummer,
for the long days,

for the brass heat,
for the seeds to begin to form in the hardening thistles,
dazzling as the teeth of mice,
but black,

filling the face of every flower.
Then they drop from the sky.
A buttery gold,
they swing on the thistles, they gather

the silvery down, they carry it
in their finch beaks
to the edges of the fields,
to the trees,

as though their minds were on fire
with the flower of one perfect idea---
and there they build their nests
and lay their pale-blue eggs,

every year,
and every year
the hatchlings wake in the swaying branches,
in the silver baskets,

and love the world.
Is it necessary to say any more?
Have you heard them sing in the wind
above the final fields?
Have you every been so happy in your life?