"Herbs & Spices"

...How did we ever live without Herbs and Spices - some we grow ourselves and some we go to the pantry for, so easily available now - but in earlier times, some were almost priceless, even more valuable than gold...

Wars were fought over them, countries guarded their source of spices jealously and lives and ships were lost, some not far from where we live in Australia as well.

Many stories were told about the ships, and lives lost and many people became very wealthy. But today, we just use our spices and our herbs so readily, some are still very expensive, but what would we do without them...

This blip is of a lovely tea-towel from Ireland, Irish linen, it's quite old, and I think it's quite special...